The Promotional Effectiveness of RB Group in Bangladesh: A Study on Walton Brand in Rajshahi and Dhaka City

Posted on 31st Oct 2024 01:40:20 AM Marketing


Abstract

Promotion is the vital tools of marketing mix and advertising is the most effective one in the promotional mix. This study is on the promotional effectiveness of RB Group in Bangladesh. RB Group spends a lot of money on this sector and not gaining what they expect. So, this is the cause for attempting to conduct a study. This study will reveal the customer attitude toward promotion and the effectiveness of the advertisement of the company. This is an applied research which will facilitate the company to find problems and remedial for the advertisement. We will survey the market for collecting data with the help of through questionnaire method and analyze the data with the help of statistical techniques. 

Introduction

The generation of the world is now bond with the technological invention and epoch make the silicon era. These invention facilitate the more use of the electronics product like - TV, Refrigerator, AC, Washing Machine, IPS, Microwave Oven, Iron etc. all these products are produced by many remarkable company all over the world and sell it to the target customer. In account of Bangladesh we have about 16 brands and the most renowned are - Walton, Sony, Rangs, Samsung, LG, Singer, Philips, National, Toshiba, Whirlpool, Kelvinator, Tanin, TCL, Kanka, Konka, Toshin etc. The generation thirst for the electronics products are mostly meet by the Walton, which is a brand of RB Group. Mostly they assemble their product by collecting the parts from various countries like - China, Malaysia, and Thailand etc. they establish their factory in Chandra and maintain their business from the Dhaka Head office. They have many dealers and showroom in the entire divisional city and the district town. Now they have 2 product lines like - Electronics & automobile and tend to introduce another 2 line like - composite textile, and dairy.

There are many companies in the market. The consumers consume those products which offer most quality and reasonable price. But the entire companies are providing same quality and price. For this, the customer is worried to choose which product is suiting them. In this complex and competitive situation customer buy those products that are mostly renowned. And this is only happen when the producer make sure of the promotion in the best way.

Promotion is the most potent tools in business arena, is mainly used to let the consumers know about the products or services to be marketed. It can be mentioned that RB Group launch various promotional activities in various media and undertaken it seriously. Such as they do many advertisement through radio, television, billboard etc. they also involve in public relations. Recently they are doing their business through the dealership and showroom. This study has attempted to show the RB Group’s promotional activities and the effectiveness toward the revenue. Though it is an applied study we will identify the problem of the RB Group in their promotional activities and remedial to the problem.

Statement of the Problem

There are so many companies in the market who produced electronics products. But most of them are foreign companies & very few are home companies. They all compete among one another with the same price and quality. But all they do neglect the promotional tools as it is a vital one in the marketing mix strategy. The problem that have been faced are given below- 

1. I have to conduct a research for partial fulfillment of the requirement of MBA degree major in marketing as an internship fellow. 

2. The RB Group has undertaken various promotional activities but the growth of the market is not so much fascinating. Why it is happen?

3. Can advertisement communicate better than other tools of communication mix?

4. Why companies spend time, money and energy in advertising purpose?

5. What is the stand point of the customer toward the advertisement of Walton brand?

Conceptual Framework

I have been attempted the study for the fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Business Administration (MBA) Major in Marketing and for the company named RB Group. This study is attempted to solve the problem in the marketing sector. So we have a clear understanding about the concern terms. “Marketing can be defined as a social and managerial process whereby individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and values with other.” [Philip Kotler & Gary Armstrong 2001] We can also said according to the American Marketing Association “Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distributing of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.” Every business needs to establish its marketing efficiently. And it can be done through the best use of the marketing mix element. In this aspect we got four potent tools and they are product, price, distribution, and promotion. Some think promotion is marketing but it is wrong, it is just an important tools nothing else. But without it the company cannot maintain the communication with the target customer, actually promotion is used to facilitate exchanges by informing one or more groups of people about an organization and its products [Philip Kotler & Gary Armstrong 2001]. We can also called promotion is the element in an organization’s marketing mix that serves to inform, persuade, and remind the market of a product and /or the organization selling it in hopes of influencing the recipients feelings, beliefs or behavior [William J. Stanton et al. 1994]. In short we can figure it as a communication mix and the elements of that mixture are- Advertisement, Personal Selling, Sales Promotion, Public Relation/publicity and Direct marketing. In this study we highlight on the advertisement especially. Advertisement can be defined as any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services by an identified sponsor [Philip Kotler & Gary Armstrong 2001]. Advertising is a paid form of nonpersonal communication about an organization and /or its products that is transmitted to a target audience through a mass medium [William M. pride & O. C. Ferrell 1989]. There are 6 types of advertising such as national advertising, retail advertising, industrial advertising, trade advertising, professional advertising, and nonproduct advertising. The terms come in advertising are - Sponsor (example - producer), the subject matter (example - product or service), the target audience (example - consumer, buyer, Retailer, or community etc.), the area coverage and the message [C. H. Sandage & Vernon Fryburger 1967]. The main task of communication is to remind, persuade, to create Appeal and interest in the customer mind. For the effectiveness of the message transmission we need to select a media too. The advertising medium is the carrier of the advertising [C. H. Sandage & Vernon Fryburger 1967]. So we understand that the advertising medium is the means or conveyance by which the sales message is carried to the target audience. The media may be Newspaper, Magazine, outdoor, transit, Mail, Radio, Cinema, Internet, and Mobile SMS. The RB Group used the most common media for their advertisement as like - Newspaper, Television, Magazine, outdoor, and Internet. Electronics product is a type of shopping goods of consumer goods. Shopping product is consumer product that the customer, in the process of selection and purchase, characteristically compares on such bases as suitability, quality, price and style.

Justification of the Study

The electronics industry is so big in the world but we have very few company of our own. Though it is a big industry my interest is growing here. RB Group is renowned in our country. There are very few researches have been attempted on promotional sector. So I am interested on it. Albeit the promotion is potent tools of marketing mix but it is neglected as research topics. This is why I attempted to conduct this research.

This study is based on technology and we all know that the world is moving with the help of IT in recent years. Our government spends lot of money (4923 cr. Taka in 2006-07 budget) on IT sector in the last budget and the given data ensure that this sector has a great contribution on our national economy. But no work has been conducted on this sector.

Every company spends lot of money on advertising purpose in every day. To give advertising media people take million of taka from the sponsor. But when we seek a research study then find only 8 articles on it albeit it is a big and fascinating sector to the client.

I am not saying that promotion can only the tools that can make people to buy but it is the one that can make the product fascinating to the target customer and force them to come to the shop to buy the product. All this reason this study can become so much pragmatic and important to the marketer. 

Literature review

Basically there are very few researches have been conducted on this sector. And the consistent study to my topics have been discuss here-

Md. Anwarul Islam & Md. Afjal Hossain, (1995) mentioned that the success of earning profit through company’s sales largely depends upon the effectiveness of the advertisements made by it through various media.

Ahmed Fakhrul Alam & Md. Mizanur Rahman, (1997) remarked that most of the advertisements in Bangladesh are not up to the mark. Misrepresentation, exaggeration, distortion, bluntness etc. have become the common characteristics which lead the negative attitude of the student toward the advertisement of Bangladesh.

Dr. Md. Habidur Rahman, (1998) mentioned that the advertising cannot really effective to create a positive image in the minds of the customer.

Limitation of the Study

There are so many limitation may come in completion of this study. Such as-

· I am a student and I have no experience in conducting a research before as a researcher. So there may arise some errors.

· The area of promotional sector is vast we only consider here the advertising tools of the mix. And the other four tools are neglected here.

· The limitation of time and money may also hamper the result of the research. It must be mentioned that our authority permit us only one month and no money for the study.

· We have to face the respondent; the error may come from there. It is the limitation of reliable data.

· We may face some statistical error i.e. Problems may arise in the research from sample selection, statistical tools and techniques using.

Objectives of the Study

1. To compare the advertising effectiveness with other top companies.

2. To measure the customer attitude toward the advertising of ‘Walton’.

3. To ascertain the effectiveness of media choice. 

Hypotheses Development

Hypothesis is a formal question that a researcher intends to resolve [C. R. Kothari 2005]. The hypotheses are given below-

1. The message or appeal of the advertisement of RB Group is poorly communicated with comparing other’s advertising. 

2. The increasing advertising campaign cannot create positive image in target customer mind.

3. The media that used by the company for advertisement is right.

Research Methodology

Research Methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically [C. R. Kothari 2005]. For solving the problem of this study we will use the below statistical tools and techniques as stated below-

Sample Design

To solve the research problem we have to collect the information. This is why we have to design the sampling mix that mean the target population, sampling frame, sampling technique, sample size and sampling process. These are shown below-

Target population

A population is the aggregate of all the elements that share some common set of characteristics and that comprise the universe for the purpose of the marketing research problem [Naresh K. Malhotra 2005]. The target population defining process includes Elements, sampling units, extent and time. A sampling unit is an element (an object or a unit containing the element that is available. The table shows the information-

Target population for the study
Elements The customer of Rajshahi and Dhaka city, and students of Rajshahi University who watch the advertisement of Walton.
Sampling unit The student and the customer.
Extent Rajshahi City, Dhaka City & Rajshahi University.
Time 2007

 

Sampling frame

Sampling frame is a representation of the elements of the target population. It consists of a list or set of directions for identifying the target population [Naresh K. Malhotra 2005]. The list of the dealer & showroom of the company, random selection of the student and the customer.

Sampling Technique

There are various techniques such as Bayesian approach or traditional approach, sampling with replacement or without replacement, and nonprobability or probability sampling. In this study we use traditional approach ( the entire sample is selected before data collection begins). We will also use the nonprobability sampling techniques and that is convenience sampling (attempts to obtain a sample of convenient elements).

Sample Size

To set the sample size we have to consider two major factors these are-

a) Qualitative factors, such as the importance of the decision, the nature of the research, the number of the analysis, sample sizes used in similar studies, incidence rates, and resource constraints.

b) Quantitative factors, such as the sampling distribution, statistical approach to determine the sample size (such as - the confidence interval approach).

By considering the above qualitative aspects the sample size of the study will be proposed for 150 respondents, as it is promotional effectiveness measurement.

Nature & Sources of Data

The row material of the research is called data. There are two types of sources of data collection such as primary and secondary sources. According to these sources of data collection the collected data has been classified as primary and secondary data and it is been used to solve the research problem. The nature and source of the data of this study given below-

Primary data: all the data of this research has been collected from the primary sources. That is collected by the researcher at the first time ever.

Secondary data: there are no secondary data available for the study.

Preparation of Data Collection Tools

After deciding the collection sources we have to select the procedure for data collection tools or methods. Basically there are several methods for primary data collection such as observation method, interview method, through questionnaires, through schedules, distribution audits, consumer panels etc.

In this study we will use only one method and that is the through questionnaire method.

Then we will use the appropriate measurement scale for the preparation of the data. Basically there are various scale of measurement such as primary scales of measurement (Nominal, Ordinal, Interval and Ratio scale), comparative scaling (paired comparison scaling, ranked order scaling, constant sum scaling and Q-Sort) Non comparative scaling (continuous Rating scale, Itemized Rating scales, likert scale and semantic differential scale and staple scale). 

The non comparative scaling techniques will be used in this study. And the most appropriate for this study is likert scale (a measurement scale with five response categories ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree,” which requires the respondents to indicate a degree of agreement or disagreement with each of series of statements related to the stimulus objects [Naresh K. Malhotra 2005].) or Ratio scale.

Technique of Analysis

For analyzing the colleted prepared data we will use some statistical tools and techniques. And the appropriate for this study will be correlation method for showing the comparison, Z- test (test of significance) for the test of the hypothesis. And the other methods for analysis are standard deviation & etc.

Time Frame

Serial Contents  Time
1 Introduction 1 day
2 Statement of the problem 2 days
3 Conceptual framework 2 days
4 Justification of the study 2 days
5 Literature review 3 days
6 Limitation of the study 1 day
7 Purpose of the study Purpose of the study  1 day
8 Hypothesis development 1 day
9

Research methodology:

a) Sample design

b) Nature and sources of data

c) Preparation of data collection tools

d) Techniques of analysis

 

5 days

5 days

20 days

10 days

  Total 53 days

 

Bibliography

1. Malhotra, K. Naresh. Marketing Research an Applied Orientation, 4th edition, Pearson Education, Inc., 2005.

2. Economic review of Bangladesh 2006-2007.

3. Kothari, C. R., Research Methodology: Methods & Techniques, 2nd edition, New Age International (P) Ltd., 2005.

4. Pride, William M. & Ferrell, O. C., Marketing Concepts and Strategies, 6th edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1989.

5. Kotler, Philip & Armstrong, Gary, Principles of Marketing, 9th Edition, Pentice Hall International, Inc. 2001.

6. Sandage, C. H. (Ph. D.) & Fryburger, Vernon (Ph. D.), Advertising Theory and Practice, 7th edition, Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1967.

7. Stanton, William J. et al., Fundamentals of Marketing, 10th edition, McGRAW-HILL, INC., 1994.

8. Rahman, Dr. Md. Habidur, “Advertising Effectiveness of International Lux Soap and Aromatic 100% Halal Soap: a Comparative Study”, Applied Marketing in Bangladesh, Dept. of marketing, Dhaka University, Vol. II, p.149-150, 1998.

9. Alam, Ahmed Fakhrul & Rahman, Md. Mizanur, “Student Attitudes Towards Advertising in Bangladesh”, Dhaka University Journal of business Studies, Vol. 18(2), p. 159-170, 1997.

10. Islam, Md. Anwarul & Hossain, Md. Afjal, “Advertising Effectiveness and Sales Performance: a Case Study”, Dhaka University Journal of business Studies, Vol. 16(2), p. 201-210, 1995.



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