ABSTRACT

Recent years the fast food restaurant industry in the Umuahia metropolis of Nigeria has witnessed a tremendous rise in the number of new restaurants. This is as a result of changing new life style coupled with the increase in urbanization. The study evaluates the marketing strategies that have been employed by the competing firms in order to sustain growth and profitability. This study evaluates monetary strategies and adopted a descriptive design. For convenient sake, out of total number of 85 medium sized fast food firms in Umuahia metropolis, 20 was selected for the study and out of 478 operators, 105 was chosen for study. A total number of 384 fast food customers were chosen for study using Topman’s formula. Data collection was both structured and unstructured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using Chi-square and Z-test. The test for Chi-square was used for hypothesis 1 and Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was used for hypothesis 2 while Z-test was used for hypothesis 3. The finding shows that a comprehensive customer research enhances sustainability and profitability of the fast food business. Secondly, advertising is an effective strategy in promoting fast food business. Thirdly, it can also be concluded that the strategy for sustainable growth could be not just by enhancing the roles of personal selling and public relations, but by the use of effective customer relationship management. The major implication for the fast food operators in the Umuahia metropolis is that they should put more emphasis on conducting, analysis and implementing the results from a comprehensive customer research. This is to enable them have a proper knowledge of the needs and wants of the customers and accordingly satisfy them. In addition, the operators should try and accord more impetus to their customer relationship management by ensuring that a customer receives accurate information and has a consistent and stiff experience every time he/she interacts with the company.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title page . . . . . . . . . i

Declaration . . . . . . . . . ii

Certification . . . . . . . . . iii

Dedication . . . . . . . . . iv

Acknowledgment . . . . . . . . . v

Table of contents . . . . . . . . . vi

List of tables . . . . . . . . . viii

Abstract . . . . . . . . . x

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study 1

1.2 Statement of the problem 3

1.3 Objective of the Study 4

1.4 Research Questions  4

1.5 Research Hypotheses 5

1.6 Significance of the study 5

1.7 Scope of the Study  7

1.8 Problems That Will Be Encountered In The Course Of This Study 8

1.9 Definition of key terms 8

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Introduction 11

2.2 What is Small and Medium Scale Enterprise (SME) 12

2.3 Preliminary Consideration Before Venturing Into SME 13

2.4 The Concept of Effective Marketing 15

2.5 Strategic Business Planning 17

2.6 Strategic Marketing Effectiveness 20

2.6.1  Factors Deriving Marketing Effectiveness 21

2.6.2 Key Marketing Success Factor 21

2.7 Customer Research 22

2.7.1 Importance of Customer Research 22

2.7.2 Areas of customer research 23

2.7.3 Doing Research Right 23

2.8 Research Trends 24

2.8.1 Location of restaurant 24

2.8.2 Restaurants’ Facilities & Equipment 25

2.8.3 Methods Of Cooking 25

2.8.4 Components of Food Service Operation 26

2.9 Management of Small And Medium Enterprises 29

2.10 Customer Service Trends 34

2.11 Customer Information Sharing 40

2.12 Advertising 25

2.12.1 Importance of Advertising 46

2.12.2 Managing Advertising Decisions 47

2.12.3Evaluation Of Strategic Marketing Of The Fast Food 

Restaurants In The South East Zone 48

2.13 Prospect Of Fast Food Venture In The South East Zone Of Nigeria 51

2.14 Theoretical framework. 52

2.14.1 The Relevance of Marketing Strategy Evaluation 52

2.14.2 Review of Some Marketing Strategy Evaluation Models 53

2.15Concluding Statement 54

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction 56

3.2 Research Design 56

3.3 Area of study 56

3.4 Source of Data 57

3.5 Population 57

3.6 Reliability and Validity of Instrument 57

3.8 Method Of Presentation And Analysis 58

CHAPTER FOUR

4.2 RETURN OF QUESTIONNAIRE

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Summary Of Findings 85

5.2 Conclusion 86

5.3 Recommendations 87

REFERENCES 88