DOES PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY AFFECT SALES GROWTH OF MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN SOUTH EAST NIGERIA?

This study sought to identify and analyse promotional strategies and the extent to which they affect sales growth in some selected manufacturing firms in South East Nigeria. The survey design was used. The population of the study was 7112 staff drawn from ten (10) manufacturing firms purposively selected from the five (5) states in South-east Nigeria. A sample size of 553 was obtained using Godden’s statistical formula for calculating sample size from the finite population at 5% error margin. Proportional stratified random sampling formula was used to calculate the proportionate sample size for the clusters. Questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents after being validated by experts from the firms and the academia. Out of the 553 copies of the questionnaire administered, 526 were returned and used for the analyses while 27 copies were not returned. Data were collected through primary and secondary sources. Spearman rank order correlation coefficient was used to test the reliability of the instrument given a coefficient of 0.83, thus confirming the reliability of the instrument. The hypotheses formulated were tested using ordinal logistic regression model. Findings from the study revealed that advertising, public relations and personal selling were promotional strategies that affected sales growth in the manufacturing firms. The study also revealed that promotional strategy had a positive and significant effect on sales growth. (b = 78.234, p = 0.009 < 0.05) during the period studied. Based on these findings, it is recommended that manufacturing firms should adopt advertising, public relations and personal selling as promotional strategies for enhancing their sales growth. Again, manufacturing firms should improve their process of production and their selling and distribution strategies of their existing products and services in order to enhance their life cycles. These are necessary especially in developing countries of which Nigeria is one where environmental dynamics are regularly changing