Third Year Internship Thesis

32 Mini Research Project Work Publishing Studies Department Mini Research Project Work Pu

5. Day S. George. Strategic Marketing Planning: ! e Pursuit of Competitive Advantage, St. Paul: West, 1984

6. Giles G.B. Marketing, 6th edition, London: Longman Group Limited (Pitman Publishing), 1994

7. Gluck F.W. “A Fresh Look At Strategic Management,” ! e Journal of Business Strategy, Autumn, 1985

8. Hatton A. and Worsam M. E" ective Management for Marketing (1999-2000) CIM Workbook, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1999

9. 9. Staudt T.A and Taylor D.A. A Managerial Introduction to Marketing, New Jersey: McGraw-Hill, 1995

10. Hines T. Management Information for Marketing Decisions, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1999

11. Jobber D. Principles and Practice of Marketing, London: McGraw-Hill, 1995

12. Johns Ted. Perfect Customer Care, UK: Arrow Business Books, 1995

13. Porter M.E. Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance, New York: Free Press, 1985

14. Kotler P. and Armstrong E. Principles of Marketing, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1996

15. Lancaster G.A. and Massingham L.C. Essentials of Marketing, London: McGraw-Hill, 1988

16. Massie L. Joseph. Essentials of Management, 5th edition, Delhi: Prentice-Hall Inc., 2002

17. Phipps R. and Simmons C. ! e Marketing Customer Interface, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2000

18. Quarterly Digest of First capital plus bank. Practical Marketing Strategy (An illustration from Ghana’s Corporate Environment)

19. Jobber D. Principles and Practice of Marketing, London: McGraw-Hill, 1995

Building Competitive Advantage by SMEs in the Printing and Publishing Industry. (A case Study of Exorigin Company Limited.)

Department of Publishing Studies College of Arts & Social Sciences, KNUST

Dwomoh-Okudzeto, Yvonne

5117810

BI 398Mini Research Project Work

Mini Project Topic:

Presented by:

Index Number:

Course Title:

31Publishing Studies Department Mini Research Project WorkPublishing Studies Department

While an average entrepreneur would always hinge his failure on lack of access to # nance, some others think otherwise arguing that inappropriate management skills, lack of entrepreneurial skills and know how, poor infrastructure low production capacity, lack of capacity to identify new markets, constraints on modernization & expansions, non-availability of highly skilled labour at a" ordable cost, bureaucratic delays, ine" ective marketing strategies and business communications skills which obviously goes hand in hand when analyze critically are largely responsible.

! e unique position of marketing, its close contact with the customer and its ability to in$ uence the strategic decisions of a business, gives it a responsibility for ensuring that the scarce resources of the business are allocated in a way which creates the perceived bene# ts needed by the customer. Every organization has a goal; be it pro# t or non-pro# t, but marketing should seek to maximize those achievements of those goals through a clear identi# cation of customer needs, a detailed assessment of organizational competences and if the need be concentrate on its strengths to exploit the opportunities it will present.

Marketing o" ers the opportunity for a company to gain competitive advantage through e" ective di" erentiation of the products and services that it o" ers to customers; however most marketing strategies and concepts are related but the key di" erences hinges on the context and rationale underpinning its usage.

References

1. Adams M.J., Faux D.D. and Rieber L.J. Printing Technology, 3rd edition, New York: Delmar Publishers Inc., 1988

2. Worsam M. Marketing Operation, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1999

3. Beach M. and Kenly E. Getting it Printed, 3rd edition, United States: North Light Books, 1999

4. Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK. “Competitors and Competitive Advantage,” CIM Marketing Success Journal, Vol. 9 Issue No. 1, Oct.1998

07 References References


• Give them a feeling of control over their work

• Build their self-esteem

13. For external promotion, management could widen the use of more conventional cost-e" ective promotional tools to augment the auxiliary ones. ! e notable ones among the options available for use by the company are the following:

• Stickers, pens, key holders etc. with the company’s logo could be produced and distributed to private and commercial drivers at no charge so that they display them on their vehicles and some to their clients as well.

• Brochures or lea$ ets or handbills containing concise information about the company, its package of a product bene# ts, etc. could be produced and distributed to corporate bodies or # rst-time customers and some should be at the front desk.

• Very attractive signboards could be mounted at vantage points in and around Accra and Adabraka.

14. ICT is becoming the backbone of providing service where prospective customers and client can complete their transaction very speedily. Company could review their internet website and other social media account, once in a while by posting information about their services, promotion, etc. In time, the website may become transactional, so that customers can place orders as they do through fax, email and telephone. ICTs can also act as an enabler for growth; development and competitiveness in developing countries. Several bene# ts have been noted from them and among them are these: Competitiveness, Cost minimization, increase e% ciency, Improved customer satisfaction, Value enhancement, Improved quality in service delivery, Saves time in service delivery, Employee e% ciency.

15. Remember the old saying: “keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer’. When it comes to business, it’s good to know what your competitors in your market niche are doing. By keeping an eye on their social media feeds, you can learn about a company-what it is doing di" erently, what it’s doing di" erently, what its good at and what its bad at. ! e company could use this information to implement things in their strategy that might be missing.

C o n t e n t s

Introduction

Literature Review

Methodology

Data Analysis & Discussions

Summary, Conclusion of Findings

Recommendations

References

01020304050607


! ey could be allowed to do this within the framework of rules and regulations set by the company for standardized service behavior. When employees are empowered, they share responsibility for problems and are proactive in their response to customers. Management could empower sta" to show the following traits:

• ! e ability of employees to provide information to customers.

• ! e high speed of problem solving.

• An increased improvement.

• Standards being followed and maintained by self-discipline from employees themselves not centralized enforcement.

• Active listening and willingness to understand customers’ point of view.

• Teamwork and willingness of sta" members to support each other to service the customer.

8. ! ey could work with outsourcing partners that deliver on time and Management could make it a point to appoint personnel to regularly monitor outsourced projects to make sure they meet quality control and deadlines

9. Management should service their machines regularly not just when they are faulty.

10. Management could consider installing a power plant to cater for the electricity crisis. However if that is not within its reach, it should buy a new generator that would support its printing machines.

11. Management could estimate the cost of production of every work and inform the client before commencing any work.

12. ! e company could also motivate the employees so that they give o" their best. Management must understand that money or salary per se is not a motivator, but its inadequacy is really a demotivator which could lead to dissatisfaction, demoralization, or even acceleration of labour turnover Management must curb this trend by these ways:

• Get to know the workers

• Help them to achieve success


company should seize the opportunity to lower its estimates as a way of di" erentiating its product o" er.

3. Meeting deadlines must be part of the bundle of bene# ts. E" ective planning and proper work scheduling for all printing jobs should be carried out and followed fully. ! e situation where every member of the management issues instructions and counter-instructions to confuse lower sta" ought to be stopped. At best, the planner of the production work should be the one in charge of all production related tasks.

4. Given that many of the customers now want very rapid response and delivery time above all else, the company could o" er a guaranteed service with bonuses or discounts o" subsequent orders if the company fails to ful# ll its promises. A customer loyalty programme could be designed with bonus o" er to retain loyal customers, and turn new prospective customers into loyal customers.

5. Superb customer service is part of the potential bene# t level which could be used to di" erentiate the bene# t package. ! e company could do it in many ways, some of which essentially include the following:

• Ensuring that top management shows demonstrable commitment to customer service. ! e emphasis is on commitment because increase the e" ectiveness of execution.

• Regularly acquiring customer feedback through questionnaires, surveys, or other marketing research. ! e customer feedback should include customer complaints and compliments. It must be made easy for customers to complain. ! e company could use dialogue to seek for complaints or compliments.

• Establishing service quality benchmarks and measuring company’s performance against the benchmarks. By so doing, ways of improving performance could be identi# ed.

6. ! e company should do it best by employing three more permanent stu" comprising of a designer, a printer/production manager and a receptionist/accountant so they could allocate the jobs well without one worker performing more than the required job he or she is supposed to perform .

7. ! e general manager could empower employees to take decision on their own to immediately solve any di% culties be it customer or work related.


01IntroductionMy research has revealed that in de# ning a small business, the terms Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs), Small and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), or, Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) that are used are all internationally accepted terms. It is evident that small businesses play an integral role in both developed and developing economies. ! e development of SMEs publishing and printing houses are gradually growing and becoming more intense and thus, seen as accelerating the achievement of wider economic and socio-economic objectives.

Publishing and printing is a pro# t-making business that requires a lot of start-up capital. It is therefore an important organ of any nation or people, their voice, heritage and the backbone of a nation’s literacy playing a vital role in the development of a nation. Since the invention of printing, it has justi# ed it importance in the dissemination of information.

Despite their commendable contribution and roles they play most of these SME’s are now collapsing as a result of not performing creditably well in the industry and the nation as a whole. ! ey still face numerous challenges such as limited capital and knowledge; non-availability of suitable technology etc. ! is research mainly focuses on certain challenges facing the company under study Exorigin Company Limited and how the company can build a competitive advantage through product di" erentiation and promotion. Competition they say is the core of the success or failure of # rms. So what are the management of Exorigin doing in this business that will lead to build and sustainable competitive advantage?” It is in line with this, that this study identi# es the challenges of the company and how come out with ways and means, which will establish and sustain the vibrancy of the company so that they can play the expected vital roles as the engine of growth in our economic development. In order to investigate the


challenges, a conceptual and theoretical framework of the study was designed. ! ese guided the design of data collection instrument to suit the research.

Research Questions• Is the company applying any sound marketing practices?

• Does the company have a competitive edge?

• In spite of some of the challenges they face, what workable and realistic solutions have they used so far to build a competitive advantage over other SME’s like them?

Indeed, the importance of building competitive advantage through the practice of marketing cannot be overemphasized. One of such bene# ts of competitive advantage is the steady growth of the customer base of a company. Highlighting this role of marketing is the essence of conducting this research.

Statement Of ProblemIn-spite of the products and services the company provides, they face some problems in executing or delivery them. Apart from that, they have the edge to grow and become very competitive yet they face numerous challenges that need to be dealt so they would not collapse as most of these SMEs and would be able to grow. ! is research is intended to explore and unravel some of the key business survival strategies which are of vital role to the growth and development of the company so it can be very competitive.

Objectives Of The Study! e overall objective of this research is to identify ways and means, which will establish and sustain the vibrancy of the company so they can be very competitive like other publishing and printing houses in Ghana.

Speci! c Objectives:

In other to achieve the overall objective of the research the study will attempt the following:

1. To critically examine the company’s operations relating to product and promotion.


06RECOMMENDATIONS! e building of competitive advantage, in the case of Exorigin Company Ltd., calls for recommendations which are strategic in nature. ! e responsibility of implementing them falls on the shoulders of management, who are to see the implementation as a form of investment that will change upon the basis of the results of the study; the following outlined recommendations have been proposed.

1. ! e company could deliver products with high and acceptable quality. Systems, procedures and processes should all be reviewed so that strict quality adherence is incorporated. Quality must be maintained at all levels of the production phase including prepress, press and post press activities. ! is is where monitoring and coordination come in. Management must be able to gain every employee’s commitment and involvement, and ensure that continual e" ort is made towards quality improvement. ! ey must employ a production manager with printing know-how to inspect quality at all stages of the production phase.

2. ! e company could help themselves and the customer to save money. ! e company must be able to estimate production cost and make accommodation for spoilage .E" ort must be made to give the customer cost control bene# t as path of the envisaged attractive product o" er. ! is will stimulate repeat orders from customers. Avenues like overs and administrative overhead cost could be used in the cost control. When # nished products from overs are signi# cantly small, they could be given to the customer free of charge. If the company is able to minimize wastage or spoilage, it would be absurd to apportion high percentage for the calculation of overs in the estimates. In a situation like this, the


2. To identify some challenges which have a" ected the company from performing their operations successfully?

3. To make appropriate and valuable recommendation that is targeted at solving or at least eliminating some of the identi# ed challenges so the company can build competitive advantage over other publishing and printing houses.

Significance Of Study! is research is intended to identify key challenges facing the success of the company relating to its operation in terms of its products and promotion. ! e # ndings of the study would create an avenue for management of the company to not only appreciate the need to embrace marketing, but also, to acknowledge the relevance of marketing in the achievement of success in the business environment. It would also have solution to some of the problems and the outcome of this research would go a long way to serve as a useful complementary reference material for marketing decision making and planning in terms of tactics, strategies, or policy formulation by the company. It is also expected that the outcome of this research would serve as a reference to provide database to help researchers, academies’, students, policy makers, etc. who would try to do additional research.

Scope Of The StudyDue to the nature and context of this study, it will seek to focus rather on some challenges of facing Exorigin and how they can build a competitive advantage over other SMEs in the industry which is realistic and workable to the challenges set forth.

Limitations Of The Study! is research con# nes itself to a case study of Exorigin. Certain limitations were encountered in the course of undertaking the research. One of the greatest challenge that the researcher encountered was related to the access and collection of data due to the unwillingness of management to release some information which could have enriched the study and also established a strong validity and reliability.


Organization Of Study ! e research is organized into # ve main sections. ! ese are the introduction, literature review, methodology, the data analysis and the conclusions and recommendations. ! e introduction captures the background of the study, the research objectives and the scope of study, limitations of the study, and the signi# cance of the study and the organization of the study. ! e literature review is a review of the current literature that bothers on the objectives of the research. ! e methodology spells out how our data collected and from where it was collected. ! e data presentation analysis and discussion is the analysis of the data collected in the chapter three and # nally, the chapter # ve gives the summary of # ndings, conclusion and recommendations of the research based on the data analyzed in chapter four.


senior management of this company. Among the issues raised were di" erentiation of products, customer satisfaction, employing of three more permanent workers and e" ective communication with the company’s the employees and customers. ! ese are key strategic factors the company needs for building and sustaining competitive advantage.

! e study has also provided recommendations that should stimulate management to move the company towards becoming a marketing-oriented company. Notwithstanding these recommendations, the research on product and promotion is not the only marketing research that can be conducted. Even though its results are very useful in the decision making process, it does not give all the information about the whole picture. In view of this, it is appropriate for the company to look beyond the parameters of this particular research and carry out other comprehensive researches on areas of interest and importance to the company.


! e company’s customer service delivery was fairly good with a positive record of sta" showing empathy and responsiveness to customers.

For some reasons, which boil down to company’s belief, perception, attitude and motive, the results of the study showed that the company was not carrying out any vigorous promotional campaign for its products and services to the extent that very simple and cost-e" ective promotional tools such as sign boards, brochures, lea$ ets, etc. have been thrown overboard. Logo, without any complementary conventional tool, was the only advertising tool the company was using. Notwithstanding this, the company has adopted and relied on some auxiliary promotional tools to achieve some of the aims of promotion. ! ey were as follows, according to the results.

• Word-of-mouth testimonials or recommendations.

• Company’s imprint on printed products it produces.

• Company’s other subsidiary business.

• Canvassing by some key employees.

Within the framework of the two-way communication process, where the company is the sender and its customers are the receivers, the company’s performance in promoting its products and services was not encouraging. ! e company was beset with problems which the study identi# ed them as follows:

Inadequate, inappropriate and unreliable message or information, many a time, was conveyed to some (not all) of the customers. However, the company has not fully utilized this opportunity to develop e" ective communication with its customers and no e" ective customer feedback monitoring mechanism or system has been put in place by the company.

Conclusion! e company is yet to embrace marketing fully to allocate its human and non-human resources in a way that will create the perceived bene# ts needed by the customer. Given the problems the company is facing, it is yet to achieve competitive advantage in this increasingly competitive printing industry. ! e company has been seen to be producing products exactly in the same way as other companies are doing. Additionally, it was giving lip service to promotion both internally and externally.

! e study conducted has brought to the fore many issues for consideration by


02Literature ReviewIntroduction! e previous chapter delineated the background, objective and scope of this study among several other essential point of the research. ! is chapter sets forth the various literatures on the objectives of this study as a means of shaping the study to know where in the research on the subject this study can appropriately seek to address. ! is chapter also reviews the literatures on some basic terminologies of the research, the proliferation and role of printing and publishing SMEs in the economic development of Ghana in order to a" ord a holistic understanding of the how the research should be carried out.

! e government of the Gold Coast, an arm of the British government pursued an economic policy that trained the rising middle class to manage the property of the European merchants and businessmen. According to Kayanula and Quartey (2000), small scale enterprise promotion in Ghana was also not impressive in the 1960s. Dr. Nkrumah (President of the First Republic) in his modernization e" orts emphasized state participation but did not encourage the domestic indigenous sector. ! e local entrepreneurship was seen as a potential political threat. As the economy declined in the 1980s, large-scale manufacturing employment stagnated which forced many formal sector employees into secondary self-employment in an attempt to earn a decent income. In other to solve these problems government has put in place measures to promote the growth of SME’s in Ghana by establishing organisations to support the activities of SME’s.

Hence National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) was established under Act 434 in 1981 as an apex body for the development of small-scale industries in


Ghana, in order to create a single dynamic integrated organization capitalized and capable of responding to the needs of SME’ sector.

De# nitions of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) vary from country to country, depending on one or more of thresholds lay down in respect of investment, employment, turnover etc. ! e issue of what constitutes a small or micro enterprise is a major concern in the literature. Di" erent writers have usually given di" erent de# nitions to this category of business. SME’s have indeed not been spared with the de# nition problem that is usually associated with concepts which have many components. Bolton Committee (1971) # rst formulated an “economic” and “statistical” de# nition of a small # rm. Under the “economic” de# nition, a # rm is said to be small if it meets the following three criteria:

• It has a relatively small share of their market place;

• It is managed by owners or part owners in a personalized way, and not through the medium of a formalized management structure;

• It is independent, in the sense of not forming part of a large enterprise.

In Ghana various de# nitions have been given for Micro, Small and Medium scale enterprises but the most commonly used criterion is the number of employees of the enterprise (Kayanula and Quartey, 2000). In using this de# nition, confusion o* en arises in respect of the unpredictability and cut o" points used by the various o% cial sources.

According to the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI, 1990) SME’s is de# ned in Ghana by applying both the “# xed asset and number of employees” criteria. It de# nes a small-scale enterprise as a # rm with not more than 9 workers, and has plant and machinery (excluding land, buildings and vehicles) not exceeding 10 million Ghanaian cedis and micro with employee less than # ve Ghanaian cedis.

! ere is a growing recognition of the vital role micro-scale companies (SMEs) play in economic development. ! ey are o* en described as job creators, the seeds which grow into big businesses and the fuel of national economic engines.

Printing and publishing plays an important role in the economic, political, educational, scienti# c and technological a" airs of human beings the world over. For instance, not only do we read newspapers, magazines and books of all kinds for knowledge, information as well as for entertainment, but we must have labels also to tell us what is inside a bottle, tin or package, what music is recorded on a


05Summary, Conclusion Of FindingsExorigin Company Limited has done very little to di" erentiate its products from that of its competitors and the following key areas uncovered by the study.

• Quality: ! e Company faced quality related problems, the causes of which were all traceable to inadequate inspection and monitoring of the company subcontracted, ine" ective coordination, , unreliable conditions of the Hp canon machine, low quality of prepress work, and occurrence of printability problems and press run ability problems.

• On-Time Delivery: ! e Company did not always # nish printing jobs on or before the contracted deadlines due to power cut, pressure on the creative o% cer and occasional failure or breakdown of the machine. However, about 60% of all the company’s printing jobs were completed on time under pressure.

• Cost Control: ! e Company has not consciously controlled cost as part of its product bene# t package for its customers, even though it was aware of a few avenues to use for controlling cost.

• Planning: One major aspect of production whose neglect has contributed too many of the above mentioned causes of the problems are planning. ! e company sometimes started production without e" ective and adequate planning.

• ! e customer service related issues covered by the study yielded the following results:

! e company was able to meet customer expectations more o* en than it was unable to do so. ! erefore, it has more satis# ed customers than dissatis# ed customers.


disc or written on a sheet, even what program is on television. In fact, printing enters every aspect of our daily lives.

! e history of printing in Ghana dates back to the time of early missionary work in this country. As far back as 1851, the Methodist Mission had opened a printing house at Cape Coast. ! is press was also made use of by the Basel Mission. A man of Abura Dunkwa in the Central Region, Hutton Brew, was the # rst African to establish a printing press in Ghana. He started operation of his press in 1874.

! e early 1900s and the late 1930s saw a tremendous increase in the volume of printing work done in this country. ! is was due to the increase in industrial, commercial, and other activities of the government and also developments in education and health. Since then, printing has become an important aspect of publishing industry in Ghana has made the competition more intense with over 150 Printing Houses in Accra. On my joy online website in an article (THE HUB OF PRINTING) on the 23rd of March, 2013 it was noted by Ko# Yeboah that “Accra is a vibrant industrial area and the fact there are hundreds of scattered # rms all over suggests that the business is good” but the owner of Misatso printing press(Sampson Agyei) says “Good business in the industry does not however, come on a silver platter; it is earned through quality and prompt service delivery ,e" ective marketing to attract more clients and having the right connections,” hence the need for Exorigin to do the same.

Definitions Of Operational TermsCompetitive Advantage: ! e extent to which an organization or business unit delivers value superior to that of its competitors.

Strategy: It is a description of the direction an organization will pursue within its chosen environment and a guide to the allocation of resources. A strategy also provides the logic that integrates the parochial perspective of functional departments and operating units and points them in the same direction

Marketing: It is the management process which identi# es, anticipates and satis# es customer requirements (needs and wants) e% ciently and pro# tably (CIM).

Product: It is a bundle of bene# ts that satis# es the needs and wants of a customer (Kotler, 1991). It is one of the controllable variables of the marketing mix referred


to as tools of marketing, which gives satisfaction to the customer (Jobber, 1995). It is a package of solutions to problems that are bought, and it comes as though any item that is tangible with a physical presence, a function to perform and a symbolic value, it has also got some intangible attributes (Worsam, 1999).

Service: It is any activity of bene# t that one party can o" er to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. Its production may or may not be tied to a physical product (Kotler, 1991).

Promotion: It is a controllable tool of the marketing mix which deals with the communication between a company and its public – customers, consumers, employees, etc. (Worsam, 1999)

Di" erentiation: How an organization or business unit distinguishes itself on strategic factors.

Operational plan: A plan that takes as a given an organization or business unit competitiveness and develops the means by which this can be accomplished, e.g. marketing plan


them present an opportunity for the company to improve its communication with its customers and the contact points were as follows: Speci# cations, Enquires, Orders, Letters and invoices, Instructions Compliments, Brie# ngs, Repeat orders, Negotiations ,Contracts and sub-contracts, Complaints ,Queries, Receipts, Requests, Estimates/estimate forms etc.

(iii) Channels:: A channel in promotion refers to a medium through which a company communicates with its customers. Some examples are the advertising tools such as the print media, electronic media, etc. ! ese examples are conventional. However, in the broad meaning of the word channel, other tools can be cited. ! e research conducted has shown that the Company has done little to widen its tool box of communication options. A few notable channels being employed by the company to reach out to its customers over a distance include,e-mail, and telephone. ! ese are woefully inadequate.

(iv) Feedback:“With what e" ect (is the message being conveyed)?” Explaining the signi# cance of feedback in communication is important. In order to ascertain that messages have been received and interpreted accurately and have had the intended e" ect, another important element in the communication process is feedback. Communication is always a two-way process and its e" ectiveness is undermined if it becomes one-way, i.e. message only with no feedback. ! e Company has not put any e" ective customer feedback monitoring mechanism in place. ! e results of the study further expounded this problem in the following ways.

• No marketing research about the company’s customers on the basis of feedback has recently been conducted. ! e only available sources of raw data for reference were invoices, receipts, accounting books, archives of printing jobs and copies of some # nished jobs.

• No steps have been taken to stimulate feedback from customers. Positively seeking feedback through questionnaires, suggestions, or informal meetings was not actually part of the company’s culture.

Complaint is an utterance of grievance which must be handled carefully and passionately so that it does not degenerate into an acrimonious dispute. For Exorigin Company Ltd, the causes of customer complaints could not be far-fetched. Indeed, the study has already revealed the major causes of complaints.


(c)Marketing Communities with Customers

External marketing communication, which is about communication with a company’s external publics including customers, has become a key issue in the building of competitive advantage. Within the framework of the two-way communication process, a company gives information to its customers, and in return, seeks for feedback from the customers. With the increasing concern of giving the maximum satisfaction to customers, external marketing communication has assumed a wider dimension. ! e four essential factors for consideration in planning external communication with customers are:

• Message /information

• Contact points

• Channels

• Feedback

Using the above factors as measurements for assessing the company, the following results were obtained.

(i) Message/Information: ! e Company did well in the use of some communicational tools like phone calls, through their email etc. to convey message to their client. Sometimes, information communicated to customer may not necessarily re$ ect the situation on the ground. ! e consequences were so glaring: misunderstanding between customers and some sta" , anxiety of customers to seek more information a* er the initial information seemed not to satisfy them, and therefore, culminating into more referrals. One main cause was that Senior management preferred that anything that needed to be done should be asked # rst even if the sta" could handle it making it look very bureaucratic. In some circumstances, client who wanted prices of some mere services like coloured printing on all paper sizes needed to be asked by the employees.

(ii) Contact Points: At any point in time, di" erent customers need di" erent information. Since information communicated could be technical in nature, provision of su% cient interaction is needed to ensure that the customer feels properly informed and valued. ! eir advocacy is important particularly because su% cient interaction is a way of improving the e" ectiveness of marketing communication. ! ere are several points of interaction which start the communication process between a company and its customers. ! e study on Exorigin Company limited uncovered as many points of interaction. All of


03Methodology Introduction! e chapter outlines the research approach adopted for the study, the sample frame and how sample size was determined, sampling technique; tools used for data collection, data analysis as well as data sources. ! is section # nally described how # eld data was made suitable for presentation and analysis and the tools used for data presentation and also describe the study area.

Population and Sampling Size! e population of the research is Exorigin Company Ltd. ! e sample size selected was all the sta" of the company and the composition of the sample is as follows:

• Mr. Adams Selby (C.E.O.)

• Mr. Nicholas Adjei (Managing Director)

• Mr.Courage Komi Amese(Creative Director)

• Mr.Francis Akyin Essel (Creative Artist)

• Mrs.Hannah Badu (Secretary/ Accountant)

Since, the sta" is relatively small in number; the whole sta" was used to ensure that information taking from them would be accurate and reliable.


SOURCE OF DATAMany methods available to gather information, and a wide variety of information sources were identi# ed. Data was collected from both primary and secondary sources. Primary data which was mainly qualitative were captured through the use of personal interviews and observation. Both methods complemented each other to con# rm the validity of the data. Any interview which was carried out took the form of face-to-face and one-on-one interview in two ways: formal and informal. ! e informal way of interviewing was largely used. Secondary data was collected using journals, textbooks, handbooks and manuals, review articles and editorials, literature review, informal discussions with experts, colleagues, seminars and conferences as well as published guides.

Data on the internet were located using search tools. ! e World Wide Web was searched for information. ! e convenience of the web and the extraordinary amount of information to be found on it are compelling reasons for using it as an information source. Search engines such as Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com), Google (http://www.google.com) and MSN (http://www.msn.com) were used to access vast information that assisted in the study.


about the company and recommending it to others, they create an awareness which is one of the aims of advertising. ! e second group was made up of satis# ed secondary customers commonly called agents/middlemen/contractors. ! ey give printing job contracts to the company to be done on behalf of their clients. In the process, they also create awareness about the company. Notwithstanding this positive development, there was also an inhibiting problem that the company must deal with. ! is was the word-of-mouth condemnation from the company’s few dissatis# ed customers.

(ii) Company’s Imprint on Printed Products:

! is was another way the Company has sought to advertise itself. Clearly, the company’s imprint consisting of the name of the company itself, its address and location created awareness about the company to many people who used the company’s printed products. However, there were limitations. Certain products could not bear the company’s imprint on them. ! ese included products they taught was not of quality to portray the company’s image.

(iii) Canvassing By Some Key Employees:

Some of the key employees of the company occasionally went out to sell the company in order to win contracts. ! ese employees, in the process, are doing a kind of promotion. However, its impacts cannot measure up with that of the other auxiliary promotional tools particularly the positive word-of-mouth recommendations.

(iv) Company’s Other Subsidiary Business:

! e company, alongside its main printing services i.e., commercial printing and trade shop printing, runs another business whereby it acts as a distributor for some publishing companies like Sam-Woode by selling their products. ! is subsidiary business attracted people who otherwise would not have known the main predominant business of the company. ! is was clearly ful# lling one of the objectives of promotion. ! e e" ect is that some of the people, who get attracted, can later become prospective customers to do business with the company in its predominant printing service. Both the attraction and awareness can be deepened with the introduction of the suggested promotional materials − lea$ ets, brochures, etc. It should be noted that this other subsidiary business was outside the scope of the study on the company.


Publicity: press releases, speeches, annual reports, charitable donations, seminars, press kits, sponsorships, public relations, etc.

Clearly, by virtue of the kind of business undertaking of company many of the numerous of speci# c tools for sales promotion and personal selling are not appropriate for the company’s promotional mix, and hence, cannot be applied. Exhibitions or trade fair shows could, however, be applied. Additionally, a few others under advertising and publicity could well be utilized by the company. What is worrying and surprising to note is that the company has not mounted sign boards at vantage points along Accra -Adabraka. Even though the choice of tools for the promotional mix is the prerogative of the marketer, certain cost-e" ective advertising tools can be used for the company’s promotional campaign. ! ese include lea$ ets/handbills, brochures/booklets, stickers, and posters.

! ese tools can be used to target mass audience with information focusing on achieving competitive advantage, for example, company’s positioning statement, company’s unique product bene# ts. Obviously, there will be no problem with the production of these promotional materials since Exorigin Co. Ltd does some printing jobs in-house.

It is important to place on record that the company used at least one advertising tool; this was its logo which appeared on the company’s van, letter head, receipts and invoices and some works done for client. Even though logo, can help in building corporate image, which adds value to a company and its product as well as in positioning, it is not wholly e" ective when used in isolation. To reinforce the impact of logo, other promotional tools particularly public relations must be used to complement it. ! is is where the Company has fallen short of.

(b) Auxiliary Promotional Tools Being Used

! e study identi# ed four major auxiliary tools being employed by the company presently to create awareness of its o" ers and also make business contacts with new customers. ! ese auxiliary tools may be seen more or less belonging to

advertising. ! ey are the following:

(i) Word-of-Mouth Testimonials/Recommendations:

Positive word-of-mouth testimonials, perhaps, was one of the most e" ective non-media advertising tool which could have a signi# cant impact on a company’s customer base. In the case of the Company, there were two groups of satis# ed customers who were engaged in the positive word-of-mouth testimonials. ! e # rst group consisted of existing loyal customers. In the course of speaking well


04Data Analysis And

Discussions

Product! e practice and essence of marketing, seeks to satisfy some identi# ed needs of customers by o" ering the right and appropriate products and services to the customers.

In the printing and publishing industry, the term product is the outcome of print production which, according to Adams et al (1988), will be determined by the kind of printing services a company provides. Exorigin Company limited was established in 2011, in Adabraka near citifm by Mr. Adams selby (C.E.O) as a private limited liability company. ! e company originates from Exclusive Associate been a large company on its own and Exorigin been a sub of it. ! e company has only 5 permanent sta" including management and the temporary workers are only contracted when there is a big job. ! e company is housed in a one –storey building and has a lot of o% ce space to accommodate big machines for large operations if the need be in the future but they took the decision to outsource because the resources are not available internally to purchase machines that can be used to execute jobs. It also reduces the operating costs in terms of machine maintenance and extra costs involved in operating the machine; machine operators, electricity, water, oil and etc., that would have been spent in maintaining the machines.


Exorigin is into all sort of designing, advertising, marketing,publishing and printing jobs. ! e company handles all variety of printing jobs in all colours, thereby providing typical products such as business cards, receipt books, posters, letter-head stationery, note pads, magazines, books, booklets, pamphlets, billboards, labels including foil-stomped ones, souvenirs, lea$ ets, calendars, newspapers etc. ! us, the company handles companies, schools and individuals that need a job to be carried out. During the whole period of the research, the Company subcontracted other companies for some printing jobs particularly printing ,cutting, trimming and binding to be done on their behalf whenever it was beyond their capacity to do so due to the kinds of machines they have available. •

! e company has an iMac (CORE I5,1TB 4GB RAM, 3.2 GHz ), an HP CP 1180N Color Laser Printer, an HP 510 Notebook pc(2.13GHz Core Duo,2GB RAM) an HP Scanjet Scanner G2410, and a mini polar cutter used in executing jobs. ! e company distributes its ICT books, and acts as a distributor for SamWoode Ltd. and Read wide.

Considering the wide range of products the company renders, it is not out of place to say that the company has identi# ed many needs to satisfy. However, the company has not fully reached the peak of specialization in the production of almost all of the products yet.

! e practice and essence of marketing, according to Kotler and Armstrong (1996), seeks to satisfy some identi# ed needs of customers by o" ering the right and appropriate products and services to the customers. Marketing practice has added service dimension to product; and it has become a critical factor increasingly recognized as strategic tool for achieving market success. ! e research sought to assess the Company’s product by it Quality, On-time delivery and Cost control

! e fascinating results obtained at the end of the study, have been presented below.

(a) Quality:

! e company sometimes delivered products which fell short of the expected quality. ! ere were a number of reasons which accounted for the shortcoming in quality. ! e possible reasons identi# ed by this study have been given below as follows:


o" ering of the seller, is in$ uenced by the amount and kind of information they have about the o" ering and their reaction to that information.

It is only in the context of e" ective communication that there can be a guarantee of information $ ows between a company and its employees or customers. ! is is what promotion seeks to do. ! e question now to ask is this: How has Exorigin used promotion? In an attempt to answer this question, the researcher probed into some pertinent areas of the operations of the company and the results gathered have been expounded under the following headings.

(a)Promotional Tools for Marketing Communication

! e top management of the company was fully aware of majority of the tools that can be used to advance any promotional activity. However, the company was not using them to its advantage because of a number of reasons the researcher gathered. ! ey are presented below as follows:

• ! e belief that cost of promotion is high; and the company cannot have a budget to support the huge expenditure.

• ! e absence of strategic objectives set for competitive advantage that will warrant the use of intensive promotion.

• ! e fact that company has already gained a certain level of reputation.

• ! e on-going word-of-mouth recommendations in the informal way by some satis# ed existing customers.

• ! e strong management motive of maximizing pro# t and the belief that promotional expenditure will be a drain on pro# t.

At a cursory glance, some of the reasons given seemingly justify the attitude of the company towards promotion. However, a very closer examination of this attitude portrays the company as one su" ering from marketing myopia. Promotion itself has its own tools that can be used in a promotional mix. ! ere are four broad categories of promotional tools – advertising, sales promotion publicity and personal selling. A few examples for advertising and publicity have shown below. Advertising: newspaper ads, radio ads, TV ads, internet ads, packaging, mailings, catalogues, magazines, directories, billboards/sign boards, display signs, audiovisual materials, posters, lea$ ets, brochures/booklets, point-of-purchase displays, symbols and logos, stickers, display signs, handbills, etc.


(i)Signs of satis! ed customers:

• ! e company has a reputation and enjoys the goodwill of some customers.

• ! ere were some loyal customers from among the existing customers.

• Some of the company’s contracts were repeat businesses from existing customers.

• ! ere were word-of-mouth testimonials/recommendations from existing customer to new ones.

(ii)Signs of dissatis! ed customers:

• Some customers returned # nished products back to the company.

• Some customers complained to the company and openly confronted some sta" .

• Some customers showed no sign of repeating business when they were granted an opportunity to do so.

(b) Customer Service Delivery:

! e qualitative data gathered show that in spite of the company’s shortcomings, it was also doing well in certain aspects of customer service. ! ose worthy of mentioning are the following:

• Most of the sta" showed empathy to customers when dealing with them.

• ! ere was an appreciable level of sta" responsiveness.

Nonetheless, there is still more room for improvement. ! e company must harness these capabilities of its sta" as a company’s strength and a means of enhancing customer service delivery.

PromotionPromotion is one of the 7Ps of marketing available to a marketer to control. ! is is the only marketing tool that is used to attract an attention, create awareness and to educate the public. “Promotion is communication to the potential consumer.” ! e importance of marketing communication is to achieve competitive advantage and overall its business success cannot be overemphasized. Marketing e" ectiveness depends signi# cantly on communication e" ectiveness. ! e market is activated through information $ ows. ! e way a buyer perceives the market


• Lack of quality control/monitoring in place, e.g. there was no one designated as inspector at the company sub contracted to do the job for them.

• Insu% cient skills of machine minders/operators.

• Technical faults of machine.

! e essence of quality in creating and sustaining competitive advantage cannot be understated. ! e press operators more o* en than not encountered very serious registration problems. Either all their e" ort in trying to get correct registration became fruitless or they achieved correct registration only at the expense of scheduled time. In this case, wasted paper and delay of scheduled work were the prizes. ! ere was absolutely little monitoring and coordination between prepares work and press work.

(b) On-Time Delivery:

Exorigin Co. Ltd. did not perform satisfactorily by the end of the study. On many occasions, the time and date scheduled for the delivery of # nished jobs to customers were not met. Customers tend to do business with companies which ful# ll their promise of on-time delivery. Five causative factors were identi# ed to be responsible for the inability of the company to sometimes ful# ll this promise of on-time delivery to its customers. ! ese are:

1. ! e companies they outsource from don’t deliver on time due to no supervision of any of the workers of Exorigin at the company they outsurce from.

2. Little coordination of production activities.

3. ! e sta" of the company is very small and can’t handle some big jobs and so they are o* en behind schedule.

4. Occasional failures (i.e. malfunctioning) or total breakdown of machines especially those in the pressroom.

5. ! e power cut crisis popularly known as “DUM SO DUM SO” the country is facing is a" ecting the productivity of every business. ! e company has no stand by generator and such the causes delay in delivery of jobs.

However, e" ective planning takes control over work scheduling so that work is completed according to the plan put in place. ! ere were many occasions where the company started production without e" ective planning simply because the company’s newly contracted jobs were apparently similar to other old ones it had


executed before and there are preferential to some clients. It will su% ce to say that the company has overlooked certain factors for consideration in production planning even though it has in-house supplies of many of the printing materials. In order to meet contracted deadlines, one aspect of planning production is scheduling of work e% ciently within the limitations of time, equipment, and human skills”

A careful re$ ection over the above-mentioned of the identi# ed causative factors of the inability of the company to meet deadlines gives clear indication of how the company is downplaying on on-time delivery.

(c) Cost Control:

Undoubtedly, the printer’s ability to control cost for the bene# t of the customer can be used to strategically achieve di" erentiation in an increasingly competitive market. By so doing, the printer is exceeding competitors’ o" ers in the printing market which has the tendency to easily commoditize if all printers are perceived to be o" ering the same bene# t. What was the picture like with Exorigin? ! e company has not consciously used cost control as part of its product o" erings to customers. ! e perception of the company’s management which was gathered by this research was that cost control may have dwindling e" ect on the company’s pro# t margin. An estimate must be made for each job before executing. A pro# t must be made and yet the estimate must be low to attract work in a very competitive market. Meeting this expectation, will go a long way to win new customers as well as retain existing customers. Customer loyalty will be strengthened; and a deepened relationship will be established. ! us cost should be estimated and made known to the client before they commerce with any work.

“Helping your customers and yourself to save money does not mean you must cut your price but you can look at ways in which the company and customer could cut the cost of acquiring a product, possessing and or using the product / service.”

ServicesSurprisingly, the idea of delivery of customer service to the customers of Exorigin was very remote to nearly 80% of its entire workforce. ! e sta" practiced customer service delivery, but did so unknowingly. ! is picture about the company hints about a fundamental problem. Perhaps, the picture would have been di" erent if the company’s customer is made to take the centre stage of a" airs


of the company. . As marketing keeps on evolving, the 7Ps can be translated into 7Cs. In the C perspective, therefore, product becomes customer; price becomes cost; place becomes convenience; promotion becomes communication; people becomes consideration; process becomes coordination; and physical evidence becomes con# rmation. According to Worsam (1999), the C approach helps a marketer to more correctly focus on what needs to be provided since customers value the bene# t to them. It is on this basis that the company was examined in the study on

• How the company is able to meet customer expectations.

• How the company delivers customer service.

In this way, companies poised to creating and sustaining competitive advantage must necessarily understand the expectations of customers. Below are some variables a customer uses in evaluating a company’s performance,

(a) Meeting customer Expectations:

E" ective communication facilitates the free $ ow of information to and from the customer

• Adherence to prepress and press standards

• Additional service (potential product bene# ts)

• Cost control bene# ts

• Demonstration of technical support, advice to customers who are novices

• Guarantee of quality

• Dependable schedules and work $ ows that meet contracted deadlines

• Provision of quotes and estimates based on speci# cations

• Zero tolerance for breach of contract terms.

Some of these variables have been tackled already by the Company doing well in meeting customer expectations? ! e company has both satis# ed and dissatis# ed customers but there were more satis# ed customers than dissatis# ed customers. ! e evidences gathered are presented below;

Third Year Internship Thesis

Documents