Abstract:
The major purpose of this study was to examine the utilization of integrated marketing communications as a marketing strategy by manufacturing companies operating in Cross River State. Five research questions were answered and three hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance. The population for the study consisted of 129 advertising, sales and marketing managers of manufacturing companies registered with the Cross River State Ministry of Industry and Commerce. The entire population was used for the study. A survey research design was adopted for the study. Structured questionnaire was used to generate data for the study. The instrument was subjected to face validity by five experts, three from the University of Nigeria Nsukka and two from the University of Calabar, Calabar. A sample of 30 managers of equivalent companies was randomly drawn from Uyo, Akwa Ibom State for the reliability test. Cronbach Alpha reliability test was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument and this yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.69. The instrument was then administered on the population and 127 copies were duly completed and used for data analysis. Mean and standard deviation were used respectively to analyse the research questions, while one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the hypotheses. The major findings of the study were (1) manufacturing companies in Cross River State were in agreement with almost all the identified IMC objectives in the state as their IMC objectives. (2) Manufacturing companies in Cross River State agreed with seven different combinations of IMC tools as being currently utilized but disagreed with the use of any of the tools in isolation as a marketing strategy (3) Thirteen factors were identified as encouraging IMC utilization in Cross River State. (4) There were thirteen perceived benefits of IMC utilization by manufacturing companies in Cross River State. (5) Nine factors were identified as militating against the achievement of IMC objectives, while eight were identified as non-militating factors. (6) There were no significant differences in the mean responses of advertising, sales and marketing managers on the factors that encourage the IMC utilization. (7) There were no significant differences in the mean responses of managers on the perceived benefits of IMC utilization, (8) there were no significant differences in the mean responses of managers on the factors that militate against the achievement of IMC objectives. It was recommended that (i) manufacturing companies should adopt proper combination of IMC tools as their marketing strategy, and (2) Workshops should be organized to enlighten the manufacturers about IMC utilization as a marketing strategy.
