MA International Business and Management

 

 

 

EVALUATING MTN MARKETING STRATEGIES IN NIGERIA

By

[Name of Instructor]

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to avail this opportunity for thanking my research instructor, family and friends, for their immense support throughout the completion of this research report. I would also like to thank these people for the profound guidance they provided, without which, I would have never been able to achieve the desired results for this research.

DECLARATION

I, (Your name), would like to declare that all issues discussed in this dissertation reflects my individual work, without any assistance. The contents of this dissertation have not been submitted before for any examination at academic, as well as, professional level earlier. Through this dissertation, I only reflect upon my personal views, which cannot be essentially associated with my institution.

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ABSTRACT

The paper aimed to assess the marketing strategies of MTN Nigeria. However, other objectives of the study are to examine MTN Nigeria's internal and external environment, the various competitive strategies adopted by MTN Nigeria, to identify various competitive strategies adopted by MTN and to investigate the core competences of MTN Nigeria to determine their position in the Nigeria Telecom market. The research also focused on the theories of marketing strategies and Nigeria Telecom industry. The research comprises of primary, as well as secondary research, in which, the secondary research is conducted by reviewing literature from various online resources and books and conducting interviews with the subscribers of MTN Nigeria. Further, the primary research is performed by conducting an email/questionnaire survey of the people living in Nigeria and using telecommunication services of Nigeria.

Keywords:

MTN Nigeria, Competitive Advantage, Nigeria Telecom, Marketing Strategies, Market changes, Consumer Satisfaction, Capability and Core Competence.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTII

DECLARATIONIII

ABSTRACTIV

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION7

1.1Background of the Paper7

1.2MTN Nigeria8

1.3Purpose of the Paper10

1.4Rationale of the Study10

1.5Objectives of the Paper11

1.6Research Question12

1.7Dissertation Structure12

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW14

2.1Marketing Strategy14

2.2Sales Promotion16

2.3Service Quality17

2.4Customer Loyalty18

2.5Customer Satisfaction19

2.6Competitive Strategy20

2.7Nigeria Telecom Industry22

2.8MTN's Position in the Market23

2.9Marketing Mix24

2.91Product Strategy25

2.92Price Strategy25

2.93Place (Location) Strategy26

2.94Promotion Strategy26

2.10Marketing Strategy and Organisational Goals27

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY28

3.1Research design28

3.2Mixed Methodology28

3.3Rationale for Mixed Methodology30

3.4Data Collection30

3.5Assessment tool31

3.6Study duration32

3.7Statistical analysis32

3.8Resources and costs for the study32

3.9Confidentiality32

CHAPTER4 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS33

4. 1Findings33

4. 2Surfacing Themes33

4. 3Survey Analysis and Interpretation35

4. 4Interview Questions and Analysis41

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION46

REFERENCES49

APPENDICES54

Appendix 1: Questionnaire54

Appendix 2: Interview56

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

Background of the Paper

Nigeria is located on south of the Sahara desert on the Gulf of Guinea in western Africa, and in the north of equator (Afigbo; Ali & Muegge, 2007, pp. 312-317). Nigeria is also considered as the most densely inhabited region in Africa with an estimated population of 167 million people in 2011 (UNCP&D, 2012, pp.1). The major industries in Nigeria are agriculture and petroleum that contribute towards 40% and 25% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), respectively (The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2007, pp. n.d). After observing three decades of political instability and military rules, the democratic elections were reverted in 1999. Nigeria gained independence from British in 1960, and during that time, Nigeria possessed 18,724 lines in telephone infrastructure to serve a population of approximately 40 million people (Ndukwe, 2000, pp. n.d). However, even after substantial investment in the telecommunication services ...