Abstract:
In today’s global market characterized by fierce competition, high
dynamism, and high volatility, organizations are trying their best to find the
most efficient way to get their message to customers. Integrated marketing has
thus become the strategic approach used to coordinate the various activities of
marketing communication. The study was conducted to analyze customers’
perception about integrated marketing communication activities at SBC
Beverages Limited. The descriptive design was employed for the study. The
target population for the study included customers of SBC Beverages Ltd. The
simple random sampling method was used to select 195 respondents.
Questionnaire was the main data collection instrument for the study. It was
found that customers were aware of integrated marketing communication
activities (advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and public relations). It
was also found that customer perception of integrated marketing
communication was slightly good. It was further revealed that the there was a
positive relationship between integrated marketing and consumer behaviour and
decisions. Finally, the model summary showed that Integrated marketing
(Public Relations, Advertising, Personal Selling, and Sales Promotion) explains
41.3% per cent of the variance in predicting the dependent variable (Consumer
Buying Behaviour and Decisions). It was therefore concluded that integrated
marketing communication activities has an influence on consumer behaviour
and decisions. The study therefore recommended that the company engage in
constant marketing research (say monthly, quarterly, semi-annually) geared
towards understanding consumer behaviour, especially their perception in
relation to integrated marketing communication.
