MARKET ASSESSMENT OF PROCTER AND GAMBLE COMPANY PRODUCTS ON NIGERIAN CAMPUSES: AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA AS A CASE STUDY.

MARKET ASSESSMENT OF PROCTER AND GAMBLE COMPANY PRODUCTS ON NIGERIAN CAMPUSES: AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA AS A CASE STUDY.
A PAPER WRITTEN BY OCHE ADOYI, CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA,adoyi_oche@yahoo.com, DECEMBER, 2008.
INTRODUCTION
Procter and Gambles Company (P&G) was founded by James Gamble and William Procter with the support of their wives, the Norris sisters in 1837. What began as a small, family-operated Soap and Candle Company now provides products and services of superior quality and value to consumers in over 180 countries. P&G has one of the largest portfolios with about 300 trusted brands such as Pampers, Tide, Ariel, Always, Vicks, Duracell, Pantene, Bounty, Pringles, Charmin, Downy, Iams, Crest, Actonel, Olay, Gillette etc. The company consists of over 138,000 employees working in over 80 countries worldwide with the focus of improving the lives of its consumers. Globally, P&G stands out as one of the best brands because of it superior marketing structure.
Growth of every business company is a direct function of its marketing strength. Market assessment research is a vital part of marketing that help you look further afield and sell your existing products to some new market or find a new product to offer your existing customers or review your existing markets from where you may be able to sell more to current customers. Market assessment research should be conduct as frequent as possible especially in a dynamic market such as that of Nigeria.
The campus is a unique community of mainly youth within a school environment for the sole aim of tertiary learning. This uniqueness is also manifested in its market system. The Nigerian campuses are one of the largest consumers of consumables such as soaps, deodorants, batteries, cosmetics, skin and hair cares etc. This market requires careful assessment as to come up with strategies to improve and remain leader in meeting the needs of this ever growing community.
Scope of work:
Ø The market assessment was carried out for six products; Vicks throat drop, Duracell batteries, Gillette shavings, Olay skin cares, Always pad, Ariel washing detergent.
Ø Mass media assessment was done for local radio FMs, Billboard and posters, newspapers, local TV station, foreign TV channels, campus shows, Internet in appendix.
Ø Both assessments were done by giving out 100 questionnaires to students in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria Main campus at random covering over nine faculties on 9th- 10th demcember, 2008.

Aims of the work:
Ø To evaluate market share of the six P&G products in the campus market.
Ø To make a forecast of the market for the year 2009.
Ø To determine the most effective way to reach out to students about P&G and P&G products for market expansion.

METHODOLOGY
· Based on the aims of the work, the questionnaire as shown in appendix was complied. It consists of introduction, personal data for monitoring randomness of sampling and then data requirement questions.
· Three (3) to six (6) questionnaires were given at a time in about twelve faculty premises and lecture halls, two male hostels, two female hostels and seven social centre spots and relaxation areas all within ABU Zaria Main Campus on 9th-10th December, 2008.
· Data were collected from the filled questionnaires using the tally system. Two stocks for always, one stock for sometimes and no stock for never. The stocks (points) were taken to be equivalent to consumption rates.

ANALYSIS OF DATA
Data collected from the questionnaires was presented in numerical form by scoring the responses given as shown below:
Always 2 points sometimes 1 point never 0 point
Also, consumption rate was taken to be equivalent to scores. So calculation of consumption rate (in unit of points) was done from questionnaire and data presented in tables 1 to 3.
I. Market Share Evaluation for some P&G Products
Assumption: All products are basic needs to the consumers, that is every student either consumes the P&G product or a competitor’s product.
For product to have 100% market share, every person that filled questionnaire must always consume the product for a unisex product. The consumption rate for 100% market share is given by; 2 points x 100 = 200 points.
Where 38 females filled the questionnaires and always = 2 points,
Then for feminine product(always pad), consumption rate for 100% market share
= 2 points x 38= 76points.
Gillette was considered a unisex product because women shave some body parts.
Table 1: P&G products, their consumption rates, consumption rates for 100% market share and %market shares.
products
Consumption rate(points),Ci
Consumption rate for100% market share(points),CT
%market share =
Ci x 100%
CT
always
67
76
88.2
Ariel
145
200
72.5
Duracell
80
200
40
Gillette
59
200
29.5
Olay
39
200
19.5
Vicks
78
200
39

Product
Fig 2: Graph comparing market share of some P&G products in ABU Zaria.



II. Sales forecast for year 2009 for some P&G products.
Table 3: P&G Products, their 2008 consumption rates, forecasted 2009 consumption rates and %increases in consumption from 2008 to 2009.
products
2008 Consumption rate(points)[C08]
2009 Consumption rate(points)[C09]
%increase in consumption = C09-C08 x 100%
C08
Always
67
66
- 0.015
Ariel
145
148
1.4
Duracell
80
110
37.5
Gillette
59
81
37.3
Olay
39
75
92.3
Vicks
78
97
24.4


2008
Figure 3: Graph of consumption rate for year 2008 and forecasted consumption rate 2009 for some P&G products in ABU Zaria.

DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

i. Market Share Evaluation for some P&G Products
Ariel and Always had very good %market share with 72.5% and 88.2% respectively. The Vicks and Duracell had fair share with 39% and 40% respectively. Gillette and Olay had poor %market share with 29.5% and 19.5%.
Note that when a product is said to have 100% market share, it mean everyone uses that product only and no one uses competitor’s products(products in the market that serves the same purpose). This is every company’s target that can only closely be achieved. So %market share show product acceptability in the market assuming it is as available in the market as other competitor’s products. Since number of competitors grows day by day, the %market share should always be checked to guide against falls.
ii. Sales forecast for year 2009.
Olay had the best market forecast with an increment in consumption of 92.3% from year 2008 to 2009. It is followed by Vicks, Gillette and Duracell with increment of 24.4%, 37.3% and 37.5% respectively. Always and Ariel had very low increment of - 0.015% and 1.4% respectively.
Forecast by questioning consumers is based on intention of the consumers. This does not give actual forecast but a forecast that can be work towards. Questions need to be asked. What generated this will to consume more? How can this will to consume more be translated into actual buying? In our case, the association of high consumption rate products and low consumption rate products has caused the high forecast for low consumption rate products. All the respondents didn’t know that the six products are P&G products. So knowing that the Olay product they don’t used is made by same company as high quality Ariel which they are used to, encourages them to want to use Olay.
CONCLUSION
From the market survey done on 9th-10th December, 2008 in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria for the six P&G products, students are one of the highest consumers of P&G products with an average consumption of 3 to 4 products consumed out of 6 products. As shown in figure 1, Ariel and always ranked higher in %market share than the other P&G product, the two at the bottom were Gillette and Olay. From figure 2, the market forecast by intention for 2009 showed a good market prospect for Vicks, Olay, Gillette and Duracell while Ariel and Always had poor forecasted increment in consumption rate from 2008 to 2009.


RECOMMENDATIONS
All P&G products should be re-branded in such a way that they carry a unique and easily spotted P&G symbol. This will lead to well-known and trusted products marketing others not well-known to the customer.
For products with low consumption rate but high market prospect, promotions should be carried out for them.
This survey should be conducted in higher institutions nationwide taking polytechnics, colleges of education and universities into consideration. I would recommend, at least an institution per state.
The scope of the questionnaire should be extended to acquire other information on the nature of demand of the customer, the future need of the consumer (if a new product is required), acceptability of packaging and branding etc.
Other analysis such as determination relationship between religion, gender and the product consumption rates should be carried out.
P&G should encourage students and those in academic line to embark on producing similar paper or other forms of works such as articles and projects.
Acknowledgement
The inspiration to do this work came from the P&G career talk in my school (ABU Zaria). The speaker said that we could achieve beyond our course of study. Exploration of my mind beyond my course of study has given birth to this work and more to come. A very big thanks to P&G. I also appreciate every student that took out their precious time to fill in the questionnaires.
APPENDIX
Appendix A
QUESTIONNAIRE
This questionnaire is a per-requisite to a paper of which I’m writing. The paper is titled ‘MARKET ASSESSMENT OF PROCTER AND GAMBLE COMPANY PRODUCTS ON NIGERIAN CAMPUSES: AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA AS A CASE STUDY’. I urge you to fill this questionnaire with a free mind and all honesty. Thank you for your co-operation.


Please, tick the option in the boxes that applies to you;
Faculty: Engineering Education sciences social sciences Arts environmental sciences medicine Pharmacy others
Age: below 20 20-25 25-30 above 30
Sex: male female
Religion; Christianity Islam others
Monthly allowance/income: below #5000 #5000-#20,000 # 20,000-#50,000 above #50,000
Tick any 3(three) media that most inform you about products in the market.
Local radio FMs
Billboard and posters
Newspapers
Local TV station
Foreign TV channels
Campus shows
Internet
The following products are Procter and Gamble company products, tick how frequent you have used or consumed these products:
Products frequency of use or consumption
Vicks throat drop always sometimes never
Duracell batteries always sometimes never
Gillette shavings always sometimes never
Olay skin cares always sometimes never
Always pad always sometimes never
Ariel washing detergent always sometimes never
Did you know before now that all the products above are products of Procter and Gamble Company?
Yes no

Coming 2009, how would you like to use these products?
Products frequency of use or consumption
Vicks throat drop always sometimes never
Duracell batteries always sometimes never
Gillette shavings always sometimes never
Olay skin cares always sometimes never
Always pad always sometimes never
Ariel washing detergent always sometimes never
What are your comments about the products above?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Appendix B
Comparison of sources of information as available to student:
Table1: Sources of information and their corresponding consumption rate.
Sources of information
Consumption rate(points)
local radio FMs
53
Billboard and posters
45
newspapers
57
local TV station
52
foreign TV channels
29
campus shows
6
Internet
21


Figure 1: Graph comparing extent to which students have accesses to some sources of information available to them in ABU Zaria.
From figure 1, the three best means of reaching out to students in term of adverts are local radio FMs, newspapers and local TV stations with points all above 50. They are closely followed by billboard and posters with 45 points. These four media are most easily accessed by students. Least of all is campus shows with 6 points.
The low points for campus show can be explained by the fact that ABU Zaria has for quiet sometime not been very supportive in terms of social activities. So the value may be better in other institutions. But generally, factors such as low capacity of show centres, and lack of zeal of students to attend shows are limiting factors to campus shows as means of promotion. The internet and foreign TV channels are not within students reach.
Focus should for now remain on the traditional means of mass media; radio FMs, newspapers and local TV stations for advertisement purpose.