CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
This chapter explains the background to this study; states the problem that made the researcher decide to study the topic; poses research questions that will form the basis of the study; lists objective that the researchers hopes to achieve at the end of the study; explains the significance of the study to specific and general publics; provides the scope within which the study will reasonably be carried out; and gives operational definition of terms used. The chapter generally serves to bring light to the fundamentals and direction of the study.
1.2 Background to the study
An organization like fan milk plc, Ibadan focuses on its public relations /human resources department to help bridge the gap between the publics and the organization. Public relations helps the organization to know the public perception of both the organization and its product, and in the same vein, public relations helps the public to know what is going on in the organization. Public relations also provides information about the organization to staff and employees of the organization, so that they would be kept abreast of the activities in the organization.
Since the colonial administration, public relations practice in Nigeria has grown to become an integral part of the nations’ recognized professions. According to the British institute of public relations, “public relations is a deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its publics”.
However,(Duyile 2006 in Alero 2015) stated that “public relations has been used tremendously also in image making /building both in politics, government parastatals and in other sectors of human endeavor”. Though it was practiced in ancient time, public relations as an integral part of modern communication is comparatively new.
All organization be it commercial and marketing or profit and non-profit oriented entity, attempt to cultivate the interests of its publics. Through effective public relations management, people really understand what happen in the organization and the management also knows what the society needs.
In this study, public relations strategies is a crucial element that will be fully discussed and its effectiveness in a corporate organization. Fan milk plc, Ibadan has been chosen as the case study for the research in order to know the effectiveness of public relations strategies in this organization.
According to Rex Harlow in Public Relations Strategies and Tactics “public relations is a distinctive management function which helps establish and maintain mutual lines of communication, understanding, acceptance, and cooperation between an organization and its publics; involves the management of problems or issues; helps management keep informed on and responsive to public opinion; defines and emphasizes the responsibility of management to serve the public interest; helps management keep abreast of and effectively utilize change, serving as an early warning system to help anticipate trends; and uses research and sound ethical communication techniques as its principal tools.Public relations is the practice of managing the spread of information between an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a non-profit organization) and the public. Public relations may include an organization or individual gaining exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and new items that do not require direct payment.
The aim of public relations is to inform the public, prospective customers, investors, partners, employees and other stakeholders and ultimately persuade them to maintain a certain view about the organization, its products, its leadership, or political decision.
Two words closely associated with PR are image building and spin. In terms of image, the way a company, brand or person and this can be anyone from a celebrity to a corporate executive or political figure is portrayed in the media and perceived by the public as a strong determiner of popularity. Greater popularity can translate to increased product sales, greater company revenue, more fans, and even more votes. Spin is what happens when PR specialist emphasize information that put client into a more favorable light. For example when a company of person faces a reputation shaking crises it is the PR representative who strategizes what to write about the situation and where and when to share that message to make the client look as good as possible. Although most industry sources focus on the origin of public relations starting in the 19th century, the practice date back to the early days communication.
In 50B.C. Julius Caesar, wrote Caesar’s Gallic wars which may be the first ever campaign biography, to explain to the romans why he would be the best person to head the state. To this day, political candidates continue to write biographies and account of their military activities to promote themselves. Consequently he who moulds public sentiments goes deeper than he who enact statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed. The public relations professional works to educate the public, debunk myths and rumours, and alleviate fears. And ” the public” is no longer just one public, but rather many different groups, defined by age, ethnicity, interest and other characteristics. PR professionals have long debated the definition of public relations; many believe that people still think of PR as revolving solely around press releases, which is no longer the case. The PR industry plays an important role in helping companies and individual promote themselves, boost awareness (and sales) of product and services, and maintain their public reputation.
1.2.1 Brief History of Fan Milk Plc
Fan milk Nigeria plc was founded in 1960 by a Danish Merchant and Industrialist Erik Emborg with a recombination-plant at Ibadan, a distribution Centre in Lagos with less than 30 employees.
The plant produced fresh milk from imported milk powder. Initially, the product range was white milk, chocolate milk, and cottage cheese and set yoghurt. The main outlet was bicycle vendors supplied with cold product from a growing number of smaller depots.
In the 1970s fan milk introduced yoghurt drink, ice lollies, ice cream and new tetra pak packaging technology. The new product became very popular in the market and generated the financial strength to set up further depots and in 1981, a second recombination-plant in Kano came up. At the outset, the foreign partner owned 96 percent of fan milk plc. When the government introduced the Nigerian enterprise promotion decree in the late 1970s. Fan milk plc increased its capitals and invited more Nigerians to invest which created a 60 percent Nigerian participation in the company.
During the 1980s and 1990s, import restrictions, economic difficulties, devaluations and shortages of fuel weakened fan milk plc. In 1998 the foreign partner and the industrialization fund for developing countries (Denmark) agreed to an infusion of capital which let the company restructure finances, refurbish cold rooms, increase the number of depots and introduces a product, Tampico, a fruit drink which became an instant success in the market.
The expansion and rehabilitation programme returned fan milk plc to profitability. Fan milk has sister companies in Ghana, Senegal, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso and Code D’Ivoire. The headquarters of foreign partner, fan milk international is situated in Aalborg, Denmark.
Fan milk limited is a Ghanaian dairy retailer based in Accra. It has since begun operating in Benin, Togo and Burkina Faso. They are listed on the stock index of the Ghana Stock Exchange, the GSE all-share index. It was incorporated in 1960 and was previously known as a Ghanaian milk company. It took advantage of Danish investment in the early 1960s and initially specialized in pasteurized milk. However, in 1962, the company changed its name to fan milk limited, and branched out into the production of ice cream, yoghurt and ice lollies. The name has since become a household name in Ghana, and is a common sight to see ice cream carts and bicycles on beaches and the streets selling the brand.
Fan milk limited was the first foreign invested company in Ghana to become a public limited liability in 1967 and among the first companies to be listed on the Ghana stock exchange in 1990. As of 2003 it had over3,250 shareholders.
1.3 Statement of the Problem
Public relations is a major tool in any organization which could either make or mar an organization’s existence. As a result, it is imperative for industries to fine tune their public relations service in order to have a competitive edge in a dynamic and ever growing organization.
Scholars are of the opinion that public relations within an organization is often delayed due to bureaucracy and other barriers to effective communication. Interestingly public relations is an important component which cannot be under estimated in organization.
Therefore, the assessment of public relations strategies within an organization’s management shall be the focus of this research work.
This study thus seeks to investigate the various public relations strategies employed by fan milk in promoting their services and to ascertain the influence of such strategies towards enhancing patronage, retaining customers and enhancing profit.
1.4 Research Questions
This study seeks to answer the following research questions:
1. What are the dominant public relations strategies used at fan milk plc, Ibadan?
2. To what extent have the public relations strategies employed by fan milk plc, Ibadan elicited public’s loyalty and patronage?
3. What are the likely challenges experienced by fan milk plc, Ibadan as a result of engaging in public relations?
1.5 Objectives of the Study
The objectives of this study are the following:
1. To find out the dominant public relations strategies used by fan milk plc Ibadan.
2. To determine the extent to which the public relations strategies employed by fan milk elicit customer’s loyalty and patronage.
3. To determine the likely challenges experienced by fan milk plc Ibadan as a result of their engagement in public relations.
1.6 Significance of the study
This study is to examine how public relations strategies have helped the growth and patronage of fan milk products in Ibadan and thereby use it as a measure to check if these strategies have any negative or positive influence on potential customers. Furthermore, the findings of the study will enable public relations and advertising executives improve more on their public relations strategies in order to enhance proficiency and efficiency in services rendered.
1.7 Scope of the Study
There are quite a number of organizations in Nigeria. The researcher, however, due to time and financial constraints decided to choose fan milk plc, Ibadan. The study is aimed at examining public relations strategies of the organization for product promotion. The researcher choose fan milk plc, Ibadan because of its high number of employed staff and lots of products being produced. The researcher will carry out her field work in Ibadan. The researcher decided on this location because that is its head office (Headquarter) and this would help the researcher get better result.
1.8 Limitations of the Study
During the course of the study, the major challenge encountered by the researcher was that many of the respondents were mostly unwilling to provide answers to the questionnaire owing to their busy schedules.
1.9 Definition of Terms
Organization: A social unit of people that is structured and managed to meet the need or to pursue a collective goals. All organizations have a management structured that determines relationship between the different activities and the member, and sub divides and assigns roles, responsibilities, and authorities to carry out different task. Organizations are open systems they affect and are affected by their environment.
Publics: publics are groups of individual people. Publics are communities of people at large (whether or not organized as groups) that have a direct or indirect association with an organization; customers, employees, investors, media, student etc.
Publics is pertaining to state, nation or whole community; proceeding from, relating to or affecting the whole body of people or an entire community.
Company: a voluntary association formed and organized to carry on a business. Types of companies include sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability, corporation and public limited company.
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
This chapter explains the background to this study; states the problem that made the researcher decide to study the topic; poses research questions that will form the basis of the study; lists objective that the researchers hopes to achieve at the end of the study; explains the significance of the study to specific and general publics; provides the scope within which the study will reasonably be carried out; and gives operational definition of terms used. The chapter generally serves to bring light to the fundamentals and direction of the study.
1.2 Background to the study
An organization like fan milk plc, Ibadan focuses on its public relations /human resources department to help bridge the gap between the publics and the organization. Public relations helps the organization to know the public perception of both the organization and its product, and in the same vein, public relations helps the public to know what is going on in the organization. Public relations also provides information about the organization to staff and employees of the organization, so that they would be kept abreast of the activities in the organization.
Since the colonial administration, public relations practice in Nigeria has grown to become an integral part of the nations’ recognized professions. According to the British institute of public relations, “public relations is a deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its publics”.
However,(Duyile 2006 in Alero 2015) stated that “public relations has been used tremendously also in image making /building both in politics, government parastatals and in other sectors of human endeavor”. Though it was practiced in ancient time, public relations as an integral part of modern communication is comparatively new.
All organization be it commercial and marketing or profit and non-profit oriented entity, attempt to cultivate the interests of its publics. Through effective public relations management, people really understand what happen in the organization and the management also knows what the society needs.
In this study, public relations strategies is a crucial element that will be fully discussed and its effectiveness in a corporate organization. Fan milk plc, Ibadan has been chosen as the case study for the research in order to know the effectiveness of public relations strategies in this organization.
According to Rex Harlow in Public Relations Strategies and Tactics “public relations is a distinctive management function which helps establish and maintain mutual lines of communication, understanding, acceptance, and cooperation between an organization and its publics; involves the management of problems or issues; helps management keep informed on and responsive to public opinion; defines and emphasizes the responsibility of management to serve the public interest; helps management keep abreast of and effectively utilize change, serving as an early warning system to help anticipate trends; and uses research and sound ethical communication techniques as its principal tools.Public relations is the practice of managing the spread of information between an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a non-profit organization) and the public. Public relations may include an organization or individual gaining exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and new items that do not require direct payment.
The aim of public relations is to inform the public, prospective customers, investors, partners, employees and other stakeholders and ultimately persuade them to maintain a certain view about the organization, its products, its leadership, or political decision.
Two words closely associated with PR are image building and spin. In terms of image, the way a company, brand or person and this can be anyone from a celebrity to a corporate executive or political figure is portrayed in the media and perceived by the public as a strong determiner of popularity. Greater popularity can translate to increased product sales, greater company revenue, more fans, and even more votes. Spin is what happens when PR specialist emphasize information that put client into a more favorable light. For example when a company of person faces a reputation shaking crises it is the PR representative who strategizes what to write about the situation and where and when to share that message to make the client look as good as possible. Although most industry sources focus on the origin of public relations starting in the 19th century, the practice date back to the early days communication.
In 50B.C. Julius Caesar, wrote Caesar’s Gallic wars which may be the first ever campaign biography, to explain to the romans why he would be the best person to head the state. To this day, political candidates continue to write biographies and account of their military activities to promote themselves. Consequently he who moulds public sentiments goes deeper than he who enact statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed. The public relations professional works to educate the public, debunk myths and rumours, and alleviate fears. And ” the public” is no longer just one public, but rather many different groups, defined by age, ethnicity, interest and other characteristics. PR professionals have long debated the definition of public relations; many believe that people still think of PR as revolving solely around press releases, which is no longer the case. The PR industry plays an important role in helping companies and individual promote themselves, boost awareness (and sales) of product and services, and maintain their public reputation.
1.2.1 Brief History of Fan Milk Plc
Fan milk Nigeria plc was founded in 1960 by a Danish Merchant and Industrialist Erik Emborg with a recombination-plant at Ibadan, a distribution Centre in Lagos with less than 30 employees.
The plant produced fresh milk from imported milk powder. Initially, the product range was white milk, chocolate milk, and cottage cheese and set yoghurt. The main outlet was bicycle vendors supplied with cold product from a growing number of smaller depots.
In the 1970s fan milk introduced yoghurt drink, ice lollies, ice cream and new tetra pak packaging technology. The new product became very popular in the market and generated the financial strength to set up further depots and in 1981, a second recombination-plant in Kano came up. At the outset, the foreign partner owned 96 percent of fan milk plc. When the government introduced the Nigerian enterprise promotion decree in the late 1970s. Fan milk plc increased its capitals and invited more Nigerians to invest which created a 60 percent Nigerian participation in the company.
During the 1980s and 1990s, import restrictions, economic difficulties, devaluations and shortages of fuel weakened fan milk plc. In 1998 the foreign partner and the industrialization fund for developing countries (Denmark) agreed to an infusion of capital which let the company restructure finances, refurbish cold rooms, increase the number of depots and introduces a product, Tampico, a fruit drink which became an instant success in the market.
The expansion and rehabilitation programme returned fan milk plc to profitability. Fan milk has sister companies in Ghana, Senegal, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso and Code D’Ivoire. The headquarters of foreign partner, fan milk international is situated in Aalborg, Denmark.
Fan milk limited is a Ghanaian dairy retailer based in Accra. It has since begun operating in Benin, Togo and Burkina Faso. They are listed on the stock index of the Ghana Stock Exchange, the GSE all-share index. It was incorporated in 1960 and was previously known as a Ghanaian milk company. It took advantage of Danish investment in the early 1960s and initially specialized in pasteurized milk. However, in 1962, the company changed its name to fan milk limited, and branched out into the production of ice cream, yoghurt and ice lollies. The name has since become a household name in Ghana, and is a common sight to see ice cream carts and bicycles on beaches and the streets selling the brand.
Fan milk limited was the first foreign invested company in Ghana to become a public limited liability in 1967 and among the first companies to be listed on the Ghana stock exchange in 1990. As of 2003 it had over3,250 shareholders.
1.3 Statement of the Problem
Public relations is a major tool in any organization which could either make or mar an organization’s existence. As a result, it is imperative for industries to fine tune their public relations service in order to have a competitive edge in a dynamic and ever growing organization.
Scholars are of the opinion that public relations within an organization is often delayed due to bureaucracy and other barriers to effective communication. Interestingly public relations is an important component which cannot be under estimated in organization.
Therefore, the assessment of public relations strategies within an organization’s management shall be the focus of this research work.
This study thus seeks to investigate the various public relations strategies employed by fan milk in promoting their services and to ascertain the influence of such strategies towards enhancing patronage, retaining customers and enhancing profit.
1.4 Research Questions
This study seeks to answer the following research questions:
1. What are the dominant public relations strategies used at fan milk plc, Ibadan?
2. To what extent have the public relations strategies employed by fan milk plc, Ibadan elicited public’s loyalty and patronage?
3. What are the likely challenges experienced by fan milk plc, Ibadan as a result of engaging in public relations?
1.5 Objectives of the Study
The objectives of this study are the following:
1. To find out the dominant public relations strategies used by fan milk plc Ibadan.
2. To determine the extent to which the public relations strategies employed by fan milk elicit customer’s loyalty and patronage.
3. To determine the likely challenges experienced by fan milk plc Ibadan as a result of their engagement in public relations.
1.6 Significance of the study
This study is to examine how public relations strategies have helped the growth and patronage of fan milk products in Ibadan and thereby use it as a measure to check if these strategies have any negative or positive influence on potential customers. Furthermore, the findings of the study will enable public relations and advertising executives improve more on their public relations strategies in order to enhance proficiency and efficiency in services rendered.
1.7 Scope of the Study
There are quite a number of organizations in Nigeria. The researcher, however, due to time and financial constraints decided to choose fan milk plc, Ibadan. The study is aimed at examining public relations strategies of the organization for product promotion. The researcher choose fan milk plc, Ibadan because of its high number of employed staff and lots of products being produced. The researcher will carry out her field work in Ibadan. The researcher decided on this location because that is its head office (Headquarter) and this would help the researcher get better result.
1.8 Limitations of the Study
During the course of the study, the major challenge encountered by the researcher was that many of the respondents were mostly unwilling to provide answers to the questionnaire owing to their busy schedules.
1.9 Definition of Terms
Organization: A social unit of people that is structured and managed to meet the need or to pursue a collective goals. All organizations have a management structured that determines relationship between the different activities and the member, and sub divides and assigns roles, responsibilities, and authorities to carry out different task. Organizations are open systems they affect and are affected by their environment.
Publics: publics are groups of individual people. Publics are communities of people at large (whether or not organized as groups) that have a direct or indirect association with an organization; customers, employees, investors, media, student etc.
Publics is pertaining to state, nation or whole community; proceeding from, relating to or affecting the whole body of people or an entire community.
Company: a voluntary association formed and organized to carry on a business. Types of companies include sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability, corporation and public limited company.
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