CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.   BACKGROND OF THE STUDY

Survival  strategy  involves the development of a well articulated marketing plan for successful introduction of the product into the market. This is not static and would most probably under go refinement and modification in subsequent stages.

The marketing strategy deals with the  marketing mix coordination that would be used, the market and the marketing budget.

1. The first section should describe the market size structure, behaviour and the company’s intended share of the market. It should also describe product positioning and the possible project consequent on that.
2. The second part will develop deeper into the marketing mix component, the planned product quality which follows from the first, the planned price, distribution  and production strategy. This section should also include the marketing budget needed to carry out the strategy
3. The third  section is a fallout from the previous two it describes the long run sales and profit goals  based on  the first two section.       

This is the process that continues through  development stage as new information is accumulated about the product and the market.

          Several analytical  tools are available to firms  technique risk  analysis and bays tan  decision theory. The key to whether a product should be developed is whether it will find   easily  to sufficient  market acceptance to return a satisfactory project to  its firm what are the expected minimum to maximum sales help determining risk involved.

          The models for estimating sales adopted by managers differs depending on whether they  are designed to estimate the sales of one turn purchased  products.  On  infriquenting purchased product ( koltered 210) .

          No matter what type of production the first task is to estimate first time purchasers may techniques are available for doing this , the method used depending on the estimate of the each period. The factors like a price etc which affect penetration are considered. product. One method is to just estimate the market potential and then the rate market penetration for

The company has to guess at the survival age distribution of the product, the lower end of the age distribution will indicate when the first replacement sales will take place. Several other factors influence replacement decision, the purchases discretion of the buyers. Small products desire that repeat purchase be estimated means sometime as first time seller. The company should try to estimate what happen in each repeat purchase ratio is likely to rise or fall.

Estimating sales is not the business analysis. Cost of subsequent product need to be estimated at the same time as sales, as it is in the nature of promotional expenditures to influence both sales of cost simultaneously we need to consider sales to cost against alternative marketing progress to determine the most favourable choice.

There a number of strategies a small scale outlet can choose. The first  is market retention which is established market through market development strategy which is when a firms concentration on market development growth sector/ tailored to the needs of new business in existing market.

However, the risk  involved are greater than the first two strategies described above .but well managed companies with a good track record will usually be adopting this strategy in the fulfillment of corporate objective for growth and improved profitability.  

          These components provide us the idea of the opportunity set for a company and how the company can perform its activities In the environment in order to achieve its object.

          The small scale can pursue more product line consistency or less,  depending on whether it want to acquire a strong reputation in a single field or participate in several fields. According to N.G.NWOKOYE, he suggested two alternative strategies which may in the degree of product assortment for planning the products .to offer customs product differentiation strategy (a limited line strategy)  

           Product differentiation refers to when a marketer attempts or a very narrow product line which he attempts to differentiate psychologically in the eyes of various consumer segment through advertising and sales production-example, a small-scale retail is one super market in New Heaven.

A super market and originally been defined as a complete departmentalized goods store with minimum sales volume of one million dollars a year and at  least the grocery department fully self service. In addition to the above definition, super market place heavy emphasis on price. As such, at least in the past, they offered minimum customer service.

Present day supermarkets differ a while, variety of merchandise as they aim towards a one stop shopping service to the consumer. Supermarket are departmentalized retail establishments but unlike department store, the department are organized on one large floor space.

The operating advantages of super markets are low operating cost as a result of minimum investment on fixtures and fittings, self service and the operating strategy of  low  margin but high turnover and mass display of merchandise. The result is low prices  to the customers. Super markets may not appeal to service desiring  customers but they do a very good job with the economy consumers who constitutes their target market.

1.2     OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

This study seeks to generate empirical knowledge about the survival strategies adopted by small scale retail outlets in Nigeria specifically the study as aimed at identifying the following

1. The major problems that pose a threat to the survival of small scale firms in Nigeria.
2. The product market scope of  small retail outlets.
3. The growth sector of small scale retail outlets.
4. To identify the types of incentive adopted by these outlets.
5. The effect produced by location of stores.
6. To intimate the owners of the small scale outlets to the use of discount, product line and diversification.