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International Journal of Business Systems and Economics
ISSN: 2360-9923, Volume 13, Issue 5, (January, 2022) pages 01 - 17
www.arcnjournals.org
International Journal of Business Systems & Economics

Sales Promotion and Brand Performance of Pharmaceutical

Companies in South-South, Nigeria
Goodie-Okio Jennifer A. (Ph.D)
Department of Marketing, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Rumuolumeni, Port |
Harcourt, Nigeria | [email protected]

Abstract: This study investigated sales promotion and brand performance of pharmaceutical companies
in South-South, Nigeria. Data for the study was gathered from 54 respondents using structured
questionnaire. The hypotheses were tested using Spearman’s Rank Order of correlation. The findings
revealed a significant association between the variables of the study. Derived from the findings, the study
concludes that, there is a significant and positive association between sales promotion and brand
performance. Also, a significant and positive association exits between sales promotion and measures of
brand performance. Based on that, the study recommends that, pharmaceutical companies should adopt
sales promotion to improve brand performance measured through brand awareness, brand preference
and brand reputation.

Keywords: Sales Promotion, Brand Performance, Brand Awareness, Brand Preference, Brand
Reputation

INTRODUCTION
Achumba (2002) defined sales promotion as “those marketing activities other than personal
selling, advertising and publicity, which stimulate consumer purchasing and dealer effectiveness,
such as display, shows and exposition, demonstrations and various nonrecurring selling efforts
not in the ordinary routine”. It is “the marketing practice of temporarily offering better value
for money (Osunbiyi, 1991). It is regarded as a non-routine miscellaneous selling strategy not
grouped as advertising or personal selling, and tactically designed to achieve short term goals, in
limited area sometimes or via specific outlets. Egan (2007) insisted that sales promotion was
designed to make people act. By its very nature, it’s an ‘urgency’ tool made to encourage
customers to take action immediately before it is too late. It plays the role of ‘acceleration’ being
patterned to increase the number of sales by influencing the decision-making process directly as
well as the ‘speed of decision’. In other words, it is “the array of short-term promotional
techniques that marketers use to stimulate an immediate purchase” (Blanchard et al, 1999).
Sales promotion techniques should be capable of inducing multiple purchases since the plan is to
make customers view it as ‘once in a long while opportunity’.
According to Gupta and Zeithamlm (2006), the fortunes of a firm rely on how well its brands
perform in the marketplace as this is a priority to the attainment of marketing goals. An optimal
brand performance begins with effectively exposing the brand to a target audience, so that
required engagement can be created in the long run. According to Yasin and Ozen (2016),

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despite the increasing level of health-related information available on the internet, it still appears
that many health care consumers need assistance in understanding product information as
consumers are seen to be confused and sometimes afraid when presented with drugs that are
unpopular and yet to be experienced. Delorme (2017) claimed that though TV, radio, newspaper,
product leaflets, and in store adverts help consumers in gaining product information, it has
limited impact on pharmaceutical brand choices and level of exposure. That notwithstanding,
studies have shown how sales promotion is improving brand performance if properly applied.
This however, has not ruled out the evidence of poorly performed pharmaceutical companies
despite having some of these firms engaging the strategy. This could be a failure that is hinged
on treading on the wrong part in creating and disseminating buzz campaigns into online
networks. The prevalent low performance may also not be unconnected with firm’s inability to
inculcate sales promotion in their marketing plan. These assumptions are based on the conviction
that sales promotion “includes communication activities between the producer of goods and
services, and the end users (consumers) that provide extra value or incentives to ultimate
consumers, wholesalers, retailers and other organizational customers” (Stephen, et al., 2017). It
is “an initiative undertaken by companies to help promote a product and increase its sales and
usage beyond the normal flow of sales”. Oyedapo, et al., 2012) recognized sales promotion
activities as a vital tool in marketing campaigns that helps companies achieve their set goals. The
“primary purpose of any company is to increase profit, market shares, and also to take the lead in
the marketplace” (Okoli, 2011).
The pharmaceutical industry is seen to be different from other markets (Kay, 2017), and current
societal challenges play a major role in this. As life expectancy increases by the day, people now
pay more attention to their health as more is seen to be spent on medication than before. This has
placed the pharmaceutical industry under pressure (Moschis & Friend, 2018). Being Africa’s
largest consumer market, Nigeria is seen as the next frontier for pharma after South Africa
(Tania, et al 2017). In the midst of the economic downturn that has cast a different light on the
prospects of the pharmaceutical industry, Nigeria still offers an attractive opportunity for firms
that have realistic expectations together with the ability to tailor creative strategies in the local
context that suits patient’s journeys.
However, the economic setbacks and the sensitive nature of consumers have made some firms in
the industry wonder if robust growth is still attainable. This comes as a result of the low
patronage experienced by some firms in the industry. In 2019, Ogundipe and Obinna’s report in
the Vanguard Newspaper indicates that most pharmaceutical companies are not successful today
because of customer’s preference on foreign-made drugs over locally made ones. In the report,
Pharmatex Company explained how the low performance by brands in the pharmaceutical
industry in Nigeria is described as a big threat to the survival of the industry. Based on the
foregoing, the study examined the association between sales promotion and brand performance
of pharmaceutical companies in South-South, Nigeria.

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LITERATURE REVIEW
Theoretical Foundation
This study is based on Viral Loop Marketing Theory. This theory was developed by Adam
Penenberg in 2008, it describes the way cultural products or networks are led to popularity.
According to Lane (2017), viral loop marketing theory is a theory that explains how users of a
product are its primary marketers. It reveals how a brand’s loyal customers spread its messages
via continued usage of the brand and incite close associates to also use it. Viral loops are
included in companies marketing strategies when their desire is to get their marketing messages
to consumers with minimal cost. In most cases, viral loops are considered by small to medium
sized businesses because of their significantly smaller budgets compared to bigger businesses
(Hassan, 2017). This will help them minimize the amount they spend on advertising, and focus
on offering outstanding products instead. Outstanding brands should be the focus because the
better the quality of the experience of the users, the quicker and larger the loop spreads. The
benefits associated with using viral loops are mainly gotten out of its low cost – high spread
factor, which exposes a large audience to a company’s marketing message. With this, using viral
expansion loops are seen to be convenient ways of handling the struggles marketers go through
when picking out the elements of content they expect to go viral. The most vital part of the Viral
Loop marketing theory is the creation of viral expansion loops. These loops are in three
categories; User Actions, Notifications and Conversion, they are dependent on their users
disseminating these marketing message to their own network.
The first category hangs on the action a customer takes in buying marketed product. Going
further, notifications are then sent to other possible customers which can either be synthetic (the
company’s automated posts), or organic (customers making a post about a brand, or tagging their
friends in a post about the brand). After notifications, most potential customers get to try out the
product and become converted. If enough conversions are not generated, there is usually a halt in
the spread of the marketing message. Penenberg (2016) opined that viral loop theory as an
“engineering alchemy that, done right, almost guarantees a self-replicating, borglike growth”. He
argued that viral expansion loops capture offline platforms too since it has been in existence
before the internet was discovered. He explained that if an individual should host a Tupperware
party for instance, some the attendees will likely be converted into sales people in the future
which will bring on a viral expansion loop in an offline environment. The most desired goal of
the viral expansion loop is the development of strong user engagement that will at the end
convert users into salespeople (Penenberg, 2016; & Lane, 2017). Companies can adopt this
theory to enhance sales promotion.

Conceptual Review
The Concept of Sales Promotion
Sales promotion “includes communication activities between the producer of goods and services,
and the end users (consumers) that provide extra value or incentives to ultimate consumers,
wholesalers, retailers and other organizational customers” (Stephen, et al., 2017). It is “an
initiative undertaken by companies to help promote a product and increase its sales and usage

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beyond the normal flow of sales”. Oyedapo, et al., 2012) recognized sales promotion activities as
a vital tool in marketing campaigns that helps companies achieve their set goals. The “primary
purpose of any company is to increase profit, market shares, and also to take the lead in the
marketplace” (Okoli, 2011). Blattberg and Neslin (1990) defined a sales promotion as “an
action-focused marketing event whose purpose is to have a direct impact on the behavior of the
firm’s customer.” It serves as a competitive weapon through the provision of extra benefits for
the target audience to buy or support one product over another, which is seen as an incentive to
do something (Adrian, 2004).
It includes a combination of all marketing tools or strategies, trade gifts, contests, special
promotions, premium offerings, and other short-term promotional activities designed for
incentive sales. A marketing promotion incurs direct promotional costs without commission fees
from media owners like advertising. This has made it to be referred traditionally as below-the-
line communication. Sales promotion is especially effective in inducing brand trial and
impromptu purchases (Aderemi, 2003). It can also be regarded as “short-term incentives to
encourage trial or use of a product or service” (Keller, 2003). Incentives can be monetary or non-
monetary since its purpose is to encourage the target audience to buy a particular type of product
immediately thereby improving their sales. This makes it stand out as an effective marketing tool
in the face of a highly competitive market environment where there is a need to make retailers
manage new products, and consumers prefers them to their competitors.
American Marketing Association (2004) defined sales promotion as “those marketing activities
other than personal selling, advertising and publicity that stimulate consumer purchases and
dealer effectiveness”. Its importance stems from its ability to increase the likelihood of product
recognition, product testing, as well as purchase size and amount. Sales promotion comprises
displays, exhibitions and administrations. Unlike advertising that offers reasons to buy, it offers
the consumers an incentive to buy. Sales promotion can take the form of price, monetary, or
nonmonetary promotion (Kotler & Keller,2006) and its impact on sales, profitability, and brand
equity can be different (Kim & Hyun, 2011). The privilege of a price drop or increase in the
quantity of products is evident in price promotion. This is offered to a particular group of people
for a specified period of time. This type of promotion is capable of affecting the customers’
shopping process (Kotler, 2000) and sales for a short period of time since sales promotions are
more attractive to passers-by and disloyal customers, or consumers of competitor’s products
(Dawes, 2004). Odunlami and Ogunsiji (2011) also noted that sales promotion provides a
short-term inducement of value offered to stimulate interest in buying a product. This can
come in the form of rebates samples, sweepstakes, and coupons. Kotler (2001) defined sales
promotion as “a key ingredient in marketing campaigns consisting of a diverse collection of
incentive tools, mostly short term, designed to stimulate quicker or greater purchase of particular
products or services by consumers or the trade’’. This exposition points the efficacy of
combining more than one incentive or benefit in the pursuit of generating quick sales. Armed
with the ability to make the hands of sales people to be on deck, these incentives are used by
manufacturers to induce the trade (wholesales, retailers or other channel members) or consumers
to buy a brand and to encourage the sales force to aggressively sell it” (Shimps, 2007).

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Concept of Brand Performance

The concept “brand” is often seen to have a distinct identification. On one part it is seen as a
name, a trademark, a symbol, a logo, or an identity, and at the other part, brand includes both
tangible and intangible attributes of an organization (Prasad & Dev, 2000). According to Franzen
and Bouwman (2001), “via branding, a product’s functional and sentimental values are
effectively encoded in customers’ perceptions”. While some brands meet or exceed their
functional expectations, for one reason or the other, negative sentiments might becloud the
customers’ sense of judgment regarding the functional capabilities of a brand.
Going by studies that have been carried out in the field of marketing, it is seen that “performance
is often used as a dependent variable in most marketing literature” (Tran Quan Ha Minh, 2006).
The brand performance can be seen as a factor that is in line with the evaluation of the success of
a brand, this can assist brands achieve their goals in the market place. The performance of a
brand points out how successful a brand is in the marketplace and seeks to evaluate the strategic
successes of a brand (Kapferer, 1997). It was stressed that brand performance describes how well
the product or service meets customers’ more functional needs. In other words, the performance
of a brand is seen in terms of meeting the primary or basic need of the customers. In reality,
brands may be on top notch in terms of functionality in the marketplace, and still be lagging
behind when returns are expected. These returns can be in the form of customer satisfaction,
brand preference, sales volume, return on investment (ROI), profitability etc.
According to Chaudhuri, and Moris (2001), brand performance is the result of desirability and
profitability in a brand. For a brand to be termed successful, customers need to long for or desire
to possess a brand in a manner that enables the brand to generate revenue in excess of its
expenses. Brand performance shows the strength of a brand in the market and is also defined as
the relative measurement of the success of a brand in the marketplace (O’Cass & Weerawardena,
2010). It is mirrored in its attainment of a firm’s strategy and goals. This can be done through its
market share, sales growth or profitability. With this a brand is termed weak when it doesn’t
achieve its set objective and strong when objectives are met. It is known that no two firms can
have the same brand goals and objectives in a particular period of time, and objectives of a firm
can also change from time to time. It can be brand awareness at one point, and top of mind or
brand loyalty at another time. For example, ‘Brand A’ might be gaining awareness while ‘Brand
B’ will be recording massive number of loyal customers. The details here doesn’t make ‘Brand
A’ a failure if the objective is to gain awareness at that period of time.
Luu (2017) revealed that “Brand performance is reflected in its attainment of organizational
strategy and goals as it can be measured through its sales growth, profitability, and market
share”. This shows that brand performance involves how a brand succeeds in the marketplace
financially and non-financially. On their part, Styles and Ambler (1997) looked at the
performance of a brand as comprising functional, psychological and economic benefits for
customers. They stressed that economic metrics alone shows inadequacy for the construct “brand
performance”. In other words, brand performance shows how a brand financially and non-
financially succeeds in the marketplace. Overwhelmed with myriads of choices, customers tend
to fall back on brands that give them extra satisfaction.

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Adding to the measures of brand performance established by academics, commercial research

organizations have also come up with brand performance models on the basis of financial
performance measures like return on investment and revenue employed by Forbes (Badenhausen,
2017). When comparing brands with competitors, some researchers emphasized on the efficacy
of consumer-based measures because of its accuracy in getting consumers opinions about when
compared against financial data of that brand. An example of this can be seen when Johansson et
al (2012) exposed how consumer-based brand equity outperform financially-based brand
performance measures in determining the performance of GBs in the financial crisis of 2008.
According to Rust et al (2004), as far as marketing productivity is concerned, financial metrics
have proven to be inadequate. This birthed and increased the use of non-financial metrics. It was
further seen that academic studies (e.g. De Chernatony et al 2004, Dawes 2009; Çifci, et al
2016; Dawes 2009) and commercial research organizations (e.g. EquiTrend, Brand Asset
Valuator, the Global Brand Simplicity Index and the Future Brand,) advocate consumer-based
brand performance measures. This study focused on brand awareness, brand preference, and
brand reputation as the measures of brand performance.

Brand Awareness
Keller (2008) defined brand awareness as “fostering people’s ability to recall or recognize the
brand in sufficient detail to make a purchase”. He sees brand recognition as consumers having
prior exposure to the brand, able to recognize the brand when given as a cue. It has been held for
a while now that generating and maintaining brand awareness is one of the main goals of
marketing. Brand awareness helps a consumer get familiar with the brand, and recalls some
favorable, strong, and unique brand associations. This focuses on the individual consumers and
his reactions to marketing of a particular product. Aaker (1991) presented three levels of brand
awareness: brand acknowledgement that involves the capacity of shoppers to recognize a
certain brand among others i.e. Supported review, which involves a circumstance where
individuals are asked to recognize a perceived brand name from a rundown of brands from the
same item class. The second is brand review that has to do with a situation where a buyer is
relied upon to name a brand in an item class. It is also referred to as "unaided review" as they are
not given any piece of information prior from the item class. The third one is top of psyche,
which is seen as the first brand that a customer can review among a given category of
products.

Keller, (1993) rendered brand awareness as comprising two components: recognition, and recall.
This placed brand awareness as “ the ability of customers to recall or recognize that a
brand is a member of certain product’s category under different conditions”. Mishra and Mishra
(2014) further noted that “brand awareness refers to the strength of a brand’s presence in the
customer’s mind”. A deeper part of this is the ability of customers to recall the brand without any
signal (Aaker, 1996). This makes brand awareness important in brand image development.
Keller (2003) defined brand awareness as “the customers’ ability to recall and recognize the
brand as reflected by their capacity to identify the brand under different conditions and to link
the brand name, logo, and symbol, to particular associations in memory.” Farhana (2012) also
trod on this part when he saw brand awareness to be “the strength of a brand in consumers’

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memory, as well as consumer ability to recognize different brand elements like brand name,
logo, symbol, character, packaging, and slogan”.

According to Hoeffler and Keller, (2002) brand recognition demands that consumers recall the
brand in their memory; this is only possible when there are solid links between the brand and the
category of needed products. This brand recognition extends to the recognition of the brand even
from its visual symbols. Thus, brand awareness is related to its memorization in consumers’
minds. This memorization shows the ability of consumers to identify the brand even in the most
diverse conditions. Due to less research effort and time, consumers tend to use the most
accessible information when faced with different choices. With this, the memory they have of a
particular brand steps in to help in making a decision.
Travis (2006) defined brand awareness as “the ability of a potential buyer to recognize or recall
that a brand is a member of a certain product category, so as to establish a link between the
product class and the brand”. There is a connection between the recognition of the brand and
consumer’s knowledge. This is to differentiate the brand when it is given as a hint that has been
previously heard or noticed. Brand awareness can also be portrayed as the level of consumers’
familiarity with a brand, which is a major component of brand value that can be characterized by
depth and breath. The depth of brand awareness encompasses the likelihood that the brand can be
recognized and recalled. On the other hand, the breath links to the variety of purchases and
consumption situations where the brand comes to mind (Keller, 2003).

Brand Preference
In highly competitive businesses, brand preference is seem to be indispensable. For a business to
stand out its brands must be preferred among others else customers might not repeat a purchase.
The indispensable nature of brand preference has made practitioners and researchers to have a
spotlight on the concept. Brands are distinguishing features of products, and they are important
to individuals buying the product. A product’s functional value might satisfy the customers but if
the brand is not their favorite, they may not consider buying the product again (Steenkamp, et al.,
2003).
According to Kalyanasundaram and Sangeetha (2019), Brand preference “means the brand is
accepted and preferred over other in the same product category”. This begins with a customer
agreeing to try out a product, and afterwards experiences satisfaction after a trial purchase, since
a product can actually be accepted at the beginning, and not preferred in the long run when
expectations are not met. For this, marketers develop strategies to raise the likelihood that a
brand will be activated from the memories of consumers and be added to the consumer’s
consideration set also, since he is likely to have a competitive edge in a market when a number
of customers have develop preference for its brand.
“Brand preference is a measure of brand loyalty in which a consumer will choose a particular
brand in the presence of competing brands, but will accept substitutes if that brand is not
available (Amadi & Ezekiel, 2013). This is a selective demand for a company’s brand instead of
those of competitors. It is the degree to which consumers prefer one brand over another,
and the percentage of people who profess a certain brand is their choice. It “represents

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which brands are preferred under the assumption of equality of price and availability” (Hellier, et
al 2003).

Brand Reputation
Academics and practitioners believes in the increasingly importance of brand reputation. A
positive reputation must be developed if brands must be successful (Herbig & Milewicz, 1995).
Brand names can be seen as storehouses for firm's reputation since a good performance on one
product can often be transferred to another product through the brand name (Moorthy, 1985).
Reputation has become a very popular concept in the business world. This involves whether to
believe a company’s claims about its brands. According to Herbig (1997), Reputation is “the
estimation of the consistency over time of an attribute of an entity”. A reputable brand is a strong
asset to a company; it brings a high degree of loyalty and assurance of stable future sales. It is
also a source of demand and lasting attractiveness since the image of superiority and added value
is a justification of a premium price. Aperia, (2004) noted that “for brands with high reputation,
the ultimate goal must be to strengthen their image, or more specifically, to examine which key
traits the loyal consumers attribute to the brand, and unhealthy brands with low reputation need
to focus on fixing image problems”. From the company’s perspective, brand reputation remains a
long central construct in marketing, it measures the attachment a customer has for a brand. It
shows the likelihood of a customer switching to another brand, especially when there are
changes in the features and price of a product (Aaker, 1991). Brand reputation happens mainly
via the signals that producers send to the market and the extent the organizational strategies
support the marketing signals establish it. Here, the company proposes the output of the brand
identity, makes promises, and allows consumers experience the offer it promises. Managing
brand reputation is continual; its concept, image, and as a consequence its reputation will be
managed over the life cycle of the brand, through selecting a brand expression, introducing it in
the market and further expanding, defending and enforcement over time (Park et al., 2000).

Sales Promotion and Brand Performance

The relevance of sales promotion is evidenced in the study of Abdelhamied (2013). The study
was on “the effect of sales promotion behaviours and brand preference in fast-food restaurants”.
It aimed to investigate the effect sales promotion has on post promotion behaviour like purchase
behavior and customer loyalty in Egypt. The effect promotion has on the product preferences in
the fast food restaurant has also been explored. The sampling technique used in the study was the
purposeful sampling technique. Questionnaires were sent to 530 dinners in 28 international fast
food restaurants in Cairo and Alexandria and 386 were valid and used for the study. Through the
use of SPSS version 20.0 and frequencies, simple percentage, means, independent t-test, factor
analyses & multiple regressions, data were analyzed. The study also made use of ANOVA and
cross tabulation. The results showed that sales promotion tools can be used to increase the
quantity of purchase intention.
Rotimosho (2003) was also on this path when he explained that sales promotion has proven to be
an effective tool for encouraging the purchase of more sales. When the price of a product is
slashed or other incentives are attached, consumers mostly see this as an opportunity to make
good use of their cash. This prompts them to load their shelves with more of the product instead

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of purchasing just few. Retailers are also not left out here. They see this time as a period to carry
new and more items as the company gives them financial incentives to stock new products. On
brand preference, while some of the promotional tools might not be effective after the campaign,
the researcher noted that premiums, contests, and sweepstakes were effective in boosting brand
preference. The study also showed that sales promotion creates traffic in stores and raises
customers’ frequency.
Ibojo and Amos (2011) also observed that the effective implementation of the promotional tools
increases sales volume and subsequently profits. This was seen in their work on “the effect of
sales promotion as a tool on organizational performance.” The study focused on Sunshine Plastic
Company. The study employed the survey approach, and the Chi Square was used to test
hypotheses and also examine the association sales promotion has on organizational performance.
From the findings, the authors concluded that, sales promotion have a significant effect on
organizational performance, as it is done to promote an increase in sales and usage or trial of a
brand. These actions are not covered by other elements of the marketing communications or
promotional mix. In the study, ninety four (94) of the respondents accepted that sales promotion
affects company’s sales volume. They also added that the life of a failing product can also be
sustained to the point of recovery by the effectiveness of sales promotion. This can be seen in a
case where new product’s noise infiltrate the marketplace so much that a brand is no longer
heard. Sales promotion can be seen as effective tool to allow a brand to be loud once again.
Karbasi and Rad (2014) also studied “the effect of sales promotion’s characteristics on brand
equity”. The study was conducted in Iran and the customers of Etka stores in Tehran stood as the
target society. Data were analyzed using the Structural Equations Modeling (SEM). From the
findings, it was shown that promotion has an influence on brand association and awareness. Ade-
Johnson in her study on sales promotion also affirmed how effective sales promotion can be in
bringing about loyalty and awareness. Sales promotion is seen to birth noise or gossip about a
brand. This result in trials and when this meets quality and satisfaction, loyalty tends to set in.
Based on that, the study hypothesized that;
Ho1: There is no significant association between sales promotion and brand awareness.
Ho2: There is no significant association between sales promotion and brand preference.
Ho3: There is no significant association between sales promotion and brand reputation.

METHODOLOGY
This study adopted a correlational research design. It was seen as the best available method to
the social researchers, since individuals usually constitute the unit of analysis (According to
Anyanwu (2000)? The population of this study comprised all pharmaceutical companies,
specifically the four (4) quoted pharmaceutical companies in the South-South Region of Nigeria
as reported by Nigerian Stock Exchange in 2019. They are Glaxosmithkline Plc, Fidson Plc,
Nigeria- German Chemicals Plc, and Ekocorp Plc. However, the staffs in these companies were
chosen as the target population. With a breakdown via the use of purposive sampling technique,
the sample size was put at sixty (60). Questionnaires were used as the major instrument haven
been tested valid and reliable. Finally, the statistical tool for analysis was chosen. To analyse the

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data, the Spearman Rank Order correlation coefficient with the aid of the Statistical Package for
Social Science (SPSS Version 22.0) was used to test the hypotheses of the study.

HYPOTHESES TESTING AND RESULT

The data collected for the study were analyzed and the hypotheses were tested using Spearman
Rank Order correlation coefficient with the use of the Statistical Package for Social Science
(SPSS Version 22.0) was employed to test the hypotheses of the study.

Decision Rule
If the Significant/Probability Value (PV) < 0.05 (Level of Significance) = Reject the null and
Conclude Significant Association. If the Significance Probability value (PV)>0.05(Level of
Significance) = Accept the null and Conclude Insignificant association:

Table 1: Association between Sales promotion and Brand Awareness

H01: There is no significant association between sales promotion and brand awareness

Correlations
Sales Promotion Brand Awareness
Spearman's Sales Correlation Coefficient 1.000 . 862**
rho Promotion Sig. (2-tailed) . .000
N 54 54
Brand Correlation Coefficient . 862** 1.000
Awareness Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .
N 54 54
Source: SPSS V. 22.0 printout (based on field 2020).
Table 1 shows that Spearman’s correlation coefficient (r) =. 862**, this value is high, revealing
that there is a strong association between sales promotion and brand awareness. The positive sign
of the correlation coefficient shows a positive association exists between both variables. That
means an increase in Sales promotion by the pharmaceutical companies is accompanied with an
increase in Brand Awareness. Probability/significant value (PV) is 0.000 < 0.05 level of
significance, consequently, the researcher rejects the null hypothesis and concludes that there is a
significant association between Sales promotion and Brand Awareness.

Table 2: Association between Sales Promotion and Brand Preference

H02: There is no significant association between sales promotion and brand preference.
Correlations
Sales Promotion Brand Preference
Spear Sales Correlation Coefficient 1.000 . 682**
man's Promotion Sig. (2-tailed) . .000
rho N 54 54
Brand Correlation Coefficient . 682** 1.000

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Preference Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .

N 54 54
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Source: SPSS V. 22.0 printout (based on field 2020).
Table 2 shows that Spearman’s correlation coefficient (r) =. 682**, this value is high, revealing
that there is a strong association between Sales promotion and Brand Preference. The positive
sign of the correlation coefficient shows a positive association exists between both variables.
That means an increase in Sales promotion by the pharmaceutical companies is accompanied
with an increase in Brand Preference. Probability/significant value (PV) is 0.000 < 0.05 level of
significance, consequently, the researcher rejects the null hypothesis.

Table 3: Association between Sales Promotion and Brand Reputation

Correlations
Sales Promotion Brand Reputation

Spearman's Sales
Correlation Coefficient 1.000 . 729**
rho Promotion
Sig. (2-tailed) . .000
N 54 54
**
Brand Correlation Coefficient . 729 1.000
Reputation Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .
N 54 54
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Source: SPSS V. 22.0 printout (based on field 2020).
Table 3 shows that Spearman’s correlation coefficient (r) =. 729**, this value is high, revealing
that there is a strong association between sales promotion and brand reputation. The positive sign
of the correlation coefficient shows a positive association exists between both variables. That
means an increase in Sales promotion by the pharmaceutical companies is accompanied with an
increase in Brand Reputation. Probability/significant value (PV) is 0.000 < 0.05 level of
significance, consequently, the researcher rejects the null hypothesis and concludes that there is a
there is a significant association between sales promotion and brand reputation.

Discussion of Findings
The results of the various hypotheses revealed that, a positive association between sales
promotion and brand performance. Rotimosho (2003) explained that sales promotion has proven
to be an effective tool for encouraging the purchase of more sales. When the price of a product is
slashed or other incentives are attached, consumers mostly see this as an opportunity to make
good use of their cash. This prompts them to load their shelves with more of the product instead
of purchasing just few. Retailers are also not left out here. They see this time as a period to carry
new and more items as the company gives them financial incentives to stock new products.
Ndubisi, (2005) also evaluated the impact of sales promotional tools, like coupon, price
discount, free sample, bonus pack, and in-store display, on product trial and repurchase

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behaviour of consumers. The results of study show that price discounts, free samples,
bonus packs, and in-store display excluding coupons are associated with product trial. To him,
trial determines repurchase behaviour and also mediates in the association between sales
promotions and product repurchase.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Derived from the findings, the study concludes that, there is a significant and positive association
between sales promotion and brand performance. Also, a significant and positive association
exits between sales promotion and measures of brand performance. Based on that, the study
recommends that, pharmaceutical companies should adopt sales promotion to improve brand
performance measured through brand awareness, brand preference and brand reputation.

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