INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
As competition between businesses geared up, if becomes imperative to turn, attention to customers needs and wants which are naturally insatiable. The marketing concept arose to challenge all other previous concept. Orjih (1998) in his book “Seminar in Banking and finance.” Concluded that marketing concept holds the key to achieving organizational goals consists in determining the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfaction more / effectively and efficiently than its competitions. The marketing concept is of frame of mind which the market focus, customer orientation coordinated marketing and profitability.
The marketing concepts starts with a well defined market, and the organization that determines who its markets will be, who he hopes to satisfy as concluded by Melver and Geoffrey (1980) in book “Marketing financial services.
By customer orientation, it implies that the customer’s need is defined from customer’s view point and not from the aspect of the company. The customers orientation seeks to crown the customers as “king” recognizing the fact that the customers is the life blood of an organization. A business man once said that “Our aim goes beyond satisfying the customers”. Coordinating marketing entails that all the various marketing function like, advertising, marketing research, sales forces and so on due properly integrated and must be well coordinated with other departments in the company. The companies are to make profit. A company will make more profit, if it satisfies its customer’s needs better than competitors. Therefore, in applying the marketing concept, companies would produce what the customers want, and by so doing, they maximize more profit.
Several authors have stated the need to adopt the marketing concept by the business entities. Kotler (1997) in his book “marketing management analysis, planning and control”.
Said that most companies do not really grasp or embrace the marketing concept until they are driven to it by circumstance like, sales dechine, slow growth, changing of buying patterns by the customers, increasing competition and increase in marketing expenditure. The emergence of banking industries and its services in Nigeria can be traced back to 100years ago. The activities of transactional corperation, the financial transactions of the colonial government the decline of the better system of trade and the increasing acceptance of British silver currency, all these required an institution in the form of a commercial banks for softy and transmission of funds, the importation and distribution of British silver coins and provision of credit to the government and trading companies who need the services of the banking industries. Banks were out to make profit interest gotten from the credits granted to these customers, without actually satisfying the customers. They never really thought of the customers as the life blood of the banking industries.
In the past, banks were operating in a seller’s market which made demarketing possible, but the environment is dynamic, such that if bank are taking place in industry and commerce, only banks that are efficient and effective can satisfy customer. This in scarce and abundant economics alike the problem is not production but marketing, if only we accept the truth that mass marketing is a pre-requisite for a successful mass production. Therefore, marketing consideration can only be the most critical factor in any business planning
