CONTACT SYNERGY AND MARKETING PERFORMANCE OF DOMESTIC AIRLINE OPERATORS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Organisations used marketing communication mix to enhance brand awareness and customer loyalty.  The marketing communication mix traditionally included advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, direct marketing and public relations.  The focus of this study is to examine the association between contact synergy and marketing performance of domestic airline operators in Nigeria. The study administered 382 copies of structured questionnaire to obtain responses from both staff and customers of domestic airline operators, out of which 357 copies were retrieved. Thus 348 copies of research questionnaire were fit for use representing 97.48% response rate. Analyzed was done using both descriptive and inferential statistics aided by Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 17.0. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the mean and standard deviation of the distribution, while Spearman Rank Order Correlation Coefficient was used to ascertain the association between contact synergy and the measures of marketing performance of domestic airline operators in Nigeria. The result of the study shows that there is a significant association between contact synergy and the two measures of marketing performance namely: brand awareness and customer loyalty. It is recommended that efforts should be made by domestic airline operators in Nigeria to achieve contact synergy as the combined impacts of multiple communication activities are much greater than the impact of a single promotional tool as it provides clarity, consistency, and maximum communications impact.