MARKETING CONCEPT AND CONSUMERS’ SATISFACTIONIN THE NIGERIAN BANKING INDUSTRY: AN ASSESSMENT.

The paper assessed the application of marketing concept and its variables namely, segmentation, targeting and positioning, in the Nigerian banking industry. It aimed at determining the effect of applying these concept variables on consumers’ satisfaction.The study employed questionnaire to draw relevant information. Through the use of stratified random sampling methods, Six hundred and eighty respondents were selected from bank workers and bank customers. This comprises of banks’ customers was 340, and bankers 340 respondents were consumers of the bank. The data collected was analyzed using percentages, frequency counts, standard deviation, and mean score. Hypothesis was also postulated and tested using Pearson Correlation, Analysis of Variance, (ANOVA) Duncan Multiple Range Test and Linear Regression. Results showed that targeting had a positive and significant effect on consumer’s satisfaction (t = 2.64; p < 0.05). However, though positioning had a positive effect on consumers’ satisfaction, it was not significant (t = 0.56; p > 0.05). Also, segmentation had a negative but no significant relationship with consumers’ satisfaction (t = - 0.03; p > 0.05). Results further show that though banks were applying marketing concept, the views of bankers were different from banks customers’. The paper concluded that fierce competitionheightened the interest of banks to target profitable customers by delivering the desired satisfaction better than their competitors through the application marketing concept.