Mini Research Project Work on Empowering Employees and Improving Customer Service

32 Mini Research Project Work Publishing Studies DepartmentMini Research Project Work Pu
5. Day S. George. Strategic Marketing Planning: The Pursuit of Competitive
Advantage, St. Paul: West, 1984
6. Giles G.B. Marketing, 6th edition, London: Longman Group Limited
(Pitman Publishing), 1994
7. Gluck F.W. “A Fresh Look At Strategic Management,” The Journal of
Business Strategy, Autumn, 1985
8. Hatton A. and Worsam M. Effective Management for Marketing (1999-
2000) CIM Workbook, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1999
9. 9. Staudt T.A and Taylor D.A. A Managerial Introduction to Marketing,
New Jersey: McGraw-Hill, 1995
10.Hines T. Management Information for Marketing Decisions, Oxford:
Butterworth-Heinemann, 1999
11.Jobber D. Principles and Practice of Marketing, London: McGraw-Hill,
1995
12.Johns Ted. Perfect Customer Care, UK: Arrow Business Books, 1995
13.Porter M.E. Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior
Performance, New York: Free Press, 1985
14.Kotler P. and Armstrong E. Principles of Marketing, New Jersey: Prentice-
Hall, 1996
15.Lancaster G.A. and Massingham L.C. Essentials of Marketing, London:
McGraw-Hill, 1988
16.Massie L. Joseph. Essentials of Management, 5th edition, Delhi: Prentice-
Hall Inc., 2002
17.Phipps R. and Simmons C. The Marketing Customer Interface, Oxford:
Butterworth-Heinemann, 2000
18.Quarterly Digest of First capital plus bank. Practical Marketing Strategy
(An illustration from Ghana’s Corporate Environment)
19.Jobber D. Principles and Practice of Marketing, London: McGraw-Hill,
1995

• Give them a feeling of control over their work
• Build their self-esteem
13.For external promotion, management could widen the use of more
conventional cost-effective promotional tools to augment the auxiliary
ones. The notable ones among the options available for use by the company
are the following:
• Stickers, pens, key holders etc. with the company’s logo could be
produced and distributed to private and commercial drivers at no
charge so that they display them on their vehicles and some to their
clients as well.
• Brochures or leaflets or handbills containing concise information
about the company, its package of a product benefits, etc. could be
produced and distributed to corporate bodies or first-time customers
and some should be at the front desk.
• Very attractive signboards could be mounted at vantage points in and
around Accra and Adabraka.
14.ICT is becoming the backbone of providing service where prospective
customersandclientcancompletetheirtransactionveryspeedily.Company
could review their internet website and other social media account, once
in a while by posting information about their services, promotion, etc. In
time, the website may become transactional, so that customers can place
orders as they do through fax, email and telephone. ICTs can also act as
an enabler for growth; development and competitiveness in developing
countries. Several benefits have been noted from them and among them
are these: Competitiveness, Cost minimization, increase efficiency,
Improved customer satisfaction, Value enhancement, Improved quality
in service delivery, Saves time in service delivery, Employee efficiency.
15.Remember the old saying: “keep your friends close, keep your enemies
closer’.Whenitcomestobusiness,it’sgoodtoknowwhatyourcompetitors
in your market niche are doing. By keeping an eye on their social media
feeds, you can learn about a company-what it is doing differently, what it’s
doing differently, what its good at and what its bad at. The company could
use this information to implement things in their strategy that might be
missing.
C o n t e n t s
Introduction
Literature Review
Methodology
Data Analysis & Discussions
Summary, Conclusion of Findings
Recommendations
References
01
02
03
04
05
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29Publishing Studies Department Mini Research Project WorkPublishing Studies Department
They could be allowed to do this within the framework of rules and
regulations set by the company for standardized service behavior. When
employees are empowered, they share responsibility for problems and are
proactive in their response to customers. Management could empower
staff to show the following traits:
• The ability of employees to provide information to customers.
• The high speed of problem solving.
• An increased improvement.
• Standards being followed and maintained by self-discipline from
employees themselves not centralized enforcement.
• Active listening and willingness to understand customers’ point of
view.
• Teamwork and willingness of staff members to support each other to
service the customer.
8. They could work with outsourcing partners that deliver on time and
Management could make it a point to appoint personnel to regularly
monitor outsourced projects to make sure they meet quality control and
deadlines
9. Management should service their machines regularly not just when they
are faulty.
10.Management could consider installing a power plant to cater for the
electricity crisis. However if that is not within its reach, it should buy a
new generator that would support its printing machines.
11.Management could estimate the cost of production of every work and
inform the client before commencing any work.
12.The company could also motivate the employees so that they give off their
best. Management must understand that money or salary per se is not a
motivator, but its inadequacy is really a demotivator which could lead to
dissatisfaction, demoralization, or even acceleration of labour turnover
Management must curb this trend by these ways:
• Get to know the workers
• Help them to achieve success

company should seize the opportunity to lower its estimates as a way of
differentiating its product offer.
3. Meetingdeadlinesmustbepartofthebundleofbenefits.Effectiveplanning
and proper work scheduling for all printing jobs should be carried out
and followed fully. The situation where every member of the management
issues instructions and counter-instructions to confuse lower staff ought
to be stopped. At best, the planner of the production work should be the
one in charge of all production related tasks.
4. Given that many of the customers now want very rapid response and
delivery time above all else, the company could offer a guaranteed service
with bonuses or discounts off subsequent orders if the company fails to
fulfill its promises. A customer loyalty programme could be designed with
bonus offer to retain loyal customers, and turn new prospective customers
into loyal customers.
5. Superb customer service is part of the potential benefit level which could
be used to differentiate the benefit package. The company could do it in
many ways, some of which essentially include the following:
• Ensuring that top management shows demonstrable commitment to
customer service. The emphasis is on commitment because increase
the effectiveness of execution.
• Regularly acquiring customer feedback through questionnaires,
surveys, or other marketing research. The customer feedback should
include customer complaints and compliments. It must be made easy
for customers to complain. The company could use dialogue to seek
for complaints or compliments.
• Establishing service quality benchmarks and measuring company’s
performance against the benchmarks. By so doing, ways of improving
performance could be identified.
6. The company should do it best by employing three more permanent
stuff comprising of a designer, a printer/production manager and a
receptionist/accountant so they could allocate the jobs well without one
worker performing more than the required job he or she is supposed to
perform .
7. The general manager could empower employees to take decision on their
own to immediately solve any difficulties be it customer or work related.
01Introduction
My research has revealed that in defining a small business, the terms Micro
and Small Enterprises (MSEs), Small and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
(SMEs), or, Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) that are used are
all internationally accepted terms. It is evident that small businesses play an
integral role in both developed and developing economies. The development
of SMEs publishing and printing houses are gradually growing and becoming
more intense and thus, seen as accelerating the achievement of wider economic
and socio-economic objectives.
Publishing and printing is a profit-making business that requires a lot of start-
up capital. It is therefore an important organ of any nation or people, their
voice, heritage and the backbone of a nation’s literacy playing a vital role in
the development of a nation. Since the invention of printing, it has justified it
importance in the dissemination of information.
Despite their commendable contribution and roles they play most of these SME’s
are now collapsing as a result of not performing creditably well in the industry
and the nation as a whole. They still face numerous challenges such as limited
capital and knowledge; non-availability of suitable technology etc. This research
mainly focuses on certain challenges facing the company under study Exorigin
Company Limited and how the company can build a competitive advantage
throughproductdifferentiationandpromotion. Competitiontheysayisthecore
of the success or failure of firms. So what are the management of Exorigin doing
in this business that will lead to build and sustainable competitive advantage?”
It is in line with this, that this study identifies the challenges of the company
and how come out with ways and means, which will establish and sustain the
vibrancy of the company so that they can play the expected vital roles as the
engine of growth in our economic development. In order to investigate the

challenges, a conceptual and theoretical framework of the study was designed.
These guided the design of data collection instrument to suit the research.
Research Questions
• Is the company applying any sound marketing practices?
• Does the company have a competitive edge?
• In spite of some of the challenges they face, what workable and realistic
solutions have they used so far to build a competitive advantage over other
SME’s like them?
Indeed, the importance of building competitive advantage through the practice
of marketing cannot be overemphasized. One of such benefits of competitive
advantage is the steady growth of the customer base of a company. Highlighting
this role of marketing is the essence of conducting this research.
Statement Of Problem
In-spite of the products and services the company provides, they face some
problems in executing or delivery them. Apart from that, they have the edge to
grow and become very competitive yet they face numerous challenges that need
to be dealt so they would not collapse as most of these SMEs and would be able to
grow. This research is intended to explore and unravel some of the key business
survival strategies which are of vital role to the growth and development of the
company so it can be very competitive.
Objectives Of The Study
The overall objective of this research is to identify ways and means, which will
establishandsustainthevibrancyofthecompanysotheycanbeverycompetitive
like other publishing and printing houses in Ghana.
Specific Objectives:
In other to achieve the overall objective of the research the study will attempt
the following:
1. To critically examine the company’s operations relating to product and
promotion.
06RECOMMENDATIONS
The building of competitive advantage, in the case of Exorigin Company Ltd.,
calls for recommendations which are strategic in nature. The responsibility
of implementing them falls on the shoulders of management, who are to see
the implementation as a form of investment that will change upon the basis
of the results of the study; the following outlined recommendations have been
proposed.
1. The company could deliver products with high and acceptable quality.
Systems, procedures and processes should all be reviewed so that strict
quality adherence is incorporated. Quality must be maintained at all levels
of the production phase including prepress, press and post press activities.
This is where monitoring and coordination come in. Management must be
able to gain every employee’s commitment and involvement, and ensure
that continual effort is made towards quality improvement. They must
employ a production manager with printing know-how to inspect quality
at all stages of the production phase.
2. The company could help themselves and the customer to save money.
The company must be able to estimate production cost and make
accommodation for spoilage .Effort must be made to give the customer
cost control benefit as path of the envisaged attractive product offer.
This will stimulate repeat orders from customers. Avenues like overs
and administrative overhead cost could be used in the cost control.
When finished products from overs are significantly small, they could be
given to the customer free of charge. If the company is able to minimize
wastage or spoilage, it would be absurd to apportion high percentage
for the calculation of overs in the estimates. In a situation like this, the

2. To identify some challenges which have affected the company from
performing their operations successfully?
3. To make appropriate and valuable recommendation that is targeted at
solving or at least eliminating some of the identified challenges so the
company can build competitive advantage over other publishing and
printing houses.
Significance Of Study
This research is intended to identify key challenges facing the success of the
company relating to its operation in terms of its products and promotion. The
findings of the study would create an avenue for management of the company
to not only appreciate the need to embrace marketing, but also, to acknowledge
the relevance of marketing in the achievement of success in the business
environment. It would also have solution to some of the problems and the
outcome of this research would go a long way to serve as a useful complementary
reference material for marketing decision making and planning in terms of
tactics, strategies, or policy formulation by the company. It is also expected that
the outcome of this research would serve as a reference to provide database to
help researchers, academies’, students, policy makers, etc. who would try to do
additional research.
Scope Of The Study
Due to the nature and context of this study, it will seek to focus rather on some
challenges of facing Exorigin and how they can build a competitive advantage
over other SMEs in the industry which is realistic and workable to the challenges
set forth.
Limitations Of The Study
This research confines itself to a case study of Exorigin. Certain limitations
were encountered in the course of undertaking the research. One of the greatest
challengethattheresearcherencounteredwasrelatedtotheaccessandcollection
of data due to the unwillingness of management to release some information
which could have enriched the study and also established a strong validity and
reliability.

Organization Of Study
The research is organized into five main sections. These are the introduction,
literature review, methodology, the data analysis and the conclusions and
recommendations. The introduction captures the background of the study,
the research objectives and the scope of study, limitations of the study, and
the significance of the study and the organization of the study. The literature
review is a review of the current literature that bothers on the objectives of the
research. The methodology spells out how our data collected and from where
it was collected. The data presentation analysis and discussion is the analysis
of the data collected in the chapter three and finally, the chapter five gives the
summary of findings, conclusion and recommendations of the research based
on the data analyzed in chapter four.
seniormanagementofthiscompany.Amongtheissuesraisedweredifferentiation
of products, customer satisfaction, employing of three more permanent workers
and effective communication with the company’s the employees and customers.
These are key strategic factors the company needs for building and sustaining
competitive advantage.
The study has also provided recommendations that should stimulate
management to move the company towards becoming a marketing-oriented
company. Notwithstanding these recommendations, the research on product
and promotion is not the only marketing research that can be conducted. Even
though its results are very useful in the decision making process, it does not
give all the information about the whole picture. In view of this, it is appropriate
for the company to look beyond the parameters of this particular research and
carry out other comprehensive researches on areas of interest and importance
to the company.

The company’s customer service delivery was fairly good with a positive record
of staff showing empathy and responsiveness to customers.
For some reasons, which boil down to company’s belief, perception, attitude
and motive, the results of the study showed that the company was not carrying
out any vigorous promotional campaign for its products and services to the
extent that very simple and cost-effective promotional tools such as sign
boards, brochures, leaflets, etc. have been thrown overboard. Logo, without any
complementary conventional tool, was the only advertising tool the company
was using. Notwithstanding this, the company has adopted and relied on some
auxiliary promotional tools to achieve some of the aims of promotion. They
were as follows, according to the results.
• Word-of-mouth testimonials or recommendations.
• Company’s imprint on printed products it produces.
• Company’s other subsidiary business.
• Canvassing by some key employees.
Within the framework of the two-way communication process, where the
company is the sender and its customers are the receivers, the company’s
performance in promoting its products and services was not encouraging. The
company was beset with problems which the study identified them as follows:
Inadequate, inappropriate and unreliable message or information, many a time,
was conveyed to some (not all) of the customers. However, the company has
not fully utilized this opportunity to develop effective communication with
its customers and no effective customer feedback monitoring mechanism or
system has been put in place by the company.
Conclusion
The company is yet to embrace marketing fully to allocate its human and non-
human resources in a way that will create the perceived benefits needed by
the customer. Given the problems the company is facing, it is yet to achieve
competitive advantage in this increasingly competitive printing industry. The
company has been seen to be producing products exactly in the same way as
other companies are doing. Additionally, it was giving lip service to promotion
both internally and externally.
The study conducted has brought to the fore many issues for consideration by
02Literature Review
Introduction
Thepreviouschapterdelineatedthebackground,objectiveandscopeofthisstudy
among several other essential point of the research. This chapter sets forth the
various literatures on the objectives of this study as a means of shaping the study
to know where in the research on the subject this study can appropriately seek
to address. This chapter also reviews the literatures on some basic terminologies
of the research, the proliferation and role of printing and publishing SMEs in
the economic development of Ghana in order to afford a holistic understanding
of the how the research should be carried out.
The government of the Gold Coast, an arm of the British government pursued an
economic policy that trained the rising middle class to manage the property of
the European merchants and businessmen. According to Kayanula and Quartey
(2000), small scale enterprise promotion in Ghana was also not impressive in
the 1960s. Dr. Nkrumah (President of the First Republic) in his modernization
efforts emphasized state participation but did not encourage the domestic
indigenous sector. The local entrepreneurship was seen as a potential political
threat. As the economy declined in the 1980s, large-scale manufacturing
employment stagnated which forced many formal sector employees into
secondary self-employment in an attempt to earn a decent income. In other
to solve these problems government has put in place measures to promote the
growth of SME’s in Ghana by establishing organisations to support the activities
of SME’s.
Hence National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) was established under
Act 434 in 1981 as an apex body for the development of small-scale industries in

Ghana, in order to create a single dynamic integrated organization capitalized
and capable of responding to the needs of SME’ sector.
Definitions of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) vary from country to
country, depending on one or more of thresholds lay down in respect of
investment, employment, turnover etc. The issue of what constitutes a small
or micro enterprise is a major concern in the literature. Different writers have
usually given different definitions to this category of business. SME’s have
indeed not been spared with the definition problem that is usually associated
with concepts which have many components. Bolton Committee (1971) first
formulated an “economic” and “statistical” definition of a small firm. Under the
“economic” definition, a firm is said to be small if it meets the following three
criteria:
• It has a relatively small share of their market place;
• It is managed by owners or part owners in a personalized way, and not
through the medium of a formalized management structure;
• It is independent, in the sense of not forming part of a large enterprise.
In Ghana various definitions have been given for Micro, Small and Medium scale
enterprises but the most commonly used criterion is the number of employees of
the enterprise (Kayanula and Quartey, 2000). In using this definition, confusion
often arises in respect of the unpredictability and cut off points used by the
various official sources.
According to the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI, 1990)
SME’s is defined in Ghana by applying both the “fixed asset and number of
employees” criteria. It defines a small-scale enterprise as a firm with not more
than 9 workers, and has plant and machinery (excluding land, buildings and
vehicles) not exceeding 10 million Ghanaian cedis and micro with employee
less than five Ghanaian cedis.
There is a growing recognition of the vital role micro-scale companies (SMEs)
play in economic development. They are often described as job creators, the
seeds which grow into big businesses and the fuel of national economic engines.
Printing and publishing plays an important role in the economic, political,
educational, scientific and technological affairs of human beings the world over.
For instance, not only do we read newspapers, magazines and books of all kinds
for knowledge, information as well as for entertainment, but we must have labels
also to tell us what is inside a bottle, tin or package, what music is recorded on a
05Summary, Conclusion Of Findings
Exorigin Company Limited has done very little to differentiate its products from
that of its competitors and the following key areas uncovered by the study.
• Quality: The Company faced quality related problems, the causes of
which were all traceable to inadequate inspection and monitoring of the
company subcontracted, ineffective coordination, , unreliable conditions
of the Hp canon machine, low quality of prepress work, and occurrence of
printability problems and press run ability problems.
• On-Time Delivery: The Company did not always finish printing jobs
on or before the contracted deadlines due to power cut, pressure on the
creative officer and occasional failure or breakdown of the machine.
However, about 60% of all the company’s printing jobs were completed
on time under pressure.
• Cost Control: The Company has not consciously controlled cost as part
of its product benefit package for its customers, even though it was aware
of a few avenues to use for controlling cost.
• Planning: One major aspect of production whose neglect has contributed
too many of the above mentioned causes of the problems are planning. The
company sometimes started production without effective and adequate
planning.
• The customer service related issues covered by the study yielded the
following results:
The company was able to meet customer expectations more often than it was
unable to do so. Therefore, it has more satisfied customers than dissatisfied
customers.

disc or written on a sheet, even what program is on television. In fact, printing
enters every aspect of our daily lives.
The history of printing in Ghana dates back to the time of early missionary
work in this country. As far back as 1851, the Methodist Mission had opened
a printing house at Cape Coast. This press was also made use of by the Basel
Mission. A man of Abura Dunkwa in the Central Region, Hutton Brew, was the
first African to establish a printing press in Ghana. He started operation of his
press in 1874.
The early 1900s and the late 1930s saw a tremendous increase in the volume of
printing work done in this country. This was due to the increase in industrial,
commercial, and other activities of the government and also developments in
education and health. Since then, printing has become an important aspect of
publishing industry in Ghana has made the competition more intense with
over 150 Printing Houses in Accra. On my joy online website in an article
(THE HUB OF PRINTING) on the 23rd of March, 2013 it was noted by Kofi
Yeboah that “Accra is a vibrant industrial area and the fact there are hundreds
of scattered firms all over suggests that the business is good” but the owner of
Misatso printing press(Sampson Agyei) says “Good business in the industry
does not however, come on a silver platter; it is earned through quality and
prompt service delivery ,effective marketing to attract more clients and having
the right connections,” hence the need for Exorigin to do the same.
Definitions Of Operational Terms
Competitive Advantage: The extent to which an organization or business unit
delivers value superior to that of its competitors.
Strategy: It is a description of the direction an organization will pursue within
its chosen environment and a guide to the allocation of resources. A strategy
also provides the logic that integrates the parochial perspective of functional
departments and operating units and points them in the same direction
Marketing: It is the management process which identifies, anticipates and
satisfies customer requirements (needs and wants) efficiently and profitably
(CIM).
Product: It is a bundle of benefits that satisfies the needs and wants of a customer
(Kotler,1991).Itisoneofthecontrollablevariablesofthemarketingmixreferred

to as tools of marketing, which gives satisfaction to the customer (Jobber, 1995).
It is a package of solutions to problems that are bought, and it comes as though
any item that is tangible with a physical presence, a function to perform and a
symbolic value, it has also got some intangible attributes (Worsam, 1999).
Service: It is any activity of benefit that one party can offer to another that
is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. Its
production may or may not be tied to a physical product (Kotler, 1991).
Promotion: It is a controllable tool of the marketing mix which deals with the
communication between a company and its public – customers, consumers,
employees, etc. (Worsam, 1999)
Differentiation: How an organization or business unit distinguishes itself on
strategic factors.
Operational plan: A plan that takes as a given an organization or business unit
competitiveness and develops the means by which this can be accomplished,
e.g. marketing plan
them present an opportunity for the company to improve its communication
with its customers and the contact points were as follows: Specifications,
Enquires, Orders, Letters and invoices, Instructions Compliments, Briefings,
Repeat orders, Negotiations ,Contracts and sub-contracts, Complaints ,Queries,
Receipts, Requests, Estimates/estimate forms etc.
(iii) Channels:: A channel in promotion refers to a medium through which a
company communicates with its customers. Some examples are the advertising
tools such as the print media, electronic media, etc. These examples are
conventional. However, in the broad meaning of the word channel, other tools
can be cited. The research conducted has shown that the Company has done
little to widen its tool box of communication options. A few notable channels
being employed by the company to reach out to its customers over a distance
include,e-mail, and telephone. These are woefully inadequate.
(iv) Feedback:“With what effect (is the message being conveyed)?” Explaining
thesignificanceoffeedbackincommunicationisimportant.Inordertoascertain
that messages have been received and interpreted accurately and have had the
intended effect, another important element in the communication process is
feedback. Communication is always a two-way process and its effectiveness is
undermined if it becomes one-way, i.e. message only with no feedback. The
Company has not put any effective customer feedback monitoring mechanism
inplace.Theresultsofthestudyfurtherexpoundedthisprobleminthefollowing
ways.
• No marketing research about the company’s customers on the basis of
feedback has recently been conducted. The only available sources of raw
data for reference were invoices, receipts, accounting books, archives of
printing jobs and copies of some finished jobs.
• No steps have been taken to stimulate feedback from customers. Positively
seeking feedback through questionnaires, suggestions, or informal
meetings was not actually part of the company’s culture.
Complaint is an utterance of grievance which must be handled carefully and
passionately so that it does not degenerate into an acrimonious dispute. For
Exorigin Company Ltd, the causes of customer complaints could not be far-
fetched. Indeed, the study has already revealed the major causes of complaints.

(c)Marketing Communities with Customers
External marketing communication, which is about communication with
a company’s external publics including customers, has become a key issue
in the building of competitive advantage. Within the framework of the two-
way communication process, a company gives information to its customers,
and in return, seeks for feedback from the customers. With the increasing
concern of giving the maximum satisfaction to customers, external marketing
communication has assumed a wider dimension. The four essential factors for
consideration in planning external communication with customers are:
• Message /information
• Contact points
• Channels
• Feedback
Using the above factors as measurements for assessing the company, the
following results were obtained.
(i) Message/Information: The Company did well in the use of some
communicational tools like phone calls, through their email etc. to convey
message to their client. Sometimes, information communicated to customer
may not necessarily reflect the situation on the ground. The consequences
were so glaring: misunderstanding between customers and some staff, anxiety
of customers to seek more information after the initial information seemed
not to satisfy them, and therefore, culminating into more referrals. One main
cause was that Senior management preferred that anything that needed to
be done should be asked first even if the staff could handle it making it look
very bureaucratic. In some circumstances, client who wanted prices of some
mere services like coloured printing on all paper sizes needed to be asked by the
employees.
(ii) Contact Points: At any point in time, different customers need different
information. Since information communicated could be technical in nature,
provision of sufficient interaction is needed to ensure that the customer feels
properly informed and valued. Their advocacy is important particularly
because sufficient interaction is a way of improving the effectiveness of
marketing communication. There are several points of interaction which start
the communication process between a company and its customers. The study
on Exorigin Company limited uncovered as many points of interaction. All of
03Methodology
Introduction
The chapter outlines the research approach adopted for the study, the sample
frame and how sample size was determined, sampling technique; tools used
for data collection, data analysis as well as data sources. This section finally
described how field data was made suitable for presentation and analysis and
the tools used for data presentation and also describe the study area.
Population and Sampling Size
The population of the research is Exorigin Company Ltd. The sample size
selected was all the staff of the company and the composition of the sample is
as follows:
• Mr. Adams Selby (C.E.O.)
• Mr. Nicholas Adjei (Managing Director)
• Mr.Courage Komi Amese(Creative Director)
• Mr.Francis Akyin Essel (Creative Artist)
• Mrs.Hannah Badu (Secretary/ Accountant)
Since, the staff is relatively small in number; the whole staff was used to ensure
that information taking from them would be accurate and reliable.

SOURCE OF DATA
Manymethodsavailabletogatherinformation,andawidevarietyofinformation
sources were identified. Data was collected from both primary and secondary
sources. Primary data which was mainly qualitative were captured through the
use of personal interviews and observation. Both methods complemented each
other to confirm the validity of the data. Any interview which was carried out
took the form of face-to-face and one-on-one interview in two ways: formal and
informal. The informal way of interviewing was largely used. Secondary data
was collected using journals, textbooks, handbooks and manuals, review articles
and editorials, literature review, informal discussions with experts, colleagues,
seminars and conferences as well as published guides.
Data on the internet were located using search tools. The World Wide Web was
searched for information. The convenience of the web and the extraordinary
amount of information to be found on it are compelling reasons for using it as
an information source. Search engines such as Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com),
Google (http://www.google.com) and MSN (http://www.msn.com) were used
to access vast information that assisted in the study.
about the company and recommending it to others, they create an awareness
whichisoneoftheaimsofadvertising.Thesecondgroupwasmadeupofsatisfied
secondary customers commonly called agents/middlemen/contractors. They
give printing job contracts to the company to be done on behalf of their clients.
In the process, they also create awareness about the company. Notwithstanding
this positive development, there was also an inhibiting problem that the
company must deal with. This was the word-of-mouth condemnation from the
company’s few dissatisfied customers.
(ii) Company’s Imprint on Printed Products:
This was another way the Company has sought to advertise itself. Clearly, the
company’s imprint consisting of the name of the company itself, its address and
location created awareness about the company to many people who used the
company’s printed products. However, there were limitations. Certain products
could not bear the company’s imprint on them. These included products they
taught was not of quality to portray the company’s image.
(iii) Canvassing By Some Key Employees:
Some of the key employees of the company occasionally went out to sell the
company in order to win contracts. These employees, in the process, are doing
a kind of promotion. However, its impacts cannot measure up with that of the
other auxiliary promotional tools particularly the positive word-of-mouth
recommendations.
(iv) Company’s Other Subsidiary Business:
The company, alongside its main printing services i.e., commercial printing
and trade shop printing, runs another business whereby it acts as a distributor
for some publishing companies like Sam-Woode by selling their products. This
subsidiary business attracted people who otherwise would not have known
the main predominant business of the company. This was clearly fulfilling
one of the objectives of promotion. The effect is that some of the people, who
get attracted, can later become prospective customers to do business with the
company in its predominant printing service. Both the attraction and awareness
can be deepened with the introduction of the suggested promotional materials
− leaflets, brochures, etc. It should be noted that this other subsidiary business
was outside the scope of the study on the company.

Publicity: press releases, speeches, annual reports, charitable donations,
seminars, press kits, sponsorships, public relations, etc.
Clearly, by virtue of the kind of business undertaking of company many of the
numerous of specific tools for sales promotion and personal selling are not
appropriate for the company’s promotional mix, and hence, cannot be applied.
Exhibitions or trade fair shows could, however, be applied. Additionally, a few
others under advertising and publicity could well be utilized by the company.
What is worrying and surprising to note is that the company has not mounted
sign boards at vantage points along Accra -Adabraka. Even though the choice
of tools for the promotional mix is the prerogative of the marketer, certain cost-
effective advertising tools can be used for the company’s promotional campaign.
These include leaflets/handbills, brochures/booklets, stickers, and posters.
These tools can be used to target mass audience with information focusing on
achieving competitive advantage, for example, company’s positioning statement,
company’s unique product benefits. Obviously, there will be no problem with
the production of these promotional materials since Exorigin Co. Ltd does some
printing jobs in-house.
It is important to place on record that the company used at least one advertising
tool; this was its logo which appeared on the company’s van, letter head, receipts
and invoices and some works done for client. Even though logo, can help in
building corporate image, which adds value to a company and its product as well
as in positioning, it is not wholly effective when used in isolation. To reinforce
the impact of logo, other promotional tools particularly public relations must be
used to complement it. This is where the Company has fallen short of.
(b) Auxiliary Promotional Tools Being Used
The study identified four major auxiliary tools being employed by the company
presently to create awareness of its offers and also make business contacts with
new customers. These auxiliary tools may be seen more or less belonging to
advertising. They are the following:
(i) Word-of-Mouth Testimonials/Recommendations:
Positiveword-of-mouthtestimonials,perhaps,wasoneofthemosteffectivenon-
media advertising tool which could have a significant impact on a company’s
customer base. In the case of the Company, there were two groups of satisfied
customers who were engaged in the positive word-of-mouth testimonials. The
first group consisted of existing loyal customers. In the course of speaking well
04Data Analysis And
Discussions
Product
The practice and essence of marketing, seeks to satisfy some identified needs
of customers by offering the right and appropriate products and services to the
customers.
In the printing and publishing industry, the term product is the outcome of
print production which, according to Adams et al (1988), will be determined by
the kind of printing services a company provides. Exorigin Company limited
was established in 2011, in Adabraka near citifm by Mr. Adams selby (C.E.O)
as a private limited liability company. The company originates from Exclusive
Associate been a large company on its own and Exorigin been a sub of it. The
company has only 5 permanent staff including management and the temporary
workers are only contracted when there is a big job. The company is housed in a
one –storey building and has a lot of office space to accommodate big machines
for large operations if the need be in the future but they took the decision to
outsourcebecausetheresourcesarenotavailableinternallytopurchasemachines
that can be used to execute jobs. It also reduces the operating costs in terms
of machine maintenance and extra costs involved in operating the machine;
machine operators, electricity, water, oil and etc., that would have been spent in
maintaining the machines.

Exorigin is into all sort of designing, advertising, marketing,publishing and
printing jobs. The company handles all variety of printing jobs in all colours,
thereby providing typical products such as business cards, receipt books, posters,
letter-head stationery, note pads, magazines, books, booklets, pamphlets,
billboards, labels including foil-stomped ones, souvenirs, leaflets, calendars,
newspapers etc. Thus, the company handles companies, schools and individuals
that need a job to be carried out. During the whole period of the research, the
Company subcontracted other companies for some printing jobs particularly
printing ,cutting, trimming and binding to be done on their behalf whenever
it was beyond their capacity to do so due to the kinds of machines they have
available. •
The company has an iMac (CORE I5,1TB 4GB RAM, 3.2 GHz ), an HP CP
1180N Color Laser Printer, an HP 510 Notebook pc(2.13GHz Core Duo,2GB
RAM) an HP Scanjet Scanner G2410, and a mini polar cutter used in executing
jobs. The company distributes its ICT books, and acts as a distributor for
SamWoode Ltd. and Read wide.
Considering the wide range of products the company renders, it is not out of
place to say that the company has identified many needs to satisfy. However, the
company has not fully reached the peak of specialization in the production of
almost all of the products yet.
The practice and essence of marketing, according to Kotler and Armstrong
(1996), seeks to satisfy some identified needs of customers by offering the right
and appropriate products and services to the customers. Marketing practice
has added service dimension to product; and it has become a critical factor
increasingly recognized as strategic tool for achieving market success. The
research sought to assess the Company’s product by it Quality, On-time delivery
and Cost control
The fascinating results obtained at the end of the study, have been presented
below.
(a) Quality:
The company sometimes delivered products which fell short of the expected
quality. There were a number of reasons which accounted for the shortcoming
in quality. The possible reasons identified by this study have been given below
as follows:
offering of the seller, is influenced by the amount and kind of information they
have about the offering and their reaction to that information.
It is only in the context of effective communication that there can be a guarantee
of information flows between a company and its employees or customers. This is
what promotion seeks to do. The question now to ask is this: How has Exorigin
used promotion? In an attempt to answer this question, the researcher probed
into some pertinent areas of the operations of the company and the results
gathered have been expounded under the following headings.
(a)Promotional Tools for Marketing Communication
The top management of the company was fully aware of majority of the tools that
can be used to advance any promotional activity. However, the company was
not using them to its advantage because of a number of reasons the researcher
gathered. They are presented below as follows:
• The belief that cost of promotion is high; and the company cannot have a
budget to support the huge expenditure.
• The absence of strategic objectives set for competitive advantage that will
warrant the use of intensive promotion.
• The fact that company has already gained a certain level of reputation.
• The on-going word-of-mouth recommendations in the informal way by
some satisfied existing customers.
• The strong management motive of maximizing profit and the belief that
promotional expenditure will be a drain on profit.
At a cursory glance, some of the reasons given seemingly justify the attitude
of the company towards promotion. However, a very closer examination of
this attitude portrays the company as one suffering from marketing myopia.
Promotion itself has its own tools that can be used in a promotional mix. There
are four broad categories of promotional tools – advertising, sales promotion
publicity and personal selling. A few examples for advertising and publicity
have shown below. Advertising: newspaper ads, radio ads, TV ads, internet ads,
packaging, mailings, catalogues, magazines, directories, billboards/sign boards,
display signs, audiovisual materials, posters, leaflets, brochures/booklets, point-
of-purchase displays, symbols and logos, stickers, display signs, handbills, etc.

(i)Signs of satisfied customers:
• The company has a reputation and enjoys the goodwill of some customers.
• There were some loyal customers from among the existing customers.
• Some of the company’s contracts were repeat businesses from existing
customers.
• There were word-of-mouth testimonials/recommendations from existing
customer to new ones.
(ii)Signs of dissatisfied customers:
• Some customers returned finished products back to the company.
• Some customers complained to the company and openly confronted some
staff.
• Some customers showed no sign of repeating business when they were
granted an opportunity to do so.
(b) Customer Service Delivery:
The qualitative data gathered show that in spite of the company’s shortcomings,
it was also doing well in certain aspects of customer service. Those worthy of
mentioning are the following:
• Most of the staff showed empathy to customers when dealing with them.
• There was an appreciable level of staff responsiveness.
Nonetheless, there is still more room for improvement. The company must
harness these capabilities of its staff as a company’s strength and a means of
enhancing customer service delivery.
Promotion
Promotion is one of the 7Ps of marketing available to a marketer to control. This
istheonlymarketingtoolthatisusedtoattractanattention,createawarenessand
to educate the public. “Promotion is communication to the potential consumer.”
The importance of marketing communication is to achieve competitive
advantage and overall its business success cannot be overemphasized. Marketing
effectiveness depends significantly on communication effectiveness. The market
is activated through information flows. The way a buyer perceives the market
• Lack of quality control/monitoring in place, e.g. there was no one
designated as inspector at the company sub contracted to do the job for
them.
• Insufficient skills of machine minders/operators.
• Technical faults of machine.
The essence of quality in creating and sustaining competitive advantage cannot
be understated. The press operators more often than not encountered very
serious registration problems. Either all their effort in trying to get correct
registration became fruitless or they achieved correct registration only at the
expense of scheduled time. In this case, wasted paper and delay of scheduled
work were the prizes. There was absolutely little monitoring and coordination
between prepares work and press work.
(b) On-Time Delivery:
Exorigin Co. Ltd. did not perform satisfactorily by the end of the study. On
many occasions, the time and date scheduled for the delivery of finished jobs to
customers were not met. Customers tend to do business with companies which
fulfill their promise of on-time delivery. Five causative factors were identified to
be responsible for the inability of the company to sometimes fulfill this promise
of on-time delivery to its customers. These are:
1. The companies they outsource from don’t deliver on time due to no
supervision of any of the workers of Exorigin at the company they outsurce
from.
2. Little coordination of production activities.
3. The staff of the company is very small and can’t handle some big jobs and
so they are often behind schedule.
4. Occasionalfailures(i.e.malfunctioning)ortotalbreakdownof machines
especially those in the pressroom.
5. The power cut crisis popularly known as “DUM SO DUM SO” the country
is facing is affecting the productivity of every business. The company has
no stand by generator and such the causes delay in delivery of jobs.
However, effective planning takes control over work scheduling so that work is
completed according to the plan put in place. There were many occasions where
the company started production without effective planning simply because the
company’s newly contracted jobs were apparently similar to other old ones it had

executed before and there are preferential to some clients. It will suffice to say
that the company has overlooked certain factors for consideration in production
planning even though it has in-house supplies of many of the printing materials.
In order to meet contracted deadlines, one aspect of planning production is
scheduling of work efficiently within the limitations of time, equipment, and
human skills”
A careful reflection over the above-mentioned of the identified causative factors
of the inability of the company to meet deadlines gives clear indication of how
the company is downplaying on on-time delivery.
(c) Cost Control:
Undoubtedly, the printer’s ability to control cost for the benefit of the customer
can be used to strategically achieve differentiation in an increasingly competitive
market. By so doing, the printer is exceeding competitors’ offers in the printing
market which has the tendency to easily commoditize if all printers are perceived
to be offering the same benefit. What was the picture like with Exorigin? The
company has not consciously used cost control as part of its product offerings
to customers. The perception of the company’s management which was
gathered by this research was that cost control may have dwindling effect on
the company’s profit margin. An estimate must be made for each job before
executing. A profit must be made and yet the estimate must be low to attract
work in a very competitive market. Meeting this expectation, will go a long way
to win new customers as well as retain existing customers. Customer loyalty
will be strengthened; and a deepened relationship will be established. Thus cost
should be estimated and made known to the client before they commerce with
any work.
“Helping your customers and yourself to save money does not mean you must
cut your price but you can look at ways in which the company and customer
could cut the cost of acquiring a product, possessing and or using the product
/ service.”
Services
Surprisingly,theideaofdeliveryofcustomerservicetothecustomersofExorigin
was very remote to nearly 80% of its entire workforce. The staff practiced
customer service delivery, but did so unknowingly. This picture about the
company hints about a fundamental problem. Perhaps, the picture would have
beendifferentifthecompany’scustomerismadetotakethecentrestageofaffairs
of the company. . As marketing keeps on evolving, the 7Ps can be translated into
7Cs. In the C perspective, therefore, product becomes customer; price becomes
cost; place becomes convenience; promotion becomes communication; people
becomes consideration; process becomes coordination; and physical evidence
becomes confirmation. According to Worsam (1999), the C approach helps a
marketer to more correctly focus on what needs to be provided since customers
value the benefit to them. It is on this basis that the company was examined in
the study on
• How the company is able to meet customer expectations.
• How the company delivers customer service.
In this way, companies poised to creating and sustaining competitive advantage
must necessarily understand the expectations of customers. Below are some
variables a customer uses in evaluating a company’s performance,
(a) Meeting customer Expectations:
Effective communication facilitates the free flow of information to and from the
customer
• Adherence to prepress and press standards
• Additional service (potential product benefits)
• Cost control benefits
• Demonstration of technical support, advice to customers who are novices
• Guarantee of quality
• Dependable schedules and work flows that meet contracted deadlines
• Provision of quotes and estimates based on specifications
• Zero tolerance for breach of contract terms.
Some of these variables have been tackled already by the Company doing well in
meeting customer expectations? The company has both satisfied and dissatisfied
customers but there were more satisfied customers than dissatisfied customers.
The evidences gathered are presented below;

Mini Research Project Work on Empowering Employees and Improving Customer Service

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