Ethical Marketing And Customer Satisfaction In Telecommunications Companies
[A CASE STUDY OF MTN, NIGERIA]

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The existence of more than four companies in the Telecommunications industry in Nigeria has brought about competition where each company wants to secure and protect its market share. This therefore has prompted them to use different marketing strategies tools in an attempt to increase sales revenue. These companies’ continued reliance on different marketing strategies stem from the fact that while it is easier to assess the short term efforts of marketing. MTN Nigeria like any other company has engaged in marketing strategies like applying fair pricing, promoting standard products and services, preaching honesty and integrity for example in mobile money where you do not have to pay money to the agent for depositing so as to remain successful in an ever increasing competitive business environment. Despite of heavy investment in marketing MTN has not achieved its targeted sales performance, for example the targeted  sales of 2017 were 50 Billion and the actual sales was 44.87 Billion which indicated a deficiency in the actual sales (MTN Performance Report, 2017). This may be attributed to the company’s marketers who have often been accused of certain vices such as employing dubious means to sell products that people do not need. They are also accused of embarking on misleading and untruthful advertising, exaggerating products benefits and promotional activities that have seen the company lose its market share among the public to Airtel the smart phone network. The loss of the market share may be attributed to customer dissatisfaction as well as the challenges of brand proliferation, brand obsolescence, sales of fake and inferior products since buyers are always selective in their choice of alternative expenditures. While no corporate organization and individual marketer would accept these unethical behavior to be deliberate, it has cost the company lots of monies in lost sales. It is against this background that a study was necessary to examine the relationship between ethical marketing and customer satisfaction in the telecommunications industry of Nigeria.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between ethical marketing and customer satisfaction in the telecommunications industry in Nigeria with focus on MTN Nigeria.

1.4 Study Objectives

The study was guided by the following objectives;

1. To establish how ethical pricing influences customer satisfaction in MTN Nigeria.

2. To examine the relationship between the integrity of marketers and customer satisfaction in MTN Nigeria.

3. To establish the extent to which ethical advertisement affects customer satisfaction in MTN Nigeria.

1.5 Research Questions

1. What is the influence of ethical pricing on customer satisfaction in MTN Nigeria?

2. What is the relationship between the integrity of marketers and customer satisfaction in MTN Nigeria?

3. To what extent has ethical advertisement affected customer satisfaction in MTN Nigeria?

1.6 Hypotheses

H01: There is no significant relationship between ethical pricing and customer satisfaction in MTN Nigeria.

H11: There is a significant relationship between ethical pricing and customer satisfaction  in MTN in Nigeria.

H02: There is no significant relationship between integrity of marketers and customer satisfaction in MTN Nigeria.

H12: There is a significant relationship between integrity of marketers and customer satisfaction in MTN in Nigeria.

H03: There is no significant relationship between ethical advertisement and customer satisfaction in MTN Nigeria.

H13: There is a significant relationship between ethical advertisement and customer satisfaction in MTN in Nigeria.