The impact of advertising on sales volumes of small scale businesses

Abstract

This study examines the impact of advertisement on the sales volumes of small scale businesses with small scale restaurants in Nkozi trading Center, Wakiso district being used as the case study for the research. The need to stay relevant with the customers given the very competitive market in the restaurant industry in Nkozi trading center brings about the need to increase sales to either be able to break even, or earn more profits or even stay ahead of their competitors. This study looks at how advertisement can impact on the sales volumes of those restaurants. Interviews and questionnaires were used data collection and the study was conducted around Nkozi trading center using randomly selected respondents because of limited funds and time. The main questions asked sought to identify and examine types and forms of advertisement available to small scale restaurant businesses, the impact of advertisement on the sales volumes of small scale restaurant businesses, the other factors that affect the sales volumes of small scale restaurant businesses in Nkozi trading center. The findings included the types of advertising media available to the restaurants and it was found that the restaurants used mainly posters, brochures, stickers and giving prizes with the restaurant names on them as these were the most available advertising media to the restaurants. The other finding was that majority of the restaurant’s managers believed that advertisement can have a positive impact on the sales volumes. And also found out the nature of customers the restaurants had as their market identifying customers between the ages of 15 to 25 made up the biggest part of the market. This and other demographics like education levels, marriage status were to be used in the proper understanding of the customers for effective targeting and positioning of the advertisement message along with the product so as to maximize the impact of advertisement on sales volumes.