The challenges of Nigerian agricultural firms in implementing the marketing concept

ABSTRACT

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, the study traces 30 international marketing
strategies of Nigerian agri-business firms in order to learn whether these firms work today
according to the marketing concept in their attempts to export their products. The second purpose
is to identify gaps between the current international marketing strategy of Nigerian agri-business
firms and the required international marketing strategy that these firms should carry out in five
stages of implementing the marketing concept. Design/methodology/approach - A qualitative
study was conducted by interviewing 30 CEOs and senior managers in five focus groups, in order
to learn more about the difficulties and challenges that agri-business managers in Nigeria must
cope with, while trying to work according to the marketing concept. Findings - Although most
senior managers of leading agribusiness firms in Nigeria are aware and fully understand the
meaning of the marketing concept, there is a major gap between what should be implemented and
what is carried out in practice, mainly because of the structure of the Nigerian market economy.
Originality/value - This pioneering study provides useful knowledge for any agribusiness firm in
Nigeria and other firms in Africa in order to improve their marketing capabilities to gain a
competitive advantage in international markets.

FULL TEXT
Introduction Today, more and more developing economies make enormous efforts to find the
path to market their local goods and products to foreign markets ([34] Zou et al. , 1997). It appears
that this step is very problematic, demands a lot of experience and requires designing a very well-
established marketing strategy (Jan-Benedict and [18] Steenkamp, 2001). Challenges such as
overcoming barriers to trade in industries, country of origin and consumer ethnocentric effects on
product evaluation, cross-cultural incongruence, international delivery of information content,
international market entry decisions, managing demand, standardization versus local adaptation,
product quality considerations, market research considerations and competitive stance, mainly
constrain developing and emerging firms that wish to market internationally ([16] Rajshekhar and
White, 2002). The success of international or multinational marketing firms is based first and
foremost on adapting a marketing concept which is also known as the modern marketing
philosophy ([3] Akaah, 1991). In order to cope with international marketing challenges, many
organizations in developing nations have decided to neglect the production and selling concept
and to adapt the marketing concept. The marketing concept which first emerged in the mid-1950s
in the western world has today become a common marketing philosophy in other regions across
the globe. The marketing concept starts with a well-defined market, focuses on customer needs
and integrates all the marketing activities that affect customers. It turn, it yields profits by creating
long-term customer relationships based on customer value and satisfaction ([10] Kotler and
Armstrong, 2004, p. 13). Although this concept is not new and has operated for almost five
decades, it appears that many manufacturing firms and services organizations around the globe
still have not embraced it, although they are fully aware of its capabilities to achieve superior
performance ([6] Hooley et al. , 1990). Implementing the marketing concept often means more
than simply responding to customers' stated desires and obvious needs. Customer-driven
companies research current customers in depth so as to learn about their desires, gather new
product and service ideas and test proposed product improvements ([9] Kotler, 2003, p. 20).
According to an [2] A.C. Nielsen Report (2006), businesses which still avoid adapting the
marketing concept professionally are mainly in emerging and developing countries such as Africa.
Nowadays, at the onset of the twenty-first century, the importance of the marketing concept is not
in doubt as a means to allow developing and emerging economies to succeed in their unceasing
attempts to penetrate foreign markets. The question that still has to be addressed relates to the level
of willingness of business people and management in Africa to implement the marketing concept
as part of their business management philosophy in order to establish and manage a more
professional and long-term business vision.
The purpose of this study is twofold. First, the study traces 30 international marketing strategies
of Nigerian agri-business firms in order to learn whether these firms work today according to the
marketing concept in their attempts to export their products. The second purpose is to identify gaps
between the current international marketing strategy of Nigerian agri-business firms and the
required international marketing strategy that these firms should carry out in terms of a five stage
implementation of the marketing concept. The role of the agricultural market in the Nigerian
economy. It is a mistake to define the African economy as a single market. This continent is
divided into three distinct economies. The first is the South Africa economy which is considered
to be the dominant one in the continent, with a well-diversified manufacturing base and with a
demand for goods and services that is comparable to the poorer countries in Western Europe. The
second is North Africa where its 200 million residents are differentiated politically and
economically. Some of them are rich and more developed, with many states benefiting from large
oil resources. The third is Black Africa (between the Sahara Desert in the north and the Zambezi
River in the south) of which Nigeria is the largest developing nation ([8] Keegan, 2001, pp. 169-
70). The economy of Nigeria was historically based on agriculture and about 70 percent of the
workforce is still engaged in farming (largely of a subsistence type). Except when oil prices are
low, Nigeria generally earns more from exports than it spends on imports. Other important exports
include cocoa, rubber and palm products. The main imports are machinery, chemicals,
transportation equipment, manufactured goods, food and live animals. The USA is by far its largest
trading partner, followed by China, Brazil, Spain and Great Britain. Nigeria ranks 55th worldwide
and first in Africa in farm output. Agriculture has suffered from years of mismanagement,
inconsistent and poorly conceived government policies and the lack of basic infrastructure. Still,
the sector accounts for over 26.8 percent of GDP and two-thirds of employment. Agricultural
products include cassava (tapioca), corn, cocoa, millet, palm oil, peanuts, rice, rubber, sorghum
and yams ([20] The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia , 2007). In 2003, livestock production, in
order of metric tonnage, featured eggs, milk, beef and veal, poultry and pork, respectively. In the
same year, the total fishing catch was 505.8 metric tons. The agricultural sector suffers from
extremely low productivity, reflecting reliance on antiquated methods. Although overall
agricultural production rose by 28 percent during the 1990s, per capita output rose by only 8.5
percent during the same decade. Agriculture has failed to keep pace with Nigeria's rapid population
growth, so that the country, which once exported food, now relies on imports to sustain itself ([14]
Moss, 2005). An international marketing concept Organizations which strive to market
internationally should work according to the marketing concept.

Implementation of the marketing concept consists of five stages: first, analyze the environment,
second, design a strategic marketing plan, third, fit the structure of the organization to the
marketing objective, fourth, develop effective operational marketing plans and, fifth, control the
marketing program.The first stage of implementing the international marketing concept refers to
the necessity to learn the environmental factors that can influence marketing strategy. Several
environmental factors affect the firm's marketing success in its attempt to penetrate international
markets. According to [19] Terpstra and Sarathy (2000, p. 713), government intervention,
fluctuating exchanges rates and high uncertainty are some of the most meaningful environmental
forces that every organization should take into consideration before entering new foreign markets.
Government intervention may result in more managed trade. In such cases, the firm's government
must be enlisted as a player to obtain support and win market share overseas. Government
intervention may also be defensive, providing subsidies to enable the firm to recover from
overwhelming foreign competition. Firms also need a long-range strategy to cope with exchange-
rate fluctuations, paying heed to short-term transaction effects and also to longer-term competitive
and market portfolio exposure. An environment with increased uncertainty places a premium on
cautious management, one that avoids leverage, shares risk and aims for steady long-term results
rather than attempting to buy short-term market share and manage short-term earnings. Strategic
planning The second stage of implementing the international marketing concept refers to the
strategic planning that the organization must consider, after finding (in the first stage) the typical
characteristics of the international market. According to [7] Jain (1989), the basic orientation of
management toward international business is an important influence on planning. A management
group that assumes that all markets are alike and that their major source of competence and ability
is in the home market is going to pursue a basically ethnocentric approach to multinational
marketing. Conversely, management that assumes that each national market is unique and
therefore unrelated to any other national market is going to pursue a polycentric approach to
international strategic marketing planning because its assumptions demand such an approach. The
geocentric assumption is that there are major differences and important similarities among
markets, and these similarities and differences must be recognized in order to develop an effective
integrated and coordinated international marketing plan that maximizes the profitability of a
worldwide marketing effort. Structure The third stage of implementing the international
marketing concept refers to how the marketer should design the structure of his organization in
order to be able to execute its strategic planning. As a company's international business grows, the
complexity of coordinating and directing this activity extends beyond the scope of a single person.
According to [8] Keegan (2001, p. 630), pressure is created to assemble a staff group that will take
responsibility for coordination and direction of the growing international activities of the
organization. Eventually, this pressure leads to the creation of the international division. The
corporate staff may or may not be involved in the management of international marketing activities
at this point. If the international division is fully developed in terms of staff appointments, there is
a tendency for it to operate autonomously and independently of corporate staff. On the other hand,
if the international division is small and limited, there is a tendency that services such as marketing
research are supplied by the corporate staff organization. The international division structure
occurs in both the functional and the divisional organization. It allows an organization to
concentrate all its expertise in dealing with foreign markets in one headquarter location. In
companies that have the bulk of their sales in a domestic market, this arrangement assures that an
organizational location in the corporation gives its full attention to international markets.
Operational planning. The fourth stage of implementing the international marketing concept is
operational planning. The purpose of this stage is to design a clear marketing strategy that fits the
abilities of the organization and is synchronized with the organization's structure. This stage is at
the heart of the marketing concept and should be designed on the basis of four elements: product,
pricing, distribution and market communication. The product is the key element of the marketing
mix. It must provide an attractive benefit to the customer if the entire marketing mix is to be
successful. Today, it is essential to market the product as a brand to the new foreign market,
otherwise it has limited chances of succeeding ([17] Roth, 1995). The brand must fit the personality
of the customers in the foreign market ([1] Aaker, 1999; [4] Alden et al. , 1999). The greater the
benefit to the customer and the higher the perceived quality of the product compared to its
competitors, the more freedom the marketer has in setting prices. Therefore, the international
marketer must pay attention to those costs from the very beginning of the product development
process, through the production of the product to its eventual recycling ([15] Muhlbacher et al. ,
2006, p. 496). Distribution and communication in the served country markets must be carefully
managed to avoid a negative image for mobile customers who find "their" brands differently
positioned in other countries. It is recommended that at least the core of a brand's positioning must
remain the same across country markets. Local adaptations to different tastes as well as technical
and social norms and varying added features to increase the local attractiveness of a brand must
not endanger the internationally shared core meaning of the brand. Controlling the marketing
program The fifth stage of implementing the international marketing concept is marketing
program control. Companies market internationally to attain certain corporate goals. The purpose
of control is to direct operations to achieve the firm's desired objectives ([19] Terpstra and Sarathy,
2000, p. 662). According to [12] Koontz and O'Donnell (1976, p. 640), the basic control process
involves three steps: establishing standards, measuring performance against the standards and
correcting deviations from standards and plans. An international business study by [13] McDonald
(1992) mentions a number of methods for "integrating" international marketing: standard planning
systems, international product management, marketing committees, international marketing
meetings, task forces, marketing support services, internal marketing publications and rotation of
marketing personnel. In addition to regular reporting, specialized techniques exist for evaluating
marketing performance. Marketing channels are typically inefficient in developing countries and
Nigeria is no exception ([5] Barrett and Mutambatsere, 2005). Two of the most noteworthy are
distribution cost analysis and the marketing audit. Distribution cost analysis is a technique for
analyzing the profitability of different parts of the marketing program. Through comparative
distribution cost studies of markets, international marketers can recognize weaknesses in
marketing programs and find solutions to recommend for markets having problems. The marketing
audit is a methodical examination of the total marketing effort, often by an outside expert ([11]
Kotler et al. , 1989).

Study Method : Since the purpose of this paper was to examine the international marketing
strategies of Nigerian agri-business firms to discern their chances of succeeding in foreign markets,
a qualitative approach was adopted owing to its to obtain first-hand descriptions of some specified
domains of experience ([26] Haley, 1996; [27] Hastings and Perry, 2000). The value of a
qualitative approach, such as focus groups, has become more evident in management research
(Halman et al. , 2003; Macdonald and Sharp, 1996; Verhoef et al. , 2002), to gain insight into
phenomena not easily understood through quantitative measures ([25] Grace and O'Cass, 2002).
The data used in this study were obtained from managers who attended the workshop, Strategy,
Marketing and Management Developing New Projects and Products in agri-business, held at the
Maizube Abu-Turab International Training Center for Agriculture and Rural Development in
Minna, Nigeria during January and February 2008. The main instrument for data collection was a
focus group. Focus groups are used across a wide variety of fields, of which marketing is one ([29]
McDonald, 1993; [32] Nelson and Frontczak, 1988). In marketing research, focus groups are used
to learn more about the potential of marketing programs from the managers' point of view ([31]
Morgan, 1996). Since the purpose of this study was to identify gaps between current international
marketing strategies of Nigerian agri-business firms and the required international marketing
strategy that these firms should adopt with regard to the marketing concept, the focus group method
provided insights into the sources of complex behaviors and motivation of management ([30]
Morgan, 1993; [28] Kidd and Parshall, 2000).
This method is the only one that creates interactions that offer valuable data on the extent of
managers' perceptions and diversity of opinions ([30] Morgan, 1993; [33] Osborne and Collins,
2001). The purpose of the workshop was to help senior managers of agricultural Nigerian firms
market their products outside the country to other West African nations. The participants of this
seminar came mainly from three areas: Lagos, Abuja and Minna. The researchers, who also
handled the workshop, conducted five focus groups in which top-level managers and CEOs of
Nigerian agricultural firms were asked to participate. In order to manage the focus group study in
the most professional manner, only 30 managers who had international marketing experience were
asked to participate. The 30 participants were divided into five groups according to their expertise
in agricultural products: the first focus group participants were those who work in the honey
business (five participants), the second focus group participants were those who work in the
cassava and yam business (seven participants), the third focus group participants were those who
work in the fish business (five participants), the fourth focus group participants were those who
work in the corn and rice business (six participants) and the fifth focus group participants were
those who work in the business of tropical fruits, such as pineapples, papayas and melons (seven
participants). Each focus group took between 60 and 90 minutes and each group was asked the
same questions. In order to learn about the marketing approach that these senior managers adapt
and implement in their attempt to market their goods and products to foreign markets, the
researcher based his research on [8] Keegan's (2001) conceptual framework questionnaire for
international marketing concept. This questionnaire contains 13 questions divided into five aspects
(Appendix). The aim of question no. 1 was to learn about the managers' knowledge with regard to
the foreign markets that they wish to penetrate in terms of political, economic, social and
technology environmental factors. Questions nos 2-10 were intended to examine the capabilities
and the readiness of the managers to enter new markets. In question no. 11, the managers were
requested to describe the willingness and readiness of their organization to be able to market their
products internationally. The idea here was to learn about the staff and the personnel who were
going to manage this new project in order to achieve its objectives. In question no. 12, the managers
had to describe how they planned to develop effective operational marketing plans given their
assessment of the market environment, the objectives and the structure of the organization. In
question no. 13, the managers were asked to present what steps that should be taken to bring actual
and desired results together.

Findings: During the five focus groups sessions, participants were encouraged by the researchers
to provide answers to 13 questions which reflect the five stages of the implantation of the
marketing concept. First stage: environmental analysis. The results of the five focus groups
revealed similar patterns between how managers in the honey and fish industries handled their
international marketing strategies and similar patterns between how managers in cassava and yam,
corn and rice and tropical fruits handled their international marketing strategies in terms of
environmental analysis. The results of the first focus group, which included managers who
specialized in producing honey and the third group, which included managers who specialized in
fish, indicated that these managers properly analyzed environmental factors. The honey managers
claimed that their attempts to market honey to foreign markets was totally based on analysis of
government intervention, fluctuating exchanges rates and high uncertainty. As the honey managers
put it: In the honey industry, the competition is so intense, that you cannot succeed in any foreign
market without learning its environmental aspects. We know that an environmental analysis helps
us to identify a certain business opportunity. When you identify one, then you can start working
towards a marketing plan. In addition, the fish managers were able to say whether the Nigerian
Government supported this business strategy, and. if so, in what ways and what resources it was
willing to invest and subsidize local companies that wished to export. In contrast, the other three
groups of managers could not provide any substantive information regarding political, economic,
social and technology environmental factors in their marketing plan. One of the tropical fruits
manager's words were: My firm does not work in that way. Since it is not so easy to collect
information about our environmental foreign markets aspects, we prefer to focus on our product
and ensure that it has good quality and if it’s so then we believe that our chances are much better
than firms that make all these analysis but actually cannot provide a product with good quality
standards. Similar ideas were heard from the corn and rice managers who said: In our business,
it is very rare that marketing managers will invest time and effort in learning the environmental
forces, since we all tend to think that we know it quite well.

Second stage: strategic planning : only the honey and the fish managers made an effort to plan
strategy. These managers knew the person in their organization making decisions with regard to
international marketing. They defined their target markets on the basis of demographic and
geographical aspects. They could estimate the size of their target market and note very vividly the
uniqueness of their products for the target market in comparison to their competitors. In addition,
it appeared that these managers knew perfectly well what was required of them in terms of
extending, adapting or inventing the marketing aspects. They could also evaluate the chances of
success of their products in foreign markets, and they were aware of the currency situation of their
target markets. The most interesting expression as to the seriousness of the strategic planning stage
came from the fish managers who said: How can you expect a firm to succeed without having
answers to questions such as what is the target size of the foreign market? And what are the firm's
major strengths and weaknesses? These are the most basic questions that any organization must
give clear answer to them before it enters any market, local or foreign. In comparison to these two
manager groups, the other three showed very limited knowledge regarding these questions. The
corn and rice managers' explanations were this: In our industry it is not common to invest so much
money in marketing efforts to obtain the answers to these questions. We are not a German or a
Swedish firm; and therefore we cannot afford to adopt their marketing approach that plans for the
long-term. Most Nigerian firms fail because they are designed to plan for the shortterm and not
more than that. This probably can be as a result of a lack of cooperation between the authorities
and the farmers and this reflects the necessity of the government and the authorities to educate
agri-business firms in Nigeria to work closer and constantly. The tropical fruits' managers claimed:
We tend to manage our work in a way were we don't work by the book. Our strategies are more
based on what we used to do in the past, and we do not tend to make any meaningful changes.
Basic aspects such as target size and consumer benefit are not tested profoundly and therefore we
are all aware that our chances to go to international markets are very limited.

Third stage: structure With regard to structure, the honey and fish managers knew how to structure
the organization optimally to achieve their objectives. In other words, they claimed that
management allocated the right people with experience in export. The fish managers' explanation
was this: We fully understand that foreign markets differ from local markets. We refer to them as
two different markets. This thought assists us to cope professionally in foreign markets and in
some cases even to be more favorable then very-well known manufacturers. The other three
manager groups failed to provide answers that reflect a real understanding of coping with strategic
planning. In practice, the cassava and yam, corn and rice, and tropical fruits sectors do not have a
special person to handle foreign market activity. The same people who specialize in marketing
products in the local market are responsible for marketing abroad. It appears that they do not have
any experience or the right qualifications. The cassava and yam managers' explanations were this:
We expect to get some assistance from the government since this stage is considered in our point
of view to be the most important one. We feel that this stage is a real pitfall that we can't overcome
by ourselves.

Fourth stage: operational planning With regard to operational planning, it seemed that in practice
these managers had lots of pitfalls in marketing their products to foreign markets. They all failed
to brand their products and differentiate it. They made very basic attempts in terms of marketing
mix to market their products. Although they identified the advantages of their product versus other
competitive products, they did not succeed in translating them to action. They claimed that they
were mainly focused on two marketing aspects: offering a good price and finding intermediaries,
whereas they did not pay enough attention to the branding aspect, which was becoming more and
more essential, and they completely neglected advertizing. Evidence for this failure came from the
cassava and yam managers: We were not even aware of the necessity to differentiate our products
based on non-functional product aspects (non-tangible). For us a brand means a product that has a
superior quality. Notions such as brand culture and brand personality (that were raised during the
focus group session) were things that we haven't heard about. In addition, the honey managers
claimed: Honey became a much branded industry during recent years, but there is a real gap
between what we need to do in order to compete in international arena and what we do carried into
practice.

Fifth stage: controlling the marketing program With regard to controlling the marketing program,
it appeared that the managers of the five groups did not know when changes to their marketing
program were required. Moreover, they did not implement well-established strategic planning in
terms of measuring performance. In other words, these managers did not have clear indicators to
test their marketing strategy results. The reasons for this situation were best expressed by the fish
managers: We are aware that we do not do everything in the most appropriate and professional
way, but we really do not have enough knowledge about the way we should monitor and measure
our marketing strategies and decide if they were successful or not. We do work according to
feelings and experience that we gained over the years and it is very difficult for us to change this
to a new system. It appears that most of the managers of these 30 firms tend to evaluate the success
of their marketing program in terms of sales and loyalty. However, when they were asked about
how they measure success they said: Loyalty means for us satisfaction from our intermediaries.
We do not analyze the level of this satisfaction or loyalty, but as long as we get more invitation
and the intermediaries would like to work with us, this is a good sign and a reason to pursue with
this strategy. In general, the five focus group sessions revealed that there was very little knowledge
about the marketing concept and its implementation For example, the marketing plans of the 30
senior Nigerian managers of agricultural firms lacked mainly the brand image aspect and therefore
they did not have the tools to gain a competitive advantage. They also were not aware of the
necessity to work with very clear performance standards and therefore succeeded only partially in
capturing international markets. In comparison to these two groups of managers (honey and fish
industries), the three other groups (cassava and yam, corn and rice and tropical fruits) gave a much
more negative description of their attempts to implement a marketing concept in their efforts to
enter international markets. Their main problem was that they claimed they knew what had to be
done in order to work according to the marketing concept but in practice took short cuts during all
five stages. On the basis of this limited marketing approach, they made many mistakes and instead
of stopping and examining their mistakes they preferred to move on to the next stage, since they
worked from the assumption that any foreign market that would agree to buy their products may
be a future opportunity that they could not afford to miss. Therefore, they just concentrated on
entering the new international market with the belief that after having entered the market they
would later on be able to cope with any difficulties as they occurred. These managers described
only some of the aspects that they had to consider, such as avoiding a fundamental environmental
analysis and focusing only on the demographic or geographical aspect. They completely
disregarded some of the main strategic planning aspects, such as finding the customer benefit from
the new product, defining the size of the target market, focusing on the organization's major
strengths and weaknesses relative to the existing and potential competition in target markets, and
which of the three strategic plans - extending, adapting or inventing was required in each
international market. Another severe drawback was their limited marketing strategy that was not
based on a comprehensive scope but rather on a shallow scope that referred mainly to distribution
aspects. To sum it up, these managers' claims focused on the fact that the Nigerian Government
did not sufficiently encourage export and specifically did not support exports by agricultural
businesses. The managers pointed out that the Nigerian market structure limits businesses to
market internationally because of excess bureaucracy. In addition, it seems that there is a lack of
knowledge in the governmental units that are in charge of promoting trade with foreign markets.
These limitations reduce and damage the abilities of agricultural businesses to ensure professional
implication of the marketing concept.

Conclusions: This study examined the international marketing approach of Nigerian firms that
succeeded or failed to export their agricultural products from the point of view of their abilities to
implement the marketing concept carried into practice. The findings of this study offer several
insights regarding the limitations of Nigerian firms to implement the marketing concept in their
businesses. The first one refers to Nigerian Government units that are in charge of export, and the
second one refers to Nigerian agricultural firms. With regard to the Nigerian Government, it is
essential that the government units that are in charge of export, by means of knowledge and
support, make much more effort to promote agricultural firms that wish to export. It is required
that these units supply assistance to agricultural firms from the first step until entering the foreign
market. In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Commerce should find some
solutions to reduce the bureaucracy that prevents these firms from succeeding in their attempts to
export their products. With regard to Nigerian agricultural firms, it is recommended that those
firms that specialize in cassava and yam, corn and rice and tropical fruits should adopt the
marketing concept on a long rather than a short-term perspective. In other words, these managers
should avoid moving ahead with their international marketing strategy if beginning stages of the
marketing concept have not been implemented. Each stage should provide concrete answers to the
questions that relate to them. In contrast to these firms, the businesses that market honey and fish,
should invest more in branding and promotion in the operational planning stage. They must ensure
that their products are branded to the foreign markets and not sold as commodities. Therefore, they
must create a unique image for their brands that is based on brand personality and not just on
functional characteristics (the quality or size of the product). Another severe problem that should
be solved relates to the inadequate performance controls that managers operate in practice. In order
to ensure better results in terms of international marketing strategy, these managers must adopt
more advanced standards, such as distribution cost analysis and the marketing audit. Agricultural
Nigerian firms that base their international marketing strategy on the five stages framework of the
marketing concept will increase their chances to export their products rapidly and ensure better
financial outcomes in the long-term. Limitations and future research. A number of limitations of
the current study must be kept in mind when interpreting the research findings. First, the current
study examined only five fields/products in the agricultural industry, while there is a necessity to
examine additional ones. Second, the sample size of 30 representatives of agricultural companies
is relatively small. This reflects the difficulties of conducting international marketing research in
a developing country. Third, there was no direct comparison between Nigerian agricultural
managers to other African nations. On the basis of these three limitations, it seems that research of
agricultural businesses in Nigeria should be deepened and compared to other West African nations
and to other African countries. In addition, a comparative study that traces the way agricultural
businesses manage their marketing strategy in terms of international scope must be made, in light
of this or other measuring techniques or frameworks of international marketing performance.