THE CHANGING NIGERIAN MARKETING ENVIRONMENT: AN ASSESSMENT OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR, GOVERNMENT ROLE AND CRITICISMS

1. Introduction

It is very important for marketers to understand the changing nature of marketing environment in which they operate as some of the changes may bring about opportunities while others may bring about threat (Kotler, 2001). Managers must see marketing as a total system which must respond to environmental changes. Marketers take the major responsibility of identifying significant changes in the environment. More than any other group in the company, marketers must be trend-trackers and opportunity-seekers, they must always be finding ways to adapt to both internal (micro-) and external (macro-) changes that normally occur in the environment (Kotler and Caslione, 2009).

Successful marketers try to pay due attention to the importance of marketing environment as some internal factors such as budgeting and internal company policies related to the marketing mix elements are controllable while other external factors such as changing government policies, political scenario, economic condition, socio-cultural nature, competitive force, technological advancement, demographic force and changes in consumer preferences are not under the control of the management. Hence, the strategic planning process must evolve in line with the changing nature of the environment so as to provide the needed satisfaction to customers more effectively and efficiently than other competitors.

Scholars believed that the core ideology for marketing is customer/consumer satisfaction (Rao and Singhapakdi, 1997). The customer is the sole reason organizations exist (Cochran, 2006). In the modern world, customer becomes much more important for the firms. For this reason, the study of consumer behavior becomes very important. Marketers try to understand the impact of several micro- and macro-environmental factors so as to help in realizing the needs of different target groups of consumers by making effort to understand their behaviors with a view to identifying those factors that will help in influencing consumers’ purchasing procedures (Khan, 2007).

However, in Nigeria today, marketing of goods and services has witnessed significant changes due to the advent of new technologies and other factors which reshape marketing activities that provided significant benefits to consumers. In spite of the benefit, enough attention has not been paid to the challenges these changes have posed for consumers in Nigeria, making it more difficult for them to tap the maximum benefit. This is due to the incessant abuses by marketers and the lack of effective supervisory roles of government agencies which have been criticized by the consumers for not doing enough in coming up with adequate policy measures to deal with the situation.

It is for these reasons that the study was conducted with the main objective of examining how the continuous changes in the macro-marketing environment affect consumer behavior in Nigeria. The specific objectives are to (1) analyze the extent to which the changes in the macro-environment affect the Nigerian society; (2) assess the role of government in helping consumers adapting to macro-environmental changes in Nigeria; and (3) examine the criticisms of the role of government in protecting the Nigerian society from the abuses of marketers arising from these changes. To this effect, some research questions in line with the objectives of the study were asked.

The study provided answers to the research questions. This study is similar to the ones by East et al. (2008) who studied the impact of cultural factors on consumers’ buying behavior and Khan (2007) who investigated the factors influencing consumers’ purchasing procedures. Ogunro’s (2014) study was on “Nigeria’s business environment: Issues challenges and prospects” and Adeoye and Elegunde (2012) investigated the “Impacts of external business environment on organisational performance in the food and beverage industry in Nigeria”. The above studies are limited in scope as they did not study the changing Nigerian marketing environment with an assessment of consumer behavior, government’s role and criticisms, which this study was designed to accomplish.

The study will focus on five macro-environmental (external) factors namely economic, legal/political, socio-cultural, technological and international factors without focusing on the demographic and competitive factors. They are part of the major uncontrollable factors affecting any marketing system (Kotler and Keller, 2006). The study will also focus on the five common factors influencing consumer’s behavior, namely marketing campaigns, economic condition, consumer’s personal preference, group influence and purchasing power. The study will further assess the roles of the government regulatory agencies such as Consumer Protection Council (CPC), National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), etc. saddled with the implementation of key business regulatory issues aimed at ensuring the societal well-being including the critiques of government’s roles toward a better Nigerian society. The study which will be of immense benefits to government, customers, students, researchers and marketing organizations who might want to use the findings and recommendations to improve on their general marketing practices in Nigeria, will focus on the period from 2010 to 2017. This seven-year period witnessed massive changes in Nigeria’s economic landscape through the infusion of several legislations which are reshaping business activities in Nigeria.

The study is organized in five sections. Section 1 introduced the problem statement, research questions and objectives of the study. Section 2 provides a review of related literature on the changing marketing environment and dimensions of consumer behaviors. Section 3 presents the research methodology, explaining the adopted research design, sampling technique and instruments/tools for data collection and analysis including hypotheses development and statement. Section 4 presents data analysis, results and discussion. Finally, the conclusions and recommendations are presented in Sec. 5.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Marketing environment

Marketing environment of any organization is composed of forces or institutions surrounding an organization that affect the performance, operations and resources, especially the satisfaction of target customers (Albright, 2004). Marketing managers must constantly assess the marketing environment as it is crucial for their survival and achievement of their long-term economic goals. A sound knowledge of the customer requirements is an essential ingredient for a successful business (Hoyer and MacInnis, 2011). For this reason, companies should consistently monitor their marketing environment. The marketing environment is continuously changing, as it consists of a number of unpredictable forces which surround the company (Kotler, 2001). Therefore, marketing managers must engage in environmental scanning and analysis through which they can identify extant environmental patterns and could even predict the future trends (Kotler et al., 1990).

2.2. Changing Nigerian marketing environment

The changing nature of the Nigerian macro-marketing environment has been rapid and unpredictable. Many companies have been devising several strategies to cope with the changes which have serious implications for marketing practice in Nigeria. Economic variables are complex in terms of their impact on the marketing practice in Nigeria. Frequent changes in the federal government’s reform measures aimed at revamping the ailing economy, harnessing the available domestic and external resources toward the attainment of economic development and growth and to meet the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerian citizens, did not achieve the desired result due to inconsistent changes in business policy which affect marketing activities in the country. This has continued to be affecting the performance of the Nigerian manufacturing sector; the Nigerian economic sector as a whole has grossly underperformed in relation to its potentials thus making it difficult for both manufacturers and consumers to survive the turbulent environment (Adeoye and Elegunde, 2012).

Consumers and clients have been showing complex behaviors arising from the dynamic changes, resulting in changes in the consumer needs, wants and intentional demands and desires, perceptions and test with significant effect on the total consumer satisfaction. The most significant of these entire components are the influences which organizational policy and strategy might have on the entire macro- and micro-environments with greater impact on the consumers (Duncan, 1972; Grant, 1999). The activities in organizations are affected by both the situations within the organization and also those within the larger society or environment in which they operate. Currently, the Nigerian marketing environment is perceived to have rarely exceeded in complexity, turbulence and rapid changes. All Nigerian organizations (large or small) must pay greater attention than ever before to their environments when formulating and implementing policies and strategies in order to survive and grow (Otokiti and Awodun, 2003). Today, the performance of Nigerian marketing companies is predicated majorly based on some macro-environmental factors such as demographic, socio-cultural, legal, political, economic, technological, competitive and international factors (Obiwuru et al., 2011). These changes which have direct impact on the overall functioning of marketing activities in Nigeria, have affected both marketers and consumers either positively or negatively, forcing some of the companies to wind-up and consumers to remain dissatisfied which had attracted lots of criticisms from some Nigerians. This paper will focus on the effect of these changes on consumer behavior and the resultant criticisms on the role of the government.

2.3. Consumer behavior

Kotler (2001) defines consumer behavior as those actions of individuals directly involved in obtaining and using economic goods and services including the decision that precedes and determines the act, while Lake (2009) sees consumer behavior as the actions a person takes in purchasing and using products and services including the mental and social processes that precede and follow those actions. Priest et al. (2013) define consumer behavior as the process whereby individuals decide on whether, what, when, where, how and from whom to purchase goods and services. Durmaz et al. (2011) define consumer behavior as a study of the buying units and the exchange processes involved in acquiring, consuming and disposing of goods, services, experiences and ideas. This definition focuses on buying units in an attempt to include not only the individual but also groups that purchase products or services.

2.4. Environmental influences on consumer behavior

Fig. 1 presents an adopted simplified framework for studying consumer behavior (Durmaz et al., 2011). As can be seen in the figure, the broken lines indicate that these factors influence and in turn are influenced by each other. The various factors percolate from the external to the individual determinant, to finally influence the decision process. The figure indicates that factors affecting consumers in the Nigerian context are divided into four groups namely cultural, social, personal and psychological as discussed below.

2.4.1. Cultural influences

It is defined as a complex sum total of knowledge, belief, traditions, customs, art, moral law or any other habit acquired by people as members of a society. Our consumer behavior (i.e. the things we buy) is influenced by our background or culture. In Nigeria, different emphases are given by different cultures for the buying, usage and disposal of products. People in Nigeria have a certain style of consumption of food, clothing, savings, etc. which differs from those from other parts of the world such as Europe, Asia, Americas, etc. Therefore, in this study, culture and sub-cultures are considered to be among the most important factors influencing consumer behaviors and satisfaction in Nigeria.

2.4.2. Social class

Social class refers to the group of people who share equal positions in a society. In Nigeria, social class is defined by parameters like income, education, occupation, etc. Within a social class, people share the same values and beliefs and tend to purchase similar kinds of products. Their choice of residence, type of holiday, entertainment and leisure all seem to be alike. The knowledge of social class and their consumer behavior is of great value to a marketer. Behaviors of individual consumers in Nigeria are influenced by family group and members of reference groups such as the political groups, work group and study groups, service organizations like the Rotary Clubs, professional/work group, opinion leaders, etc. The behavior of a group is influenced by other members of the group. An individual can be a member of various groups and can have varied influences by different members of the groups on his consumption behavior.

2.4.3. Personal influences

Each individual processes the information received in different ways and evaluates the products in his own personal way. This is irrespective of the influence of the family, social class, cultural heritage, etc. His own personality ultimately influences his decision. He can have his personal reasons for likes, dislikes, price, convenience or status. Personal influences go a long way in influencing purchasing behaviors of consumers. Consumers are also influenced by other factors such as national or regional events like the Olympic games, cricket test matches, World Cup and many others.

2.4.4. Psychological influences

Consumer behavior is influenced by psychological factors such as motivation, perception, learning, beliefs and attitudes. All these factors affect the buying behaviors of consumers with significant impact on the marketing performance as understanding, analyzing and keeping track of consumer behavior are very critical for a marketing department to retain their position successfully in the market place.

2.5. Empirical studies

Several studies have been conducted to explain the impact of changing marketing environment on consumer behavior, particularly those focusing on the family concept. Various studies (e.g. Ali and Batra, 2011; Sheth and Parvatiyar, 2001; Moschis and Mitchell, 1986) have investigated the role of family in the purchase decisions. Ali and Batra (2011) examined the impact of children on parents’ buying decisions regarding children- and family-related product groups. Results established the influence of children on parents’ buying decisions to be dependent on some demographic variables like gender and age of children and the parental profession. Moschis and Mitchell (1986) tested the effects of television advertising and interpersonal communication on teenagers’ consumer behavior. The effect of such communication processes on teens is evaluated with reference to the household decision-making. One of the hypotheses tested was about the peer communication and it was exposed that consumption is positively related to the most dependent measures in terms of product ownership or the request to purchase some products. It is revealed that the more frequently an adolescent interacts with his/her peers about the consumption patterns, the more likely he/she is to play a major role in mentioning the need of the products. Sheth and Parvatiyar (2001) have drawn attention to consumer behavior literature and suggested that consumers engage in relational market behavior due to personal social norms, peer group pressures, government mandates, religious beliefs, employer influences and marketer policies.

2.6. Hypotheses development and statement

The hypotheses development is presented accordingly in line with the stated research objectives, as discussed below.

Since the main objective of this study is to examine how the changing Nigerian marketing environment affects consumer behavior with emphasis on the role of government and the criticisms of government that follow, the following arguments are presented and will subsequently lead to the development of our hypothesis.

Environmental scanning is a prerequisite to the constant changes in the marketing environment which affects consumer behavior (Kotler et al., 1990). Kotler et al. (1990) argued that any company that wishes to remain competitive in the environment must be involved in the observation and examination of primary and secondary sources of information, including online content from business, trade, media and the government, through environmental scanning to enjoy competitive advantage as those involved are likely going to understand the changing environments and respond to consumer needs effectively. Thus, since constant changes in the marketing environment affect consumer behavior, we hypothesize the following.

When discussing the “marketing environment” we must consider both the external and internal environments (Kotler et al., 1990), as the two components of the environment can affect any marketing system with resultant effect on company performance and the society at large. In view of the evidence of the existing relationship between both macro- and micro-environments and the society at large, we hypothesize the following.

Critics such as Akpan (2003) and Agbonifoh and Iyayi (1999) were particularly of the view that successive governments in Nigeria have not done a lot in helping consumers toward adapting to macro-environmental changes brought about by the constant changes in government policies, as it affects the business activities in Nigeria. It is for this reason that the study hypothesizes the following.

3. Methodology

The study is a survey research design with significant combination of being descriptive, explanatory and exploratory in nature. First, we seek to describe the reality regarding the effects of the changing Nigerian marketing environment on consumer behavior and assessment of government role and the criticisms that follow, making it descriptive. Second, the study seeks to establish the relationship that exists between some specific environmental and consumer behavior variables, making it explanatory. Third, an exploratory study is a valuable means to find out what is happening, to seek new insights, to ask questions and to assess the phenomena in a new light (Robson, 2002). Therefore, this study is exploratory as it looks into the changing Nigerian marketing environment by assessing the consumer behavior, government role and criticisms. In addition, this study employs a pilot study to test the validity and reliability of our research instruments which reinforces its exploratory nature. Furthermore, the study combines the use of both qualitative and quantitative data; the qualitative data were the survey data used to measure the changing Nigerian marketing environment and some aspects of consumer behavior variables, while the quantitative data was used to measure some of the economic growth variables as they affect the Nigerian society. A dichotomous variable on a scale of 0–1 was used in this study to convert qualitative data into quantitative data for analysis.

The study targeted a population of 1,678 respondents cutting across the 36 States in the six geo-political zones of the Nigerian Federation including Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. A sample size of 323 was however arrived at using the Taro Yamane sample size. A non-probability purposive sampling technique/judgmental sampling was used in distributing the questionnaires. Data were collected from both primary and secondary sources. The primary data was gathered using questionnaires with five-point Likert scale administered to marketing practitioners (owners, managers/executives and employees), consumers/customers of various product categories and marketing intermediaries such as wholesalers, retailers, agents and distributors/dealers including the government officials of business regulatory agencies in Nigeria. The secondary data were obtained from text books, Internet materials and official government documents from business regulatory agencies and stakeholder organizations such as CPC, NAFDAC, SON and different consumer rights groups. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square and regression analyses (correlation coefficient) to test whether the formulated hypotheses are in line with the objectives of the study.

In this study, efforts were made to ensure credibility in terms of validity and reliability, which are determined using Cronbach’s Alpha reliability test. Content validity and construct validity were used to validate the structured questionnaire instrument by administering 33% of the questionnaires to experts in the field of marketing, management and consumer behavior. All the items measured indicated high reliability of 0.76 which is above the minimum cut-off thumb mark.

4. Results and Discussion

4.1. Response rate

Table 1 presents the response rate. From the table, of the 323 questionnaires distributed, 300 were returned completed and 23 were either returned incomplete or unusable — generally because the respondents did not provide the needed information as enunciated in the objectives of the study. In total, a 93% response rate was achieved. It is acknowledged that the response rate is relatively high; this is in view of the fact that the changing Nigerian marketing environment is having a serious impact on consumer behaviors particularly, as it affects their buying decisions, which makes it an interesting area of research study for them to comment on.

As can be seen from Table 1, marketing practitioners (owners, managers/executives and employees) and their customers/consumers of various product categories (consumers and industrial products) including marketing intermediaries such as wholesalers, retailers, agents, distributors/dealers and some officials of government business regulatory bodies and stakeholder agencies which cut across various locations in the six geo-political zones of the country, responded in the study. The 36 States including FCT covered in the six geo-political zones of the country include: the North-Central which comprises Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau and the FCT (Abuja); North-East comprising Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe States; and North-West (Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara States). Others include South-South (Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo and Rivers States), South-East (Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States) as well as the South-West (Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo States).

Table 1 indicates that customers/consumers, marketing practitioners and marketing intermediaries in Nigeria’s manufacturing sector completed and returned the larger percentages of the questionnaires which accounted for 37% (111), 32.7% (98) and 23.3% (70) of the completed questionnaires, respectively. Officials of government business regulatory bodies and stakeholder agencies like CPC, NAFDAC, SON and different consumer groups completed the least number of questionnaires with 7% (21) of the total responses. The implication of these findings to the study is that the right categories of respondents who are competent to contribute to the subject matter were targeted in the study thereby providing opportunities for stakeholders to contribute to the discourse.

4.2. Characteristics of respondents

Table 2 shows the characteristics of respondents. As can be seen, information on six different characteristics of respondents that are relevant to the study was collected and interpreted. Information on respondents’ gender, age, marital status, educational qualification, occupation and designation was collected to help in our analysis. From the table, majority of the respondents (103 or 34.3%) are over 35 years old with those in the ages of 56 years and above constituting a lesser percentage (32 or 10.7%). This, no doubt, would further justify our results since most of the responses were presumed to be emanating from those age category with the necessary requirement to contribute to the subject matter.

Table 2 also shows that the males constituted majority of the respondents with 56% (168), while females formed the least number of respondents constituting 44% (132). In the same table, the marital status of the respondents indicates that those who are married constituted 53% (159) of the respondents, while the singles accounted for 47% (141). The closeness of the percentage of the analysis shows that the changes brought about by the Nigerian marketing environment are not only an issue that affects the behavior of a particular gender, but also an issue that affects both genders.

The education levels as shown in Table 2, are evenly distributed. Virtually, all the respondents were educated, with 32% having at least a bachelor’s degree certificate and 25% have their post-graduate degrees. Diploma holders were 12%, while others with certificates other than the ones mentioned earlier (at least education up to post-secondary level and those with HND and doctoral levels of education) were 31%. These statistics further indicate that most of the respondents had higher education, while a relatively small number had at least high-school education necessary for the respondents to have an informed knowledge on those issues of changing Nigerian marketing environment affecting consumer behavior.

Table 2 also shows the occupation of the respondents. From the table, the respondents are either from the public sector or from the private sector. This includes civil servants (83 or 27.7%), taxi/truck drivers (29 or 9.7%), students of secondary and tertiary institutions (66 or 22%), professionals such as academics, doctors, pharmacists and construction engineers as well as armed forces and paramilitary officers (53 or 17.7%). Others include operators of small- and medium-scale enterprises such as vulcanizers, factory workers, carpenters, communication and oil and gas marketers, manufacturers, etc. (69 or 23%). The implication of this finding to the study is that the target respondents are people involved in different kinds of occupations who earn wages and are with the required income level to have portrayed a given behavior after purchase of a particular product or service.

Table 2 also shows that the designations of respondents cut across various cadres, i.e. occupied by all types of staff of the regulatory organizations. Those who responded included management staff such as directors and deputy directors (108 or 36%), middle-level staff such as principal officers (98 or 32.7%) and low-level staff (clerks, messengers/cleaners and drivers) who constituted 31.3% (94) of the total responses. This implies that there is a balanced investigation of the subject matter cutting across all cadres of employees in the regulatory bodies.

4.3. Descriptive statistics on how constant changes in the macro-environment affect consumer behavior in Nigeria

Table 3 shows the descriptive statistics on how constant changes in the macro-environment affect consumer behavior in Nigeria. Each variable under the study has a Likert scale of 1–5 ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. Respondents were asked to describe how the constant changes in the Nigerian marketing environment affect the behavior of consumers with respect to five different variables under study.

From Table 3, the minimum and maximum values for the level of agreement on how economic changes affect consumer behavior are 2 and 5 and the mean and standard deviation are 4 and 1.302, respectively. The result shows that there were a variety of opinions on that variable and the high standard deviation (1.302) signifies that the data are widespread. Statistically, a high standard deviation implies that the agreement on the opinion that economic changes such as inflation, employment/unemployment, recession, etc. affect consumers, particularly through those social change processes which result in better infrastructure, better jobs and enhanced consumer purchasing power for improved consumer well-being and increased standard of living, is very high. The study found out other areas of influence to include consumer purchasing and spending patterns such as the wealth per capita, discretionary income, industrial development, currency restrictions, balance of payments, leave of imports/exports and fluctuations in interest and foreign exchange rates, among other issues.

The score for adoption of cutting-edge technology ranges from 1 to 5 and the mean and standard deviation are 3.71 and 1.265, respectively. The result shows that there were a variety of opinions on that variable and the high standard deviation (1.265) signifies that the data are widespread with varying opinions. Statistically, a high standard deviation implies that the agreement on the adoption of cutting-edge technology such as the use of the Internet infrastructure and new technology has transformed marketing which is having a serious effect on consumer behavior in the areas of purchases and customer satisfaction, is also very high. The study found out that the use of cutting-age technology helps to improve customer services through different channels of information and communication technologies (ICTs) mix such as websites, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat which are being used by marketing and public relations executives for customer engagement and a wide array of mobile applications featuring pre-arrival information, that are being used by many consumers.

The score of socio-cultural factors ranges from 1 to 5 and the mean and standard deviation are 3.73 and 1.382, respectively. The result shows that there were a variety of opinions on that variable and the high standard deviation (1.382) signifies that the data are widespread. Statistically, a high standard deviation implies that the agreement on the opinion that consumer behavior is deeply influenced by socio-cultural factors such as reference groups, family, role and social status, personal and psychological factors, is very high. The study found that members of reference group influence purchase decisions made by consumers. Those primary groups found to exert a degree of influence include opinion leaders, professional groups, church group, family members, classmates and immediate relatives, while the secondary influential groups consisting of neighbors and acquaintances were also found to have a greater influence on the purchasing decisions of consumers in Nigeria. The study also reveals that at the personal level, consumer behavior is also influenced by various shades of motivation, perception, likes, dislikes, priorities, morals, values, beliefs, attitudes, lifestyles, traditions and norms, among others.

The score of legal/political factor changes ranges from 1 to 5 with a mean of 3.95 and a high standard deviation of 1.282, implying that government business legislations, particularly in the areas of employment laws, minimum wage laws, health and safety laws, zoning regulations, environmental protection laws, consumer protection laws, tax laws, etc., have significant effect on consumer behavior. The study found out that compliance with these laws helps in influencing consumer’s behavior positively, while the lack of compliance with government laws affects consumers negatively. The political changes show that political risks from governmental actions (such as the passage of laws, increase in operating cost and devaluation of currency or constraints in the repatriation of funds) and non-governmental actions (such as kidnappings, terrorism, insurgency, communal and religious conflicts, etc.) adversely affect the behavior of consumers. The study further reveals that political instability makes the environment unstable for any business activity to thrive, as successful business activity can only be conducted under a peaceful and stable environment. The study shows that when the environment becomes unstable, it would result in closure of companies and factories thereby affecting production and consumption which might result in a hike in price to the detriment of consumers.

Finally, the result of international factor changes affecting consumer behavior also shows a variety of close opinions with a mean of 3.72 and a high standard deviation of 1.372, implying that international factors such as government laws affecting businesses, language and currency barriers have serious effect on consumer behavior. The findings reveal that most consumers in Nigeria proceeding with international marketing with neighboring West-African countries and other foreign nations, encounter problems of language and currency barriers, as well as different business regulatory issues affecting marketing activities in those countries.

However, based on the results summary, it is quite obvious from the mean results (variables 1–5) that all the targeted respondents agreed that constant changes in the macro-marketing environment are caused by several environmental factors such as economic, technological, socio-cultural, political/legal and international which have significant effect on consumers’ buying characteristics (social, cultural, personal and psychological) that affect consumer satisfaction and purchase decision. These findings are consistent with the research finding of Khan (2007) who found out that macro-environmental factors have significant impact on consumer behavior.

4.4. Descriptive statistics on the extent to which changes in the macro-environment affect the Nigerian society

Table 4 is descriptive statistics showing the extent to which changes in the macro-environment affect the Nigerian society using several variables (1–5) measurement as described by different targeted groups of respondents cutting across the six geo-political zones of the country. As can be seen from the table, the minimum and maximum values for the level of agreement on changes in the macro-marketing environment which result in unethical marketing practices in the Nigerian society are 1 and 5 and the mean and standard deviation are 3.84 and 1.268, respectively. The result shows that there were a variety of opinions on that variable and a high standard deviation (1.268) signifies that the data are widespread. Statistically, a high standard deviation implies that in a bid to cope with the environmental changes, marketers in Nigeria are involved in some unethical marketing practices that are deceptive, exploitative and dangerous to human life which negatively affect consumers and the society as a whole.

Table 4 also shows that improvement in socially responsible actions which affect standard of living ranges from 1 to 5 with the mean and standard deviation of 3.62 and 1.361, respectively. The result shows that there were a variety of opinions on that variable and a high standard deviation (1.361) signifies that the data are widespread. Statistically, a high standard deviation implies that socially responsible actions by marketers result in improvement in the standard of living of Nigerians, particularly in the areas of provision of quality products at reduced cost, payment of wages, payment of dividend to owners/shareholders as well as assistance to immediate environment such as sponsorship of major events, construction of classroom blocks and provision of basic amenities such as roads, power, health facilities, etc.

Table 4 also shows that marketers take some actions that may be favorable or unfavorable to consumers which come with forms of acceptance or resistance, with a score ranging from 1 to 5 and the mean and standard deviation of 3.63 and 1.372, respectively. The result shows that there were a variety of opinions on that variable and a high standard deviation (1.372) signifies that the data are widespread. Statistically, a high standard deviation implies that some of these changes that impact positively, particularly in the areas of creation of more job opportunities, cost reduction and increased profitability, were considered worthwhile and accepted, while negative changes resulting in retrenchment, hike in prices of goods or raw materials and decline in profit and possible closure of factories, were also agreed to be affecting the society negatively.

Table 4 also shows that changes in the environment can impact on the level of economic activities within the society. The score ranges from 1 to 5 and the mean and standard deviation are 3.60 and 1.262, respectively. The result shows that there were a variety of opinions on that variable and a high standard deviation (1.262) signifies that the data are widespread. Statistically, a high standard deviation implies that the levels of economic activities such as savings, consumption, gross domestic product (GDP), income, etc. significantly affect the Nigerian society, particularly in the areas of growth and development. Environmental pollution in the course of marketing activities, like air pollution, land pollution and water pollution, resulting in huge wastage of solid, liquid and gaseous substances that are dangerous to habitat (humans and animals), was found to have a negative impact on the Nigerian society. Also, excessive materialism like the excessiveness in individual needs for flashy cars, exotic furniture, expensive homes, etc. results in social vices such as prostitution, armed banditry, kidnapping, advanced fee frauds (419), cybercrimes, bribery, corruption and other economic and financial crimes which are retrogressive for societal development. These findings are consistent with the findings of Beal (2000) who reported that the changing environment of marketing can have a serious impact not only on consumers but also on societal relationships, especially the ability to build and maintain successful relationships with members of the society.

4.5. Perception on the role of government in helping consumers adapting to macro-environmental changes in Nigeria

Table 5 shows that respondents (63 or 21%) were of the view that government plays the role of business legislation which helps consumers in adapting to changes through adequate laws of promoting, protecting and safeguarding the rights and interests of Nigerian consumers. The table shows that those who perceive that provision of supports/incentives such as subsidy to marketers on selected imported items, tax holiday, SME financing, low interest rate and other forms of support helps to reduce cost of production and lower prices of commodities to the benefit of consumers, constitute 15% (45). Other respondents (51 or 17%) were of the opinion that government’s regulatory agencies help consumers to adapt to changes through the fight against unwholesome practices by marketers, while those who believe that the regulatory bodies help by enhancing consumer well-being account for 9.7% (29). Majority of the respondents (112 or 37.3%) attributed it to all the identified contributions. This is in line with the research findings of Ndubisi et al. (2016) who found out that Nigerian government plays a significant role in the protection of Nigerian consumers through adequate government laws which rid the society of unethical practices.

4.6. Perception on the criticisms of the role of government in protecting the Nigerian society from the abuses of marketers arising from these changes

Table 6 presents the percentages of responses on the criticisms of the role of government in protecting the Nigerian society from the abuses of marketers arising from these changes. From the table, it reveals that like in most developing countries, the role of government had remained at the lowest ebb in spite of the prevalence of unwholesome business practices, as some of the agencies (48 or 16%) were criticized for being ineffective and inefficient in the discharge of their supervisory role due to laxity and lack of commitment, while others (44 or 14.7%) criticized government for the lack of enforcement of stiffer penalties to deal with unethical marketing conduct in Nigeria.

Corrupt tendencies such as bribery and corruption, collusion and the syndrome of get-rich-quick which accounts for 17.3% (52) were also part of the criticisms. Some (35 or 11.7%) attributed the problem to inadequate government funding which affected the effective functioning of all the business regulatory bodies in Nigeria. Finally, majority of the respondents (121 or 40.3%) identified all the factors as the major cause for poor performance of all the business regulatory agencies in Nigeria which affect the economy and general societal well-being. This is in line with the research findings of Oyewobi et al. (2011) who found that the spate of unethical business practices in Nigeria was as a result of poor supervisory role by relevant regulatory agencies of government, inadequate funding and corrupt activities bedeviling the Nigerian society.

4.7. Test of hypotheses

In testing the hypotheses, the statistical test adopted is correlation/regression analysis and Chi-square as can be seen in Tables 8–12, respectively.

4.7.1. Pearson correlation analysis

The Pearson correlation analysis results obtained for the scaled variables are summarized in Table 7. The sample size ($N$) is 300 and the significant level is 0.01 ($p=0.01$). Pearson correlation coefficient was used to determine the extents of the effect of constant changes in the Nigerian marketing environment (CME) on the five environmental variables, namely socio-cultural (SC), technological (TE), economic (EC), legal/political (LP) and international (IT) as presented in the table.

The results reported in Table 7 show that SC ($R=0.653$, $p<0.01$) is significantly related to changes in the Nigerian marketing environment (CME). It means that increase or decrease arising from SC will bring about a corresponding change in consumer behavior. From the table, TE is also significantly related with CME ($R=0.570$, $p<0.01$). A statistically significant impact was also established between EC and CME ($R=0.582$, $p<0.01$). Similarly, the table shows that LP and IT are also significantly correlated with CME ($R=0.543$, $p<0.01$; and $R=0.458$, $p<0.01$), respectively, suggesting that LP and IT have significant impact on CME. It is evident from the results summary as reported in Table 7 that a change in any of the studied variables namely socio-cultural, technological, economic, legal/political and international factors will lead to a resultant change in the behavior of consumers in the Nigerian marketing environment which will have a consequent influence on both the consumer satisfaction and marketing organizations, as well as on the economy as a whole.

4.7.2. Regression results

A regression analysis using SPSS to determine the effects of the dependent variables on the independent variable was performed, and the results are presented in Tables 8–10.

The results shown in Table 8 demonstrate that the coefficient of determination, i.e. the adjusted $R^2$, is 0.502, which indicates that about 50.2% of variation in the data on the constant changes in the Nigerian marketing environment is explained by variation in the data on the extent of the effect on consumer behavior.

As can be seen in Table 10, all the variables had significant positive regression weights, indicating that the aforementioned variables were expected to have higher impact on consumer behavior. In other words, these variables considered in the study contributed to the multiple regression models. Specifically, the socio-cultural, technological, economic, legal/political and international factors have significant positive weights, $t$-values and $p$-values ($\beta =0.165$, $t=5.050$, $p<0.001$; $\beta =-0.156$, $t=-4.496$, $p<0.001$; $\beta =0.627$, $t=10.963$, $p<0.001$; $\beta =0.167$, $t=3.731$, $p<0.001$; and $\beta =0.164$, $t=4.403$, $p<0.001$), respectively. This indicates that all the variables contribute to the multiple regression models.

Hence, the regression equation emerges to be very useful for making predictions since the value of adjusted $R^2$ is closer to 1. Hence, at 5% level of significance and 95% confidence level, the data provide sufficient evidence to conclude that constant changes in the Nigerian marketing environment significantly affect marketing activities and consumer behavior, in particular, as it becomes a useful predictor of consumer behavior. Supplementary evaluation of the contribution of each variable in explaining the variation in the model was done based on the standardized coefficient results; for instance, the economic and legal/political variables were found to exhibit the most significant impact, while the technological variable exhibits the least impact, as they all have stronger contributions with beta coefficients of 0.627, 0.167 and 0.164, respectively. The implication of this finding is that most marketing organizations in Nigeria are affected by the environmental changes either positively or negatively with consequent influence on consumer behavior and their general performance.

Table 11 shows that the Chi-square value of 195.13 is significant; this implies that changes in the macro-environment have significant effect on the Nigerian society as it affects the society positively or negatively in the areas of economic development such as provision of employment opportunities, infrastructure, corporate social responsibility, products quality, etc. which result in improvement in the standard of living of members of the society. The study also found out that the macro-environment has a significant effect in the areas of societal problems such as exploitation due to the get-rich-quick syndrome, corruption, excessive materialism, environmental pollution, etc., which is detrimental to consumer satisfaction and societal well-being.

Table 12 shows that the Chi-square value of 163.233 is significant; this implies that government plays a significant role in helping consumers adapting to macro-environmental changes in Nigeria through the activities of its regulatory agencies that are helping through various forms of legislations which help to ensure a balance between buyers and sellers in the marketplace and effectively carry out their responsibilities to promote, protect and safeguard the rights and interests of consumers in all areas of goods and services for the betterment of the society.

4.8. Major findings

The study found out that constant changes in the macro-marketing environment are caused by several environmental factors such as economic, technological, socio-cultural, political/legal and international environments which have significant effects on consumers’ buying characteristics (social, cultural, personal and psychological) that affect consumer satisfaction and purchase decision. This effect may be positive or negative in nature.

On the extent of the effect of macro-environmental changes on Nigerian society, the study revealed that, in a bid to cope with the environmental changes, marketers in Nigeria are involved in some unethical marketing practices that are deceptive, exploitative and dangerous to human life which negatively affect consumers and the society as a whole. The study found out that the levels of economic activities such as savings, consumption, GDP, income, etc. significantly affect the Nigerian society, particularly in the areas of growth and development. Environmental pollution in the course of marketing activities, like air pollution, land pollution and water pollution, resulting in huge wastage of solid, liquid and gaseous substances that are dangerous to habitat (humans and animals) was found to have a negative impact on the Nigerian society. Also, excessive materialism like the excessiveness in individual needs for flashy cars, exotic furniture, expensive homes, etc. results in social vices such as prostitution, armed banditry, kidnapping, advanced fee frauds (419), cybercrimes, bribery, corruption and other economic and financial crimes which are retrogressive for societal development.

Furthermore, findings based on the role of government reveal that majority of the respondents were of the view that government plays the role of business legislation which helps in promoting, protecting and safeguarding the rights and interests of Nigerian consumers through adequate laws, provision of support/incentives such as subsidy to marketers on selected imported items, tax holiday, SME financing, low interest rate and other forms of support which reduce the cost of production and lower the prices of commodities to the benefit of consumers including the fight against unwholesome practices by marketers which help in ensuring sustained consumer well-being.

Finally, on the criticisms of the role of government, the study reveals that like in most developing countries, the role of government had remained at the lowest ebb in spite of the prevalence of unwholesome business practices, as some of the agencies of government were criticized for being ineffective and inefficient in the discharge of their supervisory role due to laxity and lack of commitment. Others criticized the government for the lack of enforcement of stiffer penalties to deal with unethical marketing conduct in Nigeria, as well as corrupt tendencies such as bribery and corruption, collusion and the syndrome of get-rich-quick among the government officials, and inadequate funding which affected the effective functioning of all the business regulatory bodies in Nigeria.

5. Conclusion and Recommendations

The study concludes that since the changes in the environment might bring about opportunities while others might bring about threat, constant analysis of the environmental factors and identifying their consequent influence on consumer behavior are key to sustainable competitive advantage; thus, environmental scanning and analysis are a prerequisite to successful marketing practice.

In view of the above findings, we make the following recommendations:

This study had made three unique contributions to the study area. First is the observation that there are not enough studies on the changing Nigerian marketing environment: an assessment of consumer behavior, government’s role and criticisms was made and added by this study to the existing body of knowledge. Second, the study identified those environmental factors (macro-factors) influencing specific consumer characteristics. Finally, the study contributed to the understanding of the dynamic nature of marketing environment and its consequent influence on the Nigerian society as a whole.

5.1. Suggestions for further studies and limitations

Following the contributions of this study, we challenge other researchers to continue to investigate the field to ascertain the effect of the changes on micro-environment or on both the macro- and micro-environments in Nigeria. Furthermore, studies of similar nature could be conducted by researchers to investigate the influence of consumer behavior on the Nigerian marketing environment. These clearly are other interesting areas for future research. However, our study is limited to small number of samples (drawn from some States of the Nigerian Federation as against the proposed 36 states including FCT) due to time and resource constraints. Also, there were not enough responses on the criticisms of the role of government from government officials on most of the areas of criticisms; this is due to their inability to freely comment on the issues raised for fear of disciplinary measures that might follow and their attendant consequences to them. The use of more samples and adequate responses on the observed criticisms would have helped better in achieving the objectives of the study, as well as adding more validity and reliability to the research outcomes.