THE EFFECT OF INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION ON SALES PERFORMANCE: A CASE STUDY OF SELECTED REAL ESTATE COMPANIES IN ADDIS ABABA

Abstract

Nowadays the Ethiopian real estate industry is in a stiff competition against each other to dominate the market. Integrated marketing communication is a critical approach to enhance the sales performance as companies try to do some more attractive, influencing promotion through various media. The prime motive of the study is investigating the effect of integrated marketing communication on sales performance of selected real estates in Addis Ababa. The study adopted explanatory research design and a total of 241 sample respondents participated from sales and marketing staffs of top ten real estate companies. A convenience non-probability sampling technique was applied to select the targeted respondents. Primary data were collected using self-administered questionnaires for analysis. The result endorses that all the five marketing communication tools such as advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, personal selling and public relations/ publicity had significant effect on overall sales performance. Advertising, sales promotion and personal selling exhibited relatively the highest effects. Advertising marketing messages should be accompanied with event organization and frequent contact of the targeted potential customers to enhance sales volume, sales target and sales growth of the respective real estate companies