SURVIVAL STRATEGY ADOPTION BY SMALL SCALE RETAIL OUTLET IN NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE 
INTRODUCTION 
BACKGROND OF THE STUDY
Survival strategy involves the development of a well articulated marketing plan for successful introduction of the product into the market. This is not static and would most probably under go refinement and modification in subsequent stages. The marketing strategy deals with the  marketing mix coordination that would be used, the market and the marketing budget.The first section should describe the market size structure, behaviour and the company’s intended share of the market. It should also describe product positioning and the possible project consequent on that.
The second part will develop deeper into the marketing mix component, the planned product quality which follows from the first, the planned price, distribution  and production strategy. This section should also include the marketing budget needed to carry out the strategy. The third- section is a fallout from the previous two it describes the long run sales and profit goals  based on  the first two section.  This is the process that continues through  development stage as new information is accumulated about the product and the market.
Several analytical tools are available to firms  technique risk  analysis and bays tan  decision theory. The key to whether a product should be developed is whether it will find   easily  to sufficient  market acceptance to return a satisfactory project to  its firm what are the expected minimum to maximum sales help determining risk involved.    
FIGURE 1.1.1 FOREIGN EXCHANGE SPENT ON WHEAT AND FOOD IMPORT1981 – 1985                                                                            
Source: Federal Office of Statistics, Lagos was suggested that local bakers rejecting them were doing so our of ignorance, or out of a slavish preference for imported products or whether one accepts the above arguments or not, what has become clear is that the effect of the ban on the importation of wheat was swift devastating on the bakery industry. In Enugu Urban alone, some famous baking houses closed up. Nigerline bakery, St Georges Bakery, many bakeries and Mother’s Pride Bakery all shut down between the middle of 1986 and the end of 1987. As at the time of starting this project, not every  Bakery has resumed operations.  A far more reaching effect on this ban on the industry as a whole is that it has quite clearly changes the eating habits of many Nigerians. Ubiquitous bread on the breakfast table has vanished and the frequent sight of peoples snacking on bread in the afternoon has also disappeared.  The primary demand for bread products in this country has certainly contracted since then. 1.2 
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Such is the background for this study. Most baking houses are small scale business who face the task of devising survival strategies to deal with major changes in government policy that threaten their very existence.         Our focus is on suitable survival strategies for the banking industry given their operating circumstances since 1986. We are interested in finding out how those who are still in business dealt with the new condition in which they found themselves. In particular, we will be looking at the organizational changes, financial management strategies, and other operating techniques that they had to adopt in order to survive.         As for the baking houses that closed down, we shall explore whether there were forces other that the ban on imported wheat that engendered their demise. The study will cover a broad section of the bakeries in Enugu urban. See Appendix A.       
1.3   OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 
In general, the study hopes to take a close look at the baking houses in Enuguu urban since 1986. Specifically it is intended to find out the following: 
(a) What changes have those who continue to operate made in their structure and method of operation in order to cope with the ban?
(b) What new financial arrangement have they made following rising production cost resulting from the ban?
(c)  Have they coped with the sourcing of raw materials?
(d) What new challenges they now face three years after the ban or import flour?  For completeness, it is also necessary to examine the cases of those baking houses that were found to have closed down as a result of the ban. Although there may be problems obtaining information from some of these outfits, whose operating records may no longer be available, an effort would be made to access the general operating state of such baking houses before the ban. This should enable one determine whether such baking houses were already having serious operating difficulties before the ban or whether their extinction is to be blamed on the ban.