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

The purpose 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 that follow. A total of 323 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents cutting across consumers of various categories of products in the Nigerian manufacturing sector including employees and government officials of business regulatory agencies in the 36 States of the six geo-political zones of the Nigerian Federation including Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. The study adopted simple random sampling technique to select the sample of the study. The study was analyzed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square and multiple linear regression analysis and qualitative descriptive method to help in achieving the research objectives. The study revealed that changes brought about by the environment are caused by several macro-environmental factors such as economic, technological, socio-cultural, legal/political and international factors which have significant effect on consumers’ buying characteristics (social, cultural, personal and psychological) which subsequently affect consumers’ satisfaction and purchase decision. Economic and legal/political variables were found to exhibit the most significant impact while the technological variable exhibits the least impact.