MARKETING COMMUNICATION A PANACEA FOR PERFORMANCE IN PRIVATE HOSPITALS IN UYO, AKWA IBOM STATE

The main objective of the study was to examine the effect of marketing communication tools on marketing performance of hospital in Uyo. Proxies for the independent variables were sales promotion, advertising, public relations and personal selling .This formed the basis for the specific objectives of the study. Four research questions and four hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study was carried out among private hospitals in Uyo metropolis. The literature was reviewed under conceptual, theoretical, and empirical frameworks. Survey research design was used for the study and data were obtained with the use of a structured questionnaire from a sample size of 153 respondents which was determined using the Taro Yamen’s formula at 5% margine level of error. The response were accessed using simple random sampling techniques. Data collected were analysed using simple linear regression analysis. It was revealed among others, that personal selling has a significant influence on marketing performance of private hospitals. In table 13, the computed 2-Value (70.3) is greater than the critical value (7.82) at 0.05 level of significance. It is concluded that sales promotion, advertisement, public relation and personal selling influences marketing performance in hospitals. It was recommended among others that, promotion tools should be give adequate preference if any business organisation hope to achieve prompt and effective performance.