Marketing Strategies as Predictors of Book Sales Performance of Educational Publishers in Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Marketing strategies are crucial to the sales performance of educational publishers. The study examined the extent to which marketing strategies affect book sales performance among educational publishers in southwestern Nigeria. The survey method was adopted.  The population of the study comprised the 54 educational publishing firms in southwestern Nigeria. Two states – Oyo and Lagos – were purposively selected because of their high concentration of publishing firms while the 36 publishing firms located in Lagos and Oyo states were randomly selected. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. Three hundred and sixty-one sales representatives were sampled for the study, and 219 (60.6%) were returned. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s Product-Moment Correlation, and multiple regression analysis. It was discovered that market penetration (r = 0.17; p < 0.05) and market development (r = 0.18; p < 0.05) were the most significant predictors of book sales performance, while product development (r = 0.32; p > 0.05) was not significant. The study recommended that publishers should adopt multi-channel marketing, leverage digital platforms, and enhance promotional efforts to remain competitive in the evolving educational publishing industry.