Women Involvement in Hand-Made Pottery and Marketing Concept Strategy

Abstract

Hand-made pottery also called traditional pottery is one of the oldest vocations in Nigeria. Unlike other traditional vocations, it has survived competitions arising from modernization of the production process and diffusion of substitutes, such as plastics, porcelain and metallic products. This paper investigated the strategies put in place by the traditional potters to survive competition. It also identified the marketing principles adopted to ensure competitiveness. The relationships between the potters’ age, educational level, years of experience, their perception of and their involvement in pottery business was also determined. Three methods were used namely,  pre-tested structured interview schedule, observation, and focus group discussions were  adopted to gather information from 100 traditional potters that were randomly selected in two major traditional pottery centres  Descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentages were used to analyse the data. Pearson Correlation analysis was also used to explain the relationships between the variables tested. The study revealed that traditional pottery is a prerogative of women in the two centres. Potters adopted marketing concept strategy to gain competitive edge. Majority of potters indicated that foreign alternatives, bad roads, transportation and collapsing of mining pits, to mention a few, were some of the challenges related to their involvement in pottery production. The study concluded that traditional pottery continues to be a major source of employment to rural women. It also concluded that marketing and its principles, more than any other business functions, is critical to the success of every organization.

Keywords: Hand-made pottery, Marketing Concept, Strategy.