Bamidele S. Adeleke, Vincent A. Onodugo, Olamide O. Akintimehin, Ruby N. Ike
This study investigates the effect of forward integration strategy on the organizational growth of selected banking and insurance firms in Nigeria. The specific aim of the study is to examine the nature of the relationship between direct marketing and the firm’s profitability. The study utilized a descriptive survey design, and data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire from a sample of 753 respondents who were the staff of twelve selected banking and insurance organizations in south-western Nigeria. The hypothesis was tested with productmoment correlation coefficient at 0.05 level of significance. The finding revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between direct marketing activities and profit growth in the selected organizations. Informed by this finding, the study concluded that there were a limited number of strategic integration moves, especially vertical integration among most of the Nigerian financial organizations. The Nigerian banking and insurance organizations are therefore advised to enhance the personalization of their service to ensure that the existing customers remain locked in and new customers continue to be attracted.