The Influence of Socio-cultural Environment on Advertising Campaign by Multinational Companies Operating in Kenya

Abstract

Consumers’ attitudes, preferences, and purchase behavior are influential factors of marketing and advertising strategy. The socio-cultural framework outlines the continuous interaction of cultural and social factors to give us a deep understanding, in this case, its influence on behavior, attitudes preferences, marketing and advertising on consumers. The study’s objective was to establish how socio-cultural environment influences advertising message adopted by MNCs in Kenya. Cross-sectional survey was used in this research. The population of the study was 150 MNCs in Kenya. Simple random sampling method was used to select 75MNC companies in Kenya. Semi structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data. The study used factor analysis to describe the influence of socio-cultural environment on advertising message by MNCs in Kenya. The findings revealed that socio-cultural environmental factors significantly influence advertising strategy of MNCs in Kenya. However, social factors such as family set up, social status and language influenced advertisement strategy at great extent as compared to cultural factors. The study concluded that Social and cultural factors are elements that pervade every sphere of society. It was recommended that global marketers pay close attention to social cultural elements of foreign markets that they are targeting and should not hesitate in devoting resources to better understanding socio-cultural environment of new markets for business success.