Perceived Influence of Integrated Marketing Communication Practices and Brand Performance of Medium and Large Printing Companies in Nairobi

Abstract

The objective of the study was to examine the perceived influence of integrated marketing communication practices and brand performance of medium and large printing companies in Nairobi. IMC is an integral factor in the success of any firm due to ever-increasing levels of competition within industry players. The role played by traditional advertising is acknowledged in driving corporate performance. A role IMC has played by combining all tools of communication mix in creating brand performance. The main objective of the study was to determine the IMC practices used by printing companies within Nairobi and the perceived influence they had on brand performance with brand awareness, brand loyalty and perceived quality being the key measures of brand performance. Questionnaires were distributed to 50 companies out of which 38 responded representing 78% response rate comprising of both medium and large companies. Data was collected through semi-structured questionnaires. The study adopted descriptive cross sectional research design. Data was analyzed by descriptive, correlation and regression analysis. The descriptive analysis indicated that the printing companies used all the IMC tools including advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, public relations, personal selling and social media marketing to promote their brands with personal selling recording the highest mean followed by direct marketing as sales promotion and social media scoring the least means. Descriptive analysis on the brand performance measures indicated that IMC had the highest mean in relation to brand awareness followed by brand loyalty while perceived quality being the lowest. Correlation analysis indicated that there was positive and statistically significant relationship between all the IMC tools and brand performance with more significance on personal selling, advertising and social media marketing. Regression analysis showed that there was strong linear relationship between IMC and brand performance with 77.6% of the performance attributed to IMC. Personal selling and social media marketing were the most significant while public relations and direct marketing being the least significant. For further research, the study recommends a focus into other industries other than printing to establish the influence IMC could have on brand performance. Similarly, other brand performance measures could be considered for inclusivity. The studies could also consider looking into the other print industry players like customers, suppliers and service providers that could widen the scopes of the studies.