Effects of integrated marketing communication strategies on attraction of generation y customers in commercial banks, Kenya

Abstract

Generation Y has become the main target of most companies mainly because this group forms a large proportion of demographic segment of consumers with high spending power. Commercial banks in Kenya have continued to use the traditional print and electronic media to create awareness of their products and services. The purpose of this study was to establish the effect of integrated marketing communication strategies on attraction of generation Y customers among commercial banks in Kenya. The study was hinged on the attribution theory and AIDA model. This study utilized a descriptive research design to gather and analyse data. In this study, the population consisted of 43 commercial banks licensed by CBK and that have been in operation during the period 2012 to 2016. Semi-structured questionnaires were employed to collect data from the management staff in the commercial banks. The use of questionnaires is the generally applied approach when respondents are accessible and are ready to respond appropriately. In this study, the questionnaires consisted of structured as well as unstructured questions. The unstructured questions allowed the respondents to communicate their thoughts and behavior in line with the research questions. The data was collected from marketing manager or the equivalent in each commercial bank. The questionnaires were distributed by use of drop-and-pick later method. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Version 24.0). After data cleaning, descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, mean score and standard deviation were estimated and information was presented in form of frequency tables and figures. The qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis and presented in narrative form. Multiple regression analysis was used to establish the relationship between variables. The study found that advertising positively and significantly affected attraction of generation Y customers, that sales promotions positively and significantly affected attraction of generation Y customers, that public relations positively and significantly affected attraction of generation Y customers, that direct marketing positively and significantly affected attraction of generation Y customers and that personal selling positively and significantly affected attraction of generation Y customer. The study concluded that direct marketing had the greatest effect on attraction of generation Y customers followed by advertising, then personal selling while sales promotions had the least effect on the attraction of generation Y customers. The study recommends that commercial banks should adopt online or digital marketing strategies like adoption of social media marketing, that the banks should weigh carefully their sales promotion strategies and hug on the significance of advertising their products and services in order to position themselves in the versatile operating environment and that banks should organize open days as well as carrying out charity works.