dc.description.abstract | This study was conducted with the objective of establishing the Market positioning strategies
adopted by Courier companies in Kenya, and the challenges faced by Courier companies in
their attempt to position their services in the market. The study considered the whole
population of Courier companies that are licensed by the Communications Commission of
Kenya to operate in the country of which there were 75 firms as at the time of this study.
Primary data was collected using questionnaires that had both closed and open-ended
questions. Closed questions mainly adopted a five point Likert scale. The questionnaires
were distributed to those in managerial and supervisory positions who were deemed
instrumental in making marketing decisions in the firm and the same were later collected for
analysis having been duly completed by the various respondents. The response rate was
100% of the targeted population. The highest percentage (84%) of the organizations that
responded were locally registered, while a small percentage (12%) are foreign registered, and
the rest (4%) are multinational. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for
Social Sciences (SPSS).
The study revealed that all Courier companies appreciate various positioning strategies. The
findings also revealed that majority of the Courier companies use similar attributes such as
physical evidence and processes, Personnel, distribution, price, and products to position their
services in the market place. From the findings of the study it can also be deduced that
Courier companies have used various positioning strategies to position their services ill
different market segments, but largely to different extents.
The findings also revealed that the extent to which Courier companies use different media
was varied and that all courier companies largely use word of mouth communication. This
may serve to explain the low advertising expenditure in the industry but a high use of sales
people for purposes of gathering market intelligence, a situation that perhaps lends credence
to customer ignorance as cited by majority of the courier companies as a major challenge in
positioning. The findings also revealed that almost all courier companies largely strive to use
easily located points and within close proximity to their customers as positioning strategies to
serve their customers. However, despite most courier companies positioning themselves in
less congested areas and providing mobile services, there seemed to be a wide disparity among respondents as revealed by the findings. The study also revealed that market activity
and target market positioning are moderately utilized by Courier companies.
The findings of the study also revealed that the Courier industry faces the challenge of slow
growth. This is an aspect that poses a challenge more especially to courier companies that
have chosen to serve niche markets whose growth is deemed to be slow, in addition to a high
number of courier companies that are currently operating without licenses that pose a major
threat in the competitive arena. Given that the current study was limited to courier companies
that are registered by the Communications Commission of Kenya, it was recommended that a
similar study be carried out on Non-registered companies in the courier industry to establish
the market positioning strategies that are used by these companies to position their service
offering in the market place. It was also suggested that a similar study be carried out to
establish the perception of customers on the various market positioning strategies that are
used by Courier companies. | en |