| dc.description.abstract | One of the major challenges in the manufacturing industry is the dynamic competitive environment in which manufacturers of Fast Moving Consumer Goods operate. This has compelled manufacturers of FMCG to use various strategies like training and development, cooperative advertising and recognition programs among others to motivate supermarkets to carry their brands. Although manufacturers of FMCG use various strategies to motivate channel members, it is not known which strategies they use to motivate supermarkets to carrytheir brands from the supermarkets' management point of view.
The objectives of this research were to establish what motivates supermarkets to carry Fast Moving Consumer Goods of manufacturers from the supermarkets' management point of view, determine how the supermarkets' management perceive the motivators provided by the manufacturers of fast moving consumer goods in Nairobi and determine the difference in management expectations and the perceptions of the supermarkets' management.
The study was modeled on a descriptive design. The population of interest in this study consisted of 155 supermarkets located in Nairobi. A sample size of 60 supermarkets was used in the study. This was believed to be representative of the population of the study. Primary data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. The questionnaires were personally administered by the researcher to the supermarkets' distribution managers or equivalent. The questionnaire was divided into three parts. Part A contained questions on general information of the supermarket. Part B contained questions on supermarkets' management expectation and Part C contained questions on perception of what is actually done.
Out of 60 supermarkets in Nairobi, 48 filled and returned the questionnaires. The response rate was therefore 80% with a none-response rate of 20%. Most of the
supermarkets maintained that it was against the company policy to give any kind of information to outsiders including researchers. The study was limited to the perspective of the supermarkets' management point of view only. A study can be conducted to find out the manufacturers' point of view on what they perceive as motivators.
The results on experience showed that only expectations on communication, training and development, advertising and promotion support, in-store promotion, nature of work and merchandise advertising were realized by most respondents. Expectations on Incentives, recognition programs, feedback and appraisal and cooperative advertising were the least realized as the level of disparity was high.
Based on the findings it was concluded that the supermarkets' management expectations were high in most aspects of the motivational strategies such as recognition programs, feedback and appraisal, communication, training and development, provision of product and technical information advertising and promotion support, price margins and discounts, in-store promotion, nature of work, cooperative advertising and merchandise advertising. The study also revealed that Price, margins and discounts, training and development and communication were of paramount importance to the supermarkets' management.
It was recommended that manufacturers of FMCG need to look into recognition programs, feedback and appraisal and cooperative advertising. The manufacturersof FMCG should therefore allocate more funds to the dimensions of strategies that had wide discrepancies between expectations and experiences. Manufacturers also need not to allocate funds to strategies that had the least expectations like incentives and the funds be used instead to fund aspects of strategies that had high expectations such as price, margins and discounts, training and development programs and communication. | en |
