Marketing Challenges Facing Retailers in the Cement Industry in Nakuru County

Abstract

The cement industry in Kenya has experienced a growth in the number of cement companies leading to an increase in production a situation will soon occur where supply will outweigh demand. Little attention is being paid to the lower end of the channel that is the retailer who is in constant touch with the end user. The objective of the study seeks to establish the marketing challenges facing retailers in the cement industry in Nakuru county. The researcher interviewed 42 respondents by using a self administered questionnaire using the interview method. The information was tabulated and the frequency and percentages got to determine the intensity and importance of some of the various challenges that were identified by the respondents. The results of the procedure came out with the following marketing challenges; Competition with distributors for the same end users, lack of knowledge in designing and setting up a sales promotion,reduction in purchasing power of end users and constant price wars amongst retailers. The cement companies also presented a number of challenges to the retailers as; failure to offer promotional items, lack of enough advertisements so as to popularise their products, poor quality of packaging material and their failure to send field representatives. Other enviromental challenges facing the retailers are political instability of the area and poor road infrastructure making product distribution a daunting task. The retailers also had a challenge in store layout and location as the outlets were inaccessible with lack of available packing space. Poor display of their items in their outlets the unprofessional manner the staff handled the customers were also a challenge. The other challenge was in how the staff handled the customers as some staff appeared to be unfriendly towards customers. Understanding the challenges facing the retailers will help the manufacturers in trying to address them and this will in turn help reduce the gap that has been there between the two. The research will help the manufacturers be in touch with the market needs of the end users in the increasingly competitive nature of the cement industry.