Market Positioning Strategies Adopted by the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) of Kenya

Abstract

The Development Finance Institutions today are facing stiff competition from the banks offering similar products and services. For them to survive, it has been necessary to develop positioning strategies to enable them occupy a distinctive place in the minds of the consumers. It is against this background therefore that this study was conducted with the main objective of determining the positioning strategies adopted by Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC). A case study design was used for the study. Primary data was collected using a structured questionnaire and a five point likert scale to determine the extent to which a certain strategy was adopted. 100% response rate was obtained and the data was analysed using frequency tables, descriptive statistics and measures of central tendency. Ranking using mean scores was done to determine the most preferred positioning strategy. The findings indicated that AFC uses various positioning strategies the most popular one being benefit related positioning strategy. The second most practised is place positioning strategy while the third commonest strategy is the use of product characteristics. Price positioning strategy is the least practiced. Further research should therefore be conducted to determine why price positioning is the least preferred.