Internal marketing strategies and the growth of new products within insurance firms in Kenya

Abstract

This research was conducted to establish the influence of internal marketing strategies on growth of new products within insurance firms in Kenya. The paper assumed a descriptive enquiry design with the theoretical population for the analysis consisting of forty (40) registered insurance companies headquartered in Nairobi but with operations in Mombasa County. The study targeted the top-level executives, line managers and crossdepartmental employees to enable collection of representative data. Primary and secondary data was gathered and utilized to generate both qualitative and quantitative data. The quantitative data was examined using descriptive data analysis where data obtained from the questionnaires was processed via editing, coding and keying into the processor using SPSS. From these data, it emerged that low growth of insurance products in Kenya is indeed a factor of minimal application or total absence of internal marketing strategies that are instrumental in motivating employees who are the internal customers of the firm. The study concluded that employees in the insurance industry were keen on motivation, training and development as well as empowerment, attributes that are key in making them competent and armed with the vital skills to dispense insurance products to the external market. The study recommends that insurance firms apply internal marketing strategies in order to provide an enabling environment for employees to thrive and stay motivated to propagate the company’s product offerings with value addition to the external customers. Focus on registered insurance firms was considered a limitation as more information could be gathered from other distribution channels hence, the study suggested a further investigation incorporating all the distribution channels of insurance products that is, the brokers and agencies to enable comprehensive findings with all stakeholders’ contributions taken into consideration.