| dc.description.abstract | The study reported here analyzed the various programs and methods of marketing
orientation that firms in the food industry in Nairobi had adopted. The study also
explored whether firms that had adopted more marketing orientation programs had
better sales growth, The basic premise of the study was that the increases in sales
volumes in the increasingly competitive environment depended to a large extent on the
degree to which the organization was able to apply the marketing concept in its
marketing function. The need for the study arose out of the fact that the food industry
in the Nairobi market was facing saturation and stiff competition from other foreign
imported foodstuffs were flooding the market and seemed to gain more customer
acceptance than locally manufactured foodstuffs. Customer acceptance of imported
food stuffs was due to the fact that foreign manufacturers considered the customer the
focal point of their operations and thus made products that suited a wide variety of
people by diversifying their product range whereas local manufacturers relied more on
a production and product orientation thus making whatever was easier to make and
then selling it to willing customers. The increase in imported foodstuffs brought on by
the advent of liberalization caused the local manufacturers to change their orientation
in order to survive in a market where customers had a wide range of products to choose
from and imported foodstuffs seemed to satisfy their needs more adequately than
locally manufactured products. Nairobi is the most affected by these changes in the
environment because it is the capital city. The majority of the population in Nairobi is
urban, more enlightened and tend to have more often than not changing requirements.
The study was a census survey of all local manufacturing food industries Nairobi.
Data was collected using a structured, undisguised questionnaire and analyzed and
presented using tables, proportions and percentages. In conclusion, the findings of the
study revealed that firms that had adopted more marketing orientation programs did
have better sales growth than those that had less programs | en |
