Positioning strategies adopted by firms that Offer courier services in kenya

Abstract

Positioning strategies are very important and relevant for courier firms in provision of superior services. Being a developing country, Kenya is going through the process of globalization and liberalization of its market and services resulting in intense competition. This has given rise to new business processes, different information flows, and changed policies, new kinds of records, advanced security measures, and new data management methods. The general objective of the study was to identify positioning strategies adopted by courier firms in Kenya. It also established the how these firms develop and use these strategies to sustain their competitive advantage. This study was descriptive employing both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. The target study area was ten courier firms based in Nairobi with 50 respondents from marketing department being interviewed. A self-administered open and closed ended questionnaire was utilized in collecting primary data from the field. Data collected from the field was analyzed using descriptive data analysis and information presented in graphs, frequency distribution tables and figures. The research has successfully explored the adoption of positioning strategies used by the courier firms within the limitation of time and cost. This study indicated that acceptance of the positioning strategies by the decision makers is also critical and therefore there is need for good identification of the customer needs to help in speeding up the adoption of this strategy and avoid rejection of the same. However, limiting aspects such as lack of technical skills, poor understanding of the relevance of positioning strategies by those in the management and poor internal support hinder the implementation. The study recommends that the marketing managers need to sensitize its top management on the values associated with positioning. To ensure the success of positioning the corporate level and other departments must be trained and involved at the development and implementation levels so that they understand importance of positioning strategies for the company as a whole. Lastly the top executives have to support and make enough resource allocation to ensure the success of implementation of these strategies if they are to be competitive in the market.