Marketing oriented strategies adopted by Kenya Airways Ltd in foreign markets

Abstract

To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, no study had been done on the foreign market strategy adopted by Kenya Airways. This was despite its success in establishing networks in many nations of the world. This study therefore sought to fill the gap in literature by investigating the foreign marketing strategies adopted by Kenya Airways. This was a case study since the unit of analysis is one organisation. This was a case study aimed at getting detailed information regarding the strategies adopted by Kenya Airways Limited in foreign markets. The researcher used both primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected using self-administered drop and pick interview guides while secondary data was collected by use of desk search techniques from published reports and other documents. The respondents of this study were the senior staffs, who include top, middle and lower level managers working at Kenya Airways ltd. The interview guides were self administered to give the respondents time to respond to the questions at their convenience. the completed questionnaires were edited for completeness and consistency. A content analysis was employed. The study found that the company involved in international indirect exporting through domestic intermediary, direct exporting which involves exporting via foreign intermediary; sales and/or collaboration joint venture; sales and/or manufacturing subsidiary; and licensing and franchising. From the findings, the study concluded that the success of foreign market is influenced by export knowledge, commitment, technological superiorities of the exported products and external support programmes such as government assistance influenced. The study also concludes that the foreign market strategies employed by company are use of global marketing strategies shown, sourcing strategies, research and development, sales and customers’ service, high level of market orientation, marketing research, promotion and advertising, new products development practices and manufacturing operations. This study therefore recommends that in order to ensure competitive advantage in the foreign market, Kenya Airways should ensure that they have the export knowledge, they are committed and they should have the technological superiorities of the exported products/services which in earlier studies was found to have a positive relationship with success.