Market penetration strategies used by Essar telecom Kenya (Yu)

Abstract

Market penetration seeks to maintain or increase the market share of current products of a company. This can be achieved by a combination of competitive strategies like pricing, advertising, sales promotion and dedicating more resources to personal selling. Market penetration seeks to secure company dominance of the market. For a company to grow its market share and sales volume, it is important that the company looks at the ways of increasing the usage and consumers of its products. The purpose of this study was to identify market penetration strategies by Essar Telecom Kenya Limited. The study adopted a case study design which is the most appropriate in the investigation of the market penetration strategies by Essar Telecom Kenya Limited. The researcher used both primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected using interview guide with open ended questions. The respondents for this study included the managers of the company in charge of corporate strategy, human resources, regulatory, business development, and sales and marketing departments. Being a case study, conceptual content analysis was the most useful method of analyzing the data. The study found that the company has engaged in both pull and push strategy as a form of promotional strategy. The study further found that the company employed pricing strategies to penetrate the market. It further established that the company adopts market segmentation as one of the strategies in order to expand its market share. The study concludes that the company has been able to keep pace with the rivalry in the telecommunication industry by adopting various market penetration strategies for its products. The study recommends that although the company has been successful in neutralizing the challenges brought about by competition in the Telecommunication industry, the company should engage in more cost reduction as a response to its competitors’ strategies whose products and services are much cheaper. Essar Telecom Kenya Limited should deliver benefits that exceed those of competing products (differentiation advantage) to gain a competitive advantage over other firms. The study further recommends that Essar Telecom Kenya Limited should heavily advertise itself in other countries and diversify in other countries that are not in East Africa in order to take advantage of economic liberations in many countries as a result of globalization. The study recommends that further research should be done on the other companies in the Telecommunication industry so as to get comprehensive information on how the other players in the industry are able to penetrate the market.