The state of market segmentation practices of micro and small scale furniture manufacturing businesses in Mombasa town

Abstract

This study was conducted with the main objective of finding out if micro and small-scale furniture manufacturers operating in Mombasa town segment their markets. The study considered those firms in Majengo, Mwembe Tayari, Changamwe, Magongo, Kisauni and Likoni. The study had two main objectives:- 1. To document the state of segmentation practices by small-scale furniture manufacturing businesses in Mombasa town. 2. To identify the segmentation variables commonly used by small-scale furniture manufacturers in Mombasa town. A sample of 60 firms were interviewed. Primary data was collected through personally administered structured questionnaires. The respondents were owners or managers of the micro and small-scale furniture making firms. The data obtained was coded and fed into the computer and analyzed using the SPSS computer package. To answer the first objective the data was analyzed in form of frequencies and percentages and cross tabulations. The second objective was achieved by the use of percentages, mean scale scores and chisquare test of independence. VI The findings of the study suggested that 62% of the micro and small-scale furniture manufacturers segmented their markets. Only 38% do not. This showed that market segmentation had permeated the ranks of this subsector. 80% of the respondents found market segmentation to be important. The findings also revealed that the use of market segmentation was not independent of the education level of the respondents and age of the business but was independent of the size of the business. The results also suggested that the variables commonly used by the micro and small-scale furniture manufacturers in Mombasa to segment their markets are: income, age of customer, benefits sought by customer, social class (middle) and individual customer. These had mean scale values which were greater than the midpoint of the scale of 2.5. According to the results, the respondents were generally satisfied with the segmentation variables they were using. These variables were found to be independent of the business and respondents characteristics.