The extent of the use of sales promotion tools by fast food restaurants within Nairobi's central business district

Abstract

The geographical area of this was Nairobi's central business district. The study had three objectives namely establishing the sales promotional activities carried out by fast food outlets in Nairobi's central business district; determining the effectiveness of different sales promotion tools used by the fast food restaurants and determining the challenges faced by the fast food restaurants in the use of sales promotions. The study adopted a census survey design. The population of study consisted of seventy six fast food restaurants within Nairobi's central business district. The population frame was developed by the researcher by through street by street enumeration of all fast food restaurants located along the streets in the Nairobi's central business district. Primary data for the study were collected usmg structured self-administered questionnaires that were hand delivered and collected later from the respondents. The target respondents in the study were the owners and managers of the fast food restaurants that were assumed to possess the information sought in the study. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and summarized by use of tables, percentages and frequency distributions. The study established that fast food restaurants within Nairobi's Central business district indeed used sales promotional tools such as price packs, premiums, coupons, patronage ~ awards, samples and price discounts as part of their marketing activities. Eighty four (84%) percent of the respondents were aware of the sales promotion tools that can be used to boost sales. Sixty two (62%) percent of the respondents reported using sales promotion tools as part of their wider marketing activities to boost their sales revenues. Price packs were found to be the most widely used (25.8%) sales promotional tool among fast food restaurants within the Nairobi's central business district. The study further established that sales promotions were highly rated with respect to their effectiveness in increasing sales revenues. Twenty six (83.9%) of those using sales promotions considered them as very effective in increasing patronage to their outlets and ultimately increasing their sales revenues. Price packs were identified as the most effective sales promotion tool with contests being rated the least effective. The cost of carrying out sales promotions was identified as the biggest obstacle faced by 56% of the fast food restaurants in the use of sales promotions. Other factors that were identified as limiting the use of sales promotions within the fast food restaurants include low marketing know how, lack of mechanism for evaluating their effectiveness as well as low consumer response to promotional offers. The study concluded that the extent of the use of sales promotion tools within the fast food restaurants in Nairobi's Central Business District was still low.