Application of competitive strategies to the challenges of increased competition faced by Safaricom mobile phone airtime dealers in Nairobi Central Business District.

Abstract

To grow and thrive in today's competitive environment, organizations must deal with several major challenges that have been caused by increased competition in their industries. For these organizations to survive the dynamic environment, it is necessary for them to: Measure the intensity of competition, assess the causes of decline and Single out a viable strategy for gaining competitive advantage. As markets have become more crowded and customers more discerning and varied in their demands and expectations, the targeting decisions facing companies have become more critical. Competitive positioning decisions embrace the identification of the target market(s) and the competitive advantage that will be pursued in serving the target(s). This study was undertaken on Safaricom mobile phone airtime dealers in Nairobi central business district. The study was aimed at accessing application of competitive strategies to the challenges of increased competition faced by Safaricom mobile phone airtime dealers in Nairobi central business district. To determine the challenges of increased competition in the airtime business The Five (5) forces Framework by Porter was adopted which states that the industry forces take the form of competitive rivalry, barriers to entry, threat of substitutes, buyer power, and supplier power. In this study 40 mobile phone airtime dealers were picked using random sampling technique from a total of 78 to form the sample. The study used both primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected though self administered questionnaire. Secondary data was collected from safaricom option magazine. " The data collected was analyzed using the descriptive statistics tools like percentages, standard deviation, frequency tables among others. The mobile phone airtime dealers in Nairobi central business district have witnessed an increase in competition. This is due to an increase in the number of players in this business who are mainly attracted by the rapid growth in the mobile phones industry in Kenya. The challenges greatly experienced by the respondents were identified to be mainly rivalry among competitors and the easy of new entrants. Competition from sub dealers was also an issue of great concern to the safaricom airtime dealers. From the research findings of the study it was identified that the most popular types of competitive strategies were on the basis on expanding branch network, offering differentiated services targeting the entire class of customers and Diversification.