Strategic Marketing of Dairy Products in Kenya

Abstract

This study was conducted with the objective of finding out the state of strategic marketing of Dairy products in Kenya. The focus of the study was on all the firms engaged in the marketing of processed Dairy products. As at July 1995, there were twenty five such firms as per the Kenya Dairy Board records. Economic reforms, introduced to Kenya and other African countries in the 1980 brought a lot of changes in the business environment. The liberalization of the Dairy Industry in May 1992, meant increased competition for firms engaged in this sector. The study had two main objectives: 1) To investigate the current marketing practices in the Dairy industry in Kenya. 2) To investigate strategic responses of firms in the face of changes in the dairy industry environment. To achieve these objectives, primary data was collected. Data was collected through personally administered questionnaires. This had both structured and unstructured questions. The respondents were the marketing managers of the firms or their equivalents. The data was analvzed using simple descriptive statistics. This study found that with increased environmental turbulence, firms in this sector made some adjustments in their marketing mix components in order to remain competitive. Changes in complexity, led the firms in the dairy industry, to adopt more market driven strategy approaches.

In addition to changes in their marketing mix components firms in the industry engaged in market segmentation and marketing planning. In order to cope with environmental challenges, they also paid attention to the activities of their competitors. In an environment that is dynamic, firms should not only be focused in their identification of key issues but also flexible and adaptive. The firms were also keen to know what was happening within the industry and their markets. It may not be possible to draw general conclusions due to the limitations of this study. Nevertheless the study provided some insights into strategic marketing of Dairy products in Kenya.