Forms of online marketing: the case of three Kenyan Publishers

Abstract

This study investigated the various forms of online marketing available to publishers in Kenya. The target population under this study was three publishing companies (purposively selected) in the publishing industry in Kenya. A total of 47 respondents were selected from three firms thus: 22 respondents from Longhorn Publishers (in the top tier in terms of size), 16 respondents from Moran Publishers (in the middle tier) and 9 respondents from Phoenix Publishers (in the ‘small-sized’ publishers’ bracket). The researcher was convinced that these three selected publishers were representative of Kenya’s publishing industry and exhibited the best characteristics when it came to the issue under study (online marketing in Kenya) because of each company’s unique organisational characteristics. The findings of the study demonstrated that publishers employ various innovative forms of online marketing like website marketing, e-mail marketing and social media marketing. Companies use websites to communicate product information to their clients. They also upload their product catalogues and pricelists to their websites. The findings showed that social media marketing (especially the use of Facebook, Twitter and Youtube) is also an important part of online marketing.