The Effectiveness of Marketing Communication Strategies Adopted by Retirement Benefits Authority in Recruitment of Jua Kali Workers Into Mbao Pension Plan

Abstract

All organizations, large and small, commercial, government, charities, educational and other not-for-profit organizations, need to communicate with a range of stakeholders. Marketing communications provides a core activity so that all interested parties can understand the intentions of others and appreciate the value of the goods and services offered. The primary forms of marketing communication include traditional mass media advertising (TV, magazines, etc.); sales promotion (samples, coupons, rebates, premiums items, etc.); store signage and point-of-purchase communications; direct-mail literature; public relations and publicity releases; sponsorships of events and causes; presentations by sales people; and serious collateral forms of communication devices (Shimp, 2010). This study tried to fill the research gap that exists by carrying out a research on the effectiveness of marketing communication strategies adopted by Retirement Benefits Authority in recruitment of jua kali workers into Mbao Pension Plan. The nature of this research was a descriptive survey research. Descriptive research was suitable for this study since descriptive design is usually ideal in situations where some key aspects of the subject are known and hence it helps to generate more detailed information regarding key aspects of the subject. The study relied largely on primary data. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaires with both close-ended and open-ended questions. Data was collected by use of self-constructed questionnaire, which were administered to 80 Mbao Pension Plan members randomly chosen from a population of 45,922 registered Mbao Pension Plan Members. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of marketing communication strategies adopted by Retirement Benefits Authority in recruitment of Jua Kali workers into Mbao Pension Plan. Findings from the study show that the respondents were more responsive to marketing , communication delivered in face-to-face meetings with Mbao Pension Plan's sales agents. Also word of mouth had an impact on bringing in new members. It was also found that TV worked in reminding people who were already members. The study recommends that for RBA to effectively succeed in the recruitment of new Mbao Pension Plan members, it will benefit by combining all marketing communication strategies. Also, more financial budget need to be channeled to personal selling.