Marketing orientation and business performance of mobile phone companies in Kenya

Abstract

An accepted position among business executives is that external factors such as competition situation and market size are key success factors in the communication industry. Therefore it is a key function among the top leadership of a business unit to come up with appropriate strategies to capture opportunities presenting itself in the market and at the same time limit any threats present in the market. This means that business entities adjust their operations continuously so as to capture the opportunities that arise as well as vend of any business challenges that will affect the business strategies. Therefore, the capacity of a firm to re-orientation has a strong and positive impact on performance. However, in doing so, due consideration should be given to the specific firm capabilities used to implement market orientation into the target market. The objective of the study was to determine the effect of marketing orientation on business performance of mobile phone companies in Kenya. The study used primary data which was collected using self-administered questionnaires. The data collected was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences and presented in tables and charts. Regression analysis was undertaken to determine the relationship between marketing orientation and performance. The study found out that customer orientation has enabled the firms to ensure that its customers are satisfied, increase customer value, understanding customer needs, closely monitoring and assessing company level of commitment in serving customer needs. Customer orientation enabled the sales people regularly share information within the organization concerning competitors’ strategies, target customers when the company has opportunity, discuss competitors’ strength and weaknesses and responds rapidly to competitive actions. The inter-functional coordination was achieved by the companies through communication of customers’ information, all the departments being responsive to one another’s needs and requests, managers understanding how employees can contribute to the value of customers and that all the business functions are integrated in serving the needs of target markets. The regression analysis showed that customer orientation, competitor orientation and inter-functional coordination jointly influence the firm performance.