Effect of Promotional Mix Elements on Sales Volume of Financial Institutions in Kenya: Case Study of Kenya Post Office Savings Bank

Abstract

Aims: The study sought to evaluate the influence of promotional mix elements on sales volume of financial institutions in Kenya. The study was guided by the following specific objectives: to evaluate the extent to which sales promotion affect sales volume of financial institutions in Kenya; to assess the extent to which personal selling affect sales volume of financial institutions in Kenya; to investigate the extent to which direct marketing affect sales volume of financial institutions in Kenya; and to assess the extent to which advertising affects sales volume of financial institutions in Kenya. The promotional mix elements comprise of advertising, sales promotion; personal selling, direct marketing and public relations. However, for purposes of this study, only advertising, sales promotion; personal selling and direct marketing were considered.Place and duration of the study: The study focused on the staff of finance department, marketing department and sales representatives and operation department of Kenya Post office savings Bank Headquarters in Nairobi even though the bank has a wide branch network. Design: The study adopted a descriptive research design. Methodology applied: Population of the study comprised of the staff of finance department, marketing department and sales representatives and operation department of Kenya Post office savings Bank Headquarters in Nairobi, whose number stood at 240. A simple size of 96 was selected to participate in the study. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used as an aid in the analysis. SPSS was preferred because of its ability to cover a wide range of the most common statistical and graphical data analysis. The collected data from the questionnaire and secondary sources was systematically organized in a manner to facilitate analysis. Analysis: The data pertaining to profile of the respondents and the organizations was analyzed using content analysis. Content analysis may be used to analyze written data from experiments, observations, surveys and secondary sources. Qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis while quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, which include frequencies, percentages, means cores and standard deviations. In order to establish the relationship between the independent and dependent variables, inferential statistics will be used. In order to determine the relationship between independent and dependent variables, chi-square test and a regression analyses were undertaken. Results: The findings indicate that promotional elements usually are used by various organizations to elicit responses from target markets to increase the market share. The findings have been summarized systematically answer the research questions and objectives. Findings of the study reveal that sales promotion was the highest ranked promotional mix element with regards to its effect on sales volume, personal selling was ranked second, advertising was ranked third, and public relations was ranked fourth while direct marketing was the least ranked. Findings from the regressions analysis indicate that sales promotion was the highest ranked promotional mix element with regards to its effect on sales volume, personal selling was ranked second, advertising was ranked third, public relations was ranked fourth while direct marketing was the least ranked.

Keywords: Advertising; Promotional mix, Integrated marketing communication, Direct Marketing; Marketing Communications; Personal selling; Public Relations