Impacts of marketing in Kenya

 Marketing has negatively affected socio-economic development in Kenya in a number of ways:

     Price mechanism has negatively impacted rural poor and slum dwellers in urban areas i.e. the free market has led to high prices of goods and services making the less fortunate unable to afford. most product produced by companies. The products are packed in big sizes which the poor and slum dwellers cannot afford and if packed in smaller sizes the production cost still makes the prices unaffordable.

     Poor distribution of products has resulted in hunger in some areas and waste of unprocessed foods in others. Intermediaries in the distribution channel cause delays in the distribution process leading to the products going bad before they reach the consumer.

     Inadequate or total lack of market information has adversely affected small-scale farmers and micro and small scale (jua kali) firms. Lack of marketing information or strategic marketing intelligence makes it hard for the SME to know what the market needs are and any other changes that might be happening in the future. Firms that do not have well established marketing research departments are likely to suffer due the ever changing external environment.

     Inadequate consumer education by marketers has impacted negatively on consumers who are not willing to consume products which are not their traditional staple foods. For instance in insurance products, most people buy the cover without proper knowledge of its legal implications when it comes to compensation. The client might not get what they expected which is as a result of not being provided with adequate information by the marketer. In the case of Credit cards, clients or subscribers use the cards without proper education and control leading to impulse buying.

     International marketing has negatively affected Kenya’s exports especially in primary goods and resulted in relatively higher import prices.

Increased competition has led to demise of some firms in Kenya. Examples? For instance in the transport industry there is high level competition which sometimes unethical. This has led to some companies leaving the market i.e. the Akamba Bus Service, Shaggy bus services, Stage coach amongst others.

     Increased pollution and degradation of physical environment (because of failure to adopt green marketing strategies).There is high growth of ICT in Kenya which has led to increased use of electronic gadgets. This has led to mass e-waste dumping which is currently posing a great challenge to the government when it comes to their disposal.

Importance of Marketing to socioeconomic development

     Marketing creates employment, as a profession it can create jobs like advertising manager, public relations manager, media planning manager, sales strategy manager, brand managers etc.

     Marketing raises people’s standards of living, marketing can raise the standard of living of both the marketer and the consumers since they will have proper knowledge of the product they are consuming through marketing.

     Marketing pays for most of the entertainment and news that the mass media provides to the public. Through the huge marketing budget that most established companies have, marketing is able to pay for all its personnel and activities that goes around the marketing processes.  

     Marketing facilitates international trade , through marketing international companies are able to find markets for their products and services, many firms are now able to compete both locally and internationally through marketing of their products and services.

     Marketing leads to improvement of infrastructure .i e for banking industry where they have more teller points, more services like mobile banking, cash point to attract more clients to their services and products.

     Marketing improves social economic status of the citizens, marketing helps to raise the standards of living of the marketers as professionals and it also improves the lives of the consumers as they are now consume more competitive products and enjoy better quality services.

     Information generation is a strategic role of marketing. Through marketing, information about the product i.e. benefits, usage, expiry dates, is given which makes the consumer knowledgeable about the product. Marketing departments can also have their marketing intelligence/research units gather information on what is happening in the market. 

     Marketing makes possible the availability of the much needed foreign exchange. By engaging in both export and import trade a country is able to have a balanced foreign account thereby meeting its foreign exchange needs.
     Marketing provides incentives for innovativeness, inventions and efficiency.

     Marketing provides entrepreneurial talents/ opportunities especially for the small-scale market intermediaries. Marketing as a profession has created many entrepreneurs, e.g. in the media industry we have many advertising agencies owned by many Kenyan entrepreneurs like Aegeis and Saracen.  

     Marketing leads to accumulation of capital through enhanced savings, for instance in the financial sector i.e. the banks and insurance companies give very good incentives to attract many client to do savings with them, e.g.  Faulu bank, this has been achieved through marketing of these products and services.

     Marketing stimulates demand which in turn enhances production and increased utilization of resources. Through sales promotions, advertising, CSR, PR activities product and services consumption is highly enhanced. This helps in providing information about the product and in turn influencing the consumer purchasing decisions.

Kenya vision 2030 political pillar

Political Pillar

The Political Pillar of Vision 2030 objective is to move to the future as one nation and envisions a democratic system that is issue based; people centered, results oriented, and are accountable to the public. It targets five main areas: The rule of law – the Constitution of Kenya, electoral and political processes, democracy and public service delivery, transparency and accountability, and security, peace building and conflict management

Rule of Law. Kenya’s 2010 constitution provides for increased accountability and transparency to combat pervasive corruption, but no top officials have been successfully prosecuted for corruption since 2002

Electoral and Political Processes. The first application of technology in the 2013 elections aimed to guarantee the integrity of the voter register through the use of a Biometric Voter Registration system that was acquired at a cost of 95 million USD.

Democracy and Public Service Delivery

Transparency and Accountability. The police, the judiciary, and the Ministry of Defense have been identified as some of the country’s most corrupt institutions. Although the judiciary is independent, the courts are understaffed and underfinanced, leading to delays.

Security, Peace-Building and Conflict Management. In September 2013, it suffered its largest terrorist attack since the 1998 U.S. embassy bombing.