Influence of digital promotional strategies on the marketing performance of fast-moving consumer goods manufacturers in the beauty and personal care sector in Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

As the global business world faces immense and dynamic challenges, today’s marketing executive must be more strategic in their decision making. Emerging digital technologies offer marketers new opportunities to achieve their business performance objectives. The main objective of this study was to determine the influence of digital promotional strategies on the marketing performance of FMCG manufacturers in the beauty and personal care sector, in Nairobi County. The specific objectives were to establish the influence of social media marketing, search engine optimisation, content marketing, influencer marketing and mobile marketing on the performance of FMCG Manufacturers in the beauty and personal care sector in Nairobi County. The research study was anchored on the technology acceptance model and the resource-based view theory. A descriptive cross-sectional survey research design was used in conducting the study. Population of study was all the FMCG manufacturers in the beauty and personal care sector, who are head-quartered in Nairobi County. A total sample of 123 respondents was drawn from the 41 companies. Primary data was collected through a structured questionnaire which contained closed ended questions. The data collected was inspected for completeness and coded in Strata version 15.1 for analysis. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and regression analysis. The overall results indicate that digital promotional strategies explain 10% variability in the marketing performance of Nairobi-based manufacturers that produce fast-moving consumer goods within the beauty and personal care sector. The results indicate that improving social media marketing, search engine optimisation, content marketing, influencer marketing and mobile marketing can lead to a positive increase in the marketing performance of the firms. The findings of this study were limited to Nairobi-based manufacturers and to manufacturers in the beauty and personal care sectors. The study was also limited to the data collected using a cross-sectional survey, yet marketing performance may be affected by technological advancements, unprecedented occurrences and time which may affect business performance.