Effects of Promotion Elements on Sales: A Case of Women Groups in Imenti North District, Meru County, Kenya
Abstract
As firms increase in number, modern marketing calls for more than just producing the
products, pricing them and making them accessible to the target market, in addition, they
must also communicate to present and potential consumers and the general public. The
marketing communication mix consists of five major modes of communication:
advertising, sales promotion, public relations and publicity, personal selling and direct
marketing. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of promotion on sales
of agricultural products produced by women groups. The population of the study
comprised of 100 women groups registered with the Ministry of Sports, Culture and
Social Services by December 2012 in Imenti North District in Meru County Kenya
engaging in agricultural activities to generate income. Simple random sampling technique
was used to determine the sample size of 79. One official from each of these groups was
picked as the respondent. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaires
which were administered personally. Data was presented by use of frequency tables then
analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques such as frequencies and percentages.
Categorical data analysis methods were used to aggregate the influence of promotion
elements on sales. Chi Square test was used to test the hypotheses. Personal selling is the
promotion method widely used where they largely target women. The elements that were
found to have influence on sales were advertisement, sales promotion, personal selling
and direct marketing. However public relations and publicity had no influence on sales of
agricultural products produced by women groups.