EFFECTIVENESS OF MARKETING PROCESSES ON SALE PERFORMANCE:

STUDY ON SMALL BUSINESS ENTERPRISES IN KISUMU CITY

BY

A RESERCH PROPOSAL SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE
(MATHEMATICS AND ECONOMICS), MASENO UNIVERSITY

JANUARY, 2016

Declaration
Declaration by the Candidate
This research proposal is my original and has not been presented for a degree in any other
institution. No part of this proposal may be reproduced without prior permission from the author
and/or the institution.

Declaration by the Supervisor

SIGNATUREDATE

ii

Dedication
I wish to dedicate this work to my parents for the moral and financial support and encouraged
and also my supervisor for his moral support.

iii

Acknowledgement
I also acknowledge my entire family for their continued ringing bells to encourage me pursue
this higher learning.

iv

Definitions of terms
Sales performance: The totality of sales attained by the small business over a certain period of
time.
Marketing:

Promotional activities taken with an endeavor to increase the sales of the

firm.

Marketing paradigm: The unique marketing thought that is entertained by the business owners
and entrepreneurs.
Marketing archetype: the specified model of marketing techniques geared towards sales
performance.
Relationship strategy: The interpersonal tactics used by the small business owners and
entrepreneurs.

Abbreviations and acronyms

v

vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION...........................................................................................................................II
DEDICATION.............................................................................................................................III
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT..........................................................................................................IV
DEFINITIONS OF TERMS........................................................................................................V
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS....................................................................................VI
TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................................................vii
List of tables...................................................................................................................................ix
List of figures...................................................................................................................................x
ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................1
SECTION ONE..............................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................2
1.1 Background information............................................................................................................2
1.2 Statement of the Problem...........................................................................................................3
1.3 Purpose of the study...................................................................................................................4
1.3.1 Research objectives 4
1.4 Research Hypothesis..................................................................................................................4
1.7 Theoretical framework...............................................................................................................5
Figure 1.1

Conceptual Framework

SECTION TWO.............................................................................................................................6
LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................................................6
2.1 Theoretical Review....................................................................................................................6
2.1.1 Concept of differentiation.......................................................................................................6
2.1.2 Models of Consumer behaviour..............................................................................................6
2.2 Empirical review........................................................................................................................8
2.2.1 Marketing archetypes..............................................................................................................8
2.2.2 Marketing strategies..............................................................................................................10
2.2.3 Market relationship strategies...............................................................................................11
2.3 Research gaps..........................................................................................................................12
SECTION THREE......................................................................................................................13
RESEARCH METHOLOGY.....................................................................................................13
vii

3.0

Introduction.........................................................................................................................13

3.1 Study Area...............................................................................................................................13

3.2 Study population......................................................................................................................13
3.3 Sample Size and Sampling techniques....................................................................................13
Table 3.2

Sample Size

14

3.4 Data Collection and Sources....................................................................................................14

3.5 Model Specification and Data Analysis...................................................................................14
3.5.1 Model Specification 14
3.5.2 Descriptive Analysis 15
3.5.3 Inferential Analysis 15
3.5.4 Diagnostic Tests

15

3.5.4.1 Test for normality.......................................................................................................15

3.5.4.2 Test for Multicollinearity............................................................................................16
3.6 Data Presentation Techniques..................................................................................................16
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................17
APPENDICES..............................................................................................................................19
APPENDIX I: WORK PLAN

19

APPENDIX II: RESEARCH BUDGET 20

viii

List of tables
Table 3.2

Sample Size

13

ix

List of figures
Figure 1.1

Conceptual Framework

ABSTRACT

The aim of the study is to establish the role of marketing processes in the performance of sales
of small business enterprises in Kisumu City. The specific objectives of the study are to: assess
the marketing archetypes used by the small business enterprises, identify the marketing strategies
employed by the small business enterprises and to determine the market relationship strategies
employed by the small business enterprises in Kisumu County. The researcher will employ a
descriptive research design which will be cross-sectional in time dimension. The study
population will include approximately 10,000 businesses licensed by the Kisumu county
government. In this study, the researcher will use stratified sampling design. Data will be
collected using a questionnaire and quantitative data analyzed using SPSS version 20 and
presented by use of descriptive statistics, namely frequency and percentage, means and standard
deviation. The study will be testing normality and multicollinearity. Multiple Regressions will be
used to test hypothesis. The level of significance will be at 0.05. The researcher hopes that the
study findings will help in enhancing sales performance.

SECTION ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background information
Marketing is often viewed as the process that concerns the development of a product that
matches customers needs, promotion of the product, pricing of the product and distribution the
product to the customer (Moorman and Rust, 1999). Marketing is the process of planning and
executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to
create exchange and satisfy individual and organizational objectives (Grnroos, 1997).
The marketing process is the set of activities through which organizations identify and exploit
opportunities to serve consumer needs. It functions through various technological systems for
identifying consumer needs and applying available technological means to create and realize
products to serve those needs. These systems include the product designs, production processes,
distribution channels, and service infrastructures that firms create, as well as the organization
structures and interrelated knowledge assets that firms use in creating and realizing product
(Sanchez, 1999). Firms participate in market processes with offerings, based on available
resources and in particular knowledge about the market and as such, firms base their
competitiveness on the product market match (Freiling, 2004). This shows that there is some
relationship between marketing actions and processes and the fulfillment of consumer needs.
Marketing is being increasingly seen as a set of processes that all functions participate in
(Moorman and Rust, 1999).
Though marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion
and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchange and satisfy individual and
organizational objectives, successful firms view marketing as an interactive process which
involves relationship building and management (Grnroos, 1997). Firms must therefore move
from a short term transaction-oriented approach to a long-term relationship building goal
(Grnroos, 1994).

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Through its marketing processes, a firm is able to gain new knowledge and information about its
product offerings and thus are able to build the required resources and competencies and create
new solutions to shape the market actively (Freiling, 2004). These processes enable the firm to
develop its abilities in both short-run and long run and thus firms sales performance and
competitiveness depends on resource- and competence-based alignments to actual and future
markets needs.
The knowledge gathered in market processes is the input used to analyse changes and breakdown
reasons according to the market data and revenues. New knowledge about the market has to be
integrated, affecting the whole value-added system of the firm. The interaction between the
customer and the firm as a supplier, which occurs in every market process, triggers a feedback
process inducing major or minor changes. More important is the feedback from the product
market to the management processes. The more powerful the market impulses are, the more
fundamental the resulting changes as to the management processes and other system elements of
the firm will be (Freiling, 2004).
Many small business enterprises differ from the established formal business in many ways and as
such their approach to the marketing is a set of informal disjointed approaches as opposed to
formalized approaches. The most important aspect of the marketing process is the knowledge
gained from the interaction processes which serve to drive forward the marketing agenda for the
small businesses. Due to the informality of their marketing processes, the research endeavours to
understand how the small business enterprises approach the marketing processes in Kisumu City.
Since small business enterprises are defined by their intrinsic complexity and informality in their
approach to marketing, any changes in the market place will always detriment the firm and thus
may lead to its downfall. The study will seek to uncover the differences between formalized and
synchronized marketing processes of the multinational firms and the informal marketing routines
of the small business enterprises in Kisumu City.

1.3 Purpose of the study

The purpose of the study is to establish the role of marketing processes in the performance of
sales of small business enterprises in Kisumu City.
1.3.1 Research objectives
1. To assess the marketing archetypes used by the small business enterprises in Kisumu City.
2. To identify the marketing strategies employed by small business enterprises in Kisumu City.
3. To determine the market relationship strategies employed by the small business enterprises in
Kisumu City.
1.4 Research Hypothesis
1. Marketing archetypes has no significant effect on sales performance of small business
enterprises in Kisumu City
2. Marketing practices has no significant effect on sales performance of small business
enterprises in Kisumu City
3. Market relationship strategies has no significant effect on sales performance of small
business enterprises in Kisumu City

1.5 Scope of the study

The study will be limited in scope to small business in Kisumu County. The study will be
undertaken between the periods of January 2016-Feb 2016.The study will seek to investigate the
effect of marketing processes on sales performance among small businesses in Kisumu City.
1.6 Justification of the Study
The study will foster new knowledge creation and awareness in the area of marketing
processes within the small business enterprises. The study will provide value addition to the
comparatives by way of improving performance, gap identification as well as proposals to
mitigate the gaps.

The researcher anticipates that the findings and policy recommendations generated from the
study may be of invaluable input to the stakeholders of the Kisumu county government to
develop measures that can aid small business enterprises to grow. Findings and recommendation
of this study will guide organizations in policy formulation. Findings are anticipated by the
researcher will stimulate further research in the area. The study will also add to the researchers
personal professional development.
1.7 Theoretical framework
Uma Sekaran (2003) defined the conceptual or theoretical framework as a conceptual
model of how one theorizes or makes logical sense of the relationships among the several factors
that have been identified as important to the problem. The independent variable, the marketing
processes is the variable of primary interest and attempts to be explain by the dependent
variable, the sales performance. This relationship between marketing processes and sales
performance is diagrammatically shown in Figure 1.1 below.
Figure 1.1

Conceptual Framework

Independent variables

Dependent variable

Marketing strategies

Sales performance

Marketing archetypes

Relationship
strategies
The figure above shows the interaction between the variables. The independent variable in the
study are composed of four sub- variables, that is, marketing paradigm, marketing archetype,
marketing strategies and market relationship strategies, while sales performance was the only
dependent variable. The variable, sales performance will use subjective measures that are the
responses from the business owners and entrepreneurs.
5

SECTION TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Theoretical Review
2.1.1 Concept of differentiation
Differentiation is a term can be understood in many ways such as those given by (Kotler 1998).
It can also appear on many levels including product, total product offering and the company.
According to (Chamberlain, 1998) product differentiation offers the explanation for a downward
falling demand curve of an individual product.
Scheuing (1994) has stated that product differentiation is generally a requirement for market
segmentation. Two streams of approaches to differentiation: one of an economists and the other
of a marketers. According to Jay, (2006), there are two types of product differentiation: (i)
Horizontal: Goods are different but at the same price some consumers will buy one and some
will buy other, it really depends on their preferences, (ii) Vertical: Goods are different and all
consumers would prefer one to the other if they were sold at the same price. Goods are of
different qualities.
Schneider (1993) asserts that differentiated product as a term is not self-explanatory and needs a
clear definition. Modified products, 'niche products', intermediary paper grades and
upgraded or downgraded papers are the other terms which are used in a mixed manner when
describing a differentiated product.
2.1.2 Models of Consumer behaviour
The consumer buying process has five stages of activities that consumers may go through in
buying goods and services. The process begins with the recognition of a need and then passes
through the stages of information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and postpurchase evaluation. A marketers interest in the buying process can go well beyond these stages
to include actual consumption behaviors, product uses, and product disposal after consumption.
The buying process begins when consumers recognize that they have an unmet need which
occurs when consumers realize that there is a discrepancy between their existing situation and
their desired situation (i.e., satisfaction or fulfillment). Consumers can recognize needs in a
7

variety of settings and situations. Some needs have their basis in internal stimuli, such as hunger,
thirst, and fatigue. Other needs have their basis in external stimuli, such as advertising, window
shopping, interacting with salespeople, or talking with friends and family. External stimuli can
also arouse internal responses (Ferell, and Hartline, 2011)
Marketing stimuli can prompt consumers to become interested in a product, leading to a desire to
seek out additional information passively or actively. In a passive information search, the
consumer becomes more attentive and receptive to information, such as noticing and paying
attention to advertisements. In the case of active information search when he or she purposely
seeks additional information, such as by surfing the Internet, asking friends, or visiting dealer
showrooms. Information can come from a variety of sources; internal sources, including personal
experiences and memories, are typically the first type of information that consumers search or
information can also come from personal sources, including word-of-mouth advice from friends,
family, or coworkers. External sources of information include advertising, magazines, websites,
packaging, displays, and salespeople. Although external sources are the most numerous,
consumers typically trust these sources less than internal and personal sources of information
(Ferell, and Hartline, 2011)
In evaluating the alternative product or brand choices, the consumer essentially translates his or
her need into a want for a specific product or brand. The evaluation of alternatives is the black
box of consumer behavior because it is typically the hardest for marketers to understand,
measure, or influence. At this stage of the buying process is that consumers base their evaluation
on a number of different criteria, which usually equate with a number of product attributes.
Consumers evaluate products as bundles of attributes that have varying abilities to satisfy their
needs. Each consumer has a different opinion as to the relative importance of these attributes.
Another interesting feature of the evaluation stage is that the priority of each consumers choice
criteria can change during the process. Consumers may visit a dealership with price as their
dominant criterion, only to leave the dealership with price dropping to third on their list of
important attributes.

After the consumer has evaluated each alternative in the evoked set, he or she forms an intention
to purchase a particular product or brand. However, a purchase intention and the actual act of
buying are distinct concepts. The customer may postpone the purchase due to unforeseen
circumstances, such as an illness or job loss. The salesperson or the sales manager may anger the
customer, leading him or her to walk away from the deal. The buyer may not be able to obtain
financing for a purchase due to a mistake in his or her credit file. Or the buyer may simply
change his or her mind. Marketers can often reduce or eliminate these problems by reducing the
risk of purchase through warranties or guarantees, making the purchase stage as easy as possible,
or by finding creative solutions to unexpected problems (Ferell, and Hartline, 2011)
Post-purchase evaluation is the connection between the buying process and the development of
long-term customer relationships. Marketers must closely follow consumers responses during
this stage to monitor the products performance and its ability to meet consumers expectations.
In the post-purchase stage, buyers will experience one of these four outcomes: (i) Delight, the
products performance greatly exceeds the buyers expectations, (ii) satisfaction, the products
performance matches the buyers expectations, (iii) dissatisfaction, the products performance
falls short of the buyers expectations and (iv) cognitive Dissonance (Postpurchase Doubt) The
buyer is unsure of the products performance relative to his or her expectations (Ferell, and
Hartline, 2011)
2.2 Empirical review
2.2.1 Marketing archetypes
Two marketing paradigms exist: (1) transactional marketing and (2) relationship marketing. A
transactional marketing involves the individual exchanges between the buyer and seller which
commences and terminates when transaction ends whereas relationship approach entails building
a long-term relationship between the buyer and seller based on trust with mutual benefits
accruing to both sides (Abramson, and Ai, 1998). Transactional marketing and relationship
marketing are placed at opposite ends of the continuum. While transactional marketing is geared
towards closing a transaction, relationship marketing is focused on building relationships with
customers and other parties as well (Grnroos, 1994). The distinction between transactional
marketing and relationship marketing is the time perspective. Transactional marketing firms
9

focus on single exchanges or transactions at a time with short-term view on profits while
relationship marketing firms look at creating and sustaining a long-term profitable relationship
with customers. At the broadest level, relationship marketing may incorporate everything from
database management to personalized service, loyalty programmes, brand loyalty, internal
marketing, personal/social relationships, and strategic alliances (Coviello, Brodie and Munro,
1997; Grnroos, 1994).
Marketing archetypes indicate the unique models that are used by the firm. There are differences
between the archetypes are customer information, price elasticity, dominating marketing
function, dominating quality function, functional unit interdependency and internal marketing
aspect. In relationship marketing, more value is created for its customers; therefore interactive
marketing becomes the dominating part of the marketing function, supported by elements of the
marketing mix. Transactional marketing is not only more of the core product, but also the image
of the firm or its brands that keeps the customer attached; thus marketing mix is purely applied.
Customer contacts in relationship marketing is much deeper than for only transacting when
compared to transactional marketing, but it aids in the development of an extensive customer
information system which helps the firm in its interactive marketing function as well as
sustaining business continuity between the firm and its partners or customers. The technical
quality function of the product dominates transactional marketing whereas functional quality
dimension is to the relationship marketing. In transactional marketing, most or all of the firms
customer contacts are related to the product itself and to traditional marketing mix activities.
Marketing and sales specialists are responsible for the total marketing function, thus, the internal
interface between functions has no or very limited strategic importance to the firm. In
relationship marketing, the customer interface is much broader, requiring an interactive
marketing function where all parts of the firm are involved in taking care of customers to
collaborate and support each other to satisfy the customer. Thus, for a firm pursuing a
relationship marketing strategy the internal interface between marketing, operations, personnel
and other functions is of strategic importance to success.

10

Since manufacturers of consumer packaged goods have no immediate contacts with their
ultimate customers, transactional marketing is mostly preferable for manufacturing firms,
whereas service firms which have such contacts on a regular basis, a relationship type of
strategy will be more appropriate (Grnroos, 1994; Coviello, Brodie, Danaher and Johnston,
2002; and Palmer and Wilson, 2009). Customer interface for consumer durables is much broader
than for consumer packaged goods, and as such, an intermediate ground between transactional
and relationship type strategy fits. Manufacturers of industrial goods on the other hand have
similar customer relationships like service firms and as such they both lie on the same continuum
in terms of the relationship marketing (Grnroos, 1994; Coviello, Brodie, Danaher and Johnston,
2002; and Palmer and Wilson, 2009).
2.2.2 Marketing strategies
Marketing practices differ by firm type and by practise (Coviello, Brodie, Danaher and Johnston,
2002). Accordingly, there are four different type of marketing archetypes(Palmer and Wilson,
2009) or practice which are differentiated according to the processes: (1) transaction marketing
which uses the marketing mix to attract and satisfy customers; (2) database marketing which
utilizes technology-based tools to target and retain customers; (3) interaction marketing which
develops interpersonal relationships to create cooperative interaction between buyers and sellers
for mutual benefit; and (4) network marketing which develops inter-firm relationships to allow
for coordination of activities among multiple parties for mutual benefit, resource exchange.
Transaction marketing and database marketing fall under transactional marketing whereas
interactive and network marketing fall under the relational marketing.
Earlier research has stressed on the role and importance of relationships in business to
business and service marketing. Relationship marketing is also seen as relevant in consumer
markets and goods even though business markets are different from consumer markets in terms
of their characteristics and influences, decision processes, and buyer-seller relationships
(Coviello, et al., 2002).More firms are emphasizing customer retention and relationship
management as critical to the success of the firm (Coviello, Brodie, Danaher and Johnston,
2002). Each of the marketing archetypes is well represented in both the B2B and B2C domains,
though there is a tendency on average for consumer companies to relate to their markets in a
11

more transactional manner than do business-to business firms (Palmer and Wilson, 2009).
Furthermore, there is no clear difference between goods and service firms when it comes to
database marketing, interaction marketing or network marketing behaviour.
2.2.3 Market relationship strategies
Establishing relationship involves attracting a customer and building a mutual relationship where
both parties benefit; the customer avoids switching costs while on the other hand, the supplier
avoids quality cost (Grnroos, 1997). The more emphasis a company direct at strengthening
customer and other stakeholder relationship, the more cost-effective its marketing effort will be
and as such marketing should be more focused on relationship and meanings than on
functionalism and production (Moriarty and Duncan, 1998).
Market relationship has emerged as the most important aspect of marketing for most firms
because of several reasons: profitability of loyal customer and durability of advantages derived
from such relationship (Day, 2000). Management of market relationship has spawned forth a
variety of new marketing approaches which are customer-focused, market-driven, outside-in,
one-to-one marketing, data driven marketing, relationship marketing, integrated marketing and
integrated marketing communication (Moriarty and Duncan, 1998).
The key factor to every market relationship is the exchange process where value is exchanged
occurs along continuum with one end a single transaction and the other a long-run, two way
collaboration. Transactional exchanges range from a single buyer-seller encounters to a series of
ongoing transactions in a business-to-business market exchange of standard products. At the
other end, are the collaborative exchanges featuring close information, social and process
linkages and mutual commitments.
Between these two extremes are the value-adding exchanges where the focus of the firm shifts
from getting customers to keeping customers. Standardized products such as packaging materials
or cleaning services are on the transactional oriented relationship with relations being limited
to long term supply agreements. Customized, high-technology products such as semiconductor test equipment are much more open to collaborative partnership which range from co12

design of manufacturing systems; supplier participation in new product development teams; and
full responsibility for installation training and ongoing service.
Several types of strategies for building and nurturing relationships on the condition the business
have competitive parities in costs and performances: (1) customer responsive strategies and (2)
collaborative based strategies. The choice of strategy depends on the nature of the exchange
process, the capabilities and intentions of the competitors, and the depth of resources of the firm.
Customer-responsive strategies are especially applicable to mass consumer markets and virtually
all services. Collaborative based strategies are applicable for cooperation with customers and
bonding with channel partners are especially designed for business-to-business markets. Each of
these strategies contains elements and principles that can be profitably used with the other
strategies.
2.3 Research gaps
According to (Armstrong, 2006) consumer behavior refers to buying behavior of final consumers
or individuals who buy goods and services for personal consumption. Consumers around the
world vary tremendously in age, income, education level and tastes. Consumers make many
buying decisions every day. Most companies research buying decisions in great detail to answer
questions about what consumers buy, where they buy and how much. But learning about the
whys of consumers buyer behavior is not easy; the answers are often locked deep within the
consumer head. (Kottler 2006) further indicated that penetrating the dark recesses of the
consumers mind is not an easy task since consumers themselves do not know exactly what
influences their purchases; 95% of the decision made through emotion and learning which occur
in the unconscious mind that is without our awareness. The central question for marketers is how
consumers respond to various marketing efforts the company use? The starting point is the
stimulus response model of buyer behavior. Marketing stimuli consists of four Ps: product, price,
place and promotion. Other stimulus includes major forces and events in the buyers
environment: economic, technological, political and cultural. The marketer wants to understand
how the stimuli are changed into responses; second, the buyers decision process itself affects the
buyer behavior.

13

SECTION THREE
RESEARCH METHOLOGY
3.0 Introduction
This chapter described the research methodology that was employed in the study and
encompasses the study area, study population, sample size and sampling techniques, data
collection and sources, model specification and data analysis and the data presentation
techniques.
3.1 Study Area
The study will be carried out in Kisumu County. Kisumu County is one of the new devolved
counties of Kenya. Its borders follow those of the original Kisumu District, one of the former
administrative districts of the former Nyanza Province in western Kenya. Its headquarters is
Kisumu City. It has a population of 968,909 (according to the 2009 National Census). The land
area of Kisumu County totals 2085.9 km [1].Kisumu County's neighbors are Siaya County to the
West, Vihiga County to the North, Nandi County to the North East and Kericho County to the
East. Its neighbour to the South is Nyamira County and Homa Bay County is to the South West.
The county has a shoreline on Lake Victoria, occupying northern, western and a part of the
southern shores of the Winam Gulf
3.2 Study population
The target population for this study comprised of approximately 10,000 businesses who are
license by the Kisumu county government.
3.3 Sample Size and Sampling techniques
The study will use stratified sampling design. The appropriateness of the method was guided by
the fact that the small business enterprises within Kisumu County are of different strata, for
instance, second hand cloth dealers, mechanics, electricians, barbers and many others .This
method will be appropriate since the population will be small.

14

Table 3.2

Sample Size

Small businesses
Second hand cloth dealers
Auto-Mechanics
Electricians
Barbers
Food joins
Boutiques
Total

Population
600
400
300
250
250
300
2,100

Multiplier effect
600 * 0.1
400 * 0.1
300 * 0.1
250 * 0.1
250 * 0.1
300 * 0.1

Sample size
60
40
30
25
25
30
210

3.4 Data Collection and Sources

Data collection will be done using a questionnaire since it is the most common instrument used in
primary data collection because it is simple in nature if well structured. The questionnaires which
include a cover letter addressed to the respondents and consisted of closed questions covering
issues on marketing processes and subjective organizational performance, the variables of the
study. Closed- ended questions enabled responses of the respondents to be limited to stated
alternatives.
3.5 Model Specification and Data Analysis
3.5.1 Model Specification

Y = 0 + 1X1 +
Y = 0 + 1X1 + 2X2 + 3X3 + ... + nXn +
Z = 0 + 1X1 + 2* + 2X2* +
z = 0 + 1X1 + 2X2 +
Where
Y = sales performance.
X1, X2 Xn = Marketing archetypes, marketing practices and marketing relationship strategies.
= error term
Sales performance = 1 (Marketing archetypes) + 2 (Marketing practices) + 3 (Market
relationship strategies).

15

3.5.2 Descriptive Analysis

Descriptive analysis is the elementary transformation of data in a way that describes the basic
characteristics such as central tendency, distribution, and variability. Nominal and ordinal scaled
data will be analysed by the use of frequency table proportion (percentages) mode or frequency
distribution while interval and ratio scaled data will be analysed through the use of measures of
central tendencies such as means, and measures of dispersion such skewness, standard deviation
statistics (Zikmund et al., 2010). Depoy and Gitlin (2011) described univariate statistics as the
procedures conducted for a univariate distribution while suggesting that descriptive analysis may
be referred also to as univariate statistics. Once the descriptive analysis has been done, the
information will be presented through various ways such as tabular format, frequency tables and
frequency distribution tables.
3.5.3 Inferential Analysis
Inferential analysis will be used to analyze the relationship between marketing processes and
sales performance. Multiple Linear Regression analysis will be applied in order to test the
hypotheses on the relationship between marketing archetypes, marketing practices and market
relationship strategies with sales performance. Multiple Regression analyzes the relationship
between single dependent variable and several independent variables.
3.5.4 Diagnostic Tests
Diagnostic test is a requirement before the use of a regression model. The following test are in
line with the regression model analysis:
3.5.4.1 Test for normality
Hair et al. (2010), suggested that both the graphical plots and any statistical tests (Shapiro-Wilk
or Kolgomorov-Smirnov test) can be used to assess the actual degree of departure from
normality. Shapiro-Wilk's is recommended for small and medium samples size n = 2000 whereas
for large samples, Kolgomorov - Smirnov is recommended (Garson, 2013). When W is
significantly smaller than 1, the normality assumption is not met with W = 1 showing perfect
normal distribution.

16

Data transformations provide the principal means of correcting non-normality and

heteroscedasticity. For non-normal distributions, the most common patterns are flat distributions
and skewed distributions. For flat distributions, the most common transformations is the inverse
while skewed distributions can be transformed by taking, the square root, logarithms, squared or
cubed terms or even the inverse of the variable(Hair et al., 2013)
3.5.4.2 Test for Multicollinearity
Two techniques are used concurrently to control and manage multicollinearity; tolerance and
variance inflation factor. In cases of tolerance, the cut-off value is usually 0.1 (Hair et al., 2006
as cited by Saunders et al. 2009), 0.20(Garson, 2013), 0.4 (Sekaran and Bougie, 2010) the
independent should be dropped from the analysis due to multicollinearity. Variance inflation
factor (VIF) is simply the reciprocal of tolerance. When variance inflation factor (VIF) is used in
lieu of tolerance, the rule of thumb is that VIF >4(Garson, 2013), VIF> 5(Zikmund et al., 2010),
VIF>10 (Sekaran and Bougie, 2010; Saunders et al., 2009) when multicollinearity is a problem.
3.6 Data Presentation Techniques
Data will be collected using a questionnaire and quantitative data analyzed using SPSS version
20 and presented by use of descriptive statistics, namely frequency and percentage, means and
standard deviation.

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APPENDICES
APPENDIX I: WORK PLAN
Time in month year 2015-2016
ACTIVITY

Nov

Dec

Identification of research topic

Development of research proposal
and

identification

of

relevant

materials
Pre-testing of research instruments
Presentation of research proposal
Permission to collect data
Data collection.
Organization,

analysis

and

interpretation of data.
Report writing and presentations.

20

Jan

Feb

March

April

APPENDIX II: RESEARCH BUDGET

ITEM
STATIONERY
Flash disc
Pens
Foolscaps
Rubbers
Rulers
Printing Papers
Sub Totals
SERVICES
Proposal typing
Proposal photocopy
Proposal printing
Proposal binding
Questionnaires
Airtime
Sub Totals
Contingencies (10%)
TOTALS

NO. OF UNITS

COST PER UNIT

TOTAL COST (KSHS.)

1
5
2
1
1
2

1000
20
200
20
30
250

1000
100
400
20
30
500
2050

23 pages*1
23 pages*5
23 pages*5
10 copies
3 pages*120
Safaricom and Airtel

20
2
5
40
5
3000

460
230
575
400
1800
3000
10565
1056.50
11621.50

(Source self-sponsored)

21