Marketing Mix And Customer Loyalty In Commercial Banks In Kericho County, Kenya

Banking sector have had high competition in Kenya due to large number of commercial banks and rising increase of Micro Finance Institution as well as Saving and Credit Cooperative Societies. Customer loyalty is inevitable and each bank straggles to outdo each other in getting the greatest customer numbers leading to them investing in different marketing strategies. The study sought to investigate the effect of marketing mix on customer loyalty in commercial banks in Kericho County, Kenya. The specific objectives of the study included the following: to investigate the effect of Products on customer loyalty in commercial banks in Kericho County; to establish the effect of pricing on customer loyalty in commercial banks in Kericho

County; to examine the role of promotion on customer loyalty in commercial banks in Kericho County; to analyze the influence of place on customer loyalty in commercial banks in Kericho County. This study would be useful to commercial banks in policy making, improving of service to customer and developing strategies for improvement of performance. Government would utilize it for fiscal policies. It would be also important to academicians for future research in the area of marketing. The study was guided by three theories: Social Exchange Theory, the theory of Reasoned Action and Consumer power theory. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The target population of the study includes all the customers of the 6 commercial banks in Kericho County, namely: Kenya Commercial Bank, Equity, Standard Chartered,

Barclays, Co-operative, and Family Bank Kenya (County Government of Kericho,

2016). The researcher used

 the multi-stage sampling technique to select 148 respondents. Validity was determined by peers, supervisor and through pilot study. Reliability were obtained from pilot data where the Cronbach alpha was found to be 0.791 which was above threshold of 0.7. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics with the help of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Regression was also used in data analysis. The scope of the study was commercial banks in Kericho County, Kenya. The study covered all commercial banks in Kericho where numerous research has been conducted marketing strategies and not market mix on customer loyalty. Research on product mix concentrated on hotel and tourism creating a knowledge gap. The finding indicated that product mix positively influence to customer loyalty through branding, labeling of logo and picture of products and product packaging through pay bill and flexible accounts. It was also found out that pricing on products was important in customer loyalty and retention. Promotion was not significant since radio advertisement did not affect customer loyalty. Place had significantly affected customer loyalty and based on mobile banking and access to branches. The study concluded that marketing strategies was important in customer loyalty, retention, survey and loyalty in commercial banks. It recommended product, price and place strategies should be used often to improve on customer loyalty.