Marketing refers to the activities undertaken to promote the buying or selling of a product or

service. According to Kotler and Armstrong (2012), marketing is managing profitable customer
relationships. In addition, the twofold goal of marketing is to attract new customers by promising
superior value and keep and grow current customers by delivering satisfaction. According to
Singh (2016), marketing is a complex range of marketing mix solution variables used in the
company seeking to sell their goods and services. Marketers use numerous tools to elicit the
desired responses from their target markets. These tools constitute a marketing mix. The term
marketing mix was first applied at the Harvard Business School to explain the range of
marketing decisions and elements that must be balanced to achieve maximum impact. Marketing
mix is the set of marketing tools product, price, place, and promotion - that the firm uses to
pursue its marketing objectives in the target market (Kotler, 2014). These marketing tools are
often referred to as the four P's of the marketing mix. Pruskus (2015) on the other hand defines
marketing mix as a set of relevant factors and solutions that enable customers to meet the
(national) needs and achieve the goals set by the company. Most of the times, the marketing mix
influences the marketing decision process of the consumer in relation to the final purchase.
Product is defined as a physical product or service to the consumer for which he is willing to
pay. It includes half of the material goods, such as furniture, clothing and grocery items and
intangible products, such as services, which users buy (Singh, 2016). Product refers to the
offering provided to satisfy the needs of the target consumer, Price refers to the right product
offered at the right cost. Place means the right product at the right price available at the
convenience of the customer. And lastly, promotion refers to communicating to both current and
potential customers of the availability of the product, its price and its place (Ehmke, Fulton &
Lusk, 2016). With the ever changing market environment, customer is the basic cause of
existence for any business. Meeting the needs of those customers more effectively than
competitors is the key to continued profitable existence for business. Today, consumers face a
growing range of products and services to buy (Payson & Karunanithy, 2016).

According to Wertz (2018), the global retail market has undergone a great global transformation
in the last few decades. Nowadays, customers are provided with huge options of consumer
brands to choose from thus cultivating brand preferences in their minds. In order to comprehend
the main characteristics of demand, selecting, purchasing and consuming, and to examine
antecedents of consumer satisfaction, it is vital to understand their behaviour. Marketing
strategies are the result of the consumer behaviour’s investigations, which assist marketers in
satisfying consumers (Wongleedee, 2015). The Retail Sector is comprised of establishments
engaged in retailing merchandise, generally without transformation. Retailing is the final step in
the distribution of goods to consumers. In the US, 2018 was kind to retail sector led by
advancements in digital channels in the market reporting growth every month so far after a
record-setting 2017. Retailers must adapt to new shifts in demographics, attitudes and consumer
preferences as the face of the market is quickly evolving (Wertz, 2018). An organization can
actually survive if it can be able to understand the needs and demands of consumers and supply
them. This means that there is need to understand consumer behaviour. Consumer behaviour
refers to a series of activities directed toward the acquisition, use and disposal of goods and
services occurs (Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard, & Hogg, 2016). Knowledge of consumer
behaviour is therefore considered to be very essential if organizations seek to gain commercial
success. According to Green, Whitten and Inman (2014), it is vital to point out that marketing
strategies are very important in the long run performance of an organization. The relationship
between consumer behaviour as well as marketing strategy is very much emphasized since the
success of companies’ marketing strategies depends on how well managers understand consumer
behaviour (Kotler, 2014). Consumer buyer behaviour is said to be the multi-step decision-
making process where people take part in it and the actions consumers take to satisfy their needs
and wants in the marketplace. The study of customer behaviour is therefore mainly focused on
consumer buying behaviour, in that the customer plays three essential roles: user, payer and
buyer (Kotler & Armstrong, 2013).

According to Renner (2018), the four gold standards of retail marketing are product, price, place,
and promotion. This product can be physical or intangible. As for pricing, in order to optimize
sales, a company must find its product’s pricing sweet-spot. A firm can have the best product in
the world, but if it’s out of the customers’ reach, the firm is out of luck. This is determined by
place in the marketing mix. And lastly promotion, it’s all about communicating with the
consumers and sparking their interest in the firm’s products. A large portion of Kenya’s service
sector is comprised of retail services. Supermarkets are rapidly penetrating the retail industry
especially in urban areas where they have an increasing large share of the market. The
expenditure level for the average Kenyan consumer has risen by as much as 67 per cent in recent
years, thus fuelling demand and growth in retail malls. This makes Kenya Africa’s fastest-
growing retail market. A study by Oxford Business Group (2016) to examine consumer spending
patterns and the retail industry in five Sub-Saharan countries including Kenya revealed that
Kenya was ranked Africa’s second biggest formalized retail economy after South Africa. Forty
one per cent of Kenyan shoppers surveyed reported to frequent formal retail outlets because of
the wide variety of products they offer (Oxford Business Group, 2016). Supermarket
development in Kenya is currently in the medium stage where changes are taking place fast. In
Nairobi, the fight for market share has taken mainstream supermarkets from the usual
commercial areas to residential places, where they are competing with newer entrants like
Chandarana, Carrefour, Game and Shoprite among others. In the retail industry, just like in any
other industry, effective marketing is necessary in order to compete in the ever growing industry
sector. A lot of effort is required from the retailer since they need to get the product, advertise it,
and sell it to customers. This happens through the four Ps of marketing: product, price, place, and
promotion, and finding the right marketing mix is crucial to the success of any business (Smith,
2019).