DIGITAL MARKETING PRACTICES ON THE PERFORMANCE OF PETROLEUM COMPANIES IN KENYA: A CASE STUDY OF VIVO ENERGY KENYA
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of digital marketing techniques and performance of petroleum companies. Digital marketing techniques examined in this study include; social media marketing, email marketing and search engine optimization. As such the objectives of the study were; to determine the influence of social media marketing on the performance of petroleum companies, to evaluate the effect of email marketing on the performance of the petroleum companies and to examine the impact of search engine optimization on the performance of petroleum companies. Thematic analysis of digital marketing literature was used in determining indicators for the study variables which included; social media marketing email marketing, search engine optimization and performance of petroleum companies. The study employed descriptive survey methodology with a case study. Vivo Energy Kenya was the case study for this paper. Target population for the study included employees serving at Vivo energy corporate communications and marketing departments. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 71 participants to take part in the study. A structured questionnaire was used as the tool for data collection. The study established that; social media marketing played a critical role in positively boosting popularity of petroleum companies. The findings also indicated that email marketing played a positive role in growing customer base by building consumer affiliation by sharing petroleum products information directly to them. Also, the study established that search engine optimization (SEO) was extremely valuable in building visibility of petroleum companies which was critical in developing brand popularity. The study concluded that digital marketing strategy will increasingly become a strong pillar in undertaking product promotions in petroleum marketing. The dimensions of digital marketing notably; social media marketing and search engine optimization will be most critical in driving petroleum products market share in the digital era. The study recommended; budgeting increase on marketing expenditure for digital marketing strategy and increasing capacity amongst marketing staff in petroleum companies on digital marketing and communication skills. The study also recommended for modernization of petroleum companies digital assets in areas of website design, digitization of company logos and social media channels appeal.
Key Words: Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, Search Engine Optimization
CITATION: Maundu, J. (2020). Digital marketing practices on the performance of petroleum companies in Kenya: A case study of Vivo Energy Kenya. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management, 7(3), 984 – 997.
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Acheampong, P., Zhiwen, L., Antwi, H. A., Otoo, A. A., Mensah, W. G., & Sarpong, P. B. (2017). Hybridizing an Extended Technology Readiness Index with Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to Predict E-Payment Adoption in Ghana. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH, (5)2, pp 172-184. http://onlinejournal.org.uk/index.php/ajmur/ind
Addou, B. (2020). Utilization of personalization in marketing automation and email marketing. Master Thesis, Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT. https://lutpub.lut.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/161404/Master%27s%20Thesis%20-%20Addou%20Babet%20-%20LUT%202020%20-%20final.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Baye, M. R., Santos, B., & Wildenbeest, M. R. (2015). Search Engine Optimization: What Drives Organic Traffic to Retail Sites? Journal of Economic and Management Strategy. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jems.12141
Bhandari, R. S., & Bansal, A. (2018). Impact of Search Engine Optimization as a Marketing Tool. Jindal Journal of Business Research, 7(1), pp. 24–3. DOI: 10.1177/227868211775401
Bodaine, T. (2020). Digital Marketing Impact on the Growth of Small and Medium Size Enterprises in Cameroon case Study Jumia. Thesis CENTRIA UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES. https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/342824/Tsopatsa_Bodoine.pdf?sequence=2
Brock, B., Carlson, S. C., Moilanen, M., & Schillo, B. A. (2016). Reaching consumers: How the tobacco industry uses email marketing. Preventive Medicine Reports, 4, 2016, pp. 103-106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2016.05.020
De Ruyter, K., Keeling, D. I., & Viet Ngo, L. (2018). When nothing is what it seems. A Digital Marketing Research Agenda. Australasian Marketing Journal. Doi: 10.1016/j.ausmj.2018.07.003
Desai, V. (2019). Digital Marketing: A Review. International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development, 2019, pp.196-200.https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd23100.pdf
Fierro, I., Arbelaez, D. A., & Givalanez, J. (2017). Digital marketing: a new tool for International Education. http://www.scielo.org.co/pdf/pege/n42/2145-941X-pege-42-00241.pdf
Girchenko, T., & Ovsiannikova, Y. (2016). Digital Marketing and its Role in the Modern Business Processes. EUROPEAN COOPERATION, 11(18). http://we.clmconsulting.pl/index.php/we/article/download/244/616
Geomelakis, D., & Veglis, A. (2015). Investigating Search Engine Optimization Factors in Media Websites: the case of Greece. Digital Journalism online. https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/38502662/SEO_in_Greek_media_websites.pdf?1439884773=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DInvestigating_Search_Engine_Optimization.pdf&Expires=1598094104&Signature=YFnf60SdK7r9GJIdJB6TzV74NmSDi9J0e-CwRI9brPUW7jHu~~xyQhiZy0vhfu8z4bgV6gkyb7YiVxVj17P571tnmP-3fW2I0619aN8ENAVcexlSKRrWM16DbYHYnmGZKKngg13dbDkNf6ZE3aoXRsJuEl80b-u-EajIxBg0kWK3fbcawaMuQwRKzIo8oM5zGfUPdXWF2g7-yJzKODbW6zWve0fZPf2x4QDswqdCexJfqGc0DH5YRtO1Z4jouJTcNNhN5aTCN5ClKWi-z2OFhlvNBzShPVIhTC~OMB1FFIO00g0LRILBENWbNddE6zUQLLm65uLgC4PaHg6hptVOaQ__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA
Iskandar, M. S., & Komara, D. (2018). Application Marketing Strategy Search Engine Optimization (SEO). IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 407 (2018), 01201. doi:10.1088/1757-899X/407/1/012011
Jeshurun, S. B. (2018). A Study on the Effectiveness of Email Marketing. Shanlax International Journal of Management, 6 (S1), 2018, pp. 84–86. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1461282
Kingsnorth, S. (2016). Digital Marketing Strategy, an integrated approach to online marketing. Koganpage, London.
Kiiru, M. I. (2018). An Assessment of Social Media Platforms In Digital Marketing. Master Thesis, UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY -AFRICA. http://erepo.usiu.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11732/4099/IRENE%20MUTHONI%20KIIRU%20MBA%202018.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Kiradoo, G. (2017). Digital Marketing in India-It’s Scope, Growth And Development. International Journal of Management, IT & Engineering, 7 (5). http://www.ijmra.us
Lotfipanah, M. (2016). Does Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Increase Scientific Journals’ Visibility, Prestige, And Impact Factor As A New Method? International Journal of Knowledge Management and Practices, 4(1), 2016. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mahdi_Lotfipanah2/publication/285848847_Does_SEO_increase_scientific_journals_visibility_prestige_and_impact_factor_as_a_new_method/links/57038a7008aeade57a2588b6/Does-SEO-increase-scientific-journals-visibility-prestige-and-impact-factor-as-a-new-method.pdf
Mugo, D. G., Njagi, K., Chemwei, B., & Motanya, J. O. (2017). The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and its Application to the Utilization of Mobile Learning Technologies. British Journal of Mathematics & Computer Science, 20 (4), pp 1-8, 2017. DOI: 10.9734/BJMCS/2017/29015
Njoku, P. O., & Chiana, C. A. (2019). Investigating the Impact of E-Marketing Adoption on Marketing Success of Small Business Enterprises in Abia State, Nigeria. Archives of Business Research, 7(SP),90-101. DOI:10.14738/abr.73.2.6367
Reddy, G. (2016). Digital marketing impact on the consumer decision making process in Nike’s customer retail operations in South Africa. Master Thesis, University of Pretoria. https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/59756/Reddy_Digital_2017.pdf?seq
Phan, Q. A. (2019). Personalization in email marketing –Case study: Debic at Friesland Campina. Thesis, Karelia University of Applied Sciences. https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/268113/Ho_Phan_Quynh_Anh_2020_22_01.pdf?sequence=2
Shetty, R. S., & Maiya, U. (2017). Youth’s Perception Towards Digital Marketing. International Journal of Advance and Innovative Research, 6 (2), pp 45- 51. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yogesh_Mahajan16/publication/334760577_mudra_loans_research_paper_yogesh_mahajan/links/5d3fcddc92851cd04691f488/mudra-loans-research-paper-yogesh-mahajan.pdf#page=52
Shirazi, M. S. (2017). Study the Role of Electronic Marketing on Business Performance with Emphasis on the Role of Market Orientation. International Review of Management and Marketing, 2017, 7(3), 357-365. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/10f2/d31c138e5e22ce74346f51af9b05dc5645ec.pdf
Stakhovska, V. (2019). B2B digital marketing strategy for DXC technology enterprise. Master Thesis, Tomas Bata University. https://digilib.k.utb.cz/bitstream/handle/10563/45558/stakhovska_2019_dp.pdf?sequence=1
Taffesse, W., & Wien, A. (2018). Implementing social media marketing strategically: an empirical assessment. JOURNAL OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT, pp. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2018.1482365
Tsuei, H, J., Tsai, W., Pan, F., & Tzeng, G. (2018). Improving search engine optimization (SEO) by using hybrid modified MCDM models. Artificial Intelligence Review, 53 (2020), pp1–16. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10462-018-9644-0
Todor, R. D. (2016). Marketing automation. Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov Series V: Economic Sciences, 9 (58) 2. http://webbut.unitbv.ro/BU2016/Series%20V/BULETIN%20I/10_Todor.pdf
Vivo Energy Plc. (2019). Vivo Energy Plc Annual Report & Accounts 2019. https://investors.vivoenergy.com/~/media/Files/V/Vivo-Energy-IR/reports-and-presentations/vivo-energy-2019-ara.pdf.
Wang, Z., & Kim, H. G. (2017). Can Social Media Marketing Improve Customer Relationship Capabilities and Firm Performance? Dynamic Capability Perspective. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 39 (2017), pp. 15–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.intmar.2017.02.004
Wu, B., & Chen, X. (2017). Continuance intention to use MOOCs: Integrating the technology acceptance model (TAM) and task technology fit (TTF) model. Computers in Human Behavior, 67 (2017), pp 221-232. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.10.028.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.61426/sjbcm.v7i3.1721
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
PAST ISSUES:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.