Development of Marketing Techniques in Women-Owned Enterprises through Credit and Training: A Perspective from SMEP Microfinance Bank Program in Nakuru Town, Kenya

Abstract

More women are starting businesses, but they still face significant challenges operating their businesses. Marketing one such prominent challenge encountered by these businesses.  Most MSEs in Kenya rarely invest in formal marketing development as a core function of their operations to gain competitive advantage as their management/owners have no formal training in marketing, hence, relying on informal marketing methods. Marketing training is, thus, crucial to any business and hence it is important to assess how training in this line influences business performance. Therefore, the objective of the paper was to determine whether credit and training offered by SMEP Microfinance Bank had influenced the usage of marketing techniques in the women-owned enterprises in Nakuru Town. The study used a longitudinal survey design targeting women enterpreneurs in the area who were clients of the microfinance banks. Through systematic random sampling, the study selected 145 women who were forllowed over a period of 12 months. Data was colected using researcher developed pre-tested questionnaires and was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The Z-test analysis shows that a significant change occurred after receiving obtaining credit and training and marketing techniques. This implied that training in marketing techniques was an important aspect of business training and  improved the performance of the businesses.Therefore, more coverage needs to be made in the training of marketing techniques as most of the women entrepreneurs had not fully grasped the concepts and it was affecting their growth prospects.