An Assessment of the Impact of Direct Sales on the Growth of Customer Base

Abstract

Competition amongst various telecommunication industries in Tanzania has necessitated the application of different marketing strategies by companies in order to develop a strong customer base and gain competitive advantage to remain in the market. Halotel Tanzania has been employing direct sale strategy which is characterized by good pricing, quality product and good promotion to develop its customer base. However, being that inadequate studies have been conducted on the impact of direct sale on the growth of customer base, this study aim to do so. The study investigated how direct sale strategies; pricing, product and promotion influence the growth of customer base is Halotel Tanzania, Arusha branch. The study employed mixed approach and convergent parallel design. The study sampled 43 (30%) from 142 targeted Halotel Tanzania service providers or employees using judgmental sampling techniques while 77 customers were sampled using convenient techniques to be respondents. Questionnaires and documentary review were used to collect data. The supervisor and experts evaluated the content and face validity of the instruments. Reliability of the instruments was tested, adjusted to ensure that it correlate at Cronbach’s coefficient alpha r=0.920 which was greater than 0.75 hence it was reliable. This was confirmed with the reliability of study data which was 0.976. The Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics in the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20.0 and the results were presented in tables of frequencies and percentages. The results revealed direct sales pricing, products and promotion strategies positively impact on the growth of customers’ base. The pricing strategies were; discounting price, special price for some products and areas, price for mix product, low prices for promotion, and constant prices. The products strategies were; branding, packaging and labeling; after sale services; guarantees and warranties; product design like features, attributes, quality and aesthetic. The promotion strategies were; advertising and sales promotion, direct sale to link with buyers, wide marketing using internet, radio and television, and good placing of products. The study recommended lowering the prices of products, sales of products of required quality and standards, wide and adequate promotion of products, and placing of products in strategic places as ways to attract and retain customers to build strong customers’ base in Halotel Tanzania, Arusha branch.