Management of Business

School Based Assessment

(IA)

Title of Study: An investigation into the effectiveness of Grace Kennedy Limited sales

promotional strategies on its productivity level in Kingston.

Name of Candidates: Shaniel Holness, Javan Simpson, Rolawny Foste

Thesis Statement

“How you sell matters. What your process is matters. But how your customers

feel when they engage with you matters more.” – Tiffani Bova

An investigation into the effectiveness of Grace Kennedy Limited sales promotional strategies on

its productivity level in Kingston

Topic Question

Which Sales Promotional Strategy is most effective on Grace Kennedy Limited Productivity

level?

3
 Objectives

It is the researchers desire to:

1) To discover which promotion strategy prior to promotion tools is the best which contributes

to the effective and efficient consumer consumptions of the Company.

2) To find out if research whether or not Promotional strategies build brand awareness.

3) To identify the key promotional strategies adopted by Grace Kennedy

4) To identify determine factors which contribute to the performance and effectiveness of the

business.
 Significance of Study/Justification

Promotional strategies play a crucial role in the sales of a company in today’s highly competitive

and dynamic business environment. The researchers conducted a study on the topic “An

investigation into the effectiveness of sales promotion strategies on Grace Kennedy Limited in

Kingston” which aims to critically assess the promotion strategies of the Grace Kennedy

Company in order to identify factors which contribute to the performance and effectiveness of

the business. The researchers wish to conduct an internal investigation to the extent which will

benefit them where as useful information of how Promotion Strategies prior to the tools of

promotion. After the researchers have conducted their internal investigation, an analysis will be

done on the data being collected in order to make a conclusion on the thesis being investigated.
 Background of Study

Grace, Kennedy & Company Limited was founded on February 14, 1922 by Dr. John J. Grace and

Mr. Fred William Kennedy. One of the company's founders (Dr. John J. Grace) had worked for Grace Ltd, a

wholly owned subsidiary of New York's W. R. Grace and Company. When, in 1922, [Link] decided to

divest the Jamaican subsidiary, Dr. Grace bought the company and, along with Fred Kennedy, a Jamaican, co-

founded Grace, Kennedy and Company Limited. The company which first operated as a small trading

establishment soon acquired wharfing facilities in order to facilitate its imports.

It has expanded and diversified over the years, changing from a privately owned enterprise to a public

company listed on the stock exchanges of Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean.

Today, the Grace Kennedy Group comprises a varied network of some 60 subsidiaries and associated

companies located across the Caribbean and in North and Central America, and the United Kingdom. Their

operations span the food distribution, financial, insurance, remittance, hardware retailing and food-processing

industries.

In 1995, Grace Kennedy developed its 2020 Vision, the objective being to transform from a Jamaican trading

company to a global consumer group by the year 2020. At the end of 2006 its market value stood at J$21

billion, up from $1.29 billion in 1995 - an increase of 1500%.

.
 Literature Review

Promotional strategies are the means of attracting new and retaining existing customers. The

researchers interest was sparked in doing this study, because by doing this, it will highlight the

main promotional tools and the effectiveness of them. To support the researchers topic, previous

studies were reviewed such as To evaluate the effectiveness of promotional strategies adopted by

Cadbury UK. This study states that Which Sales Promotional Strategy is most effective on Grace

Kennedy Limited Productivity level. Sales promotion can be considered as any strategy or

activity intended to increase the business or trade and thereby boost the sales (Shimp. 2003).

Promotion is a form of communication with the target customers. Rather it can be considered as

a form of persuasive communication aimed at changing the buying behavior of the customers. A

right promotional strategy will be helpful to the firm in making the customers understand the fact

that it has the right product or service for them.

Researches done on this field suggest that billions of dollars are wasted per year for ineffective

promotional techniques (Ambler & Vakratsas, 1996). Hence it is crucial for every company to

formulate the most effective promotional strategy for it. As a first step towards selecting the

promotional strategy, the company must decide upon the communication objectives. The

objectives that need to be communicated comprise of awareness, knowledge, liking, preference,

conviction and purchase. Promotion can be defined as activities people use to communicate with

others about their product or service and to convince them to use it. Whatever that is

communicated to the public must be regarding the business. The communication can be done in a

variety of ways including brochures, newspaper ads, television ads etc. As per the description

provided by Totten and Block (1994), “Sales promotion refers to many kinds of selling

incentives and techniques intended to produce immediate or short-term sales effect”. There are
mainly two types of promotional strategies: Push strategy and Pull strategy. In a push strategy,

the company takes the product directly to the customer in order to increase their awareness of the

product. This can involve aggressive personal selling or trade advertising (Lamb [Link] 2008).

Other major push strategies are:

Making negotiations with the sellers over keeping the product

Making the cover or packaging more attractive in order to induce purchase

Point of sale displays

If a company is following a pull strategy, it will come out with techniques that would motivate or

induce the customers to buy the product. Consumer advertising, cents-off campaign and gift

coupons etc. are some of the common techniques used in this strategy. Word of mouth marketing

is another effective pull strategy. Customer relationship management (CRM) is another

technique that most companies now adopt in order to attract as well as retain their customer base.

Coupons are used usually in the trial period of a product since customers easily get attracted

towards it and hence help in initial purchase (Robinson and Carmack, 1997; Cook, 2003). But

many other theorists like Gilbert and Jackaria (2002) have come up with contrasting statements

saying that coupons have the least impact over product trial. Many studies also views coupons as

an effective sales tool (Peter and Olson, 1996; Gardener and Trivedi, 1998; Darks, 2000; Fill,

2002). Another factor which has an effect over product trial is price promotion (Brandweek,

1994). As per the research conducted by Chandon [Link] (2000), customers who belong to high-

promotion prone category are more likely to be influenced by sales promotion. They are attracted

by sales promotions for reasons further than price savings.

product or service, business image as well as the medium selected for reaching the target

customer group (Jeannet and Hennessey, 2005). Timing is one crucial factor which determines

the effectiveness of promotional strategies. The importance of these strategies changes as the

purchase process advances (Kurtz [Link] 2009)

Research Design

The researchers used questionnaires to gain specific data. The reasons for choosing this

instrument were due to the fact that it’s confidential, it’s not time consuming, they are relatively

easy to analyze, a large sample of the given population can be contacted at relatively low cost

and the format is familiar to most respondents. In conducting this research permission was

sought by the researcher from the Grace Kennedy Limited main office in order to conduct a

research on Promotion Strategy in the organization. The researchers chose to use questionnaires

and interviews which are both primary data sources. Questionnaires and interviews were used

instead of other methods because they are known to be very cost effective, they are easy to

analyse, reduces bias and much information can be easily collected. The interviews will allow

the researchers to interact more with people; also the information gathered will make the

researchers research more factual and precise.

Sample

Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used to collect data. Sample

Fifteen (15) questionnaires will be prepared and fifteen (15) persons will be randomly selected

from the Marketing (promotion) Department to answer the questions. The respondents consist of

both male and female employees so as to ensure that the research was not gender biased. By

using interviews, we will be able to use the medium provided to ask appropriate questions for the

research. This in turn will provide the researchers with relevant and accurate information. The

research however, will comprise of employees within the Grace Kennedy Company. Information

will be obtained from these employees regarding how promotional strategies are being enforced
in the business. The Grace Kennedy Company is an appropriate business to carry-out this study

due to (2) reasons: It is a large producing company. It provides a wide array of products.

Research Instrument

Questionnaires are a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for

the purpose of gathering information from respondents. The questionnaires were then analyzed

and the collected data was statistically represented. The questionnaire comprised of 11 questions

all together, (8) of which provided optional answers from which participants could select and (3)

were open-ended questions.

This research aims to critically assess the promotion strategies of the Grace Kennedy Company

in order to identify factors which contribute to the performance and effectiveness of the business.

The researcher wishes to conduct an internal investigation to the extent of which will give details

of how Promotion Strategies are being manifested within the company. The questionnaires were

issued to the employees of the Grace Kennedy Company concerning this subject matter. The

information that will be presented in this section was obtained solely from the data collected

from the questionnaires. It will be presented in the form of a written account with graphs and

charts integrated.
 Which cross-section is your target market?

cross-section of target market

all

elderly

teenagers

babies

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Figure 1

The diagram above showing the cross section of the target market of distribution that the Grace
Kennedy Company produces is for everyone.
 method of advertising used most frequently

20%

30%

printed media
television
samples

50%

Figure 2

The Pie chart above showing the method of advertising used most frequently by Grace Kennedy
Limited.
How often is the value of the product being emphasized to the customers?

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
daily monthly not regularly

Figure 3

The Bar chart above showing how often the value of a product being emphasized to the

customers.
 Teamwork within the organizataiton

satisfactory
good
excellent
3

Figure 4

The chart above shows a table of the overall satisfaction of teamwork within the organization.
 Questionnaire

1. Gender?

Male [] Female []

2. How long have you been working in the promotional department?

Under 1 year [] 3-5 years [] 7-10 years [] Other []

3. Which cross-section is your target market?

Babies [] Teenagers [] Elderly [] All []

4. Which method of advertising is used most frequently by the business?

Print Media [] Television [] Samples []

5. Overall, how is the spirit of teamwork within the organization?

Satisfactory [] Good [] Excellent []

6. What are the challenges you encounter in the promotional process?

[] Excuting promotions across multiple channel

[] Managing loyalty and rewards program

[] Other

7. Who is your major competitor?

Lasoe [] Grace [] Seprod []

8. How often is the value of the products being emphasized to the customers?

Daily [] Monthly [] Not Regularly []

9. Is your means of distributing the products reliable?

[] YES [] NO

If yes, how: ______________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

10. Do you encourage direct services to consumers?

[] YES [] NO
If yes, what is the procedure: ________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

__________________________________
 Analysis of Data

Indications from the research conducted among the employees of the Grace Kennedy Company

clearly supports that the company is carrying out the promotional strategies a business should to

allow effective and efficient consumer consumption.

Figure one (1) showed a one hundred percent (100%) of the respondents saying that the company

produces for all with the exception of none. As a result of this response, this can be used to

explain why the company is so productive and always making progress globally.

Figure two (2) diagram shows the method of advertising used more frequently by Grace

Kennedy Limited. The researcher found that 20% of advertising is printed media, 30% is

samples and 50% is television, which is the most frequently, used method.

Figure three (3) states on the chart that majority of the respondents think the value of the product

is being emphasized to its customers monthly. This was evident when they were asked how often

they think that the products are being emphasized to its customers. Seventy percent (70%)

thought it was done monthly while 20% said that it was done daily and the remaining 10% said it

is not regularly done. According to the results obtained, all the respondents think that the equal

amount of distribution that the Grace Kennedy Company produces for is for everyone.

Figure four (4) showed a table of the overall satisfaction of teamwork within the organization

from the respondents sixty percent (60%) of respondents agreed that the overall performance of

teamwork in the organization is satisfactory, with thirty percent (30%) of the respondent stating

that the level of teamwork within the organization is good, but then ten percent (10%) of the
respondents believed that teamwork was excellent within the organization.
 Interpretation of Data

The researchers through this research have learnt that Grace Kennedy Company limited has a

broad age spectrum of targeted consumers for their various products, from the elderly to babies.

Knowledge also came to light of the marketing strategies used to entice said consumers to buy

their products; these are the use of television broadcasting, printed media (newspapers) and

samples. The televised strategy gained the most attention for the target market and so it was the

most frequently used medium of advertisement.

In the company’s efforts to keep their customer base happy they would often, monthly, check to

see of the prices set for the products they offer were affordable for the consumers. A very large

percentage agreed that indeed the prices were set at a reasonable price. Being that the researchers

are focus on the marketing practices of the company, they acquired information about the

teamwork within the organization. Sixty percent agrees that the teamwork is satisfactory; thirty

percent said it was good while ten percent said it was excellent, overall the teamwork aspect if

the company is very pleasing.

It can safely be deduced from the research that promotional strategies which includes; personal

selling, sales promoting, advertising and publicity were handily done. Nevertheless, there is

always room for improvement as it was evident in the results that everything is not perfect. The

employees are a part of the making of the products to carry it off in a successful way and they all

weren’t in agreement but the majority of them.

Recommendations

The trends based on the sample indicated that there are good promotional strategies that is

enacted by the company that brings out good work, however it can be improved by persons being

employed to be more professionally equipped with their job description so they may bring out

the making of products better and more attractive as it is never too much. A person should enjoy

doing their job unless it will not be done to the best of their ability as it isn’t really what they

want to do but for some other reason, they adapt themselves. Also, find more means of

emphasizing on their products, for example, internet marketing is a good and effective way in

doing so. Internet marketing is advertising and selling products and service by email marketing

search engine marketing, social media marketing, many types of display advertising, and mobile

advertising. It will bring global satisfaction

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Retrieved: January 18,2021