EFFECT OF IMAGE DIFFERENTIATION ON SALES PERFORMANCE OF SUPERMARKETS IN KENYA: A CASE OF NAIVAS SUPERMARKET

Abstract

Competition among firms intensifies due to various organizational and environmental factors, including globalization, deregulation, and emerging technologies. These factors are a fast-changing environment that creates high levels of uncertainty in the business environment and makes companies change their positions to achieve competitive advantage. Nonetheless, Naivas supermarket continues to record increased growth and expansion in the Kenyan retail market, positioning it among the most dominant supermarkets in this sub-sector. The study aimed to establish the effect of image differentiation strategy on sales performance of supermarkets in Kenya with a focus on Naivas supermarket. The study used case of study design with a sample of 204 from which the data was collected. The result revealed that image differentiation had an effect on sales performance (χ2 = 10.030, P-value = 0.002) of Naivas supermarket. It was recommended that business and organizations should consider improving their pricing, customer experience, marketing and business location to help them improve their image hence increase sales performance. KEY WORDS: Image differentiation, Sales performance, Competition, Globalization, Image Differentiation, Sales Performance, Customer Experience.