The Effectiveness of the Promotional Strategies used to Support the Implementation of the Proudly Zambian Campaign

Abstract

This study was an evaluation of the effectiveness of the promotional strategies used to support the implementation of the Proudly Zambian Campaign. This study was motivated by the Zamstat report which enumerated the rate of unemployment in Zambia which arguably has been said to have reached an alarming level of 13.20% in 2019 from 11.40% in 2018 (Zamstat, 2020). The research focused mostly on the relationship between the consumption, and support of locally manufactured FMCGs and the level of unemployment which subsequently affects the economic growth in Zambia. The objectives of this study were; to establish the level of awareness by consumers of products about the Proudly Zambian campaign, to identify the factors that influence the consumer buying behavior of consumers of the locally produced FMCGs in Zambia, to investigate the effectiveness of the promotional strategies used to support the implementation of the Proudly Zambian Campaign, and to establish the effectiveness of Branding strategy by local firms to attract support from local consumers. This study adopted a mixed research approach by using both qualitative and quantitative methods believed to be appropriate when using the post-positivism paradigm used in this research. The researcher used a structured questionnaire and interview guide to collect data from the respondents. The questionnaire was administered to customers of FMCGs and the interviews were done with the PZC key stakeholders. Systematic random sampling and purposive sampling were used when selecting customers and key stakeholders respectively, of which the sample size for the quantitative study was 295 and 15 the for qualitative study. The study adopted the explanatory research design to fully appreciate the phenomenon by understanding the cause and effect of the PZC and the consumption of local FMCGs. The quantitative data was analyzed using IBM SPSS for parametric analysis and qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. 181 out of 292 respondents representing 62.0% had never seen the campaign and only 111 out of 292 respondents representing 38.0% had seen the PZC before. 66.2% of respondents disagreed being aware of the PZC and 29.8% of respondents agreed being aware of the campaign. The correlation coefficient results shows that there is a positive linear relationship between the dependent variable (CSLFMCG’s) and the independent variables (GI, CA, PS, BS, SCS and VC).