Influence of Entrepreneurial Marketing Strategies on the Growth of Small and Medium Water Bottling Enterprises in Kenya

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of entrepreneurial marketing strategies on the growth of SME water bottling enterprises in Kenya.Materials and methods: Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were employed to sample 127 SMEs from the sample frame. The instrument of data collection was a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze quantitative data. Qualitative data was coded and classified into themes and perceptions and reported in the findings. Inferential statistics using correlation, multiple linear regression Models were undertaken using IBM SPSS Statistics 22. The data was presented in tables, graphs and pie charts.Results: The study found strong relationship between promotion, product, pricing and distribution strategies and growth of SME water bottling firms in Kenya. SMES should therefore leverage on low cost but effective marketing strategies to allow them to compete with large firms The moderating influence of entrepreneurial orientation on aggregated marketing strategies also had a positive and significant effect on the overall change in all the marketing strategies variables and the growth of small and medium water bottling enterprises in Kenya.Recommendations:One of the major implications of this research is that firms can increase sales by offering the right marketing tools. Therefore organizations should carefully plan their marketing strategies, and allocate adequate marketing budget giving preference to the more effective tools. The SME water bottling entrepreneurs should also build capacity on the entrepreneurial marketing strategies to apply in their businesses and invest more in web based technology and infrastructure.Keywords: entrepreneurial marketing strategies, water bottling enterprises