Evaluation of marketing strategies for cryogenic gases: a case of TOL gases limited in the lake region

This study aimed at evaluating marketing strategies for cryogenic gases of TOL gases limited in the lake region of Tanzania. TOL Gases faces stiff competitions that threat not only its market share but also its ultimate survival. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the product, promotion, pricing and customer services strategies deployed by TOL gases. Five specific research questions were developed. The questions sought to establish the effectiveness of product and promotion strategies, how customers get attitudes of customers get value for their money, the perception of customers on TOL’s services and the attitudes of customers towards competitors’ services. The research was descriptive in nature and 91 customers selected using a stratification sampling method were interviewed. The customers were both small enterprises and corporate. A chi square test with the help of SPSS was used to analyze data. The study findings reveal that the product availability strategy used by TOL meets the expectation of only about a half of the customers, while only one half of customers on cryogenic gases is below sixty percent and TOL’s services do not satisfy nearly one-half of the intended customers. It can be concluded that the marketing strategies used by TOL are not effective and hence, a need for reformulation. It is recommended there be proper training to the staff responsible for implementation and regular evaluation of marketing strategies to realize their effectiveness. Finally, there is a need for further studies in other regions served by TOL and evaluation of distribution strategy used by the .company