The applicability of porter’s generic strategies to network marketing in Tanzania

The study was done to analyse the applicability of porter’s Generic strategies to the performance of the forever living company Tanzania Limited (FLCTL). The study had three specific objectives, namely to find out porter’s Generic Business strategies adopted by the FLCTL in Tanzania, to identify the contribution of the porter’s generic business strategy to the marketability of the FLCTL in Tanzania in terms of market share, profitability, and business growth and to identify the challenges faced by the FLCTL in implementing the Poters’s generic business strategies. Both theoretical and empirical literature reviews were included. Theoretically, the study was guided by the Strategic Contingency theory. The empirical literature review provided lessons on the applicability of porter’s Generic Strategies by drawing experiences especially in and outside of Tanzania. The conceptual framework highlighted clearly the direct relationship between porter’s Generic Strategies and organizations’ performance. The study adopted case study research design using this design, the total sample for the study were 80 respondents. They were selected through purposive and snowball sampling techniques. Both primary and secondary data were included. The data were collected through questionnaire, interview, and documentary review. Data analysis was done through statistical packages for social science (SPSS). The findings were presented in the form of frequency tables and percentages, followed by discussion. The findings indicate that the FLCTL had adopted both differentiation and focus group strategies in its business operation in Tanzania and the rest of the world. Currently, the company produces and supplies five main product, which are nutritional food supplements, personal care products, cosmetics, weight management products and bee products. The company’s market share covered about 60% to 70% of networking market across the country. The profit level of the company has been ranging from 1% to 7% on annual basis. Although for the years 2013 and 2014, the business was well promising in terms of market growth had been decreasing at different percentages for the years 2015, 2016 and 2017, due to various reasons. The current challenges facing the company includes misconception between legal network marketing distribution and pyramid schemes, misconception between wellness and diseases, lack of continuous innovations to the FLCTL, stiff competition from new emerging companies in Tanzania, few distribution centers, poor beliefs among people that Network Marketing is not a professional job, fear of many big Network Marketing being scam, geographical challenges, low business, and poor entrepreneurial skills among others. The study concluded that, the porter’s Generic strategies were the best business strategies in which each organization or individual was required to take consideration and take them in board so as to have good business performance. The implication of the study was seen on the extent in which porter’s generic strategies in accelerating business performance of the FLCTL in Tanzania and networking market at large. The study recommends further research studies on evaluation of consumer perceptions and public attitudes to network marketing and the applicability of the porter’s Generic strategies in online marketing in Tanzania.