FACTORS INFLUENCING THE CHOICE OF A BANK ACCOUNT BY GRADUATE E M P L O Y E E S IN NAIROBI: A CASE OF EMPLOYEES OF PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS-KENYA BY GAKONYO

The study used a descriptive research design. The study population comprised of the 280 graduate employees of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) based in Nairobi. A sample size of 50 was drawn from the total population by use of stratified random sampling. The data was collected between December 2013 and March 2014 by use of a standardized questionnaire. The use of a questionnaire was appropriate due to its stability, consistency and uniformity. The data was analyzed by calculation of means, percentages, fi-equencies, analysis of variance and cross tabulations. The study used figures and tables to present the results. The study revealed that, the most significant product related factor that influenced graduate employees' choice of bank accounts was technological innovation. The second most significant product related factor was the security and confidentiality of customer data. Convenience ranked third. Service charge policy was the fourth most significant product related factor that influenced graduate employees' choice of bank accounts. On the contrary, there was no empirical evidence to show whether the presence of personalized services either affected or did not affect the choice of bank accounts. The study also revealed that the most significant external factor that influenced graduate employees' choices of bank accounts was the bank's reputation. The second most influencing external factor was people's influence. This is in the form of recommendation from the family being the most significant influencing factor. Meanwhile there was noncommittal as to the effects of recommendations from work colleagues but it was clear that recommendation from friends did not have any influence. On the contrary social influence did not affect the graduate employee's choice of bank accounts. On the other hand the study showed that religion did not influence the graduate employee's choice of bank accounts. On the strategies that can be used to effectively promote bank products the study showed that advertisement was the most significantly favoured strategy for promoting bank products followed by public relations. Though individually spreading of good news by an organization could be used as an effective strategy to promote bank products, on the contrary, the respondents did not agree that strong corporate social responsibility could be used as an effective strategy to promote bank products. Hence public relation could be used as a strategy to promote bank products in the form of spreading good news. Next, personal selling was also identified as an effective strategy to promote bank products but only to limited scale as significant percentage was neutral on the matter. The study further showed that sales promotion could be used as an effective strategy to promote bank products but only to the extent of using premium offers not usage of coupons, free gifts, and points of sale demonstrations which had high level of neutrality. Lastly, the study showed neutrality on the usage of direct marketing as an effective strategy to promote bank products. This high level of neutrality showed lack of empirical evidence to indicate whether direct marketing could be used as an effective strategy to promote bank products or not. The study concluded that product related factors did affect the choice of bank accounts among the graduate employees in Nairobi. The most significant product related factor being technological innovation followed by security and confidentiality; convenience and service charge. It fiirther concluded that the most influential external factor that affected the choice of bank accounts was the bank's reputation followed by peoples' influence. Last was advertisement followed by public relations and sales promotion. The study recommends strategic investment to ensure that products offer the best in terms of innovativeness, security, convenience and fair prices. The study also recommends continuous market research to clearly understand how the market perceives the bank and peoples' influence on purchases for banks to come up with appropriate sfrategies for developing brands that resonate well with the market. Finally strategies should be used in a maimer that positions the products as giving the most irmovative, high quality products at fair prices. Future research would explore whether the other graduate employees outside this population would also give similar responses. A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T My appreciation goes to Mr. Fred Newa for guiding me through the process.