The use of marketing communication tools in less developed countries with specific reference to the Eritrean manufacturing industry

[摘要] ENGLISH SUMMARY : Marketing communications, the promotions component of the marketing mix, is asystematic relationship between a business and its market. Its importance in the over allbusiness success has increased dramatically in recent decades. In today's cluttered andcomplex market place, marketing communications allows products/brands to stand out andhelp consumers appreciate their comparative advantages. Marketers have variouscommunication tools at their disposal including advertising, sales promotions, personalselling, direct marketing, public relations, sponsorship, exhibitions, point-of-sale, and theInternet to achieve their specific objectives. These communication tools are further groupedinto broad media types. The conventional media advertising, which involve 'renting' space ontelevision, newspaper, poster, radio etc are referred to as 'above-the-line advertising,' whereasall non-media promotions, including personal selling, sales promotion, direct marketing,public relations, and sponsorship are commonly termed as 'below-the-line promotions.' Theproper use and mix of these elements is fundamental for marketers to ensure that they obtainthe most for their communication budgets. Though there is no optimum mixture ofexpenditures between the two broad categories, the appropriate mixture involves spendingenough on promotions to ensure sufficient sales volume in the short-term whilesimultaneously spending enough on advertising to ensure the development of new brand andpreservation of a product/brand's equity position in the long-run. Furthermore, each elementof the communication mix should be integrated with other tools of the communication mix sothat better results are achieved for a unified message consistently reinforced.The increasing importance of marketing communications should benefit all firms around theworld, no studies have been undertaken to analyse their applications in least developedcountries. The purpose of this study is therefore, to investigate the overall awareness, use andintegration of marketing communication tools by manufacturing firms in a least developedsub-Saharan country, Eritrea. Accordingly, empirical data from 41 randomly selected firmshas been analysed. The finding showed that, although it seems marketers in this emergingnation are aware of the role of marketing communications, a tendency for relatively lessemphasis on marketing communications amongst most manufacturing firms was observed.The most commonly used marketing communication tools include sales promotions andpersonal selling, according to their importance, both from below-the-line, followed by TVadvertising. Manufacturing firms in Eritrea tend to spend less on marketing communication relative to their annual tum over. Most importantly, the total marketing communicationsexpenditure is dominantly allocated to below-the-line promotional activities. This resultindicates that more emphasis is placed on short-term success to the expense of long-termbrand development, brand and company image building or preservation. Furthermore, mostmanufacturing firms treat the various communication elements as virtually separate activities,rather than integrated tools that work together to achieve a common goal. Finally, the studyconcluded by commenting to individual firms to carefully consider the power that marketingcommunications offers, and avoid being blind-sided by any of the tools. Government officialsin Eritrea need to consider enhancing the current momentum of marketing in general andmarketing communications in specific in the country.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University