Assessing the Marketing Activities of Micro and Small Enterprises in Dessie Town, Amhara Region: The Case of Manufactured Goods
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Date
2011-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The major objective of this study wa to probe the problems of Micro and Small Manufacturing
Enterpri es in De sie town in relation to their marketing activities (more specifically of their
product, price, promotion, and location cases). In order to gain relevant data from the
respondents, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in this study. To obtain
primary data, self-administered questionnaires were distributed to respondents of Micro and
mall Manufacturing Enterprise operators/managers upon whom stratified sampling technique '
was used in sample selection. On top of this, semi-structured interview was also used to obtain
primary data from the heads of Micro and Small Enterprise Expanding Office and Municipality
Office of Dessie town respectively. The SPSS version 15 was used to process the primary data.
The findings of this study showed that products of respondents of Micro and Small
Manufacturing Enterprises were not differentiated from competitors' offers. Similarly, the great
majority of the respondents pointed out that they had no sufficient market for their products at
current production level. Many respondents had the following opinion related to price: they did
not take salaries/wages of family members working in their enterprise while pricing products;
they did not get cheaper suppliers of inputs; and they preferred cost of production to what
customers able to pay in their emphasis. For all respondents, word of mouth communication was
the basic tool played significant role for the sale of products. However, other tools of promotion
such as trade fairs, in store promotion, advertising board, radio broad casting, local
newspapers, catalogue, magazine, and packages were not used by the majority of respondents .
Next, they did not even set plan and allocate budget at the beginning of a year to promote their
product. Lastly, selling/manufacturing locations were not convenient in terms of infrastructures,
people traffic, people's living standard, and security cases. To overcome these, the Micro and
Small Enterprise Expanding Office and other concerned parties should provide periodical
training and other supports to enterprise managers of Micro and Small manufacturing
businesses. Micro and small manufacturing enterprise operators should also strengthen their
efforts in the areas where they showed betterments and strive to minimize their weakne
resulted from themselves .
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Marketing Activities of Micro