Exploring Factors Affecting Brand Marketing of Bangladesh Steel Industry: A Qualitative Approach

Rashed Al Karim

doi:10.31580/jmis.v3i1.1430

Abstract

The steel industry of Bangladesh is now an emerging and one of the major industrial sectors of the country. Steel being a high-end product it is necessary to create a strong brand positioning of the steel brand in the customers mind in order to reap benefits and have a strong competitive advantage over other steel companies. This paper aims to explore the marketing communication factors that affect the brand marketing of steel industry in Bangladesh based on the perceptions of corporate firms and the retailers. To collect interview data, a total of 10 in-depth semi-structured interviews was conducted from the corporate firms and the retailers of Chittagong city which were further analyzed thematically through NVivo-11 software. Under the theme of corporate and retailers’ perceptions, this study found eight sub-themes such as brand value, brand activities, customer demand, direct communication, facilities, price, qualities, and workshops & seminar. Eventually, this study was concluded by providing a few recommendations for organisational implication.

Highlights

On the word of Wood (2000), brands often provide the primary points of differentiation between competitive offerings in consumer marketing, and as such they can be critical to the success of companies
A total of 10 semi-structured interviews were conducted where 5 were from corporate firms and other 5 were from retailers based on Chattogram as most of the steel industries were based on Chattogram division
This research intends to explore the factors that affect the brand marketing communication of steel industry in Bangladesh based on the perception of corporate firms and the retailers

Summary

Introduction

OF THE STUDYOn the word of Wood (2000), brands often provide the primary points of differentiation between competitive offerings in consumer marketing, and as such they can be critical to the success of companies. Brands can be used to identify the sources or manufacturers while let manufacturers or distributors to know their responsibility. Because consumers learned the brands based on the experiences of using the products and from the years of manufacturers marketing plans that they can find which brand is acceptable and which brand are not satisfy their needs. As per the author, the brands can help consumers connect all the factors of the product. While brands have been widely used to identify products origin and its physical characteristics for many centuries (Farquhar, 1989), currently, the brand-related issues, such as, brand loyalty, brand image and brand equity are widely discussed, but being less concerned about the brand-related marketing to create brand value. In line with Keller (2001), the brand marketing includes many elements such as product strategy, price strategy, channel strategy and communication strategy, and use them to satisfy customer’s needs for creating brand value

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