MARKETING EFFECTIVENESS - DOES IT DIFFER BY SIZE AND TYPE OF COMPANIES

Abstract

Prior studies distinguished marketing effectiveness only by performance of companies. In this study the focus was on size and type of company. The sample comprised Singapore companies consisting of: Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), Large Local Companies (LLCs), and Multi-national companies (MNCs). The objective of the study was to ascertain the marketing effectiveness of two groupings of companies, namely: (1) SMEs and LLCs as the local group of companies, for comparison with MNCs, and (2) SMEs compared to LLCs. It was generally hypothesised that MNCs are more marketing effective than the local group, and that there is no difference in marketing effectiveness between the local groups of companies. Analysis of the responses suggests that there is no clear cut evidence that MNCs are more marketing effective than the smaller local companies. There are, however a number of marketing areas where MNCs appear to be more effective. As for the local companies, apart from some difference in focus, which are not necessarily indicative of better or worse marketing effectiveness, there appear to be no significant differences in marketing effectiveness between them. The implication of these findings probably is that size and type of company have no major overall bearing on marketing effectiveness. Perhaps all organisations concur with the view that "the market genesis of every business has become gospel" (Hanan, 1993).