ASSESSMENT OF A CORRELATION BETWEEN MARKETING FACTORS AND PERFORMANCE OF SMALL ENTERPRISES (A Case Study of Debre Markos Town)

Abstract

Small enterprises are great contributors to the growth and developments of any country in the world. Their role becomes paramount in developing countries like Ethiopia where the number of huge factories and industries are not tremendously available. However, they are being challenged by several factors. Being cognizant of this general fact, this study aimed to investigate the impact of marketing factors on the performance of small enterprises in the case of Debre Markos town. The study investigated the influence of five marketing factors: marketing skills of employees and owners, promotion, place for selling and working, price and product factors on the performance of small enterprise. From a total of 81 small enterprises, data were collected from 68 samples as the researcher targeted the whole population for the data collection. Self administered questionnaire and interview with key informants were used as data gathering methods. Data collected using the aforementioned instruments were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis. Findings from the study revealed that there is significant marketing skill gap in employees and owners even though most of them are literate. It was also found out that the enterprises are not using adequate promotion efforts to create awareness about their products or services. Moreover, small enterprises are facing problems of high rent, poor location, size problem and lack of marketing channel even though most of the enterprises are using their working premises as selling shops. Price related factors are also among the major marketing problems that affect the performance of small enterprises. Therefore, the local government and other stakeholders need to provide working and market premises, marketing and entrepreneurship trainings, other support to small enterprises so as to foster their contributions to the growth and development of the nation in general and the local community in particular.