Marketing strategies of international firms operating in household cleaning materials sector in Turkey

Abstract

- 11 ABSTRACT The main concern of the study is to understand the marketing strategies of foreign firms in Turkish household cleaning materials sector. This sector is chosen since applied strategies and the effects of marketing effort can be observed easily. Each market has its own characteristics, thus for each market a specific strategy have to be developed. Turkish market for cleaning materials has this characteristics. Demand conditions, economical conditions, distribution structure, applied promotion and pricing policies are market specific. The study enlightens the strategy of foreign firms in Turkish Cleaning materials market and driving variables in the market. Information for the study is collected through using a questionaire that consist of part of entry, distribution, segmentation, promotion, pricing. All the firms in the market responded questionaire and this collected data is analysed by using frequency analysis for reaching conclusions about the strategies of the firms and global market conditions. Foreign firms consider economical trends and demand conditions as the most important determinants of entry and involvement in Turkey. Distribution system in Turkey is different from the developed markets there exist a large number of middlemen. Approximatly, all of the firms use middlemen for distribution purposes because of dominance of middlemen in the market and- iii- present demand conditions. All the users provide promotions and incentives to their middlemen not to lose them since- most of the sales are made through middlemen. Middlemen usually do not join any promotion activity of firms and they do not have much effect on decisions made about middlemen. Information from middlemen is not considered as reliable information. Middlemen do not sign legal agreements they prefer verbal agreements or written but not legal ones. Number of contacts and conflicts are low between firms and middlemen. All the firms segmented world market according economic and demand characteristics of markets and they design their marketing strategy according to grouping. Sales of products are strongly related with benefits offered with products and income level and culture. Firms use mostly segmentation by income level which produced striking results until now. Promotions are used for all groups of consumers mostly used element is advertising through various media..The mostly used advertising media are television, radio and I print media. Language used, symbols notations used, time period of broadcosting and media are important for advertising programs. Media choice for advert-is-ing is made according to life style, income level and social class of target groups ; end mostly used media are chosen. Television is the most I effective medium all around Turkey and on all income groups., Radio and print media are effective too but their effect is i less than television. Radio is effective on middle income and i low income groups and print media are effective on high andmiddle income groups. Firms generally direct their advertising to high and middle income groups.intensity for low income group is less than others. Firms mainly use stimulating demand for products generally and stimulating their own products strategy in advertising programs. Price off deals and presents are attractive promotions for middle and low income groups. Most of the firms import products from their parent company. Quality image and price elasticity are considered to be important in pricing of imported good. Firms use full costing method in pricing. They prefer parent country's currency in their import operations. The results imply that in existing demand conditions firms can not play with price so they will use promotions such as advertising, price off deals and premium sales to expand their market since demand stays stable and if demand doesn't increase in the long run number of firms in the market will decrease. Since distributors are dominant on channels and the largest part of sales are made through middlemen, firms can not take the risk of losing middlemen. Although middlemen are dominant, their effect in decision making is low and firms makes decisions and for implementations, use middlemen either.