CHAPTER 5 DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION
5.3 QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS
5.3.4 The Impact of Standardized Marketing Strategy on Minimizing the Effects of Globalization
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5.3.4 The Impact of Standardized Marketing Strategy on Minimizing the Effects of
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Table 5.10: Descriptive Statistics- Effect of Standardization on Marketing Strategy
Source: Primary Data
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The results in Table 5.10 show that the respondents were convinced that the use of a standardized marketing strategy was one sure way of overcoming the effects of globalization and allows the companies to focus. These benefits had the highest means of 4.0787 and 3.9843 respectively. The explanation is that, the adoption of a well-considered marketing mix characterized by uniform product features and qualities, pricing strategies, distribution systems as well as promotional campaigns would be advantageous to the local clothing and textile companies as this helps them to create a distinct identity relative to competition brought about by globalization. Adding to the same understanding, the respondents noted that the adoption of a standardized marketing strategy results in the creation of sustainable competitive advantages. The observed mean and standard deviation for this benefit were 3.9370 and 1.3258 respectively.
The results also show that the participants felt that standardization results in significant cost savings (mean = 3.8819), helps to reduce product costs (mean =3.7323), promotes the marketing of quality products (mean = 3.8425) and generally improves productivity (mean = 3.6873). Considering that globalization invariably results in significant intensification of competition particularly on pricing, these benefits would be a welcome development for the local clothing and textile companies as they to improve their survival strategies through marketing. The results also show that standardization results in a uniform corporate identity which simplifies the marketing and promotion of products (mean =2.6030), promotes strategy alignment (mean =2.1575), promotes rapid company growth (mean = 2.1339) and is generally vital in mitigating the effects of globalization (mean =2.2598).
To develop a broader understanding of the benefits that the clothing sector companies could derive from standardizing their marketing strategies in the face of globalization, benefits with mean values (average rating) less than or equal to 3 were pooled together, while those with mean values above 3 were classified separately. The following classification illustrated in Table 5.11 was obtained.
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Table 5.11: Classification of Benefits of Standardized Marketing Strategies-Based on the Calculated Mean
Benefits with Mean Values Below 3 Benefits with Mean Values Above 3 It helps to reduce product cost Promotes improved planning and distribution Assists in the creation of competitive
advantages
Allows for greater control across national borders
One sure way of overcoming the effects of globalization
Results in a uniform corporate identity which simplifies the marketing and promotion of products
Improved product quality and customer loyalty Improves resource utilization Results in significant cost savings Promotes strategy alignment Results in the creation of sustainable
competitive advantages
Promotes rapid company growth
Increases the company's ability to produce high quality products at a low cost
Vital in mitigating the effects of globalization
Allows companies to focus Results in increased productivity
Promotes the marketing of quality products Source: Primary Data
Considering that only two broad categories of the benefits emerged, the results show that the benefits of a standardized marketing strategy were highly related to each other. To further explain the existence of relationships between the benefits of standardization as rated by the participants, Pearson’s correlation coefficients were used. A correlation matrix which statistically confirms the relationships between the benefits is that with correlation coefficients which were largely above 0.5. The implications are that the benefits of a standardized marketing strategy in assisting the clothing sector to weather the effects of globalization could be subjected to data reduction techniques for the purposes of statistically inferring the overall top line benefits. To determine whether a factor analysis could be used to broadly classify the benefits of a standardized marketing strategy, the KMO measure of sampling adequacy was performed and the results reflected in Table 5.12.
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Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. .861 Bartlett's Test of
Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square 5323.360
Df 153
Sig. .000
Source: Primary Data
The results show a satisfactory KMO value of 0.861 that was way above the generally accepted minimum of 0.5, giving credence to the employment of factor analysis as a data reduction technique. Using factor analysis that adopted the principal component extraction method and the varimax rotation method, two latent variables were drawn from the 18 benefits of a standardized marketing strategy to withstand the adverse effects of globalization in the clothing sector in Zimbabwe. These results are shown in Table 5.13
Table 5.13: Principal Components Extracted- Benefits of standardization of marketing strategies.
Source: Primary Data
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Two principal components with initial eigenvalues of 13.228 and 2.303 and rotated eigenvalues of 8.294 and 7.237 respectively were extracted. The rotation sums of the squared loadings show that the first component accounted for 46.08% of the variation in the benefits of standardized marketing strategy, while the second component accounted for 40.2% of the variation in the benefits of a standardized marketing strategy to the clothing sector. What this implies is that these two components were very significant in explaining the benefits of standardizing the marketing strategy. The scree plot shown in Figure 5.4 confirms the extraction of the two principal components as the graph starts to flatten after the second principal component, which also confirms the extraction criterion in which only components with eigenvalues of 1 and above were considered significant
Figure 5.4: Scree Plot – Standardization of marketing strategies.
Source: Primary Data
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The rotated component matrix in Table 5.14 shows how the 18 benefits loaded on the two extracted factors. In this regard, ‘it helps to reduce product cost’, ‘assists in the creation of competitive advantages’,
‘one sure way of overcoming the effects of globalization’, ‘improved product quality and customer loyalty’, ‘results in significant cost savings’, ‘results in the creation of sustainable competitive advantages’, ‘increases the company's ability to produce high quality products at a low cost’, ‘allows companies to focus’, ‘results in increased productivity’ and ‘promotes the marketing of quality products’
heavily loaded on component 1. These benefits were collectively referred to as the development of competitive advantages either in cost or quality.
Table 5.14: Rotated Component Matrixa- Effect of standardization of Marketing strategies.
Component
1 2
It helps to reduce product cost .865
Assists in the creation of competitive advantages .714
One sure way of overcoming the effects of globalization .876
Improved product quality and customer loyalty .882
Results in significant cost savings .827
Results in the creation of sustainable competitive advantages .894 It allows for the consistency with customers tastes and preferences
Promotes improved planning and distribution .926
Allows for greater control across national borders .921
Increases the company's ability to produce high quality products at a low cost .868
Allows companies to focus .877
Results in increased productivity .705
Promotes the marketing of quality products .874
Results in a uniform corporate identity which simplifies the marketing and promotion
of products .859
Improves resource utilisation .930
Promotes strategy alignment .881
Promotes rapid company growth .899
Vital in mitigating the effects of globalization -.733
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.
Source: Primary Data
The benefits that loaded highly on principal component 2 were ‘promotes improved planning and distribution’, ‘allows for greater control across national borders’, ‘results in a uniform corporate identity which simplifies the marketing and promotion of products’, ‘improves resource utilization’, ’promotes
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strategy alignment’, ‘promotes rapid company growth’, and ‘vital in mitigating the effects of globalization’. These benefits were collectively referred to as the facilitation of strategy formulation because of their inclination towards strategy formulation.
Table 5.15 summarises the two broad classes of benefits as determined by the data reduction exercise.
The development of competitive advantages either from a cost perspective or a quality perspective had a higher eigenvalue of 8.294 and accounted for 46.08% of the benefits that clothing companies could derive from standardizing their marketing strategies. The facilitation of a strategy formulation had an eigenvalue of 7.237 and accounted for 40.2% of the benefits. These two dimensions of the benefits represented a cumulative 86.28% of the variation in the benefits leaving 13.72% to be explained by other factors.
Table 5.15: Total Variance Explained- Effect of standardization of Marketing strategies
Component
Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings
Total % of Variance
Cumulative
% Development of competitive advantages 8.294 46.081 46.081
Facilitation of strategy formulation 7.237 40.204 86.284
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Source: Primary Data
The implications of these results are that the adoption of a standardized marketing strategy characterized by uniform application of the marketing mix elements with minor modifications to suit the variations from place to place, has a significant impact on the capacity of the clothing sector companies to withstand the adverse effects of globalization. This is because the development of cost advantages by the ailing clothing sector companies could enable them to compete effectively with cheaper imports that continued to flood the market in Zimbabwe. Differentiation benefits on quality arising from a standardized marketing strategy could also assist the clothing sector companies to service the higher end sections of the market. It is also common knowledge that the development of a strategy is the cornerstone of the success of a company. These results have shown that the standardization of the marketing strategy facilitates the overall strategy formulation framework of the clothing sector companies. This way, the capacity of companies to mitigate the effects of globalization is enhanced.
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