CHAPTER 2:LITERATURE REVIEW- SMMES IN DEVELOPING
5.4 SECTION TWO: Strategies, Environmental Factors and Challenges
5.3.4 OBJECTIVE 4: To ascertain the advertising strategies SMMEs commonly use in order
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5.3.4 OBJECTIVE 4: To ascertain the advertising strategies SMMEs commonly
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Table 5.45 is used to explore the relationship between the types of advertising media used in SMMEs and their frequency in advertising as Maseru’s market has a low customer base (Nthejane, 2003) and advertising being the strategic way to create awareness to customers about the products and services offered by these enterprises.
Word-of-mouth done anytime (65) is the most used advertising media by the respondents, followed by weekly advertising (29) through newspapers, daily word-of- mouth advertising (23), monthly advertising through newspapers (21) and lastly the daily use of radio advertising (17). From these results, it is clear that SMMEs prefer the use of word-of-mouth and newspaper advertising mainly because they are less costly, with TV advertising (2) being the least used advertising medium in all categories of the frequency in advertising, which may be due to the high costs related to the use of this medium.
A chi-square test for independence was computed in Table 5.46 to assess the relationship between the two variables. The table indicated a statistically significant association between the use of advertising media and the number of times the advertising is done: x2 (12, n=167) = 171.9, p=.000, with a very strong strength of association (phi= 1.0) between the variables computed in Table 5.47.
Table 5.48 How often are your products and services advertised? * Are your customers reliant on advertising to purchase? Cross tabulation
Are your customers reliant on advertising to purchase?
Total
Yes No
How often are your products and services advertised?
Daily 38 4 42
Weekly 32 3 35
Monthly 13 11 24
Anytime 50 16 66
Total 133 34 167
97 Table 5.49 Chi-Square Tests
Value df
Asymp. Sig. (2- sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 16.260a 3 .001
Likelihood Ratio 15.678 3 .001
Linear-by-Linear Association 6.061 1 .014
N of Valid Cases 167
.
Table 5.50 Symmetric Measures
Value Approx. Sig.
Nominal by Nominal Phi .312 .001
Cramer's V .312 .001
N of Valid Cases 167
Table 5.48 is used to assess the relationship between the frequency of advertising done by SMMEs and the customers’ reliability on advertising to purchase. With regard to customers who rely on advertising to purchase, a large number of SMME owner- managers (50) advertise their products and services anytime, followed by a lesser number who engage in daily advertising (38) and weekly advertising (32) and lastly monthly advertising (13). Regarding the owners who did not believe that customers rely on advertising to undertake the purchasing process, advertising done anytime by the SMMEs has a majority (16), followed by monthly advertising (11), daily advertising (4) and lastly weekly advertising (4). From these results, we can thus conclude that extensive advertising efforts by SMME owner-managers are made, in order to create awareness amongst customers who rely on the advertising to purchase the products and services offered.
A chi-square test for independence was computed in Table 5.49 to assess the relationship between the two variables. Pearson chi-square indicated that there was a statistically significant association between customers’ reliability on advertising to purchase and the frequency of advertising done by the respondents: x2(3, n=167) = 16.260, p= 0.01, with a weak strength of association (phi= .312) computed in Table 5.50.
98 CROSS TABULATION AND CORRELATION
Table 5.51 Do you ever receive feedback from your customers concerning your products and services? * Are your customers reliant on advertising to purchase?
Cross tabulation
Are your customers reliant on advertising to purchase?
Total
Yes No
Do you ever receive feedback from your customers concerning your products and services?
Yes 123 26 149
No 10 21 31
Total 133 47 180
Table 5.52 Correlations
Are your customers
reliant on
advertising to purchase?
Do you ever receive feedback from your customers
concerning your products and services?
Are your customers reliant on advertising to purchase?
Pearson Correlation 1 .432**
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 180 180
Do you ever receive feedback from your customers concerning your products and services?
Pearson Correlation .432** 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 180 180
Table 5.51 illustrates whether feedback received from customers with regard to products and services offered is determined by reliability of customers on advertising to purchase. It can be concluded from the table that a majority (123) of respondents receive feedback and their customers rely on advertising to purchase relative to those
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whose customers do not rely on advertising to purchase but still do receive feedback with regard to their products and services (26). We can also conclude that there is large number of SMMEs whose customers do not rely on advertising to purchase and who do not receive feedback from their customers (21) as compared to those whose customers rely on advertising to purchase but do not receive feedback from customers (10).
A correlation was computed in Table 5.52 to determine the relationship between customers’ reliability on advertising to purchase and the feedback received from customers. There is a moderate, positive relationship between the two variables (r=.432, n=180). The correlation was significant at 1% level of significance, (p=.000).
CHI SQUARE TEST FOR GOODNESS-OF-FIT Table 5.53 Are your products targeted to a specific age group?
Observed N Expected N Residual
Yes 34 90.0 -56.0
No 146 90.0 56.0
Total 180
Table 5.54 If yes, please clarify your target market?
Observed N Expected N Residual
Under 12 years 7 8.0 -1.0
Working class 16 8.0 8.0
Youth 3 8.0 -5.0
Above 35 years 6 8.0 -2.0
Total 32
Table 5.55 Test Statistics
Are your products targeted to a
specific age group?
If yes, please clarify your target
market?
Chi-Square 69.689a 11.750b
df 1 3
Asymp. Sig. .000 .008
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Table 5.53 provides the observed frequencies of respondents whose products and services offerings were targeted to a specific age group (34) and those whose products were not (146), as well as the equal proportion of the expected frequencies of 90 in both categories. From this table, it is clear that most SMME owner-managers sell homogenous products for all age groups as compared to only a few who have a specific age group as their target market.
Table 5.54 provides the observed frequencies of respondents with clarification of their target market, the working class (16) being the most targeted group, followed by customers under the ages of 12 (7), those above 35 years of age (6) and lastly the youth (3), as well the equal proportion of the expected frequencies of 8.0 in all categories.
Table 5.55 provides the grouped actual results of the chi-square test for goodness-of-fit.
From the table, it can be concluded that there was a statistically significant difference in the proportion of SMMEs with a targeted age group and those who do not have a target age group: x2 (1, n=32) = 69.69, p= .000, as well as a statistically significant difference in the proportion of the clarified target market: x2(3, n=32) = 11.75, p= .008.