The Effectiveness of Financing the Marketing of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Qatar and the Gulf Co-Operation Council (GCC) Countries: With a Special Focus on Advertising

Introduction

This chapter investigates the effectiveness of financing the marketing of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Qatar and the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries with special reference to the advertising of these businesses. SMEs worldwide comprise most of the businesses in modern economies – around 90%. The GCC (formed in the year 1981) contains six countries, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. They are all new developing countries whose economies are mainly dependant on oil exports. This current economic situation has created a new understanding and definition of business and competition in these ambitious states and, as a result, the populations of all GCC countries are benefiting from the resultant competition that reduces prices and provides post purchase services.

Since the Gulf Co-operation Council countries consider SMEs to be an important sector through which to diversify their economies, they have deployed more effort into facilitating the establishment of SMEs. The positive change in the GCC countries’ economies in the new millennium (due to high oil prices) has influenced them to consider SMEs as an alternative to oil should there be a future fall in oil prices again. Since advertising is an important element of the marketing mix; there is evidence that advertisers have affected the advertising industry in the GCC (Tuncalp, 2001).

In this study in order to gather and analyse survey data the research strategy adopted involved a sequential procedure with the following three stages:

• •

  Stage 1: an assessment of the marketing industries in the economies of the Gulf countries.

• •

  Stage 2: questionnaire design that followed certain steps to construct and develop a valid and reliable research instrument.

• •

  Stage 3: a detailed qualitative analysis of the findings.

The questionnaire was designed to fit the objectives of the research, and included details of the study, anonymity and confidentiality for all participants in the study. At the end of the data collecting period, from a distribution of 1,600, some 403 fully usable questionnaires were returned, which were prepared for data analysis. The data from the survey undertaken were examined and analysed.