This paper illustrates ‘demarketing’ and its uses to improve product image in the customers’ viewpoints. Three events stimulated the investigations. First, a leading political party lost local municipal elections in a large South Africa metropolitan. Second, a reputable soccer club lost many fans to other teams. Thirdly, a local confectionary lost clients. Investigations took place in the three settings (soccer, politics and confectionary business). The respondents were known clients or fans of the original entities, who had defected to rivals. A questionnaire was used to collect data. The entities apparently ignored the services promised to clients. Despite them being dissimilar entities, similarities occurred in the way they lost favor with their clients. The study identified demarketing as a common factor. Demarketing was applied by the rivals, and was imbedded in their policies. People and entity representatives’ used demarketing strategies to lure clients. The paper recommends that demarketing should be applied to control the market. Also, it recommends that agile competitors should augment normal marketing with demarketing to optimize marketing results.
Keywords: demarketing strategy, demand, perception, product quality. JEL Classification: D47, M14, M31, M37
The study examined the high failure rate of the small business in the West Rand region of the Gauteng Province, South Africa. The purpose was to investigate reasons for lack of sustainability of the small businesses of this region. The study was qualitative, characterised by exploratory and descriptive modes. Fifteen small businesses were interviewed using an interview guide (at Appendix). The reasons for their failure showed that these businesses mostly lacked in business understanding. They showed shortfalls in business and management. Recommendations covered suggestions for these businesses to improve understanding and practice of the modern business mechanisms, to approach local business colleges for working relationships and training, as well as to involve management consultants to revive them to start generating the needed revenue and minimum profits for survival.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which, over the years, were in charge of supplying goods to rural areas and townships, are fast losing markets to large business. Modern customers want value-for-money through high-quality products at low prices, greater convenience, and a wide range of choices. Large enterprises are capable of meeting these demands. Hence, they have a competitive advantage over the SMEs. In addition, large corporations can deliver the convenience of one-stop-shopping. This paper exposes SMEs options useful for offseting the might of large business. It highlights the available routes for strength creation. One option is to step aside temporarily while running the SMEs, but preparing fully for future competition. Another option is to fill the gaps left by large companies while preparing to contest face-to-face. Recommendations are that SMEs should exploit available empowerment opportunities and, then, use methods of advantage to work in the presence of large businesses. SMEs can delay direct competition until the time is right.
Keywords: competition, empowerment, large enterprises, SEDA, SMEs. JEL Classification: D41, D51, D83.
This study focuses on the commercial patterns of petrol price in South Africa. Its aim is to determine the continuity of past patterns of the petrol price series into the future using time series techniques. About 14 years monthly-based retail fuel prices of unleaded 95 petrol were collected from the Department of Energy, South Africa. Price settings on consumer goods are used for economic growth. On the other hand, sudden price fluctuations inconvenience consumers. Also, price increases reduce disposable cash for the consumers. These patterns reduce wealth and for the average consumer they may lead to poverty. The study results show that in South Africa, the upward trend variation continues into the future petrol price in a quadratic rate while there are also some indications of seasonality of petrol price.
In this study a novel statistical test is derived for the Coefficient of Variation (CV) under normal distributions. This is a newly derived test with value to engineering sciences in aspects of production of accurate items. The CV can measure the precision of a measuring instrument, among other applications. In order to determine instrument reliability, start by generating measures using the instrument. The CV is then calculated to determine if the measures generated by the instrument are concentrated around a central point. In use of normal distribution presumption, or approximation, applicable properties of the normal distributions lead to involvement of the chi-square and t-distributions. A CV test is then constructed, and two illustrative examples conclude the discussion.
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