Brand Management in Small and Medium Enterprise - Evidence from Dubai, UAE - Case Study Example

Journal Article Critique Name Course Tutor Date Journal Article Critique, the Article "Brand Management in Small and Medium Enterprise: Evidence from Dubai, UAE” Summary of the article The journal article “Brand management in small and medium enterprise: evidence from Dubai, UAE” is about the attitudes and views on branding and brand management concerning small and medium businesses in Dubai. The authors provide the reader with the results of survey carried out on 62 managers or business about their opinions towards product branding (Gundala & Khawaja, 2014, p.27). After the research, it was established that many small and even medium still do not take seriously this important element of business. The article provides the generally analyses of United Arab Emirates, particularly, political units, economic status and even socio-cultural set up. It provides that UAE is country in the Middle East which borders Persian Gulf on Saudi Peninsula. This country is divided into seven political units called emirates. These units are Ajman, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ras al-Khaimah, Umm al-Quwain and Fujairah, with Abu Dhabi being the capital city. This country is oil-rich; a situation which has led to its economic growth. Currently, SMEs are equally important to the growth of this nation. Gundala & Khawaja (2014, p.27) claim that just the emirate of Dubai alone has 72,000 SMEs representing for 95% of businesses and providing 40% of the labor force. However, most small enterprises do not expand beyond their current status as a result of lack of brand orientation, brand barriers, brand marketing performance and brand distinctiveness. These elements are discussed in details in relation to the research and conclude that there are several factors that limit the business owners or the managers from adopting such elements. These factors include financial constraints, limited knowledge and lack of market research (Gundala & Khawaja, 2014, p.35). Major Objectives of the Article Much as it is significant that a firm creates products and services and make sure that they get to the consumer whose needs must be met, it is also essential that in satisfy the need, the good quality intrinsic to the product be linked to the one firm that realized that standard (Gundala & Khawaja, 2014, p.38). It is a significant technique of attaining a competitive edge in the market of various companies who are perceived to be in the competition. This process is what is called Branding. The major intention of branding is to distinguish the product of one company from the competitors’ products. The branding could be in form of the brand name or the brand trademark. However, many companies have failed because of ignoring this branding and brand management. Such situation has been perceived to be what has led to failure of several small and medium enterprises in UAE (Gundala & Khawaja, 2014, p.28). Based on such notion, the major objective of this article were to assess the business managers or owners’ opinions and attitudes on the issue of branding and brand management enterprises within Dubai, UAE (Gundala & Khawaja, 2014, p.27. The article also assesses the causes which act as hurdles to the brand building (Gundala & Khawaja, 2014, p.28). The article also presents importance of branding and management to small and medium enterprises in UAE. Gundala & Khawaja (2014, p.29) asserts that in the research questionnaire section 1, questions one, two and three wanted the information concerning the knowledge of business owners or managers on understanding of brand management and whether this marketing strategy is integrated in the daily operations of the company. In section 4, the question presented emphasizes on the success of a brand in the small and medium enterprises. Meanwhile, section 6 of the questionnaire focused on the barrier of creating strong brands. Lastly the section 7 questions concentrated on managers or owners’ attitude towards the significance of integrating a branding strategy (Gundala & Khawaja, 2014, p.30). Research methods chosen by the author According to Gundala & Khawaja (2014, p.28) branding and branding management is a marketing strategy that normally creates competitive advantage. In this article the authors were seeking the opinions of the managers about the branding strategy. For that matter, the author employed both qualitative and quantitative methods in this research (Gundala & Khawaja, 2014, p.29). The qualitative aspect of it employed survey and to be precise, questionnaire and interviews to collect the data, i.e. interviews with managers or owners of the SMEs. The questionnaire is got from the hypothetical information presented from literature review and the research objectives. Gundala & Khawaja (2014, p.29) maintain the questionnaire was created and tested with ten respondents to know its effectiveness, before changes were suggested by these respondents. In this research, the researcher used qualitative method to get comprehensive understanding of manager’s behavior and the basis which leads to such behavior. In a nutshell, the qualitative research method examines the how and why of the decision making. From the article it is notable that the author used questionnaire and interviews to investigate why the SMEs owner and managers were adopting branding and management in their daily operations (Gundala & Khawaja, 2014, p.29). On the other hand, the author employed quantitative method in this research and probability standard normal distribution to get real numbers of the managers who use and those who do not use product branding in their marketing strategy since their distribution were not known (Gundala & Khawaja, 2014, p.32). The data collected were recorded in a descriptive statistics table and analyzed to come up with Standard Normal Distribution Graph. The author’s findings This was a research that was conducted using questionnaires and interviews and involved 62 respondents and interviews (Gundala & Khawaja, 2014, p.27). In the questionnaire, they were seven sections focusing on different questions. After finding a list of companies from Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry the managers were contacted in the period of September to December 2011 and asked if they could take part in the research. A total of 120 questionnaires were then mailed in the period of January to February of 2012 (Gundala & Khawaja, 2014, p.30). From this number, only 62 respondents managed to return the filled questionnaires. From the research 83 % of the sampled respondents believed that branding is significant for the business success (Gundala & Khawaja, 2014, p.30). All the interviewees concurred branding and brand management were critical for the SME since it assist in commencing and stabilizing the organization, and to ultimately grow it business. However, to create a strong brand, the SMEs have enough resources which many lack. According to Gundala & Khawaja (2014, p.30) all the respondents and interviewees concurred that financial constraints hampered them from building a strong product in the market. It is true that most young and yet to establish company get it rough to compete with their established counterparts. They lack the financial muscle to conduct market on how to know customer behavior and what to do to satisfy them. This case is backed by interviewee 2 who confessed that the managers of the company most of the times do not approach target customers to seek for their reaction towards quality of the product or service, and suggest changes to the company offerings (Gundala & Khawaja, 2014, p.31). At the same time, they do not have funds to create develop products and create ads that are effective to draw the attention of their target customers. In fact, their promotional strategies are by word of mouth. As a marketer, what comes first is understand your market the segmenting it. Once this is done, the marketer can go create brand distinctiveness; this will create market advantage. Even though, finance can be a limiting factor, managers can look for such resource from the banking institutions such as the Saccos and banks. In such places, they are able to benefit in two ways. Get a loan and also financial advices on how to use the money. Relevance of the article to SMEs in Qatar Qatar is country with several similarities to United Arab Emirates including political units and socio-economic factors. Just like UAE, Qatar has seven municipalities comprising of Madinat ash Shamal, Al Khor, Umm Salal, Al Daayen, Al Rayyan, Doha and Al Wakrah. Doha is the capital city. The economy of Qatar has grown as a result of its richness in oil and natural gas just like UAE. According to Private sector (2013), the oil companies have provided jobs for the Qatar workforce, but this are not enough and emphasis most be put in the small and medium enterprises which provide most of the jobs. In the past SMEs have not been taken seriously by the owners or managers so as to reach the level of most established companies (Private Sector, 2013). This issue is attributed to lack of product branding so as to differentiate their product from the products of the established firms and other small competitors. However, research carried by this about the importance of branding and branding management can be of great relevance to the Qatar SMEs. The article holds that the small organizations should concentrate on market and product development, in which, the possibility of survival level of the small company is more certain compared to those still holding to their old practices of marketing (Gundala & Khawaja, 2014, p.28). The author recommends to the SMEs owners or managers must adopt the concepts of brand distinctiveness, brand orientation, brand marketing performance and brand barriers so as to create a strong brand (Gundala & Khawaja, 2014, p.28). It is argued that by embracing brand orientation the Qatar SMEs managers and owners will be able to understand what they consumers demand. This is because brand orientation entails constant communication with target consumers. Competitive edge is achievable by using brand orientation approach on the Qatar small firms, which in sequence will result to additional growth. According Gundala & Khawaja, (2014, p.29) the article also advocates for using brand distinctiveness in brand management to attract customers and increase the customer base. The article is also of importance because it urges the Qatar SMEs managers to measure the Brand Marketing Performance so as to know how profitable their product is. Gundala & Khawaja (2014, p.29) argue that this aspect of branding is measured founded on its economic value or by means of the product report card. Contribution to marketing The research is of great to marketing managers SMEs to able to reach the level of more established companies. It helps the marketing managers understand what influences it bring in these small and medium enterprises, and also what influence branding and branding management brings to the firms (Gundala & Khawaja, 2014, p.36). The article claims that three components that influence branding. First, the marketers need to know the manager’s influence the on the SME ought to be better and more direct compared to the one in an established company (Gundala & Khawaja, 2014, p.36). Secondly, the market itself plays a critical role in influencing brand management, and lastly is the level of competition and the number of market players. On the other hand, the article provides branding makes the product one company unique and attractive, hence creates a market advantage (Gundala & Khawaja, 2014, p.31). The author also advances the knowledge in the field marketing by suggesting to the managers the concept they need in order to create strong brands. Conclusion From the research, I have learned that many companies cannot compete and have failed because of inadequate branding and brand management. The article also provides how important SMEs are to economy of every country. In the emirate of Dubai alone in UAE, there are 72,000 SMEs representing for 95% of businesses and provides 40 % of the employment. However, the owners of these businesses have not put more focus branding even with all its importance. Nevertheless, I have learned that most managers have incorporated branding and brand management in their marketing strategies, but rarely use it because of several reasons. Such reasons include financial constraints, limited knowledge and lack of market research. In the competitive environment, strong brands sell as opposed to brands that are yet to establish themselves. For that reason, managers of SMEs that still have weak brands must have positive attitudes towards branding and Brand management and embrace it to create a competitive advantage. I have learned also learned that creating strong brands needs adopting concepts such brand orientation, brand barriers, brand marketing performance and brand distinctiveness. This study however, has its shortcomings in that in only concentrated on few selected companies which may not represent the real views of all SMEs owners and managers. Hence, future research should focus on all companies. References Gundala, R.R & Khawaja, H. (2014). Brand Management in Small and Medium Enterprise: Evidence from Dubai, UAE. Global Journal of Business Research, 8, 27-38 Private Sector. (2013). Crowdinvesting and SMEs. Retrieved from http://privatesectorqatar.com/english/2013/12/crowdinvesting-and-smes/ Read More