This study focuses on community businesses (CBs) in Chiang Mai province involved in the production of fabric and clothes that have faced issues such as marketing problems.
Objectives were to: 1) investigate the internal and external factors that influence marketing strategies of community businesses; 2) examine the existing marketing strategies employed by community businesses; 3) consider which of these marketing strategies should be developed to benefit the community businesses; 4) develop the chosen marketing strategies further.
Phase 1 (QUAL 1): document study and the use of focus groups, aimed at exploring phenomena and context (the internal and external factors influencing marketing strategies of community businesses).
Phase 2 (QUAL 2): in-depth interviews and observations were conducted to prepare variables and questionnaires of the quantitative approaches that were later employed.Â
Phase 3 (QUAN 1): under a quantitative approach, the researcher used survey method with 400 customers of CBs in Chiang Mai province of Thailand. Statistical methods of Factor Analysis, Multiple Regression and Percentages were used in this study.
Results of the factor analysis showed six components that would be significant areas of interest: place, product, personal selling (customer service), promotion, packaging and price. Using the process of multiple regression on these six factors, three key areas of place, product and personal selling (customer service) were identified as being the most significant areas to develop marketing strategies. These three areas of place, product and personal selling (customer service) were subjected to SWOT and TOWS analysis to systematically develop and suggest 15 appropriate marketing strategies.