Doing business in Libya: Assessing the nature and effectiveness of international marketing programs in an evolving economy

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate, in one emerging Arab economy (Libya), the strategic and tactical choices of MNE (multinational enterprise) domestic appliance brands and, also, the attitudes of local consumers towards those choices. Various choice characteristics are investigated -including marketing mix standardization/adaptation -and, also, country-of-origin brand (COB). To establish extant organizational choices, local representatives of four established brands were interviewed and survey responses from 609 consumer were analyzed. No statistically discernible relationship between standardization/adaptation choices and consumer attitude towards marketing programs was found, but the study identified one especially successful brand that appeared to owe its achievements to an especially holistic approach to marketing that demonstrated 'fit' with the market concerned. Coincidentally, findings also address the conventional country-of-origin wisdom, and this is investigated/speculated upon accordingly. This is one of few marketing studies concerning Libya, and it adds to the limited literature on an increasingly relevant region. KeywordsLibya, standardization/adaptation, marketing tactics, marketing strategy, country-of-origin (brand), major domestic appliances 2 IntroductionMarketing insight regarding the Arab world has only recently accrued (earliest studies include Djursaa and Kragh, 1998;Elbashier and Nicholls, 1993;Michell, Lynch and Alabdali, 1998;Souiden, 2000) and most has inevitably focused on countries that are more clearly aligned with the West, such as Kuwait (e.g., Al-Wugayan, Pleshko and Baqer, 2008), Jordan (e.g., Zabadi, Shura and Elsayed, 2012) and the United Arab Emirates (e.g., Khraim, Khraim, Al-Kaidah and Al-Qurashi, 2011). Further, although studies addressing consumer issues in Arab contexts have recently increased (e.g. Al Ganideh, 2012;Ghanem, Kalliny and Elgoul, 2013;Tolba, 2011) literature in this area, generally, is limited (see Ellis and Zhan, 2011;Birnik and Bowman, 2007), and this is especially surprising given that the Arab market is becoming increasingly materialistic and that the collective Arab economy is now estimated to be the world's eighth largest, with a GDP approaching $2.5 trillion (Mahajan, 2013). Our understanding, especially, of how international firms approach such markets and how local consumers respond to these approaches is sparse, especially in those countries perceived to represent a more capricious business environment (e.g. Syria, Algeria and Libya: Dinnie, 2011).This study is applied in a setting that, for reasons of recent social and political turbulence, represents a particularly interesting context for research. In the decade leading up to recent conflicts, and following a period of relative isolation, Libya actively encouraged international trade (Porter, 2007), yet there is a relative lack of research addressing either period (US & FCS, 2006), and this alone makes Libya an intriguing context for investigation. Recent events, clearly, mean th...

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