Enhancing strategic positioning through marketing engineering in tourism sector in najaf city-iraq

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2019, Volume 7, Issue 4, Pages: 774-779

J. Environ. Treat. Tech.

ISSN: 2309-1185

Journal weblink: http://www.jett.dormaj.com

Enhancing Strategic Positioning Through

Marketing Engineering in Tourism Sector in Najaf

City-Iraq

Ameer N. AL- Kulabi , Daroon F. Abdulla²^,³^*, Pirshing S. Mohamad²

¹College of Administration and Economics, Kufa University, Najaf City, Iraq

College of Administration and Economics, Sulaimani University, Sulaimani City, Iraq

Visiting lecturer at college of Administration and Financial Science, Cihan University, Sulaimani City, Iraq

Received: 12/04/2019

Accepted:11/08/2019

Published: 12/09/2019

Abstract

This research aims to identify the role of marketing engineeringas an independent variable through its dimensions (marketing data

and information, marketing insight, decisions and implementation) in enhancing strategic position as a dependent variable by its

dimensions (customer co-production, customer contact and service customization). After reviewing the literature and conceptual

framework, two main hypotheses were assumed to test the correlation and regression relationships between the study variables. An

empirical study approach was utilised. This study was applied in the tourism organizations in Najaf city in Iraq. The study population

consist of (233) managers in the hotels and tourism companies, the questionnaire was designed for collecting the data, and was

distributed to (178) directors, and only (163) of them returned it. Besides that, 46 questionnaires were excluded due to missing data.

Hence, (117) questionnairesremained and used in the statisticalanalysis usingthe statisticalprogram (SPSS.V.20). The resultsshowed

a positive relationshipand effect between the variables and their dimensions. Based on the results, a number of suggestions were given

for the necessity for the tourism companies to practice the dimensions of marketing engineering in order to enhance their strategic

positioning, and achieve sustainable competitiveadvantage. The contribution by this study can be realizedthat thisstudy was conducted

in the tourismcompanies in the city of Najaf which is considered as one of the most cities across the Iraq embracing touristsand visitors

from the Middle East each year. In addition, no research has been found that examined the role of marketing engineering in enhancing

strategic positioning.

Keywords: Marketing Engineering, Marketing Information, Strategic Positioning, Tourism Organizations.

wants. On the other hand, companies cannot reach to achieve

Introduction

these goals without their adoption of marketing engineering

orientation, which is recognized as a modern marketing

method. This enables them strengthening their strategic

positioning in a way that leads to accomplish their marketing

and strategicgoals, based on investigatingand using marketing

data and information, insight of marketers, marketing

decisions and implementation methods and plans properly.

Therefore, the research problem of this study is formulated as

a question which includes,’Do the tourism companies in Najaf

city/Iraq apply the dimension of marketing engineering

effectively? And if yes, do they lead to enhance their strategic

positioning?’

Nowadays, the majority of Iraqi tourism organizations are

facing more challenges and difficultiesdue to the fact that their

business in external environment is characterized by

continuous mobility in their factors. To overcome and cope,

most of hospitalitycompanies are trying to focus on doing their

business appropriately in order to stay longest in the

competition environment. In response, managers must be

responsible for analyzing competitors' strategic positions and

comparing them with the strategic positioning of their

companies. This is to reduce the gap between their

organizations and other competitors and achieve strategic

success through focusing on the customers, and emphasizing

on their participation in the production after contacting them.

Besidesto provide services that meets theiressentialneeds and

The scientific importance of this paper can be determined

through seeking to study new variables which have not

Corresponding author: Daroon F. Abdulla, (a) College of Administration and Economics, Sulaimani University, Sulaimani City, Iraq

and (b) Visiting lecturer at college of Administration and Financial Science, Cihan University, Sulaimani City, Iraq. E-mail:

Daroon.abdulla@univsul.edu.iq.

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2019, Volume 7, Issue 4, Pages: 774-779

previously been examined together in the Iraqi business

environment. It also attempts to enable the tourism

organizations to improve their marketing and strategic

situation, ambition to stay as long as possible in the business

market, and review their competitive state to be able to reach

the best condition by applying marketing engineering and

strategic positioning.

Further, to the research problem and importance, there are

two primary aims of this study. Firstly, to investigate the

conceptual bases of the marketing engineering and strategic

positioning, secondly, to examine the role of marketing

engineering in strategic positioning

Therefore, this paper is organized as following: The first

section discusses the theoretical framework and hypothesis

development. The second section explainsthe methodology of

the research. The next section presents the empirical aspect

which covers the analyzing of the correlation coefficient and

linear regression relationshipsbetween the study variables and

the discussion of the results. Finally, the conclusion and

suggestion is displayed.

engineering is perceived as a marketing decision support

system that supports firms in collecting, storing, processing

and disseminating marketing information and knowledge,

considering the prominence of different information systems

that meet the decision maker's need for information that leads

to an accurate marketingdecision with the consideration of the

solution of marketing difficulties that limit the ability of

organizations and their managers to stay in the externalmarket

for the longest time (6). However, this study claims that

marketing engineering is a process based on the review and

reconsiderationof the nature, scope and practices of marketing

management to enable marketerscreatinga rapidchange in the

markets facing a strong competition rely on the marketing

information that reveal for them the opportunities and threats

which should be taken as an attention as marketing the

products of the organization in foreign markets.

2.1.2 The Dimensions of Marketing Engineering

Once the reviewingof academic studiesand researcheshas

been considered, it is noted that there is no agreement by

researchers on the dimensions of the marketing engineering,

and the reasons behind this belongs to the rarity of the studies

in this field. In this case, in order to measure the process of

marketing engineering in the tourism organizations in Najaf

Governorate, this study is agreed with the model of (7) based

on its realizing as a comprehensive model and more

convenient for our study environment, which divide the

variable of marketing engineering into four basic dimensions

including (marketing data and information, marketing insight,

marketing decisions and Implementation), which they will be

explained in detail below:

Theoretical background

.1 Marketing Engineering

2.1.1 The Concept of Marketing Engineering

Over the last twentyyears, therehas been a growing debate

about the concept of marketing engineering. In the business

world, accelerated developments have provided a set of tools

which can enrich decision-making to support marketing

management via marketing engineering, this is considered as

an integrated approach to solve marketing problems through

harnessing all the data and knowledge marketing in order to

facilitate marketing decision-taking. According to Griffin and

Hauser (1) the marketing engineering examines all the

marketing data which are collected from different levels of

communication between occupations, teams, groups,

suppliers, sales men, and so forth. This is vital to enhance

harmony and communication concerning to perceive the needs

and preferences that must be addressed and covered through

the review and design of innovative products that meet these

needs. While, Midgley (2) believes that marketingengineering

plays a vital role in the better using of the available marketing

knowledge, as well as educating managers on how they think

and make their marketing decisions based on accurate

marketingprinciples as a key objective to achieve goals. In the

new global business, marketing engineering has become a

central method for supporting organizations using high-

precision computers, big data, supply and demand preference

for market analysis, and capture the essence of marketing

problems in order to solve them scientifically (3). It motivates

companies to design their products that meet customer

expectations and improve engineering design supported by

available marketing capabilities to achieve marketing

objectives (4). Survey such as conducted by Michalek, Ebbes

Marketing Data and Information: it indicates to how

the organization can improve or maintain its current

competitive position through providing marketing data that

highlights more on the development of business activities,

customer behavior, the causes that lead to increasecompetition

intensity and the appearance of problems which are

experienced by marketers due to the fluctuating of market

conditions and changing in customer needs and wants as a

consequence of excitements that are presented by competitors

(

6).

Marketing Insight: it reflects the future situation that

the organization is trying to reach via the benefits which

aspires to achieve through the utilizing a set of practices and

processes enabling it to increase the demand for its products

with the specific time horizons by investigating the optimum

benefit of the exploration of marketing opportunities in order

to exploit them properly (7) .

Marketing Decisions: it is perceived as the ability of

decision makers in organizations to make realistic marketing

decisions that help addressing matters related to the

organization's ability to identify issues associated with

purpose, feasibility and benefits that can be obtained before

proceeding in adopting of ambitious marketing practices,

methods and processes that drive to achieve marketing

objectives (2).

(

5) has shown that marketing engineering highlights the

significance of designing and developing of production lines

that require into the balance between the technical tradeoffs,

market, and the accessible marketing methods in order to

improve the product characteristics without any problems that

affect the subsequent marketing processes and practices. On

the other side, previous research has establishedthatmarketing

Implementation:itmeans the abilityof the organization

to translate marketing data, information, insight and decisions

into action mechanisms and implementation, making the

marketers gaining the ability to maintain their competitive

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2019, Volume 7, Issue 4, Pages: 774-779

advantage and access to customers who are expected to deal

with them within the time horizons that allow organizations

staying in the competition environment for the longest possible

time.

2.2.2 The Dimension of Strategic Positioning

For the purpose of determining and measuring the

strategic positioning in the tourism organizations in the city of

Najaf, the current study depends on the model of (8). In their

framework, (8) identifies three basic dimensions of strategic

positioning consists of (Customer co-production, Customer

contact and Service customization).

- Customer co-production: it refers to the organization's

ability to motivate customers participating in production as

well as reducing the effort, time and cost which entails once

listening directly to their views for the purpose of reviewing

the nature and quality of services provided to them and

reducing the non-consumption by the customer of the services

provided by the organization (8).

- Customer contact: it means to which extent the

organization is able to build continuous relationships with the

clients for the purpose of increasing communication with

them, limiting production errors and developing bilateral

interaction between the service provider and customers, hence

identifying their personal needs and asking certain questions

that ensure the service provider reaching to the information

and knowledge owned by the buyers in order to be used in

production processes (15).

- Service customization: it is seen as a way to customize

services to a specific customer, which requires from the

company recognizing customers with similar needs in order to

produce and provide services that meet their needs and wants.

Indeed, this leads organization facing high levels of demand

volatility. This increases the level of uncertainty during the

delivering the service which affects the human capital

considerations. In addition, the higher levels of service

customization requires from the marketing staff department

ascertaining the needs of different customers to determine

production and marketing procedures to discover these needs

within a specific time (8).

.2 Strategic Positioning

.2.1 The concept of Strategic Positioning

In recent years, a considerable literature has grown up

around the theme of strategic positioning due to the growing

of competitive’ environmental concerns, in response, many

organizations that compete in the business environment have

faced unpredictable competitive situations and the reasons

behindthat might be relatedto theiruncertaintiesand changing

in the customers’ needs and wants which affect their strategic

positioning in the short term. This making them reviewing

their strategiesand focusing on how to develop and gain a well

position in the marketing environment. Many experts have

mentioned about the subject of strategic positioning. Skaggs

and Youndt (8) found that the improvement of the strategic

positioning by the companies is based on their available

options which may affect the level of uncertaintycaused by the

continuous change in customer needs. While, Gago and

Antolín (9) suggested that strategic positioning reflects the

extent to which the corporate is constantly adopted with the

external environment in order reach to an entrepreneurial

position and gain an outstandingreputationwithinthe business

sector. In a competitive marketplace, positioning also reveals

how customers recognize the products/services or

organization’s performance on specific given attributes

relative to that of the competitors (10). Despite the fact that

gaining the strategic positioning is vital for all the companies,

it also allows managers to identify the position of competitors,

and attempts to discriminate their organization beside real

quality dimensions in order to be the most preferred company

for

a certain given market segment (11). Therefore,

understandingstrategic positioning handles marketingmyopia

that may be suffered by managers as a result of using internal

or external programs based on the incorrect decisions (12).

According to an article by Mahat and Goedegebuure (13),

strategic positioning encourages managers to achieve further

development to improve their strategic positioning through re-

shaping the organization's strategy consistent with the ability

to achieve strategic objectives set by top management after

addressing the key issues which are formed the strength of the

organization to adopt strategic choices in order to acquire the

benefits from its available resources and intellectual capital

more efficiently and effectively. In addition, the better

strategic positioning occurs when the organization can adapt

its core competencies and capabilities with the market

alterations (14). Hence, it can be said that the strategic

positioning of the organization can be enhanced by achieving

optimal operational excellence, cost leadership, improving of

innovative processes, building the relationships with the

customer as well as delivering the products that meshes with

the requirements of the customers in the market. This study

describe the strategic positioning as the ability of the

organization to utilize and exploit its rare resources,

capabilities, advanced technology to achieve a better position

that enable it leading the business sector which it operates on

and achieving a sustainable competitive advantage.

Based on the aforementioned literature, this study

envisages that there is a correlation and regression relationship

between marketing engineering and its dimensions and

strategic positioning in the tourism companies in Najaf city in

Iraq. Therefore, the following has been hypothesised:

H1: There is a statistically significant correlation

relationship between marketing engineering and strategic

positioning.

H1a: There is a statistically significant correlation

relationship between marketing data and information and

strategic positioning

H1b: There is a statistically significant correlation

relationship between marketing insight and strategic

positioning

H1c: There is a statistically significant correlation

relationship between marketing decisions and strategic

positioning

H1d: There is a statistically significant correlation

relationship between implementation and strategic positioning

H2: There is a statistically significant impact of

marketing engineering in strategic positioning.

H2a: There is a statistically significant impact of

marketing data and information in strategic positioning

H2b: There is a statistically significant impact of

marketing insight in strategic positioning

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2019, Volume 7, Issue 4, Pages: 774-779

H2c: There is a statistically significant impact of

marketing decisions in strategic positioning

value. By the end of the survey period, data had been collected

from 117 individuals. The response rate was (%50).

H2d: There is a statistically significant impact of

implementation in strategic positioning

3.4 Ethical consideration

In this paper, a number of guidelines were applied in order

to be ethical, such as giving participantsa free choice to take a

part of the questionnaire, honesty about the purpose of the

research, anonymity and confidentiality, honest in term of

analysing the data and results. In addition, an ethical form has

been filled by the researchers in our department before doing

this survey.

Methodology

.1 Measures and Method

In this study, the 5-points Likert scale (1= strongly

disagree to 5= strongly agree), which is realized as one of the

most widely used methods for investigating research in

administrative and social sciences, was used to rate

respondents’ perception for each item. Marketing engineering

was measured using four items which adopted by Lilien,

Rangaswamy (7) The scale measuring strategic positioning

was developed by Skaggs and Youndt (8).

Descriptive methodology was used to describe the

characteristics of phenomenon and to access the information

and real resultsas well as to find realisticand logical solutions

to the study questions through data collection, tabulation,

analysis and interpretation.

.5 Model Specification

In the light of the study problem, objectives and

hypotheses, the proposed model of this study has been

configured which represents the correlation and regression

relationships between the marketing engineering and its

dimensions as an independent variable, and the strategic

positioning as a dependent variable, as shown in the Figure 1.

.2 Validity and Reliability

The questionnaire form was initially prepared by the

researchers based on the theoretical references related to the

field of marketing engineering and strategic positioning. The

original form was developed in English and translated into

Arabic by a professional translator. To test instrument clarity,

questionwording and apparent validity, the questionnaireform

has been scrutinizedby four academic expertiseand specialists

in the field of marketing and strategic management.

Consequently, a number of statements have been adjusted as

suggested by them. Statistical analysis was performed using

SPSS software (version 20).The reliability of the form was

calculated using Cronbach’s alpha, as it was (0.92) for the

marketing engineering dimensions, (0.81) for the strategic

positioning dimensions, and the total value was (0.88) as

shown in the Table 1. This indicates that the statements of the

questionnaire have a high level of reliability.

Figure1: The proposed framework

Empirical Results

.1 Testing the First hypothesis

Simple Pearson correlation was employed to test the first

hypothesis which proposes a correlation relationship between

marketing engineering (X) and strategic positioning (Y). As

can be seen from the Table 2, it is noticed that there is a strong

and positive correlation (r=0.817) between the marketing

engineeringand strategicpositioning in the level of significant

(

0.000) which is less than (0.05). Accordingly, H1 was

accepted. In addition, resultsfrom the Table 2 reveal that there

is a significant and positive correlation relationship between

each of marketing engineering dimensions including

Table 1: Cronbach’s alpha

Variables

Cronbach’s alpha

N. of Items

Marketing engineering

Strategic positioning

Total

0.92

0.81

0.88

(

marketingdata and Information, marketinginsight, marketing

decisions and Implementation) and strategic positioning with

the value (r = 0.661, 0.596, 0.782, 0.755) respectively. Thus,

(

H1a, H1b, H1c and H1d) were confirmed.

3.3 Sample and data collection

The tourismsector has been selected as a research field for

Table 2: Value of the correlation between variables

the current study due to its fundamental role in attracting

tourists and developing the economic situation of the Iraq

generally and Najaf city in particular. The population of the

current study consists of (233) directors of hotels and tourism

organizations in the city of Najaf / Iraq. The random sampling

was used to select the sample. The sample of this research

includes (117) managers. The data were collected using

questionnaire which is realized as the most popular scientific

research tools compared to others. In total, (178)

questionnaires were directly distributed by the researchers to

the managers in these organizations with permissions, (163)

forms were returned, once checking the returned

questionnaire, (46) forms were excluded because of missing

No. Dimensions

Strategic positioning

Sig.

Marketing Data and

Information

0.661^*^*

0.596**

0.782^*

0.000

Marketing Insight

Marketing Decisions

Implementation

0.000

0.755

0.817^*^*

Marketing engineering

Notes: All correlations are significant at the 0.05 level** (2-tailed).

N=117

.2 Testing the Second hypothesis

Multiple regression methods was used to identify the

significance of marketing engineering and its sub-dimensions

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2019, Volume 7, Issue 4, Pages: 774-779

in enhancing strategicpositioning, as well as to test the Second

hypothesis and its branches. Table 3 exhibits that marketing

engineering has a positive impact on the strategic positioning

organizations in Najaf city focused on the importance of

obtaining data and marketing information from their certified

sources in order to utilizing them in reviewing and monitoring

market conditions, and continuous change in the customers’

needs. Another important finding was that tourism

organizations in Najaf city intensively depended on the

marketing data and information for the sake of start building a

future marketing insight in their implementation, that leads to

achieve their objectives in the short, middle and long term,

taking into consideration the importance of this information in

reviewing of the marketing knowledge which should be used

in emerging the current marketing processes and practices. In

addition, the empirical evidence of the current study indicates

that the tourism companies emphasizes on the importance of

transformingthe marketinginsightsbased on accurate data and

information into the work mechanisms and scientific

marketing plans that leads them to build effective

communication with customers, enhance competitive

positions, achieving the best strategicpositioningand avoiding

the marketing problems and dilemmas that occur quickly.

Moreover, the importance of using rare resources, capabilities,

core competence with expertise, know-how and skills have

been considered in implementing marketing plans, delivering

service customization and avoiding all that leads to the

emergence marketingdisturbancesduring their execution with

high accuracy. The results further support the idea of (2), and

are consistent with the findings of Ying and Peters (6) which

showed that marketing engineering supports firms in

collecting, storing, processing and disseminating marketing

information and data, that leads to an accurate marketing

decision with the consideration of the solution of marketing

difficulties and rising the abilityof organizations to stay in the

externalmarket effectively. Finally, there was a good attention

from the tourism companies and hotels to build continuous

relationshipsand communication with the tourists, listening to

their ideas and information by doing surveys, hence delivering

a quality service to them as well as satisfying them.

(

β = 0.817, p < 0.05). This is also supported by t-test, the value

of (t) calculated (15.169) is higher than the value of (t)

tabulated (1.96) on the level of (0.05). In the light of the

regression equation, the constant (a = 0.559) indicates that the

value of strategic positioning, based on the views of the

research sample and when the value of marketing engineering

is zero, equal to (0.559). Accordingly, H2 is accepted.

Additionally, results from Table 3 prove that there is a

statistically significant impact of all the dimensions of

marketing engineering in strategic positioning (β1=.661,

β2=.596, β3=.782, β4=.755) and (p < .05) respectively. The

value of t calculated of all the dimensions marketing data and

Information (9.457), marketing insight (7.960), marketing

decisions (13.467) and Implementation (12.357) are

significant and greater than the value of t distributed (1.96).

Thus, H2a, H2b, H2c and H2d were accepted. Besides, it can

be noticed that those effects are also supported by the

calculated value of F (290.099) which is higher than its

distributedvalue (1.35) with a significance of (0.000) which is

less than (0.05), consequently, this means that the research

model is accepted. Based on the results in this part, the final

status of the study hypotheses can be shown as in Table 4.

Taken together, these results explains that the significance

of marketing engineering is related to the attention of the

administration of tourism companies to the practices of all

dimensions, which in turn lead to enhancing the strategic

positioning and achieving competitive advantage.

Conclusions and Suggestion

The current study has investigated the role of marketing

engineering in enhancing strategic positioning in the tourism

companies in Najaf city. The empirical results demonstrated

that there is a correlation and regression relationship between

the study variables. This research found that the tourism

Table 3: Regression Results

No. Model

Beta

Sig.

Constant

Marketing Data and Information

Marketing Insight

Marketing Decisions

Implementation

0.559

0.560

0.555

0.763

0.678

0.870

0.661

0.596

0.782

0.755

0.817

9.457

7.960

13.467

12.357

15.169

0.000

290.099

0.000

Marketing engineering

N=117

Table 4: Results of the study hypotheses

There is a statistically significant correlation between marketing engineering and strategic positioning.

There is a statistically significant correlation between marketing data and information and strategic positioning

There is a statistically significant correlation between marketing insight and strategic positioning

There is a statistically significant correlation between marketing decisions and strategic positioning

There is a statistically significant correlation between implementation and strategic positioning

There is a statistically significant impact of marketing engineering in strategic positioning.

There is a statistically significant impact of marketing data and information in strategic positioning

There is a statistically significant impact of marketing insight in strategic positioning

Hypotheses

Results

Confirmed

H1a

H1b

H1c

H1d

H2a

H2b

H2c

H2d

There is a statistically significant impact of marketing decisions in strategic positioning

There is a statistically significant impact of implementation in strategic positioning

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2019, Volume 7, Issue 4, Pages: 774-779

The results of this research have suggested some future

recommendation for the investigated companies. Firstly, it is

possible, therefore, that the tourism companies should use and

depend more on the accurate marketing data and information

that leading them to making accurate marketing decisions. In

addition, it can thus be suggested that tourism companies

should adopt with a range of innovative marketingscenarios in

order to be close with the tourists, increase their market share

and achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Finally, our

findings suggest that the tourism organizations should focus

more and more on the selection and recruitments and then

hiring people with marketing background and high

communication skills in order to be able to communicate

effectively with tourists,hence enhancing strategicpositioning

in the marketing environment. Further studies, which take

these variables into account, will need to be undertaken in

different sectors such as banking, education and industry

sectors.

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