Strategic Marketing Practices in Emerging Economies: A Study of Branding and Market Expansion in Bangladesh

Abstract

The concept of strategic marketing has evolved into a major business survival and growth engine in the emerging economies, where the markets are quite competitive, the customers price sensitive, and the confidence in new brands is usually low. The paper explores the strategic marketing in Bangladesh; the market expansion performance is determined using branding capability and digital marketing capability in the geographical markets, customer segments and distribution channels. The research design used in the study was a mixed-method one. First, qualitative data were applied to the study of how companies in Bangladesh are able to develop brand positioning, sustain brand consistency, and gain customer confidence through expansion. Second, 250 respondents who represented marketing executives, digital marketers, brand managers, sales/channel managers, business owners who work in such industries as FMCG, retail, telecom/services, and e-commerce participated in a quantitative survey. Descriptive results indicate that the firms indicated that their performance on market expansion was very good (Mean = 4.22) with rather good branding (Mean = 3.69) and moderately good digital marketing (Mean = 3.45) capabilities. The statistical findings prove branding and online marketing is critical to growth performance. Correlation analysis reveals that branding capability has a moderate positive relationship with market expansion performance (r = 0.494) and digital marketing capability has a positive relation as well (r = 0.385). The regression model also supports the fact that branding capability is the strongest predictor of market expansion (B = 0.490), with digital marketing capability also contributing to the expansion in a significant way (B = 0.289). The total model predicts 37.2% of the variation in market expansion performance (R 2 = 0.372), meaning that branding and digital marketing are significant growth facilitators to companies that are operating in Bangladesh. The research advises companies on the need to build brand identity in consistency across channels, enhance trust-building, and incorporate digital marketing in long-term brand strategy in order to realize growth at the new market in the long run.