Abstract:
In the post-war era, local firms are facing stiff competition from foreign brands. In order to
compete successfully they need to develop new marketing strategies on post-war perspective.
At the same time, they also need to focus on all the marketing activities from the consumer’s
perspectives. During war, consumers were more conscious on the product accessibility, and
did not consider the other aspects in the brands, but in the post-conflict marketing
environment they expect good value for the money which they spent on the product
Extent research on marketing strategies lacks in theory based frame work that explicate
what marketing strategies are appropriate for the war/conflict affected places. The present
study explored marketing strategies, appropriate to the unique context. Using grounded
theory methodology data were collected, through 5 focus group discussions and 25 interviews
with the consumers in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. Theoretical sampling technique is used to select the appropriate respondents; Data were collected until the data saturation was
arrived. 89 initial codes were identified from the initial coding viaNvivo (version 09)
software. From the axial coding and substantial coding 11 categories were found. Marketers
adopt 15 strategies to reach the consumers in the conflict affected places. Consumers prefer
05 strategies, such as social responsibility, cultural match, ethical marketing, employee’s
behavior, and infrastructure development as the best from the 15 strategies. Ethical marketing
strategy is needed in the conflict affected places. Findings show that, consumers in the
conflict affected places expect ethical behavior in all aspects of marketing activities.
