حامد وارسته

Unstable and complex environment, increasing competition, rapid changes and developments, technological advances, rapid exchanges and increasing development of communications have led organizations to seek a competitive advantage to differentiate. One of the important factors in differentiating between organizations is the concept of competitiveness. To this end, managers of organizations seek to identify and strengthen the factors affecting competitiveness. Therefore, the present study aims to increase the competitiveness of manufacturing companies, to assess the factors affecting competitiveness using logistics strategies. The present study is in the positivist paradigm with a hypothetical-deductive approach and is considered in terms of purpose, descriptive-survey and cross-sectional. The statistical population of the research includes senior managers, middle managers and support partners of the country's manufacturing companies. Research data were completed and analyzed electronically in the form of a questionnaire of Spilan et al., With 345 questionnaires. The results of structural equation analysis showed that logistics strategies (process, market and information) have a positive and significant effect on competitiveness. Among these strategies, information strategy, process strategy and market strategy had the most impact on competitiveness, respectively. The results also showed that customer service has a positive and significant effect on the impact of logistics strategies on competitiveness. This effect was the highest in the effectiveness of information strategy, market strategy and process strategy in competitiveness, respectively.

Different firms resort to a variety of proceedings and strategies to resist agaisn recession and achieve their expected goals which include many aspects of designing or implementing strategies. The recession is a situation in which demand for goods and services decreases. In such a case, companies need to adopt strategies in different areas, especially marketing and sales, to survive in order to adapt to the conditions of the recession. Hence, the purpose of this study is to identify appropriate marketing and sales strategies that companies have implement during economic downturns and have been able to survive.

The present research is a mixed-method study in terms of approach. The qualitative aspect of the study was conducted using theme analysis and the quantitative aspect was carried out as a survey questionnaire. Statistical population of the research in qualitative stage includes 5 top executives of companies active in FMCG industry as well as 5 experienced univesity professors (University of Tehran and Tarbiat Modares University of Tehran) with the expertise in marketing. Sampling method in qualitative stage was a combination of snowball sampling and targeted judgment sampling and sampling in the quantitative stage was based on convenience. All strategic actions related to marketing (product, price, place, promotion) during the economic recession have been identified using existing knowledge and interviews with industry and academia experts and then a questionnaire was distributed among 18 companies (companies active in the production of fast moving consumer goods goods (FMCG)) to identify their changes in sales and marketing strategies during the recession.

The results showed that the biggest changes have occured in the variables of “discounts” and “flexibility in customer reimbursement” respectively, while “comparing prices to that of rivals” was the least factor. In addition, the most significant changes regsarding place were observerd in “the management and monitoring of distribution channels” and “monitoring distributors” respectively, while “distribution baswed on market needs” was ranked the last. Regarding promotion section, the most significant changes are related to “the advertisement on social networks” and the provision of “discounts to distributors”, respectively, while “radio and television advertisement” includes the least changes. Finally, regarding the product area, the biggest change were observed in “the cost of providing raw materials” and “improving the production technology”, while “packaging” and “product volume” were among the least changes observed.

Changes in some of actions in the majority of companies are the same and can be considered as general marketing and sales strategies during the recession, such as “the presentation and diversification of discounts”, “the distribution based on market demand”, “the increase of advertising budget and promotion” and “improvement of production technology”. Some of the actions in different companies have changed differently, such as “comparing products prices to that of the rivals”, “inventory”, “outsourcing of distribution activities”, “advertising in radio and television” and “the provision of new products related to current products”. Besides, people will not be able to purchase in recession which forces the companies to reduce the size, volume, and weight of their product packaging in order to reduce the prices of the products. The companies will also postpone the presentation of new products in recession in order to be able to survive in the market.