Marketing for Service Quality - Contractors' Perception: UAE Case Study

Abstract

This paper is based on the findings of in-depth face-to-face semi-structured interviews with owners, directors and senior managers of twenty contractors' organisation in the United Arab Emirates construction industry. Then the research findings were reported and sent back to those who participated in the interviews in a form of a validation report for their review and comments.  The objective of this paper is to explore the marketing concept, cost and activities within the contractors’ organisation in the United Arab Emirates construction industry. The results indicated that marketing function has been slightly accepted as legitimate management activities in the UAE construction organisations (15% of respondents). Furthermore, the majority of companies (80% of respondents) consider marketing cost as a wasting of money since most projects were awarded to the lowest price offer. More than 85% of the interviewed contractors indicated that they do not have marketing departments or divisions in their companies; instead they have a public relationship department with the focus on the documentation of current project and the internal magazine of the company. Only 15% of contracting companies have a separate marketing division with a few staff and little budget. The result also indicated that there is much confusion among contractors on the definition of the marketing concepts and its purpose and activities.

Keywords:Marketing, Service Quality, Marketing Orientation, Differentiation and Marketing Research