STRATEGIC MARKETING AND ITS IMPACT ON SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE BUSINESSES IN NIGERIA

The study undertakes an analysis on evaluating how marketing strategies had effectively enhanced small and medium scale businesses (SMBs) in Nigeria from 1990 to 2012. The method of analysis used was log- linear multiple regression; using industrial production index as a proxy for SMBs, marketing labour force and educational levels for building the model. It was observed that due to poor state of physical infrastructure, particularly road networks, electricity and water supply made returns on autonomous part of industrial sector to be negative. More so, the low magnitude of marketing labour force showed that there exists high level of unemployed manpower for effective marketing exercise. Governments can accelerate the development of markets for financial and non financial services suited to SMBs by promoting innovation in products, and delivery mechanisms, and, by building institutional capacity. Improving the development impact of SMBs strategies will require much more attention to the monitoring, and evaluation of intervention outcomes.