The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the marketing factors (if any) that have led to the survival of Bata Shoe Company in the struggling economy of Zimbabwe. For my data collection I used mostly phone calls, Skype interviews and researched documentation. After having all the data gathered a decision was made to use a qualitative approach since it enables me to obtain more in-depth information and has a few restrictions and assumptions on the data col-lected.
Marketing Is a key factor in Organizations since it contributes greatly to their success; basical-ly marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others.
The research shows Bata being a company that has managed to survive and drag through the economically struggling Country Zimbabwe; has marketing been key a factor that has lead to the survival of the company for this long? Great customer and market focus can keep an Or-ganization on their feet and according to the findings these factors significantly affect a com-pany’s performance.
From the findings it shows a lot of companies from different sectors have closed down or moved out of the country in the past 8 years due to the economic problems and worse of the competition coming from other countries for example china. From my findings not many com-panies market themselves, research their markets or use the marketing mix as a tool of their business this would be because of less completion in the past years until major competitors joined the market and lack of funding. This thesis produces reliable factors that have lead to the collapse of most companies and also shows valid factors that have helped Bata Shoe Com-pany continue running to date.
