Marketing strategies supporting national plans: contributions of Universities/ Anuwat Srikaew

The paper explores the potential for university knowledge transfer in the development of marketing strategies of rural community businesses as part of a nation's plan that aims to make the community businesses self-reliant within a given timeframe. It reports on findings from reactive participant research with community businesses in the Chiang Mai province of northern Thailand. Using a co-operative marketing strategy framework, facts, perceptions and potential conflicts are identified from a study of the dynamics of community businesses which produce and sell cotton and silk fabrics and clothing. It is concluded that the university role should be that of co-producer, rather than catalyst, and that sustainable marketing strategies require a bottom–up approach that is dependent on the abilities of community business leaders to become rounded managers with a global view of the marketplace. The findings are relevant to all situations where marketing strategies are required to fit with multiple measures of performance that are laid down by a super-ordinate strategy.