engleski

Marketing System and Competitiveness of the Croatian Tobacco Industry

To diagnose correctly a firm's competitiveness, it is essential to comprehend all participants, their mutual links and the influential factors of the marketing system. The subject of discussion in this paper is the competitiveness of a home firm of the Croatian tobacco industry in the light of changes in a competitive and wider macroenvironment. Croatian tobacco industry belongs to more profitable industries in Croatia (in 1999, ROA amounts to 14%, and the net profit margin is 17%). The sources of profitability are found in the interaction of relevant factors at the level of industry, which can be explained by Porter's structural analysis of industry. Thus, in the Croatian cigarette market, the concern of the Rovinj Tobacco Factory is dominating at present. There is an explicit competitive threath done by the multinational company, British American Tobacco that enters the Croatian market by a direct investment into the Zadar Tobacco Factory. Among other relevant elements of the analysis, the threat of the substitutes is low, and the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers is insignificant, too. Considering the characters of the macroenvironment, there is an unfavourable influence exerted by the economic, social-cultural and political-legal environment. The technological environment can be considered favourable, whereas the natural and demographic ones have a neutral influence. The firm gains a competitive advantage in the market by using favourable possibilities of the environment and by their own powers, avoiding the fields in which the drawbacks are in the direct link with the environmental threats. In the Croatian tobacco industry, however, the events with a high certainty of occurence and high intensity of effect have regularly a negative influence on the industry. These are strong anti-smoking campaigns, opening of the Croatian market by joining WTO, restrictive regulations in the line of promotion an the near placement of competitive cigarettes of a multinational company. Considering the chance of gaining a competitive advantage over the multinational company, the concern of the Rovinj Tobacco Factory shows some weaknesses. The transition period also means changes in the business philosophy of a firm. For the competitiveness of a firm, the societal marketing concept is increasingly important. The concern of the Rovinj Tobacco Factory implements consistenly the marketing concept, which for the industry results in prosperity ; but at the level of society it means a suboptimal solution. Therefore, a proactive approach in terms of the societal marketing concept is recommended. To implement such an approach, however, the home firm of the Croatian tobacco industry has not enough potentials, so the multinational companies have a significant advantage here.

competitiveness; marketing system; Croatian tobacco industry; business philosophy; environment; development

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