Marketing strategies of small industrial manufacturers

Marketing Strategies Small Industrial Manufacturers

of

J. Donald Weinrauch 0. Karl Mann Julie M. Pharr Patricia A. Robinson Many small industrial marketers must market their products and services with limited resources. Thus, they must utilize economical marketing techniques to successfully achieve their goals. This article presents the results of a survey of small manufacturers’ perceptions, attitudes, and actual experiences in using selected low-cost marketing strategies.

INTRODUCTION A current excitement exists throughout the world for starting and managing new ventures in today’s global society. Numerous government and supernational institutions are encouraging new start-ups and current small businesses to grow and prosper. This encouragement has ‘For purposes of classification, the authors followed the Small Business Administration’s preferred definition for small business manufacturers, as one that includes 500 or less employees. This classification, of course, excludes manufacturers of under 500 who have large parent companies. Address correspondence to Dr. J. Donald Weinrauch, Department of Management and Marketing, College of Business Administration, Tennessee Technological University, P.O. Box 5152, Cookeville, TN 38505. Industrial Markering Managemenr 20, 25 l-259 ( 199 1) 0 Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc., 1991 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010

developed because of the economic growth and major employment gains that have come from the small business sector. Today’s profound interest in small business is richly illustrated by: 1. Four recent entrepreneurship/small business workshops co-sponsored by the American Marketing Association and the University of Illinois, Chicago (in 1987, 1988, 1989, and 1990); 2. A vigorous outcry for more articles on marketing issues in the Journal of Small Business Management [l]; and 3. A suggestion by the editor of one major marketing journal that more articles are needed on the integration of concepts in entrepreneurship/small business and marketing [2]. However a careful review of the emerging business marketing literature shows a pronounced shortage of research on specific business-to-business marketing strategies for small manufacturing firms. ’ In particular, there 251 0019-8501/91/$3.50

Three basic differences is a modicum of literature on the interface opportunities between small manufacturers and marketing strategies. Since the topic of small manufacturers’ marketing strategies is quite broad, our research dealt mainly with identifying and examining cost-effective marketing strategies and tactics attractive to small manufacturers. Given that most low-cost industrial marketing strategies are currently reported in vignette or anecdotal fashion, with no primary data collection occuring, the major research objectives of this study were: 1. To identify the most popularly used low-cost marketing techniques among small manufacturers; 2. To identify the perceptions and attitudes of small manufacturers in finding and using affordable marketing techniques; 3. To examine the extent to which manufacturers felt certain low-cost marketing techniques produced significant sales increases; 4. To identify the prevailing marketing problems caused by a limited budget and; 5. To examine the relationship between the existence of certain marketing problems and the small manufacturer’s success. Identifying

“Economical”

Marketing

As noted earlier, there is expanding interest among academicians in recording and studying small business the literature exmarketing strategies. Unfortunately, amining the impact of being small on developing successful marketing strategies is sparse. One is more likely to find studies listing marketing techniques that are them-

J. DONALD WEINRAUCH is Professor of Marketing nessee Technological University.

at Ten-

KARL MANN is Associate Professor of Marketing see Technological University.

at Tennes-

JULIE PHARR is Assistant Professor of Marketing see Technological University.

at Tennes

PATRICIA A. ROBINSON is Associate Professor of Marketing at Tennessee Technological University.

252

in smaller

firms

selves low-cost or that seem amenable to small business marketing. For example, Buskirk [3] suggests a few areas that offer small business some opportunities for low-cost marketing: direct-response marketing, import/export venturing, licensing, in-store promotion, and public relations. Weinrauch [4,5] expanded this list by synthesizing vignettes and anecdotes on economical marketing techniques from the popular and academic literature. The latter’s compilation of “shoestring” marketing techniques was adapted and modified for this study to make them more appropriate to small manufacturers. We specifically wanted to determine if these techniques are being used by small industrial marketers and to what extent they have been effective in reducing marketing costs. Constraints

of Being Small

There are some major operational marketing differences between small and large manufacturers. The limited size of a small business may amplify these differences. In one pioneering conceptual article [6], three basic differences relative to marketing were identified in smaller firms: 1. They have different marketing objectives. 2. They lack marketing expertise. 3. They have limited financial and organizational resources. Perhaps the biggest constraints are the financial restrictions. Limited finances and/or the size of the small business are noted by a number of authors as a major difference between small and large businesses [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. Given the limited size of the firms in this study, we wanted to determine if manufacturers perceived their size to be an asset or a liability and if they felt successful at finding and using low-cost marketing strategies. Weinrauch [4] expanded on the idea of the small firm’s “financial razor’s edge” by suggesting a number of ways that limited resources directly influence or alter marketing practices. For example, limited finances are likely to have an impact on marketing in the form of: ’ Restrictive credit policies ’ Inability to hire marketing

specialists

. Overreliance on manufacturer reps . Greater “distance” from customers

due to the hiring

of reps . Inability . . . . . . . .

to purchase liability insurance preventing product or market development Undercapitalization resulting in fewer new products Lower stock levels of desired inventory Greater bias toward local or regional markets Inadequate physical distribution facilities Vulnerability to the whims of bigger channel members Inadequate cash flow causing ineffective hand-tomouth marketing approaches Restrictive and inflexible pricing strategies Inability to take marketing-related discounts, such as purchasing or frequency discounts from advertising media.

It would appear that to survive, small industrial marketers must seek techniques that maximize a limited budget. Therefore, we wanted to determine which of the above types of problems manufacturers felt were most prevalent in their small business and what techniques had been effective in circumventing these problems by increasing sales while controlling costs.

DEFINITIONS, METHODS, AND MEASURES Since “low-cost marketing” is a relative concept (what is affordable for one manufacturer might be expensive for another), it was necessary to provide respondents with some guidelines for interpreting the concept. Following the literature, we assumed that low-cost marketing strategies are those that cost little in terms of actual dollars spent, consist of a very small percentage of the total business budget, or are cost-effective because they significantly enhance sales revenue [4]. These acceptable interpretations were communicated to survey participants in both a cover letter and on the mailed questionnaire. Interestingly, no respondent commented that he or she was unclear as to what was meant by “low cost” marketing strategies. Instead, there was tremendous respondent follow-up on the survey. Almost half of the respondents wrote personal letters or made phone calls requesting a copy of the survey results. Mailed questionnaires were sent to a random sample of 1,000 small Tennessee manufacturers from among 3,189 in the state. After one follow-up mailing to nonrespondents, a total of 218 usable questionnaires were returned, for a response rate of 21.6 percent. Prior to

mailing, the survey instrument was pre-tested on a select group of small business owners. Ambiguous questions were deleted or reworded for clarity. The questionnaires contained six major sections and took approximately 30-45 minutes to complete. Respondents’ attitudes toward their own “smallness” were measured first, using 5-point Likert statements anchored by “strongly agree” and “strongly disagree.” Next, subjects were asked to indicate their frequency of use of a number of low-cost marketing techniques on a categorical scale labeled “often,” “sometimes,” “rarely,” and “never.” They were then asked to evaluate the same group of techniques on the ability of each to produce significant sales gains given their low-cost nature. Each technique was rated on a 5-point scale running from “very significant increases” to “very insignificant increases. ” Subjects were then asked to indicate how often their business experienced each of 11 different marketingrelated problems. The categorical scale was labeled “often,” “sometimes,” “rarely,” and “never.” Last, subjects were asked to report how successful they felt they were in each of the following areas: sales growth, cash flow, profit growth, return on investment keeping costs down, and customer satisfaction. A 5-point scale running from “very successful” to “very unsuccessful” was used. Demographic data collected included yearly sales, number of employees, major product, and percentage of sales spent on marketing.

Sample Characteristics Tables 1 and 2 highlight a few salient traits of the sample and give an overview of the types of small manTABLE 1 Distribution

of Responding

SIC

Manufacturers

by SIC Codes

Major Group

20

Food and kindred products

22

Textile mill products

24

Lumber and wood products, except furniture

N

Percent

9

4.225

14 14

6.513

6.513

25

Furniture and fixtures

12

5.634

23

Apparel and products from fabrics

II

5.164

26127

Paper/printing,

10

4.695

28129

Chemicals/petroleum

8

3.756

32

Stone, glass, clay, and concrete products

II

33134

Primary and fabricated metal products

17

7.981

35

Industrial and commercial machinery

35

16.432

36

Electronic and electrical equipment

37

Transportation equipment

30

Rubber and plastics products

39

Miscellaneous manufacturing industries

publishing, and related

industries products

7 25

5.164

3.286

Il.737

6

2.817

34

15.962

u3

100.00

253

The pitfalls

of being small

TABLE 2 Sample Composition Classification

TABLE 3 Affordable Scheme

Average yearly sales in millions

N

and Suitable Marketing

Mean

Strategies

Strategy Key to competing with large firms is finding a niche

Years in operation

203 $11.8 216 41.6 215 21.0

Percent of sales spent on marketing

183

4.5%

Many marketing strategies appear to be better suited

People employed in some type of marketing capacity

201

5.5

Number of employees

Responses

Mean*

218

I.063

217

I.367

218

I .ss5

218

I.607

21x

I .700

218

I.727

217

I .73x

217

1.783

21x

I.783

218

1.806

217

2.229

Successful by offering a distinct or customized product to big firms than to small businesses I seek out and obtain marketing ideas, tips, and information We are aware of the benefits produced by our

ufacturing firms included in the survey. Table 1 classifies the respondents by SIC codes while Table 2 give averages for annual sales volume, number of employees, years in operation, percentage of sales spent on marketing, and the number of people employed in marketing. Finding Affordable and Suitable Marketing Strategies

marketing efforts It is hard to compete with large firms since we operate with limited financial resources We are aware of the true costs of carrying out specific marketing efforts Too many consultants, educators, business books, and government officials concentrate on finding marketing solutions for big firms Our marketing expenditures seem to take a back seat to other costs of doing business (e.g., manufacturing)

The small manufacturers’ attitudes toward their own smallness and the pitfalls of being small are reported in Table 3. As noted in Table 3, many small manufacturers feel that they can compete more effectively by finding a small niche and offering distinct or customized products. However, the respondents believe that the size of the firm and the firm’s limited budget cause problems in planning marketing strategies (X = 2.23) and competing with larger firms (X = 1.73) and they feel that many marketing strategies are better suited to big industrial firms (_? = I .55). In addition, although it is quite difficult for the small manufacturers to compete with limited resources (X = 1.72), many of them seek out marketing-related information (X = 1.60). Unfortunately, a large number of the small manufacturers (113 of them, X = 1.78) believe that too many consultants, educators, government officials, and business books emphasize marketing solutions for the large industrial marketers. Over half of the respondents have a strong interest in finding affordable marketing strategies that are suited for the small industrial marketers. Many of them (137) are sensitive to the true costs of certain marketing efforts. Surprisingly, marketing costs take a back seat to the other manufacturers’ costs (2 = 1.78). Many manufacturers (15 1, X = 1.61) seek out and

254

I have successfully identilied and used low-cost marketing strategies It is difficult to plan our marketing activities since we operate with limited tinancial resources

*Scale runs from I = strongly agree to 5 = strongly disagree

obtain suggestions about marketing strategies. However, there is a question as to how much relevant marketing information for smaller firms is actually produced and disseminated. This question was addressed by the recent self-study process undertaken by the American Marketing Association’s task force. The Association raised the question of how to improve the dissemination of relevant information from academic research [ 131. The four recent conferences on the interface between marketing and entrepreneurship are exciting and pertinent to the small manufacturers in this study. Naturally, there is a need to make sure that the educators are studying what is needed for small manufacturers to compete. Lastly, the results of these studies must receive ample distribution to the practitioners of industrial marketing. As noted, too many respondents (123) feel that educators, government officials, and consultants are mainly concentrating on marketing strategies for large manufacturers.

TABLE 4 Frequency

TABLE 5 Rating of Marketing Techniques the Dollars Spent

of Use Marketing

Techniques

Responses

that Offer Sales Increases for

Mean* Technique

Responses

Mean’

Mailed personalized sales letters

213

I .43269 I .90351 1.91975

Yellow pages advertising

216

2.04762

Telemarketing

Product catalogs

215

2.17857

WATS

Telemarketing

215

2.31944

Brochures

165

2.1203

213

2.54651

Mailed personalized sales letters

I39

2.1888

Open house: Customer plant visits

214

2.58620

Manufacturers’

143

2.2567

Free merchandise/free

216

2.80000

Open house: Customer plant visits

123

2.3593

Newsletters to customers

214

2.83730

Free merchandise/free

II2

2.5000

News releases in trade publications

215

3.04867

Yellow pages advertising

125

2.5869

Cooperative advertising with suppliers

218

3.10656

Workshops/seminars

Promotional invoice enclosures

214

3.20149

Selling at trade shows

Workshops/seminars

214

3.24647

Newsletters to customers

I I4

2.9487

215

3.28808

News releases in trade publications

100

2.9642

212

3.28859

Cooperative advertising with supplies

93

3.1086

Promotional invoice enclosures

82

3.20@0

217

Brochures Manufacturers’

215

reps

(phone sales)

Selling at trade shows

l-800 WATS *I

product samples

for customers

toll-free number line

l-800

toll-free number

72

I .5652

Product catalogs

118

I .6764

128

I .9743

70

2.0000

(phone sales)

line

reps product samples for customers

75

2.6739

I I4

2.7575

= high; 4 = low. *Scale runs from I = very significant increases to 5 = very insignificant increases.

Frequency of Use As Table 4 shows, the three most popular marketing techniques used by the small manufacturers were brochllres, manufacturer reps, and mailed personalized sales letters. Alternatively, the use of the WATS line, l-800 toll-free numbers, and workshops/seminars for customers were the least popular. Further analysis of the data revealed that well over half of the techniques listed in the questionnaire (from telemarketing to the WATS line) were rarely or never used. Table 5 gives the respondents’ perceptions of those low-cost marketing techniques that increase sales the most. There are some basic differences between Table 4 and Table 5. For example, the toll-free number and WATS line are unpopular marketing tools for many respondents, but those respondents who do use them (72 for l-800 numbers and 70 for WATS line) believe that they are worthwhile economical marketing techniques that achieve the greatest sales gains. One wonders if small manufacturers are even aware of certain low-cost marketing techniques, and/or feel they would be ineffective, are too time-consuming, or require a certain expertise (as doing public relations or producing a newsletter do). Also, do small firms rightly or wrongly settle on afew select marketing strategies while ignoring other opportunities to market themselves. In other words, do small manufacturers become myopic and comfortable with a few marketing strategies while forgoing creative, low-cost marketing options for enhancing sales revenues?

For instance, in one previous study it was noted that small manufacturing firms were predisposed toward sales intelligence as opposed to marketing research [ 141.

Problems Due to Limited Financial Resources Given budget size as an operating constraint, the small manufacturers were asked to indicate the extent to which their businesses were affected by 11 different marketing problems. The mean ratings in Table 6 show that the top four finance related problems that small business marketers perceived as most significant were: (1) developing new markets/expansion (X = 1.8 I), (2) affording qualified marketing people (% = 1.83), (3) developing their own sales force (X = 1.91), and (4) doing marketing research (X = 2.04). Servicing guaranteed warranties and providing adequate customer service were perceived as least significant. These responses suggest that small business marketers compete effectively with larger firms by offering extra service. It appears that a smaller marketing budget creates some long-term strategic challenges for the small manufacturers. How, for instance, can they attract the most qualified marketing people when they cannot afford heavy fixed costs and top-heavy salaries for marketing executives? One solution may be to emphasize variable instead of fixed costs-e.g., to offer part ownership of the manufacturing business in addition to the usual bonuses and commissions. This compensation strategy may help to

255

Keys to competing TABLE 6 Marketing-Related Problems Due to Limited Financial Resources Problems

Responses

Mean*

Developing new markets/expansion

21.1

1.x1579

Affording

212

qualitied marketing people

Developing your own salt’s l’orcr

213

I .x305I l.YlYl I

Doing marketing research

712

2.0483X

Extending credit to customers

?I2

3 ‘9X70 -._

Buying advertising ttme/\pace

‘I3

2 3OYS2

Deve!oping new products

210

2.347x1

Buying product liability

xx

2.46970

210

3.57333

~nsuru~cc

Receivlnp quantity divxunts

from vendors

Providing adequate w\tomer service

?I I

2.71691

Servicing guarantees and varutions

‘07

3.01 2x2

*I

= Ggniticant: 5 = InGgnilicant

entice some solid marketing personnel from the larger industrial firms. However, the owners of small business are frequently reluctant to share some of the equityeven a minor portion-with the professional staff. Thus, hiring qualified marketing people and building a solid inhouse sales force becomes a constant problem. Also, the development of new markets is often a tough strategic challenge for smaller industrial firms. They frequently do not have the distribution network nor the financial resources to expand. A new infusion of capital is often required to penetrate new markets. Small manufacturers, however, may already be undercapitalized or reluctant to take on additional debt or offer equity opportunities with additional investors. They may also be reluctant to encounter the stiff established competition sometimes caused by market expansion. Degree of Success Criteria for defining small business success and creating viable research classification schemes is widely debated in the literature [15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22, and 231. The challenge of small business success is compounded when one considers the early start-up years, stringent demands of lenders, industry norms, years of operation, size of participating small business, competitive structure, and most importantly, the individual preferences of the owners. For example, many owners of small entrepreneurial manufacturing firms have life-style 256

with large firms goals and behavioral preferences that they seek to satisfy through their businesses. These entrepreneurial expectations, added to small business constraints, may make it difficult to apply the traditional performance measurements of the big manufacturers to small business. (For instance, we wanted to use market share as one success criterion. We found, however, that many small business executives have little knowledge of their current market share or whether they are even gaining/losing market share .) Although classification schemes of success may be a quagmire, attempts must be made to compare relationships between small firms’ performance levels with marketing strategies and problem areas. Based on review of the small business literature, six common SUCCESSvariables were identified. Five were related to finance and the sixth-customer service-was a qualitative factor which examines owners’ perceptions of how well they feel they are serving the marketplace. As noted in Table 7, customer service (.f = 1.03) and sales growth (_U= I .82) ranked the highest with respect to the respondents’ perceptions of their success. Cash flow and keeping costs down were the two lowest categories. These two responses indicate that our research objectives-seeking ways to control costs while still achieving the financial/marketing objectives of a small industrial marketer-address a perceived need in the small business community.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PROBLEMS AND SUCCESS

MARKETING

In order to investigate the linkage between marketing problems and general business success, we grouped the entrepreneurs according to their perceptions of success and performed a discriminate analysis on the groups using as independent variables the measures of marketing problems listed in Table 6. Specifically, each business was classed as “successful” or “unsuccessful” based on the subjects’ responses to questions asking how successful they felt their firm was in the following areas: sales growth, profit growth, ROI, cash flow, cost reduction, and customer satisfaction. Since interval data was col-

TABLE 7 Perceptions

TABLE 8 Standardized

of Success

Success variables Satisfying your customers Sales growth Return on investment Keeping costs down Profit growth Cash flow

Responses

Mean*

216 216 216 217 217 217

I .032967 1.821917 2.114285 2. I23376 2.196202 2.265151

*I = Success; 5 = Unsuccess

lapsed into nominal data, the median was used to demarcate the groups. Table 8 reports the results of the discriminate analysis. Due to the exploratory rather than confirmatory nature of this analysis, only the significant discriminate coefficients are shown. The coefficients are standardized and were rotated by a varimax rotation for improved interpretability. The magnitudes of the coefficients determine the relative contribution of the independent variable to the discriminate function. Upon inspection, the discriminate coefficients show no apparent relationship between marketing problems and business success. Problems in purchasing insurance and taking advantage of quantity discounts are common to the three predictive functions of financial success, i.e., profit growth, ROI, and cash flow. Their relative magnitudes are consistent across the functions, with insurance contributing slightly more in each case than quantity discounts. The difficulty of taking advantage of quantity discounts is the only independent variable common to all success functions. Other relatively large coefficients are the contribution of sales force development to profit growth (0.694) and cash flow (0.948), new market development to sales growth (0.798), and receiving quantity discounts to cost reduction (0.8 10). Those marketing problems that should be symptomatic of small businesses with limited financial resourcespurchasing advertising, developing new products, and conducting marketing research--each contribute negatively to the prediction of success. In other words, these variables tend to “drive” the functions away from success. Table 9 reports the confusion matrix for the data. The sample size of more than 200 allowed us to use half of the data to determine the discriminate function and the remainder to examine the predictive efficacy of the function. Using the criterion that a discriminate function must have a predictive accuracy greater than the prior probability of group membership, the success measures of profit growth, ROI, cash flow, and cost reduction were

Discriminate Sales Growth

Marketing Problem Sales force development

Coefficients Profit Growth

0.694

Purchase of ad time/ space

- 0.379

New market development

0.798

Return on Investment

0.483

- 0.296

0.386

New product development research

Providing service

customer

-0.735

insurance

Receiving discounts

qty

Providing credit

customer

Servicing

warranties

-0.307

0.524

-0.371

-0.277

0.470

Purchasing

cost Reduction

0.948

0.588

-0.340

Marketing

Cash Flow

0.615

0.582

0.425 - 0.743

-0.653

0.571

0.502

0.623

0.524

0.285

0.810

-0.415

correctly predicted. Customer satisfaction and sales growth functions failed to beat the prior probability test, although sales growth was correctly predicted for a large percentage of the hold-out sample. In the absence of little previous theory suggesting the types of marketing problems most indicative of small business failure, it is difficult to establish any real pattern in the results. At best, the discriminate analysis shows that small business success/failure, when measured by the entrepreneurs’ perceptions, is more closely tied to tactical financial difficulties like purchasing insurance and taking advantage of quantity discounts than to bona fide marketing problems with advertising, marketing research, or product strategy. This may suggest the notion that many small business people are so inundated with immediate financial problems that they ignore or even TABLE 9 Confusion

Matrix Results

Dependent

Variable

Sales growth Profit growth Return on investment Cash flow Cost reduction Customer satisfaction

Percent Correctly Classifred

Percent Holdout Sample

Unsuccess

Success

84.44 73.91 72.22 65.17 61.96 64.84

76.32 63.16 61.26 60.00 47.46 43.86

0.7978 0.5843 0.5843 0.5618 0.4382 0.4607

0.2022 0.4157 0.4157 0.4382 0.5618 0.5393

Pnor Probability

257

misunderstand the link between tices and business success.

sound marketing

prac-

CONCLUSIONS Small manufacturers are often in a quandary when it comes to finding ways to successfully market their products and services. This challenge is compounded by the constraints attendant upon being small. Thus, marketers must seek economical industrial marketing strategies that will achieve certain financial and marketing objectives. The future research opportunities are to first identify and categorize certain low-cost strategies and then determine if they help in overcoming marketing-related problems while achieving the desired success criteria. Compared to defining low cost marketing strategies, perhaps the biggest challenge to this exploratory research project was to identify, pinpoint, and prune the many alternative economical marketing techniques that could be studied. Even with an exhaustive literature review, it was difficult to choose specific techniques that might be studied. Previous empirical data was lacking on the major theme of the study. We had few prior guidelines indicating which economical marketing areas to study. Hence, value judgements had to be made on the salient variables that should be incorporated. And due to space limitations on the questionnaire, a pruning process was vital. This exploratory study is meant to serve as a building block to enhance practice and theory, and create a greater awareness that more research to help small industrial marketers in improving and optimizing their constraining marketing budgets is needed. Additional studies are needed to catalog and better understand low-cost marketing strategies and their influence on meeting specific objectives. Also, longitudinal studies are needed to track their strategic impact over a period of time. Also, industrial marketing researchers must examine more fully the marketing similarities and differences between large and small manufacturers. Compared to larger firms, the magnitude of financial blunders are often dramatized for a small business-tobusiness marketer. Too frequently, a small manufacturer is unable to effectively compete because of poor inventory or cash position. Hence, cash flow analysis, limited financial resources, overcoming financial leverage problems, and the operating decisions of a “cash is king” mentality takes on a significant dimension with small industrial marketers. Consequently, there is a significant and urgent need to formulate business-to-business pro258

grams that have a profound impact on minimizing marketing expenditures while enhancing sales revenues. It is also important to identify the type and degree of marketing-related problems that might prevail due to limited financial resources. For example, in the business-tobusiness sector, it is difficult to find qualified marketing people, do marketing research, develop new industrial products, find a niche, extend credit, provide adequate post-sale service, or expand to new markets. By identifying challenges and problems caused by limited finances, future research may study how these problems could be solved without the business-to-business marketers spending unnecessary monetary resources. Finally, the results of these studies must be disseminated to the practitioners, which is not always an easy task. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors acknowledge with thanks the financial grant for faculty research from the Faculty Research Committee of Tennessee Technological University. REFERENCES I. Thompson, James, Readership Survey Findings. Journal of Stnull Busi-

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