Barriers to Marketing Strategies Implementation: a Classification and Prioritization for Iran Khodro Company

Any company or organization, whether large or small, needs marketing plan for the achievement of its marketing and corporate objectives, an output of which is marketing strategies. The correct implementation of marketing strategies is the final stage of the planning process and an assurance of its marketing success. Findings of marketing researches reveal that companies applying marketing strategies to achieve sustainable competitive advantage often encounter implementation problems at various levels of organizational hierarchy.
The main purpose of this paper is to classify various barriers impeding effective implementation of marketing strategies and further to prioritize them for the case of Iran Khodro Company. First, a list of barriers is presented, based on the international literature which is then customized based on the opinions of the experts in the company, utilizing one sample t- tests and Friedman test. Findings show that managerial barriers rank highest among the eight categories. Structural, cultural, perceptual, strategic, operational, human power and resource barriers rank second to eight, respectively. This means that in Iran Khodro Company the shortage of resources is not a serious barrier to marketing strategies, but rather the other factors.