Effective Integrated Marketing Communications for Startups in Qatar in a Business-to-Business Context

Abstract

Qatar’s need for diversification has become apparent because of declining oil and gas prices, compounded by the recent blockade. However, startups in Qatar experience numerous problems during their creation. For startups to thrive, effective integrated marketing communication (IMC) is vital. This paper explores the strategies that Qatar startups might use for advertising their products and services to locals in a business-to-business (B2B) context and the ways in which these businesses may integrate their marketing tools to form an IMC strategy. Qualitative data were collected via interviews with 12 entrepreneurs. The interviews were then transcribed verbatim for analysis. Thematic analysis was used to identify trends and themes within the data. We found that most of the entrepreneurs had a very clear idea of their target market and were aware of social media for IMC but did not have a clear IMC budget and tended to copy the strategies of their competitors.