Marketing prerequisites of rural Azerbaijan's traditional handicrafts through purchasing process
Viirelä, Anna (2017)
Kajaanin ammattikorkeakoulu
2017
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201705188931
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201705188931
Tiivistelmä
This study was carried out as a part of Development of Sustainable Tourism and Support of Local Handicrafts in the Rural Azerbaijan project. During research execution the capital city Baku and one of the target regions Sheki were visited. The objective of this study was to gather information about rural Azerbaijan’s traditional handicrafts, particularly Sheki’s traditions. As one of the main aims of the project is to create a tourism marketing strategy for the rural target regions in Azerbaijan, this research was focused on understanding the marketing prerequisites behind the local handicrafts to help realizing what is required to be implemented of them to foreign tourists.
The research data was collected using data triangulation such as interviews, observations, photographs, videos and tourism guide books and booklets. The interviewees were two local craftsmen, silk industry professional, tourism professional and Sheki Handicrafts Association’s executive director from Sheki and EKOT NGO’s director from Baku. The research method was chosen to be qualitative, because a specific real-life condition was documented and analyzed by usage of acceptable theory. The data was approached deductively and analyzed focusing on understanding the contents and finding the main points. The theoretical section explores traditional handicrafts, folklore and cultural heritage, sustainable tourism, rural tourism and culture tourism, and sustainable marketing, promotion mix and purchasing process.
The interview respondents stated that there is no online marketing for traditional handicrafts in Sheki. In general, the respondents were aware of what kind of assistance they would need such as professional help with promoting the crafts. First, the promotion and advertising objectives should be set as well as defining the target group if it is foreign tourists or not. Also, the results suggest that the rural artisans know best their own crafts, but they do not have enough business skills to develop them being more practical as tourism products.
If conducting future researches of the matter, perhaps complementary results could be found better by using quantitative approach focusing on interviewing foreign tourists. Further, by interviewing foreign tourists visiting rural Azerbaijan, useful details could be adopted considering rural and traditional handicrafts from the aspect of a potential customer. The findings indicate also that local producers should be heard when starting to plan the tourism marketing strategy to avoid creating any separation between them and the potential customers.
The research data was collected using data triangulation such as interviews, observations, photographs, videos and tourism guide books and booklets. The interviewees were two local craftsmen, silk industry professional, tourism professional and Sheki Handicrafts Association’s executive director from Sheki and EKOT NGO’s director from Baku. The research method was chosen to be qualitative, because a specific real-life condition was documented and analyzed by usage of acceptable theory. The data was approached deductively and analyzed focusing on understanding the contents and finding the main points. The theoretical section explores traditional handicrafts, folklore and cultural heritage, sustainable tourism, rural tourism and culture tourism, and sustainable marketing, promotion mix and purchasing process.
The interview respondents stated that there is no online marketing for traditional handicrafts in Sheki. In general, the respondents were aware of what kind of assistance they would need such as professional help with promoting the crafts. First, the promotion and advertising objectives should be set as well as defining the target group if it is foreign tourists or not. Also, the results suggest that the rural artisans know best their own crafts, but they do not have enough business skills to develop them being more practical as tourism products.
If conducting future researches of the matter, perhaps complementary results could be found better by using quantitative approach focusing on interviewing foreign tourists. Further, by interviewing foreign tourists visiting rural Azerbaijan, useful details could be adopted considering rural and traditional handicrafts from the aspect of a potential customer. The findings indicate also that local producers should be heard when starting to plan the tourism marketing strategy to avoid creating any separation between them and the potential customers.