With the strive to maintain its reputation for personalized service, Fontana continues to be the leading Pharmacy chain in Jamaica.Their main business is customer satisfaction, and their strongest competitive advantage are their managers and employees.According to Alegre et al. (2018), a mission statement is a common strategic tool for highlighting an organization's distinctiveness and identity. Fontana's mission statement is to offer the widest variety of goods at low prices in a pleasant atmosphere with easy parking and above all warm, friendly, and efficient service. The company was built on four core principles which are still actively practiced. They are service (the customer comes first); respect (treating everyone with dignity); family (valuing loved ones), and community (giving back).For this research, the team will explore the marketing strategies at Fontana Pharmacies in Jamaica.

According to Morgan et al. (2018),marketing strategy is a notion that is at the centre of the discipline of strategic marketing and is at the heart of marketing practice. The authors further stated that the discipline of marketing revolves around developing and implementing marketing strategies and because formulating and implementing marketing strategy is at the heart of what marketers do, research relevant to these activities is critical to proving the relevance of marketing as an academic field. We believe that since businesses are unable to relate to all its clients in the market because it is too huge, too spacious, or too diversified, they can split customers into groups or market segments based on their wants and aspirations. The organization can then determine which market segments can be efficiently supplied. Morgan et al. (2018) posited that it is also crucial to build theoretical understanding in marketing by better understanding the status of marketing strategy expertise.

Background to the Problem

Daniel (2018) highlighted that in the business world, the success or failure of any business organization is determined by how well such organization can satisfy its customers, and this act places a massive task and responsibility on any organization intending to excel at satisfying their customers and clients through marketing. Hamilton-Ibama and Owuso (2022) postulated that the responsibility includes determining the specific demands of their customers and selecting how to effectively manage their products and services to meet the desires of both prospective buyers and sellers.

Moravcikova et al. (2017) indicated that marketing strategies contributes to an organisation's development and sustainability in an increasingly competitive environment. Understanding the factors that aid or impede research is critical to improving marketing strategies and creating a conducive atmosphere for businesses to succeed (Azeem et al., 2021). Saidali et al. (2019) posited that an effective marketing strategy is invaluable to business success. Due to globalisation and economic crisis, organisations undergo significant changes, and businesses are now, more than ever, willing to optimise efficiency by using marketing strategy to improve productivity (Tatiana et al., 2017). For this to be successful, companies must connect organisational and personal objectives (Prange & Pinho, 2017).

Kujala and Trnroos (2018) posited that the recent globalization market has made companies to view the internationalization of their activities and events to remain competitive in the market. Katsikeas et al. (2019) indicated that marketing strategy has become a relevant tool in the world for any organization to remain in the competitive market environment and become stronger. It is stated that knowing customer demands and desires are critical to good marketing, considerable as to how competition has a substantial impact on how successful an organization's corporate venture may be (Taherdangkoo et al., 2019). With reports of Fontana Pharmacy's diverse degrees of success and failure in Jamaica, it is critical to strive to do detailed research of the various marketing methods used by these businesses (The Jamaica Stock Exchange, 2018).

Statement of Problem

According to Kotler and Keller (2016) developing the right marketing strategy requires a blend of discipline and flexibility as businesses must stick to a strategy but also constantly improve it. The author further posited that intoday's fast-changing marketing world, identifying the best long-term strategies is crucial but challenging.

Stavros et al. (2022) postulated that the general problem in business marketing is that business owners have product or service knowledge of what is being offered to customers but are not experts in the field of marketing and therefore struggle with implementing strategic planning, a marketing plan, and other elements necessary for success.

Umut (2020) stated that product is at the heart of the marketing mix difficulties and possibilities confronting global firms today: management must develop brand and product practices and strategies that are responsive to customer needs, competitiveness, and company goals and capital. The author further postulated that to be an effective global marketer, one must strike a balance between developing local product, brand adaptations, and concentrating business capital on existing global products and brands.

Globalization is forcing businesses to create global brands to increase their market reputation and profits over a global network (Umut 2020). The author further posited that a global commodity satisfies a worldwide market need. It is a worldwide commodity that is marketed in all globe areas and to countries of various economic levels. A global brand has the same identity and place all over the world.

Marketing as a business activity is a wide, multi-faceted responsibility area (Chakraborty & Jha, 2019). Technology can and will revolutionize every facet of this role(Grewal et al., 2019). Anshari et al., (2019) postulated that current technologies, such as Market Analytics and Customer Relationship Management (CRM), make it possible to swiftly deploy well-structured infrastructures for capturing and managing all information relevant to customer enquiries and future customer pursuit plans.[ME1]

Purpose of Investigation

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the marketing strategies at Fontana Pharmacies in Jamaica.

Research Questions

To achieve the objectives, the following research questions framed the study:

1.Describe the role of technology in the marketing communication initiatives in your organization.

2. How did the Covid-19 pandemic impact Fontana pharmacy's marketing strategies?

3.Describe Fontana's targeting, positioning, and segmentation strategy

4. In what ways has globalization impacted Fontana pharmacy's marketing strategies? 5. Describe the market orientation measures that Fontana pharmacy's employs to achieve customer satisfaction.

Conceptual Framework

Marketing performance is a construct that can be used to measure the impact of marketing strategy because it is a measure of the company's achievement of marketed products (Handayani & Handoyo, 2020). According to Puspaningrum (2020), marketing performance measurement can be done based on the success of new products, sales growth, and annual profit or net income. Marketing performance is influenced by various factors, such as marketing mix, market orientation, globalisation, technology, and natural and man-made disaster (Sopha et al., 2021). Marketing performance is also inseparable from a definite marketing competitive advantage (Pisicchio & Toaldo, 2020).

Chen (2019) indicated that when applied in a business context, a strategy refers to a set of managerial decisions and actions that aims to differentiate the company from competitors and sustain its competitive advantage. Liu and Atuahene-Gima (2018) posited that a company's strategy must be appropriate for its mission, resources, and environmental circumstances. Accordingly, a marketing strategy can be defined as a plan by a company to differentiate itself positively from its competitors, using its relative strength to better satisfy customer needs in each environment (Jain, 2004). Marketing strategies entails the set of actions designed to achieve competitive advantage and achieve better than average results by intelligent and fact-based selection among alternative leading to such advantage (Shane, 2000).

Marketing strategy is a growing interest in the organizational response through market orientation studies.[ME2]

Significance of Study

The significance of this study is to provide a better understanding of the marketing strategies used by some companies. The findings from this research may allow other retail stores to become aware of the significance of adapting key marketing strategies in their organization's operations and success.[ME3]

Limitations of Study

Vargas and Mancia (2019) stated that while no scientific work is without limitations, researchers have a responsibility to ensure the robustness and balancing of the trajectory that others must follow. Notwithstanding the vast amount of work expended in this research, there were possible limitations which impacted the study. The time constraint was one of the limitations the researchers faced as more time was needed to sufficiently analyse and interpret the data collected. In addition, onsite research was limited as the researchers were not in proximity to the locations and had to travel outside of their parish.[ME4]

The researchers heeded Vargas and Mancia (2019) advice by charting a balancing act of time and other resources to move beyond the limitations to complete the study. The researchers' awareness of the possible limitations allowed them to plan for and complete the study around these limitations purposely.

Delimitations

The researchers considered some delimitations for the study. The sampling technique could be viewed as delimitation as the researchers purposefully selected the marketing personnel from each of the 6 Fontana location that undertake some aspect of marketing activities to fulfil their duties. Even though a selection that includes a wider representation from different retail stores could have resulted in a more comprehensive perspective from the data collection chosen from the sample size, it is essential to remember that marketing strategies used by this sector may be very similar across the various sectors. Thus, considering the outcome of the study, engaging in broader sample size may prove irrelevant.

Definition of Terms

1. Covid-19: The term refers to a novel coronavirus infectious disease discovered in Wuhan, China, in 2019. The disease causes respiratory illnesses with serious effects such as death.
2. Marketing strategies:The term refers to a company's overall plan for reaching out to potential customers and converting them into clients of their goods or services.[ME5]

Organizations of Study

The research explores the marketing strategies at Fontana Pharmacies in Jamaica and how it impacts organizational goals. The study consists of five chapters as follows:

• In Chapter 1, the researchers introduced the topic, a background to the problem and highlighted the statement of problem, the purpose of investigation and the questions the research seeks to answer. The researchers also used the chapter to examine the theoretical framework, explain definitions, the significance, the limitations, and delimitations of the study; they gave an overview of how they organized the study.
• In Chapter 2, the researchers included an analysis of professional and scholarly literature. We focused on information technology, STP marketing model, globalization, market orientation, product/service differentiation, pricing strategy and impact of the pandemic on marketing strategies. A summary followed the literature review.
• For Chapter 3, the researchers gave a detailed description of the methodology, the research design, the population and sample selection, the research instruments, data collection procedure, and the data analysis approach.
• In Chapter 4, the researchers presented the findings of the data analysis to answer the research questions. The procedures for collecting and analyzing data from the five semi-structured interviews were provided along with detailed explanations. The interview protocol was also defined and included provisional evidence of trustworthiness.

The researchers provided a case-by-case analysis of the six participants in Chapter 5, followed by a cross-case analysis and synthesis to address the study's research questions:Describe the role of technology in the marketing communication initiatives in your organization;How did the Covid-19 pandemic impact Fontana pharmacy's marketing strategies?;Describe Fontana's targeting, positioning, and segmentation strategy; In what ways has globalization impacted Fontana pharmacy's marketing strategies?; Describe the market orientation measures that Fontana pharmacy's employs to achieve customer satisfaction.

Summary

In this chapter, the researchers conducted a literature review about the Marketing Strategies at Fontana Pharmacies in Jamaica. Marketing strategies (product, promotion, price, and place strategies) plays an important role and impact on organizational performance. Understanding the need for research and existing need for marketing development models, as well as being able to evaluate them, can help to improve the efficacy of Fontana marketing strategies.

[ME1]Please revisit the requirements for this section

[ME2]Which theory are you using for the conceptual framework?

[ME3]Please state why this is important - adapting key marketing strategies

[ME4]Please insert a citation on time constraints here

[ME5]In-text citation