Abstract
A mail survey of 747 small to medium sized charities in the United Kingdom (UK) revealed that 123 of 344 respondents employed a conventional advertising agency (as opposed to a public relations consultant, direct marketing agency or other type of marketing services firm) and that 134 claimed that they completed all aspects of the marketing function in-house. The remainder used a variety of forms of outside help with their advertising and marketing campaigns. Respondents were contacted again by letter and (if necessary) telephone and requested to complete an adaptation of Kohli et al.'s (1993) MARKOR instrument (a set of questions designed to establish the extent of market orientation within organizations). Outcomes were factor analyzed, and significant dimensions of market orientation utilized as independent variables (with others) in a logistic regression that had the state variable 1 = Employs an advertising agency; 0 = Does not employ an agency, as the variable to be explained. Results indicated that key elements of market orientation critically determined small to medium sized charities' (SMC's) decisions to engage advertising agencies. Overall, it seemed that the importance of effective marketing was widely recognized by SMCs.
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