Abstract:
This research is about marketing research activity, an important business imperative when confronted
with intense competition, among hair salon owners (mainly Black and previously disadvantaged people) in South
Africa. With hair salons becoming unarguably the most affordable means through which the previously advantaged
people of South Africa are able to enter mainstream economic activity, their proper management for to ensure
survival and profitability has become a key concern for government and policy makers. Easy entry due to low setup
cost and no legal need for formalisation, have contributed to proliferation of the hair salon business leading to
intense competition for customers and this has unfortunate consequences for hair salons’ survival and economic
performance. From a strategic management perspective, it is only logical for hair salons to conduct marketing
research to obtain accurate information on product prices and customer preferences in order to perform better. But
the question is whether hair salons ever consider marketing research relevant to them given resource constraints
of such micro businesses. The purpose of this paper is to assess the attitude of hair salons towards marketing
research. The findings are that marketing research is not much practiced among the hair salons studied. Implications
are discussed.
