European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online) Vol.7, No.29, 2015 182 Marketing Construction Business: Problems, Prospects and Strategies Jonas Ekow Yankah * Donald Kwabena Dadzie School of Engineering, Department of Building Technology, Cape Coast Polytechnic, P. O. Box AD. 50, Cape Coast, Ghana. Abstract Many construction enterprises still often fail to realize that marketing entails more than just playing with few isolated promotional tools, such as distributing brochures, advertising, promotional videos, which they often employ without following a structured marketing plan formulated in line with the organization’s aims and objectives. Such ad hoc approach to marketing in the construction industry has resulted in an uphill struggle with little to no success. This paper identifies the problems that has led to the ad hoc approach to marketing in the construction industry and examines the prospects for improving the situation. It discusses the strategies to be adopted to improve the effectiveness of implementing marketing in the management of construction business. The study adopts descriptive research design and the use of literature review as a method to identify, summarize and synthesize extant literature on construction marketing to show why the need exist for marketing in the management of construction business. The paper finds that gaps exist in existing construction marketing research knowledge in general and Ghana in particular. There is the need for scientific research which focuses on development of frameworks or models to guide the marketing of construction businesses in developing countries. Construction enterprise owners, construction marketing/management researchers, construction education curriculum developers and managers of construction business organizations will find this paper useful. Future research work must focus on developing construction industry specific frameworks or models to guide the marketing of construction businesses. 1. INTRODUCTION Globalization has manifested in an inflow of investments into Ghana. The twin effect have been the creation of work opportunities while subjecting the local construction consultants, contractors and individual practitioners under greater competition from their foreign counterparts which are likely to have greater experience and resources (Ofori, 2012). Again, the opportunities offered by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has a negative impact such as an influx into Ghana of firms from the other member countries to compete for the few jobs available in the country (Ofori, 2012) As a result all construction business organizations, regardless of their size in terms of number of employees, age in terms of years of existence and the type of work undertaken, are all confronted with intense competition in their business environment. Such situation threatens the growth and survival of construction firms that operate under this kind of business environment and that ultimately have a negative impact on the development of the construction industry. This compels the firms to constantly seek ways to outbid their competitors and also explore new and /or less crowded areas that are likely to provide more jobs and higher profits (Polat and Domnez, 2010). In this context, market differentiation becomes a key tool for securing a greater share of the available and potential market, and that becomes indispensable for the growth and survival of the firm. This according to Arditi et al., (2008) and Chen and Mohamed (2008), can be achieved with the help of marketing. Marketing, according to Arditi et al., (2008) is imperative for firms that want to achieve market differentiation as a way of achieving competitive advantage. However, the ad hoc nature that characterizes the industry’s approach to marketing has resulted in an uphill struggle for effective marketing performance with little or no success. Extant literature on construction marketing reports mainly on the essence of marketing in construction, perception of the industry on the importance marketing, marketing practices in the construction industry, and the constituents of marketing in construction. One way to improve the situation is by focusing research efforts at developing frameworks/models for marketing construction businesses. This will serve to guide managers of construction businesses to overcome the ad hoc approach that has yielded abysmal results of marketing performance in the construction industry. This will improve the firms’ competitiveness and enhance their performance and ultimately contribute greatly to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of the country.