Paper Title
Factors determining the Competitive Marketing Strategy of SMEs in Jaffna District, Sri Lanka

Abstract
Small medium enterprises (SMEs) play prominent role in growth and development of Nation. The purpose of the study is to identify the determining factors of competitive marketing strategy of SMEs in Jaffna district. This research integrates competitive marketing strategy and resource- based view which have emerged in literature and model of marketing strategy.Data were collected from 296 owners of SMEs in Jaffna district by using questionnaires. Random sampling method was applied to select samples for this study. Researcher utilized exploratory factor analysis to confirm the factors of marketing strategy of SMEs. This study identified and confirmed four factors of competitive marketing strategy, namely differentiation strategy, focus strategy, pricing and promotion strategy and innovative marketing strategy. This research revealed that differentiation strategy had more emphasis on the marketing strategy of SMEs andderived from six items of SMEs.Next important factor waspricingand promotionmarketing strategy consist of fiveitems. The focus marketing strategy was third factor with five items. The innovative marketing strategywasalso last influencing factor with four items. Thesemarketing strategies are highly demanded for SMEs in Jaffna district.This finding induce the managers of SMEs to apply these above stated strategies to be successive in this competitive and dynamic world. Key words - Differentiation strategy, Pricing and promotion strategy, focus strategy and innovative marketing strategy, SMEs