Friday, May 1, 2020

Importance of Marketing Strategies in Small and Medium Size Enterprise

Question: Discuss about the Importance of Marketing Strategies in Small and Medium Size Enterprises. Answer: Project Description Background of the Research Marketing is one of the essential business practices, which are crucial for satisfying the stakeholders' needs by aligning them with organizational strategies (Pentina Koh, 2012). It has seen that because of ineffective implementation of marketing strategies, small retail organizations failed to grasp significant market share in this growing competitive marketplace. Several studies have demonstrated that the small and medium-size enterprises have been playing an imperative economic role irrespective of the industry they belong (Resnick et al., 2016). Over the period they are experiencing difficulties regarding effective management of marketing practices. One of the possible reasons is that the small and medium size enterprises mainly attempt to maximize short-term revenue with a market segmentation approach, which significantly affected the establishment of proper marketing strategies for them. In order to promote brands, products, and services, marketing activities are very necessa ry from the organizational perspectives. In small and medium sized business organization, ineffective use of marketing strategies not only affects the business performance but also affect the customer satisfaction badly. Therefore, it is very necessary to optimize the marketing challenges for gaining maximum profit and economic growth to promote organizational brand across the world. There exists a list of research works also exemplified the fact that when large organizations have an effective marketing plan, because of the shortage of marketing resources, the inability of gathering data associated with their activities, the small and medium size enterprises mainly rely on inside information. Under such circumstances, though proper marketing strategies seem crucial for small and medium size enterprises, there is no such empirical evidence that illustrates the severity level. In this proposal, the small and medium sized industries of Australia are focused on analyzing the importance of marketing strategies for organizational success. The research questions are to meet the research objectives properly. Apart from this, appropriate research design and data analysis technique is selected to gain accurate result and to draw a suitable conclusion at the end of the report. Research Aims and Objectives The main aim of this research study is to identify the necessity of marketing plan and strategies in small and medium business organization for achieving maximum benefits and higher customer satisfaction. Successful completion of this study will help the business organization to identify the challenges exists in their business operation and accordingly able to make required changes to remain competitive in the cutthroat retail market. The research objectives are as follows: To identify the importance of marketing strategies in small and medium business organizations To analyze the impacts of using marketing plans in SMEs Research Significance Problem Statement Rapid changes in the outer world and customer orientation create greater potential barriers in front of small and medium sized (SMEs) business organization. While, the growth, and performance of the organization is majorly dependent on strategies; the deficiency in it in the case of SMEs are decisive, which required further exploration. In addition, the leadership skills that required for establishing effective marketing strategy is another important aspect, where SMEs are facing difficulties. 2.2 Marketing in SMEs According to Dzisi Ofosu (2014), SMEs are facing challenges regarding planning, pricing of products, forecasting, and training. Marketing is a crucial aspect of promoting the products and services to the customers. It is one of the key strategies to draw potential customers towards the organization as well as to maintain customers' loyalty. Yang, Wang Sharma (2012) mentioned that marketing activities should be shaped for SMEs by considering the needs of the customers, competitors, and external business environment. Marketing Challenges of SMEs Anderson (2012) opined that, lack of business size, poor cash flow, lack of marketing expertise and inabilities to make impactful decisions are the major reasons for the failure of SMEs. Bettiol, Di Maria Finotto (2012) acknowledged that in most SMEs, the marketing plans and strategies are informal, spontaneous and unstructured. The greatest problem faced by the organizations is that they are unable to hire a marketer who can carry out the marketing activities strategically for the organizational well fare. In addition, the owner-manager of the organization who has the responsibilities to monitor business functions such as production, purchasing and advertisement are unable to align the marketing strategies with organizational goals and objectives. Figure 1: Theoretical Framework of Marketing Plans in SMEs (Source: Hallbck Gabrielsson 2013, pp-1012) Use of Social Media as Marketing Solution In order to deal with the challenges, SMEs should adopt social media as a business marketing practice. Use of social media enables the business organization to communicate with the stakeholders and customers directly to understand their needs and requirements. Advanced social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook helps to promote the brands and products over the internet so that the customers can easily find out their needs without any hassles. In addition, Resnick et al., (2016) acknowledged that these platforms also help to optimize the queries of the customers very easily with advanced analytic techniques and tools. In order to build effective relationships for a smooth and reliable business operation, this kind of marketing strategies is very necessary for SMEs. Therefore, it can be argued that implementation of effective marketing plans and strategies are very crucial for the business success of SMEs. In the case of SMEs, ineffective use of marketing plans failed this org anization to make a sustainable place in this competitive world. Use of social media is the best option to optimize the challenges and to help the organization for achieving maximum profit and growth. This social media platform contributes to promoting the brands and products over the internet which helps to achieve greater customer satisfaction. Conceptual Framework of the Study Figure 2: Conceptual Framework (Source: Created by Author) Research Questions The researcher will follow the bellow mentioned research questions for this study: Why is marketing strategy decisive for small and medium size organizations? What are the best possible outcomes of using effective marketing plans in small enterprises References Ananda, A. S., Hernndez-Garca, ., Lamberti, L. (2014, June). RENL: A framework for social media marketing strategy. In1st Annual EDIM PhD Conference, Milan, Italy(pp. 11-12). Anderson, W. (2012). A gender-based comparison of marketing strategies of SMEs in Tanzania. Bettiol, M., Di Maria, E., Finotto, V. (2012). Marketing in SMEs: the role of entrepreneurial sensemaking.International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal,8(2), 223-248. Brien, E. O., Hamburg, I. (2014). Supporting sustainable strategies for SMEs through training, cooperation and mentoring.Higher education studies,4(2), 61. Cacciolatti, L. A., Fearne, A. (2013). Marketing intelligence in SMEs: implications for the industry and policy makers.Marketing Intelligence Planning,31(1), 4-26. Dzisi, S., Ofosu, D. (2014). Marketing strategies and the performance of SMEs in Ghana.Marketing,6(5). Hallbck, J., Gabrielsson, P. (2013). Entrepreneurial marketing strategies during the growth of international new ventures originating in small and open economies.International Business Review,22(6), 1008-1020. Resnick, S. M., Cheng, R., Simpson, M., Loureno, F. (2016). Marketing in SMEs: a 4Ps self-branding model.International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior Research,22(1), 155-174. Siddique, C. M. (2014). Impediments to market orientation: An exploratory study of retail SMEs in the United Arab Emirates.Education, Business and Society: Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues,7(1), 33-56. Yang, J., Wang, L., Sharma, G. (2012). E-Marketing Strategies for SMEs in Huludao China.Lecture Notes in Information Technology,21, 99.

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