Entrepreneurial Marketing: Strategies and Best Practices for SMEs

This report explores the differences between marketing for SMEs and large businesses, the challenges faced by SMEs, and the theories and best practices of entrepreneurial marketing. It discusses the importance of word-of-mouth marketing and innovation in SME marketing strategies.

Entrepreneurial Marketing
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
How marketing of SME differs from medium or large business................................................3
Entrepreneurial theory.................................................................................................................5
Best practice methods.................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
Marketing can be describe as the activities that is taken by organisation to promote
products and services. It is very important for organisation to effectively conduct marketing
activities in order to increase sales and revenues of business (Nijssen, 2017). There are different
promotional and marketing techniques that could be used by SME company for enhancing
business practices. This report is based Airdri which is a SME organisation which is located in
UK market area. Airdri company is developing different types of hand dryer products. This
report includes difference between marketing activities SME organisation as well as large
business. It consist of issues that is faced by SME company while conducting business activities.
In this report different entrepreneurial theories are analysed for taking better and effective
decisions. There are different practices of marketing that is analysed properly for increasing
marketing activities.
MAIN BODY
How marketing of SME differs from medium or large business.
There are different types of organisation that is performing business activities in same
sector. Each and every organisation is performing business activities in effective manner in order
to achieve set goals. Organisation is majorly classified into SME, medium as well as large
organisation (Miles and et.al., 2015). SME organisation can be describe as the new or small
ventures that is performing business activities in small part of the world. Small and mid size
enterprise has very limited resources to develop product as well as attract customers. Small
organisation is developed with the motive of offering products and services to local market area.
This type of organisation has very limited reach to sell it products. SME organisation has less
employees to perform business task and activities in order to achieve set goals. Example of SME
company is Airdri company or Rowlinson Knitwear. Where as large organisation can be describe
as organisation that is operating business activities in different part of the world. There are many
companies that is conducting its business operation in large market area as well as operating its
business activities globally. Larger and multinational organisation is providing high quality
product and services in order to develop strong relationship with customer. Large organisation
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aims at increasing sales and profits of organisation. Example of large organisation is Marks and
Spencer, H&M, Cadbury and so on.
It has been analysed that there is huge difference between SME company and large
organisation. It is very important for both type of organisation to conduct marketing activities in
effective and efficient manner (Franco and et.al., 2014). There is difference between the set of
actions that is developed for marketing products and services of SME organisation and large
business. SME organisation such as Airdri company is attracting its customers by marketing its
products and services in news paper advertisement. This type of organisation will be able to
communicate with set targets by offering product in creative and innovative manner. SME
organisation is completely focusing in increasing the sales of organisation by developing strong
relationship with customers as well as using sales promotion methods. Marketing activities of
SME company is only for limited market area. Where as large or multinational organisation is
conducting marketing activities in more effective and efficient manner. For example H&M
organisation is using both modern and traditional marketing activities. Traditional methods of
marketing that is used by H&M company are print media advertisement, public relation,
discounts and so on. Modern marketing activities includes social media advertisement, post on
various social networking sites and so on. Large organisation have very large size of business as
well as larger customer base as compare to SME organisation. Most of the medium and large
size business has separate department that is conducting activities of marketing. For example
H&M organisation has specialised marketing team which is well trained to effectively perform
marketing activities as well as promoting products and services to large market area. On the
other hand, SME organisation does not have any separate department of for performing
marketing activities or promoting high quality products to targeted customers.
Issues faced by SME company
There are various issues that is faced by Airdri company while conducting its business
activities as well as marketing products and services (Hallbäck and Gabrielsson, 2013). It is
very important for company which is dealing in SME sector to analyse and evaluate various
issues and problems that is occurring. The major issues that is faced by SME organisation by
performing marketing activities are mention below in detail.
Poor marketing strategies – Less effective or poor marketing strategies will lead to
have negative impact on Airdri organisation. Most of the small size organisation does not have
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appropriate or capable employees who are expert in developing effective marketing strategies.
Less capabilities of employees while developing strategies for attracting customers will lead to
have negative impact on business.
Lack of funds - Funds are one of the crucial part of organisation and ineffective funds
will lead to have direct impact on marketing activities of Airdri company. Marketing activities
require high amount of funds as well as other financial resources for effectively performing
business marketing activities.
Intense competition – There are high competition in market area that will affect the
performance and marketing activities of SME company (Jones, Suoranta and Rowley, 2013).
There are many well established and multinational organisation that is able to conduct marketing
activities in more better and effective manner.
Less technology - Airdri company has comparative less technological which affect the
overall performance of organisation. More updated and advance technology is very cost
consuming and it required highly capable employees to appropriately use marketing activities.
Entrepreneurial theory.
Enterprise can be describe as the organisation in which entrepreneur is responsible for
taking business decision as well as enhancing performance of organisation. There are different
types of entrepreneur theory that is supportive in providing direction and baseline to organisation
for performing business activities (Hills and Hultman, 2013). It is important for SME
organisation to consider different entrepreneurial theory for effectively conducting business
activities. Theory can be describe as the explanation of acquiring scientific methods that is well
tested as well as confirmed with clear observation. This is supportive in providing direction to
enterprise business that will lead to growth and development of business. There are different
types of entrepreneurship theories such as Economic theory, sociological theory,
entrepreneurship innovation theory, theory of social change and so on.
Economic theory of entrepreneurship – This theory is developed by Richard Cantillon
and the motive of developing this theory is to introduce the idea of entrepreneur business as risk
takers. It has been determined that economic growth take place only when economic condition of
country and organisation are in favour. This theory states that the main motivators are economic
incentives of organisation (Sethna, Jones and Harrigan, 2013). Economic theory of
entrepreneurship state that there is huge relationship between entrepreneur as well as economic
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conditions of country. It is very difficult for enterprise to successful conduct business activities
as well as achieve desired goals. Enterprise business can be motived through economic
incentives which includes policy of taxation, industrial policy and other financial resources.
Sociological theory of entrepreneur – This theory state that entrepreneur functions and
business activities are majorly affected by social cultural environment. It is very important for
SME company to consider culture of society while conducting business activities as well as
offering its products and services (Jones, Sethna and Solé, 2013). Sociological factor of country
will lead to have direct impact on business as well as affect the performance of organisation. It
has been assume that success of organisation is majorly dependent upon the social behaviours as
well as culture of society in which organisation is performance business activities. It theory is
focusing on social values, customers, religious beliefs as well as other cultural activities.
Innovation theory of entrepreneurship - This theory is developed in order to identify
the significant impact on innovation on business and its operations. Entrepreneurship theory of
innovation is developed by Joseph Schumpeter. According to his views it has been assume that
an entrepreneur should be capabilities as well as willingness to adopt new and innovative tools
and techniques to perform business activities. Innovation play crucial role in performance of
organisation that will support in effective performance of organisation. There are different
aspects of innovation that will lead to effective and efficient performance of employees.
Innovative entrepreneurship will lead to development of new of innovative product and services
which will lead to solve issues of customers (Kilenthong, Hultman and Hills, 2016). This theory
of innovation provide guidelines to employees through which they can collect and assemble raw
materials for different sources in order to create new and innovative products for customers.
Social behaviours theory – This theory of entrepreneur will lead to have impact on
performance of organisation. Supply of entrepreneur needs to consider the social, political as
well as economic structure of organisation. It is very important for an organisation to consider
the social, political as well as economic structure that will lead to have impact on performance of
organisation. Performance of individual will lead to have direct impact in organisation as it is
significant that organisation needs to develop product and services which is accepted by
organisation. This theory state that there are four major structures of society such as limitation
structure, demand, opportunities as well as structure of labour. This will lead to have direct
impact on supply of entrepreneurs.
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Marketing theory
There are many theory that is related to marketing and it is very important for an
organisation to consider these theories while conducting marketing activities. Marketing theories
includes Ansoff Matrix, 7 P's of marketing mix, SWOT analysis and so on (Higgins and et.al.,
2015). All those these marketing theories are very effective in taking better decisions as well as
developing better strategies that will lead to growth and development of organisation. It is crucial
for organisation to consider these standard marketing theories and practices in order to enhance
the performance of organisation.
Best practice methods.
There are various marketing practices or methods that will helps SME organisation to
perform marketing activities in better and effective manner. The two major best practices that is
very helpful for organisation are word of mouth as well as innovations. Both of these are
effective and efficient marketing practices that will help Airdri company which is dealing in
SME sector to attract large number of customers towards organisation. It is crucial for
organisation to consider these marketing practices as this will help in boasting performance of
organisation as well as accomplishment of set targets. Word of mouth and innovation marketing
method or practices is mention below in detail.
 Word of mouth – This is one of the best and effective marketing method that can be
used by Airdri organisation that is performing business activities in small market sector.
As per the views of Marketing teams.com, (2020) Word of mouth can be describe as the
method in which business can attract customers as well as influence customers to
purchase products and services offered by SME company (Cacciolatti, 2015). Word of
mouth marketing method includes blogs, viral, social media marketing as so on. This is
cost effective method that will help in influencing customers as well as developing strong
relationship with them.
 Innovation – As per the view of Martin Luenedonk, (2016) the main purpose of
innovation marketing can be describe as the process in which organisation can conduct
marketing activities in effective and innovative manner. This marketing aims at targeting
and positioning the products and services of Airdri company in such a manner that
organisation achieve desired goals and objectives.
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CONCLUSION
From the above mention report it can be concluded that there are different factors that is
related to performance of SME organisation. There is huge difference between the marketing
activities of SME business as well as large organisation. It is essential for SME organisation to
conduct marketing activities in effective and efficient manner by analysing the major issues that
is affecting the performance of organisation. There are many theory that is related to
entrepreneurship and this provide support to organisation by providing proper guidelines to
organisation. Marketing theories are the framework that is developed to support business so that
they can conduct marketing activities in better and effective manner.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Nijssen, E.J., 2017. Entrepreneurial marketing: an effectual approach. Taylor & Francis.
Miles, M. and et.al., 2015. Exploring entrepreneurial marketing. Journal of Strategic
Marketing, 23(2), pp.94-111.
Franco, M., and et.al., 2014. An exploratory study of entrepreneurial marketing in
SMEs. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development.
Hallbäck, J. and Gabrielsson, P., 2013. Entrepreneurial marketing strategies during the growth of
international new ventures originating in small and open economies. International
Business Review, 22(6), pp.1008-1020.
Jones, R., Suoranta, M. and Rowley, J., 2013. Entrepreneurial marketing: a comparative
study. The Service Industries Journal, 33(7-8), pp.705-719.
Hills, G.E. and Hultman, C., 2013. Entrepreneurial marketing: Conceptual and empirical
research opportunities. Entrepreneurship Research Journal, 3(4), pp.437-448.
Sethna, Z., Jones, R. and Harrigan, P. eds., 2013. Entrepreneurial marketing: Global
perspectives. Emerald Group Publishing.
Jones, R., Sethna, Z. and Solé, M., 2013. Entrepreneurial marketing: conceptual exploration and
link to performance. Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship.
Kilenthong, P., Hultman, C.M. and Hills, G.E., 2016. Entrepreneurial marketing behaviours:
impact of firm age, firm size and firm’s founder. Journal of Research in Marketing and
Entrepreneurship.
Higgins, D., and et.al., 2015. Biographical research as a methodology for understanding
entrepreneurial marketing. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior &
Research.
Cacciolatti, L. and Lee, S.H., 2015. Entrepreneurial marketing for SMEs. Springer.
Jain, R. and Ali, S.W., 2013. Self-efficacy beliefs, marketing orientation and attitude orientation
of Indian entrepreneurs. The Journal of Entrepreneurship, 22(1), pp.71-95.
Online
Word-of-Mouth Marketing. 2020. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/word_of_mouth_marketing/>.
Innovation Marketing. 2020. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.cleverism.com/lexicon/innovation-marketing-definition/>.
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