Features of Small Business Marketing Environment

This report discusses the distinguishing features of the small business marketing environment, key operational issues faced by new ventures and small businesses, and compares standard marketing theory and practice. It also provides insights on developing problem-solving, effective communication, and self-management skills.

ENTREPRENEUIRAL
MARKETING

Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY..............................................................................................................................................2
Features of small business marketing environment.................................................................................2
Key operational issues faced by new ventures and small businesses in specifies sectors and industries. 4
Compare and contrast ‘standard’ marketing theory and practice seen in the business research findings. 5
Develop autonomous learning skills regarding problem solving, effective communication and self
management............................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
It would be wrong to say it a single marketing strategy and more about marketing spirit
that differentiates itself from traditional marketing practices. It utilizes a toolkit of new strategies
of marketing efforts. They work within limited budgets and has limited resources. The most
common features of entrepreneurial marketing include innovation, risk taking, and being
proactive. This marketing campaign tries to highlight the company’s greatest strengths while
giving values to the customers. Focusing on innovative products or customer service makes this
firm stands out from competitors. They do marketing using cheap and accessible tools including
viral videos, tweets, Facebook, and marketing with the help of email. The report will include
distinguishing features of small business marketing environment which gives them competitive
advantage. Further, key marketing operational issues faced by new ventures and small businesses
in specifies sectors and industries in global context. The report will compare and contrast
standard marketing theory and practice in the small business. At last the report will show to
develop abilities of problem solving, effective communication and self management.
MAIN BODY
Features of small business marketing environment
The Third way group are a London based office design, architecture, furniture and
development Company. This company partner with clients from all industries to create best
environment for their employees. The company was started by Ben Gilliam. The company is
based on trust, team and commitment with fun. In addition to their core values the company has
three values which includes behave like an adult, celebrate success and believe in achieving
organisational goals. The company is provided with a budget to have a project completion
activity involving key representatives from the client team as well (Gothe, 2019).
Marketing environment is the combination of external and internal factors and forces
which affect the company’s ability to establish a relationship and to serve its customers. It can
consist of external and internal environment. The internal environment is company specific
which includes owners, marketers, and workers, materials etc. the external environment of the
company is divided into two components which are micro and macro factors. The micro factors
include are producing, distributing and promoting the product. The macro factors on the other
hand include the factors that can affect the society as whole (Genoveva, 2017).
Features of marketing environment:
Internal environment – The internet environment of the business includes all the factors
that are present inside the organisation which can affect the marketing operations of the
company. These components are men, money, machinery, materials, and markets (Efrat, 2017).
The internal environment is very important to third way company as it includes employees of the

company, marketing department, sales department, human resource department etc.The owners
of Third way give away the awards to its employees during weekly meeting of the team to
reward people when they behave in accordance with the values of the company. They also give
bad behaviour awards which are delivered in jest to employees who were not up to expectations.
The organisation runs strongly on ethics and values (Miles, and et.al., 2015). Apart from that the
money of the company is invested and utilised on right manner which allow the company in
achieving success. The human resource and marketing department of the company are also
effective as they deal in taking care of the employees and listening to their queries and
suggestion and along with that marketing department focuses on advertising, using social media
networks tom attract customers.
External environment- These are the factor under which the company has no or very
little country. It is divided into two parts:
Micro environment – These are the factors that are directly related to the business. It includes:
Suppliers include parties that provide resources to third party group. If they increase
their prices it will affect the finance of the company.
Customers are the target group of the organisation which are selected and are availed
with the products and services of Third way group.
Competitors are the players in the same market who targets same customers as of third
way group.
Public is made up of group that has a potential interest or affects the ability to serve its
customers.
Macro environment – The macro environment does not affect the industry as a whole but
do not affect directly on the company. These are:
Demographic environment is made up of people on the basis of sex, age, background,
occupation etc. the third way group takes care of its customers on the basis of their taste and
preference, age etc.
Economic environment constitutes the factors which influence purchasing power and
spending patterns. The factors included in this are GDP,inflation etc (Nijssen, 2017). The third
way group also faces inflation which affects its business operations. Being an SME, it still
contributes to the GDP of the country.
Physical environment under which the business operates includes climatic conditions,
accessibility of raw materials etc which can affect the company and its processes.

Technological environment – It constitutes innovation, R & D, innovation etc. which
affects the third way group the most. As it deals with furniture therefore being innovative is the
most important for them tom attract the customers.
Political environment which includes law and regulations which are prevailing in the
country. The third way group follows all the policies and regulations as prescribed by the law
(Sigué, 2019).
Social environment is made up of culture, values, lifestyle etc, and third way group do
CSR for the society and its benefits that created a good image of the company.
Key operational issues faced by new ventures and small businesses in specifies sectors and
industries
Key operational issues faced by new ventures and small businesses in furniture industry are:
Scarcity of resources – Due to new entry in the furniture sector, the resources are very
limited which blocks the growth process for the company. Due to high inflation, customers
postpone their plan for buying furniture which leads to loss for the company (Hisrich, 2017).
Also the corruption in government leads to no support from the government. The lack of labour
and raw materials makes it difficult for the company to make furniture and sale it to the ultimate
customers.
Competitors – The other issue is competition in the market of the furniture industry.
There are many companies offering the furniture with new updates and features and are already
established with good reputation. To make a name and to give a tough competition to other firms
is a big problem (Atanassova, 2015). The customers are mostly retained by those firms therefore
to break the customers and attracting new customers can be a issue for new SMEs.
Inadequate access and marketing platform – The new entrants have been subjected to
weak marketing linkages. Due to insufficient support of government, lack of marketing facilities.
For marketing of products or services, SMEs are limited to scarcity of budget which in turn has
limited their growth.
Lack of access to new technology – Although technology got really advanced in these
years due to internet but SMEs use low technology which result in low productivity. It has
rendered them uncompetitive in the ever widening market. The third way group also faced the
same problem when it started its business. Technology improves productivity and brings
efficiency and reduce cost of production but SME fails to cope up with new technology due to
lack of finance.
Lack of finance – The most challenging barrier that new SME entrants face are the lack
of finance. They are unable to raise the funds from the banks and government and especially in
sector like furniture which includes a lot of innovations. Insufficient basic facilities and

connectivity slower down the growth of SMEs. Even if the companies get finance, it is available
on high interest rates which get difficult for the company to pay back.
Bad economic environment – The economic environment of the country also plays an
important role in creating issues for new SMEs. The bad economic environment includes
inequality, corruption, inflation etc. which hamper the growth of SME and blocks it in growing
and be stable in the market.
Compare and contrast ‘standard’ marketing theory and practice seen in the business research
findings
The standard marketing theory it the collection of data and analysing it so that the
companies can sell their products effectively. This information helps the company make new
products or change existing ones and set prices and choose distribution channels and then try to
create a brand image in the market place so the products of the company can be sold.
The SMEs when launch their product need to be aware of the standards marketing theory
which includes positioning its product or services in the marketplace in away that the consumers
believe that they need that product or service, this way the company can create its brand. The
company dealing in furniture need to find the difference between own and other competitors
product and hen need to try the ways in which they can improve it. The unique feature in the
product will give the competitive advantage to the company (Lipschultz, 2019). After that the
company needs to choose price of its services or product whatever its providing to its customers.
The perceived value theory of marketing states that in case the price of your product is higher
than that of the competitor then it attracts the customers as they believe in superiority of product.
The social networking theory of marketing centres around the effects on technology on
marketing the products to the consumers. Social networking is the new form of communication
and includes selling products through Facebook, Email, etc to attract more customers. The other
research finding is that when the company sends a message about its product it is more likely to
catch the attention of the customers therefore with this theory the company can increase its
growth as well in the market.
Develop autonomous learning skills regarding problem solving, effective communication and
self management
Problem solving skills - To solve problems at workplace and to develop this skills, one
needs to get enough sleep and work out with brain by playing puzzles and games which keeps
the mind calm and rational. The individual can write personal experiences to explore new ideas
so that the thought can be sported and in case any problem arises it gets easier to view it. The use
of mind maps can help in increasing problem solving skills as it helps in focusing the mind and
stimulates the brain and increase creative thinking and generate more ideas to solve the problem
(Kilenthong, 2016).

Effective communication – For effective communication it is important to be confident.
After being confident, the next step is to conduct open meetings which are a great way that to
make others understands what the meeting is about. Be serious and believe in every word that is
communicating via your mouth as unless individuals do not believe in what they are
communicating, no one else would believe it. It is important to use simple words and language
that is understood by all which creates good impression (Hernández-Perlines, 2016). For
effective communication, the individuals can use visuals to make the team easily understand the
concept behind the meeting.
Self management – It is like being own boss. It means taking responsibility of actions
and doing things as well as possible. It helps in keeping the balance between work and personal
life. The three things that can help in managing self are initiatives means using brains and having
a drive to achieve something. The other thing is organisation means being organised and
managing time and things at the same time without any issue. The last is accountability in which
individual do not blame other and take responsibility on self for any mis happening and correct
it.
CONCLUSION
The report concluded features of marketing environment which included external and
internal environment which was further divided into macro and micro factors. It showed various
issues that SME faces while entering into market which can be lack of finances, lack of exposure
etc. It showed marketing theory that can be used by the company in order to increase its sales
and at last summed up with different skills that can be improved in order to have effective
working environment.

REFERENCES
Books and journal
Atanassova, I. and Clark, L., 2015. Social media practices in SME marketing activities: A
theoretical framework and research agenda. Journal of customer behavior. 14(2). pp.163-
183.
Efrat, K., Gilboa, S. and Yonatany, M., 2017. When marketing and innovation interact: The case
of born-global firms. International Business Review. 26(2). pp.380-390.
Genoveva, G. and Siam, S.T., 2017. Analysis of marketing strategy and competitive
advantage. Journal of Economic & Management Perspectives. 11(1). pp.1571-1579.
Gothe, R. and Murugesha, B.N., 2019. A STUDY ON ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A
MARKETING TOOL WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO BHARTI
AIRTEL. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
(IJMSS). 8(2.5). pp.48-51.
Hernández-Perlines, F., 2016. Entrepreneurial orientation in hotel industry: Multi-group analysis
of quality certification. Journal of Business Research. 69(10). pp.4714-4724.
Hisrich, D.R. and Ramadani, V., 2017. Effective entrepreneurial management. Strategy,
Planning, Risk.
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. 18(1). pp.127-145.
Lipschultz, J.H., 2019. Social Media Measurement and Management: Entrepreneurial Digital
Analytics. Routledge.
Miles, M., and et.al., 2015. Exploring entrepreneurial marketing. Journal of Strategic
Marketing. 23(2). pp.94-111.
Nijssen, E.J., 2017. Entrepreneurial marketing: an effectual approach. Routledge.
Sigué, S.P. and Biboum, A.D., 2019. Entrepreneurial Marketing and Social Networking in Small
and Medium Service Enterprises: A Case Study into Business Dealings in
Cameroon. Journal of African Business, pp.1-17.
Online
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