Sme marketing strategy pdf

In the case of the Southern business technologies, it is important to make marketing decision by considering promotional and development decision of the product and services, pricing decision so the product and services and the distribution decisions. Product: The product range of the Southern business technologies include publishing services, hosting services, web services and different varieties of IT services.

Price: There is several established organization in the market so in order to make them attractive to the customers, they select a low cost pricing strategy to provide professional services.

Place: Southern business technologies organization should be created in that area where customer can easily access their services. Promotion: Southern business technologies follow an effective communication strategy through various channels to spread awareness regarding their services.

For promoting their service, they select mainly online media. The main reason behind this is it incurs less cost and they have expertise on that. They mainly select different social media sites like Face book, twitter and YouTube to promote their services. The last stage in the marketing Process is the Implementation and control. Implementation and control: To decide the element for the marketing mix, different British SMEs should conduct various techniques like situational analysis and analysis of the marketing strategy and should take decisions regarding the marketing and they should implement those decisions on business.

As the initial investments of the British SMEs are not high, so they should choose that product or services, which can benefitted them. In the recent time, customers are more prices conscious so price should be selected according to the ability of clients. There are mainly five orientations, which can help Southern business technologies to internationalise their organisation. Those orientations are the export strategy, franchising, joint ventures, turnkey projects and licensing.

As cited by Dikova et al , p. Franchising can be defined as the arrangements where one party grants another party to utilize their trademark along with their business process or systems in order to produce an effective market for goods and services according to the specification. Joint venture establishes among two organization when one organization is undertaken jointly by two or more parties and retaining their distinct identities.

Licensing can defined as the authorization of the use, performances or release of their business in a new market. As stated by Hastings , turnkey project is one of the compete project that mainly includes different major units of any plants that are completed under one overall contract like the power station complex or chemical works. For internationalizing the organization, it is important to the Southern business technologies must follow joint venture strategy because this process can provide them an identity in a new market.

However, there are different disadvantages of this strategy that are the partner organisation may have different objective than the Southern business technologies. Moreover, there is huge possibility that the partner organisation may not provide sufficient leadership to the organisation. As such, fostering joint venture can have significant cost on the current budgetary allocation of Southern Business technology.

The costs can be both monetary expenditure as well as qualitative compromise. According to Arensman et al , p. If the partner is the minority shareholder in the venture, it can affect adversely for the organisation in concern.

The costs are divided in the proportionate order, which is exactly commensurate with the shared divisions, and if the minority does not respond promptly to the issues, it can be disastrous. Qualitative costs include the need for compromise on the overall objectives of the organisation and providing leadership personnel who can cost a great deal to the company. There are a number of benefits, however, that can result from such venture.

The company can benefit from the increased capacity and the entire cost of entering a nascent market can be shared. More specialised resources like staff, technology, finance etc. Globalisation benefits include access to new and capacitive markets, trade associations and distribution networks etc.

Massive investments For implementing the strong market orientation, massive investments of money and time is required because it needs to involve different business intelligence strategy to attract the customers as well as require association of detailed research.

For satisfying the needs and requirements of the customers, Southern business technologies should invest that amount of money that they can easily retrieve from their business within several years.

As stated by Ennew and Waite , to make an SME successful, it is important to invest the average amount of money because their first revenue is not so high. If Southern business technologies invest medium amount of money, then only they can retrieve that with an ease because massive investment requires tremendous time to recover it.

For implementing strong market orientation along with the massive investments, a good pricing strategy is also important. It is seen that their main target customers are the lower middle class customers so they should develop low pricing strategy by which Southern business technologies can grab their attentions.

For implementing stronger market orientation, it is important for the Southern business technologies to implement an effective marketing strategy. This is important to make more customers aware regarding their services. This strategy will help the organization to increase their customer base. Internal business environment also known as the micro factor explains the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats of the company. Based on their analysis, the organization develops proper strategies to minimize their loopholes and ensure smooth business operations.

On the other hand, the organization has to understand their external factors as well as it help them to understand the political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors accordingly. Post the analysis, the organization develops appropriate strategies in case the organization decides to expand their business operations in a new market.

The environment is made of two aspects, which are Micro Internal , and Macro External factors. The Macro-environmental factor can be defined as the uncontrollable external factors that can affect the operation of any business Fitchett and McDonagh, Several uncontrollable 6.

The macro-environmental factor of Southern business technologies can be considered in the light of macro environmental tool called PESTEL Political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, legal and environmental Political Different legislation regarding the employment, rate of tax, stability of the government in British and in another market in which Southern business technologies is planning to develop their business creates a huge impact on their business.

Due to employment related act, the government is liable to reduce discrimination in their organization and they must assign a fixed and standard working hours to their employees. Due to instability of the government, they should implement an effective pricing strategy to attract customers.

Due to huge amount of corporate tax creates an effect on their profitability. Economical: Foreign direct investments, financial stability of the states, the rate of inflation, current customer's flow creates a huge impact on their business. Recently UK left the EU that creates a huge impact on the organisation.

As a step, these organizations activate marketing strategies and tactics that can help them take decisions on a number of variables to influence mutually-satisfying exchange transactions and relationships Taiwo, The purpose of this study is therefore to examine the impact of marketing strategies on the business performance of SMEs in India.

The following hypotheses will be tested to accomplish the purpose stated above: 1. These are: market segmentation, promotion, product quality, and relationship marketing. Market segmentation is a marketing concept which divides the complete market set up into smaller subsets comprising of consumers with a similar taste, demand and preference.

A market segment is a small unit within a large market comprising of like-minded individuals; one market segment is totally distinct from the other segment; a market segment comprises individuals who think on the same lines and have similar interests; the individuals from the same segment respond in a similar way to the marketing mix strategies of the marketer.

Market segmentation is the process of defining and subdividing a large homogenous market into clearly identifiable segments having similar needs, wants, or demand characteristics. Its objective is to design a marketing mix that precisely matches the expectations of customers in the targeted segment. Few companies are big enough to supply the needs of an entire market; most must break down the total demand into segments and choose those that the company is best equipped to handle.

Market segmentation is the process of dividing a broad consumer or business market, normally consisting of existing and potential customers, into sub-groups of consumers known as segments based on some type of shared characteristics. In dividing or segmenting markets, researchers typically look for shared characteristics such as common needs, common interests, similar lifestyles or even similar demographic profiles. Segmentation allows the firm to better satisfy the needs of its potential customers.

The marketing concept calls for understanding customers and satisfying their needs better than the competition. Mass marketing allows economies of scale to be realized through mass production, mass distribution, and mass communication.

The drawback of mass marketing is that customer needs and preferences differ and the same offering is unlikely to be viewed as optimal by all customers. If firms ignore the differing customer needs, another firm likely would enter the market with a product that serves a specific group, and the incumbent firms would lose those customers.

Target marketing, on the other hand, recognizes the diversity of customers and does not try to please all of them with the same offering. The first step in target marketing is to identify different market segments and their needs.

The overall aim of segmentation is to identify high yield segments— that is, those segments that are likely to be the most profitable or that have growth potential — so that these can be selected for special attention i. Many different ways to segment a market have been identified.

Business-to-business B2B sellers might segment the market into different types of businesses or countries. While business to consumer B2C seller might segment the market into demographic segments, lifestyle segments, behavioral segments or any other meaningful segment. The segmentation-targeting-positioning STP approach highlights the three areas of decision-making. Market segmentation assumes that different market segments require different marketing programs — that is, different offers, prices, promotion, distribution or some combination of marketing variables.

Market segmentation is not only designed to identify the most profitable segments, but also to develop profiles of key segments in order to better understand their needs and purchase motivations. Insights from segmentation analysis are subsequently used to support marketing strategy development and planning.

Many marketers use the S-T-P approach; segmentation-targeting- positioning, to provide the framework for marketing planning objectives. Promotion is the process whereby organizations reach out to their target customers through a number of media in order to inform, educate, remind, direct, and sensitize them about an organization, its offerings, and its activities in order to persuade and influence them to exhibit positive attitudes and overall behaviours towards the organization Carter, Promotion is executed using a number of tools, known as promotional tools, and they basically include: advertising, personal selling, public relations, publicity, sales promotion, direct marketing and word of mouth.

In marketing, the promotional mix describes a blend of promotional variables chosen by marketers to help a firm reach its goals. It has been identified as a subset of the marketing mix. It is believed that there is an optimal way of allocating budgets for the different elements within the promotional mix to achieve best marketing results, and the challenge for marketers is to find the right mix of them.

Activities identified as elements of the promotional mix vary, but typically include the following: a Advertising: Advertising is the non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor in a mass medium. Examples include print ads, radio, television, billboard, direct mail, brochures and catalogs, signs, in-store displays, posters, mobile apps, motion pictures, web pages, banner ads, emails.

Examples include sales presentations, sales meetings, sales training and incentive programs for intermediary salespeople, samples, and telemarketing. Examples include coupons, sweepstakes, contests, product samples, rebates, tie-ins, self- liquidating premiums, trade shows, trade-ins, and exhibitions. It includes efforts such as employee relations, community relations, media relations, corporate social responsibility, free publicity as well as paid efforts to stimulate discussion and interest in the organization.

It can be accomplished by planting a significant news story indirectly in the media, or presenting it favorably through press releases or corporate anniversary parties. Examples include newspaper and magazine articles, television and radio presentations, charitable contributions, speeches, and seminars. Word- of-mouth is typically considered face-to-face spoken communication, although telephone conversations, text messages sent via SMS, and web dialogue, such as online profile pages, blog posts, instant messages, and e-mails are also included in the purview of word-of-mouth communication Palmer, It is believed that this form of communication has valuable source credibility i.

It can even be a more influential factor than mass media communication Palmer, Santiago and Lewis defined word of mouth as a communication in which people share their evaluations and assessments on service providers and service products. Word of mouth communication is a type of referral communication from person to person that tends to rely heavily upon the credibility of the source of that information or referral to the product, service, or company being referred.

Broadly defined, quality refers to the ability of a product or service to consistently meet or exceed customer requirements or expectations. Different customers will have different expectations, so a working definition of quality is customer- dependent. When discussing quality one must consider design, production, and service. In a culmination of efforts, it begins with careful assessment of what the customers want, and then translating this information into technical specifications to which goods or services must conform.

Some of these consequences of poor quality include loss of business, liability, decreased productivity, and increased costs. However, good quality has its own costs, including prevention, appraisal, and failure. A recent and more effective approach is discovering ways to prevent problems, instead of trying to fix them once they occur. This will ultimately decrease the cost of good quality in the long run. Successful management of quality requires that managers have insights on various aspects of quality.

These include defining quality in operational terms, understanding the costs and benefits of quality, recognizing the consequences of poor quality and recognizing the need for ethical behavior. Understanding dimensions that customers use to judge the quality of a product or service helps organizations meet customer expectations. These dimensions of product quality, according to Sebastianelli and Tamimi include: a Performance: Main characteristics of the product; b Aesthetics: Appearance, feel, smell, taste; c Special features: Extra characteristics; d Conformance: How well the product conforms to design specifications; e Reliability: Consistency of performance; f Durability: The useful life of the product; g Perceived quality: Indirect evaluation of quality; h Service-ability: Handling of complaints or repairs.

Relationship marketing Relationship marketing is strategy that emphasizes customer retention, satisfaction, and lifetime customer value. Relationship marketing is a facet of customer relationship management CRM that focuses on customer loyalty and long-term customer engagement rather than shorter-term goals like customer acquisition and individual sales.

The goal of relationship marketing or customer relationship marketing is to create strong, even emotional, customer connections to a brand that can lead to ongoing business, free word-of-mouth promotion and information from customers that can generate leads. Relationship marketing stands in contrast to traditional transactional marketing, which focuses on increasing the number of individual sales. In the view of Oliver , relationship marketing is marketing activities that are aimed at developing and managing trusting and long-term relationships with larger customers.

In relationship marketing, customer profile, buying patterns, and history of contacts are maintained in a sales database, and an account executive is assigned to one or more major customers to fulfill their needs and maintain the relationship. Relationship marketing is about forming long-term relationships with customers. Rather than trying to encourage a one-time sale, relationship marketing tries to foster customer loyalty by providing exemplary products and services.

Below present a review of these studies and their major findings and methodologies. Slater and Narver in their study used survey with a sample of fifty three single businesses through regression method. The study model relationship marketing strategies and marketing communication strategies against business performance. The study provided a robust backing for the presence of a positive relationship between marketing communication strategies, relationship marketing strategies and performance.

Shoham and Rose examined market strategies and performance relationship. Survey design was used and a sample of two hundred and fifty small firms from four businesses such as beverages, food, construction and agriculture were chosen for comparison across Nigeria. One hundred and one owners responded by completing and returning the questionnaire received.

The study model product quality strategies, product diversification marketing strategy and customer relationship strategies against performance measured by sales growth. They report a positive and significant association between product quality strategies, product diversification marketing strategy, customer relationship strategies and sales growth. Subramania and Gopalakrshna investigated the relationship between market strategies and performance in the context of a developing economy, using a survey questionnaire administered on one hundred and sixty two manufacturing and service firms in developing countries.

The result was analyzed using regression method and the finding indicated that market orientation is an important predictor of performance. Agarwal, Erramalli and Dev in their study of the impact of marketing orientation on the business performance in service firms: role of innovation, examined the association between marketing orientation and performance in the hospitality business, more specifically to international hotels.

Two hundred and one data was generated through survey questionnaire and the preliminary questions were pre- tested on thirty hotel chief executives who joined an executive development program at a leading hotel and restaurant in the north- eastern USA. The finding shows that MO is positively related to both financial measures of performance- service quality, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction and non- financial of performance-occupancy rate, gross operating profit and market segment.

It establishes a strong positive association between MO and all forms of performance. Au, and Tse, in their study which employed hotel as sample with marketing managers as respondents using survey methodology. The results indicated no significant association between market orientations and hotel performance.

The sampling border is the Dunn and Bradstreet data base which consisted of accounting information for all the Norwegian limited companies and it include five hundred and thirty hotels registered in the data base. The findings indicated that marketing strategies have only an uncertain consequence of absolute productivity and no effect on return on assets. Shigang and David studied marketing strategies, business environment and performance of construction SMEs in China.

The study specifically modelled competitive marketing strategy, relationship marketing strategy and business environment against performance. Apply the survey research design and the correlation technique, the study found a significant relationship existing between competitive strategies, relationship strategies, environment and the performance of construction SMEs in China.

Uchegbulam, Akinyele and Ibidunni investigate the impact of competitive strategy on performance of Small and Medium Enterprises in Nigeria. Gaining insight from existing literature and theoretical models four hypotheses were developed and tested using regression analysis.

Copies of well structured questionnaire were administered to randomly selected SMEs in Ikeja and Surulere local government areas of Lagos State. The findings revealed that there is a relationship between product features and customer base; product customization and sales growth, value added products and revenue growth. It also indicated that better product quality has an influence on returns on investment.

Ebitu studied the impact of product quality, marketing communication and relationship marketing strategies on the performance of SMEs in Akwa Ibom state, Nigeria. This formed the sample of the study. The study revealed that there is a significant impact of product quality strategy and relationship marketing strategy on the profitability and increased market share of SMEs in Akwa Ibom State. Convenience sampling technique was adopted to select the elements that constituted the sample for the study.

The instrument was confirmed for validity, using authority vetting approach, while Cronbach Alpha approach was used to confirm the reliability of the instrument. Simple regression in SPSS was used to analyze the data collected. Error of the Estimate 1. Regression Dependent Variable: Business performance b. Coefficients Coefficients B Std. Error Beta Constant 4. Dependent Variable: Business performance Interpretation of result Tables 3 above show the regression analysis carried out to test hypothesis one, and the result shows that market segmentation strategy has a significant impact on business performance of SMEs in India, because the sig.

In conclusion, the result shows that HO is rejected and H1 is accepted. Predictors: Constant , Promotion a. Dependent Variable: Business performance Interpretation of result Table 6 above shows the regression analysis carried out to test hypothesis two, and the result shows that promotion has a significant impact on business performance of SMEs in India, because the sig.

Furthermore, table 4 and table 5 further show a significant F statistic indicating the models prediction strength F Coefficients B Std. Error Beta Constant 5. Dependent Variable: Business performance Interpretation of result The table 9 above shows the regression analysis carried out to test hypothesis three, and the result shows that product quality has a significant impact on the business performance of SMEs in India, because the sig.