Importance of appropriate marketing strategies for sustainability of small businesses in a developing country

Abstract

Purpose -The study is designed to explore the importance of appropriate marketing strategies for sustainability of small firms in India, a developing economy. Design/methodology/approach -A framework based on accepted definition of marketing strategy was developed which could notionally evaluate the appropriateness of marketing strategies and its impact on the market position of the firms. The framework was tested on a set of small scale bakery firms operating in the city of Kolkata. The marketing mix of the firms was studied through case study method. A customer survey was conducted to measure the firms' market offerings with respect to their target segment. For this, data were collected from 546 consumers and analyzed using multivariate techniques. Findings -It was observed that the firms, which could align their market offerings with respect to the target segment, achieved higher performance.Research limitations/implications -The framework used was easy and simple to comprehend. The only two input components required were the marketing mix elements and a corresponding survey to understand customer perceptions. The interpretation of appropriateness, which is reactive in nature, is important, particularly for small firms where marketing is mostly informal, unplanned, relies on intuition and differs from that of large companies. The marketing mix elements were composed through qualitative observations and interviews only. Further research may be undertaken to refine the same in future. Originality/value -The current research addresses the issue of interpreting the appropriateness of marketing strategy adopted by a set of small firms.

Marketing in emerging markets: a review, theoretical synthesis and extension

“…This market knowledge will guide the foreign MNEs actions, providing them with an important local perspective necessary for a marketing strategy adaptation, which is necessary for new international markets (Helm and Gritsch, 2014). Understanding and operating according to the target segment’s needs is a key to increase performance of the MNE in any country, especially those within the emerging economies (Sengupta and Chattopadhyay, 2006). This is especially true for smaller firms, as they often do not have a strong market focus that larger firms may possess.…”

Sustainable manufacturing practices in Malaysian palm oil mills

“…The process of developing the questionnaire also included a pilot survey to test the content validity before the main survey questionnaire was administered (Sengupta and Chattopadhyay, 2006;Amrina and Yusof, 2011). This pilot survey was used to increase 283 Sustainable manufacturing practices the clarity and readability of items, reduce the item difficulty and validate the use of appropriate terminologies (Hazen et al, 2015).…”

Information Technology

“…9. Marketing strategies: It is the strategy adopted by the small-scale industries for the purpose of marketing (Sengupta & Chattopadhyay, 2006;Velayudhan, 2004). 10.…”