An analysis of marketing programmes adopted by regional small and mediumsized enterprises

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to create an understanding of the true nature of contemporary SME marketing activities. While acknowledging operational constraints, the paper aims to hypothesize that, if effective marketing planning was employed, this would improve the longterm growth of small to mediumsized enterprises. The paper seeks to assess the implications current practices may have on the longterm survival of enterprises and to identify significant SME marketing development and training needs. Designmethodologyapproach A marketing audit approach yielded data from the collation of 125 completed online questionnaires within the East of England region. Statistical analysis using SPSS was applied to produce an indepth quantitative analysis of these data. In addition, qualitative data were collected through facetoface interviews of some 20 ownermanagers. These responses were further inductively analysed and interpreted. Findings Data analysis demonstrated a significant disparity between their perceived marketing effectiveness compared with their actual practices recorded at interview. Significantly, they failed to understand why campaigns did not yield results, as they routinely did not employ appropriate controls and procedures. SMEs believed that they were fully cognisant of the effectiveness of their marketing activity, through further exploration evidence revealed that they failed to employ sufficient review procedures, and in the extreme cases these procedures were nonexistent. A direct correlation was also witnessed between company size and the application of effective marketing planning. Larger enterprises demonstrated a greater awareness of strategic marketing competence. Originalityvalue Their ability to understand their marketplace and to become truly competitive relies on SMEs developing a deeper understanding of their current marketing decisionmaking processes through the systematic adoption of more robust strategic procedures. In summary, there is an observable difference between marketing activities conducted by SMEs and best practice defined in academic theory.