๐ผ Organization of marketing in small business
If you want to have consumers, you can't do without marketing, even if you represent a small business. Despite all the difficulties, it is possible to organize marketing in a small business. Marketing cannot be organized by itself. It needs to be done. Organizing marketing in a small business assumes that a marketing system will be built, a marketing program and a marketing plan will be developed.
Organization of marketing in small business assumes 3 approaches: independent, imperial and confederative. Each of them assumes the construction of a separate system and development of a separate program. It is understood that the system and program will be individual for each specific enterprise, but it is possible to highlight communication moments that must be taken into account when organizing marketing in small business.
The need for a system is due to the fact that only it allows one object, be it material or informational, to be transformed into another. It turns out that if there is a system, then you can โdownloadโ a certain object into it and it will be transformed into the object we need with the target characteristics. If there is no system, it is problematic to make the transformation, and often it is simply impossible.
For example, information obtained as a result of marketing research can be transformed into an idea for a new product, or an idea for an advertising campaign, or simply a new pricing strategy using an appropriate system. If there is no system, then the information obtained as a result of marketing research will simply lie somewhere on a shelf. In the case where there is a marketing system, this is simply not realistic, because the information will inevitably be used for its intended purpose.
As a result, โthe skin will not be worth the candleโThe need for a program is due to the fact that if you approach the issue chaotically, many unnecessary actions will be performed, many unnecessary resources will be spent. As a result, โthe skin will not be worth the candleโ and the prospects of small business will be in question. In the event that there is a specific program of actions, everything can be planned so as to obtain the maximum result with minimal resource expenditure.
Moreover, very often it is the presence of a program that allows you to get results, while if there is no program, in most cases the result is not achieved. When there is no program, the expediency of actions is not visible, which leads to a lack of motivation to perform them. When there is a program, there is good motivation to perform actions, because their expediency is visible, and the result of each action is visible.
Another important point is that not every set of chaotic actions can give a result, because, if we take an example from life, one road will lead you to the right place, and the other, on the contrary, hello to where you would not like to be. It is good if you accidentally managed to select the necessary actions and their sequence, but this happens rarely, but if there is a program, then it serves as a navigator that shows the exact path from point A to point B.
Organizing Marketing in Small Business on Your Own
Independent marketing. If a small business representative has decided to engage in the creation of consumers independently, then he will need an appropriate marketing system. This marketing system should ensure a situation in which each client who comes to him not only remains his client, but also brings other clients.
He can bring them directly, or indirectly through motivating his acquaintances, friends and relatives to buy a certain product or service. The marketing system with this approach should include all the elements, and in this context they can be called subsystems, which will ultimately allow you to get the desired result. Their list looks like this:
- customer research subsystem;
- client processing subsystem;
- subsystem of emotion creation;
- subsystem for creating new products;
- new product presentation subsystem;
- brand creation subsystem;
- profit maximization subsystem;
- customer attraction subsystem.
If we talk about what a subsystem is, it is a set of instructions for organizing the relevant business processes, as well as everything necessary to make them possible. If a marketing system containing the listed subsystems is built within a small business, the results will not be long in coming. Such an organization of marketing in small businesses has proven itself well.
Organizing Marketing in Small Business with the Help of Partners
Imperial Marketing. If a small business representative has decided to create m consumers by using the metropolis, he will need an appropriate marketing system. It should ensure a situation in which the metropolis will create the maximum number of consumers for this small business representative.
The marketing system with this approach, so that it allows searching for new clients, must have all the elements that in this context can be called subsystems that will allow obtaining the desired result. Their approximate list should look like this:
- customer information collection system;
- system of analysis of collected information;
- perspective creation system;
- metropolitan perspective transmission system;
- a system for creating plans for implementing a perspective;
- lobbying system;
- metropolitan incentive system;
- income maximization system.
The text above uses a term whose meaning may not be clear to everyone. This term is perspective. In the context of this article, perspective means a product created by a small business. It is an information construct in text, visual or audio format that shows the metropolis the future that opens up before it if new consumers are created.
The purpose of the perspective is to motivate the metropolis to spend its money on creating customers for small businesses. The perspective is a tool through which the metropolis is shown the future that can come if it makes an effort. The advantage of small businesses is that they can receive reliable information about the market.
A marketing system for small businesses that uses subsystemsโฆ It is this information that is the raw material that small businesses can transform into a product โ a prospect. If you do not create a prospect, then the metropolis will not have the motivation to invest in marketing and in creating consumers. In fact, with this type of marketing, the prospect is the only product that small businesses create; everything else is only aimed at either creating it or transferring it to the metropolis.
The marketing system for small businesses, which uses the subsystems listed above, in the case of the approach in which the metropolis is used, if everything is built correctly, will allow you to have the required number of consumers and not drag out a miserable existence. It should be noted that the metropolis can be assigned a different percentage of efforts to create consumers.
This can be either a very small share, for example 1%, or almost all the work within the full business cycle. What percentage of work can be transferred to the metropolis depends on the talent of the small business manager, or on the employees who work in it. It is clear that the structure of the marketing system, which will relate directly to small business, also depends entirely on what percentage of work will be performed by the metropolis.
This means that there is no strict structure of the marketing system that a small business should have, but there is a set of subsystems from which it is built. The final configuration of the marketing system is determined depending on what business processes need to be implemented. So, organizing marketing in a small business is a good way to show creativity.
Building Marketing in Small Business with Outsourcing
Confederate Marketing. If a small business representative has decided to create consumers by participating in a confederation, he will also need a marketing system. But it will have an appropriate configuration. The structure of this marketing system should be such that the outsourcing center can create the maximum number of consumers.
The marketing system from the small business side with this approach should have all the necessary elements to ensure the desired result. The following subsystems will help to ensure such a result:
- a system for collecting information from clients and analyzing it;
- system for receiving and processing information from an outsourcing center;
- product development system;
- distribution policy development system;
- pricing policy development system.
Within the framework of confederate marketing, small business organizes only the business processes listed above, and all other business processes are organized by the outsourcing center. The essence of such organization of marketing in small business is that small business produces a specific product or service, and the outsourcing center organizes all business processes aimed at maximizing the consumption of this product or service, as well as creating new consumers.
In this case, the role of small business is actually to create a competitive product based on the information received from the outsourcing center, and also to set the right price for it, again based on the information from the outsourcing center.
The program should be and be not just a formal paper. All other business processes are organized within the framework of the outsourcing center, which provides: collection of information about the market, macroenvironment, searches for new opportunities, deals with forecasting, development of creative, in general, creates everything necessary to ensure that the number of consumers is maximum. At the same time, as in the case of imperial marketing, the structure of the small business marketing system can be different and depends on what business processes of the business cycle it leaves for itself.
Another important point, which was mentioned above, is the need to use marketing programs. In reality, a marketing program is a very important component of marketing activities. However, very often marketing activities are carried out without any programs, so to speak, by eye, but this is a gross mistake. Without it, the organization of marketing in small businesses will be incomplete.
The program should be and be not just a formal paper, but a clearly verified document mandatory for execution. Its structure depends on each specific company, on the products or services they offer, as well as on their range. The program can be built for each product or service, or for their totality.
There may also be a general program containing the entire set of business processes aimed at achieving the desired results. However, in any case, the program, which in other words can be called a marketing plan, must be built. Otherwise, achieving the goal will be very difficult, and often unrealistic, the organization of marketing in small businesses will not give the desired results.
Marketing in small business as a guarantee of its success
As you can see, organizing marketing in small business is not something too complicated, no. At the same time, marketing in small business is low-cost, but at the same time effective. By introducing marketing into small business practice, you can significantly increase such indicators as sales volume, profit and income. With all responsibility, we can say that marketing in small business is exactly the case when โthe skin is worth the candle.โ
You could even say that without marketing, a small business is not a business at all, itโs not clear what, because any business assumes that the business is being done for the sake of something and for whom. If there is no marketing, then there are no consumers, which means that the business is being done simply in vain, because your actions are of no use to anyone except consumers. Nature, as we know, abhors a vacuum, which in this case means that if you are not doing marketing, you can start โdrying boardsโ, because the death of the business is just around the corner.
It is also known that โa holy place is never emptyโ, which means that when your small business dies, dozens of others will take its place and no one will even shed a tear about its disappearance from the market, everyone will be happy. They will be happy because, according to the popular saying, less people, more oxygen. The worst thing in this situation is that your business will haunt you for a long time, you will not be able to forget it, but you will not be able to get anything back.