Small Business Marketing Management

Citation

Simpson, M. (2003), "Small Business Marketing Management", Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 214-215. https://doi.org/10.1108/jsbed.2003.10.2.214.3

This book takes a very interesting and novel approach to marketing for small businesses. The introductory chapter takes a historical approach towards the development of the classical school of business thought where rational planning is seen as the best way forward. The authors then go on to criticise this approach and develop ideas within the context of the small firm such as the “enterprise economy” of Margaret Thatcher and the general restructuring of western and eastern European economies. The book moves quickly through these topics to deal with factors affecting the performance of small firms and then introduces the real topic of the book, which is marketing management and the small firm.

There are many contentious aspects to marketing and the small firm, and the authors deal with these in a careful and expertly written way with numerous references to original literature. The literature cited is carefully chosen and gives both the undergraduate and postgraduate researcher plenty of material to follow‐up. The point is that the book clearly outlines the classical, entrepreneurial and relationship marketing theories, with criticism based on evidence that perhaps the average reader would not normally be aware of. The book entices one to delve deeper and search for the material cited and this is the main strength of the book.

Under the heading of “information management” there appears a selection of topics, including market research. This is another contentious area of research in small firms. Again, the authors handle the argument of large business versus small business market research with a good degree of expertise. The small business owner/manager reading this book would get an insight into what can and cannot be achieved through marketing research and would also gain some insight into what to do with a simple checklist.

The idea that small firms can assess their risk factors and competitive threats is introduced using Porter’s five forces. This is a classical approach and, after the criticism in the earlier chapters, was somewhat of a surprise. However, in my opinion, the approach is valid and very useful. Some aspects of e‐commerce are also introduced in this chapter. The introduction to the chapter on assessing small firms’ internal competencies discusses the large versus small firm debate and then goes on to criticise the application of total quality management, transferred from the large firm sector. The main difficulty that I had with this approach was that quality assurance systems such as BS5750/ISO9000 are not really TQM but simply a single opportunity to improve and document procedures within the firm. TQM is about a long‐term strategy for quality improvement and IS09000 documentation can be very expensive to maintain when continuous improvement is taking place. I agree that the accreditation process is expensive and many companies did not gain much, if anything, and some even lost in terms of competitive advantage from such an accreditation. However, this is not the fault of the small firm or the quality assurance system but that of poorly informed advisors and consultants. They sometimes lack an understanding of what the marketplace is really demanding from SMEs in terms of quality.

The discussion on market positioning and competitive advantage introduces the classical genetic strategies of Porter and goes on to criticise, expand and offer sensible combinations of these strategies that many small firms intuitively follow. The idea that classical type marketing plans offer no benefits for small firms is yet another contentious issue that is expertly handled by the authors. They introduce the term “plearning” to illustrate that the planning process itself offers a clearer understanding of the business and provides opportunities for managers to learn from it. However, among researchers and advisors, this effect has been understood and utilised for some years. One might argue that the benefits of classical type marketing planning are valuable if only for the opportunity for managers to learn.

Overall, this book is thought provoking and offers clear accounts of the contentious issues raised. The strengths of the book lie in its clear writing style, the high degree of expertise demonstrated in dealing with the many contentious issues raised and the grounding of arguments offered in practical research and the professional experience of the authors. The undergraduate would gain a clear insight into the problems facing small firms as well as the theoretical debates on the contentious issues. The postgraduate would have a useful guide to the literature on small firms and a source of ideas that could be investigated by further research.