by Awe Busuyi Rapheal

Created on: June 30, 2010   Last Updated: July 01, 2010

All marketing programs are tailored towards consumers. In any business, consumers are sovereign and thus should be the focal point of the manager of a small business. As the manger attempts to satisfy customer needs, indirectly he is trying to achieve the goals of his business.

Marketing is found on the principle that profitability and satisfactory returns on investment can only be achieved when customer needs and desires are identified and satisfied. Most small enterprises are sole proprietor businesses or limited liability companies. The proper use of use and combination of marketing tools, called marketing mix, are what the managers of these kinds of business need to satisfy their customers and at the same time satisfy the company’s objectives. The four marketing Ps, as also called, are: product, price, place and promotion. When a manger makes use of proper combination of the marketing mixes at the right time consumer loyalty, sales boost and profitability, increased market share, etc, are often attained.

A manager could be encountering declining market share and consequently dwindling sales revenue and profitability as a result of slack demand for his product or fierce competition from other competitors. Sometimes he may need to improve the patronage for his product. It all takes marketing. Generally, consumers’ tastes are different and ever-changing. Also, many business battles are battles of marketing with each competitor trying to win most customers to his business. Therefore you need to constantly engage in marketing. But if you do not have the prerequisite technical expertise as a sole proprietor or as the case may be, it is more prudent to contract the marketing program out to a marketing company. Marketing experts know the right marketing strategy such as sales strategy. The marketing company will understand your industry well and can help you differentiate your product from your competitors’.

To know his customers and what they want in the product and position his product in line with customer needs, a small business manager needs to conduct extensive market research and experimentation. More often than not, small businesses serve a particular niche market, unlike big multinationals that deal with more generalized customers. A small garden-designing enterprise, for example, learns more about what designs his target customers want and how they want them and come up with more beautiful landscaped garden designs. He can only know this by engaging in marketing because it starts from identifying wants and needs first and then develops a product or service as a vehicle to satisfy them. Then it will determine the best price to fix for this product and what is the best channel to advertise it to the target market, probably through a local magazine, on television at a peak time, postal or door-door distribution of fliers. Moreover, the business may be selling to the wrong customers. Marketing allows the small business manager to define his target market well and market his product to them.

No business ever operates in a vacuum. It operates in a particular environment that is never static. Though the marketing expenses may be too much for a small business to afford, the returns are always very favorable, especially when the market is responsive to marketing activities. Besides, it allows the small enterprise to gain more control over his business.

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