Entrepreneurial marketing : A study of marketing behavior of small and medium businesses (SMEs)

Abstract

Marketing today is more about managing strategic partnerships and positioning the organization between the vendors and the customers and delivering superior value to the value chain. Earlier marketing was defined by American Marketing Association as “The performance of business activities directed towards the flow of products from suppliers to customers”, more on the lines of socio-economic process. Marketing has evolved into a business function for product development, pricing, promotion, distribution and process to deliver a satisfied customer. The professional marketing departments were first established in large industries like P&G, Colgate- Palmolive, General foods and Gillette. With the changing marketplace the marketing department which was an extended form of sales department has increased in functionality and was used to identify specific need gaps in customer satisfaction and address them with proper market research and analysis. New organization models like alliances, networks, shamrocks and value-adding partnerships were developed to quickly respond to the accelerating changes in technology.