Entrepreneurial Marketing 2018-19

Features of Small Business Marketing

Small business organisations and their features have been evaluated by this assignment. In order to discuss features of SMEs, this assignment has focused on distinctive of SMEs in UK market.

Employee Size: According to UK market, an SME (Small and Medium) acquires an employee base fewer than 250 employees.
There is segregation in SMEs based on their employee base. There are micro, small and medium enterprises in UK, based on their employee strength. Micro organisations acquire 0 to 9 employees, on the other hand, small organisations acquire 10 to 49 employees (Engage Tech, 2019).
Medium enterprises in UK market possess employee strength of 50 to 250 employees. However, SME cannot acquire more than 250 employees. Total employment of SMEs in UK is 16.3 million. In context of Engage Tech, it operates their business with employee base of 90.

Market Size: SMEs in the UK market have expanded over 99.9% of the market. It delivers €473 billion in market which is equal to 49.8% of the economy in the UK.
There are 5.7 million SMEs in UK who operate their business in concerning market (Mole et al. 2017: 480-481).
This report has focused on Engage Tech, a small SME in UK market which especially deals in business to business strategy to conduct their consultancy business.

External Funding: External funding is an important feature of SMEs who operate their business operation UK market. It has been witnessed that 60% of SMEs get funding from external sources.
It is important for an organisation to maintain their funding and in case of SMEs it is a necessary to gather adequate funding (Spigel 2017: 50-51).
After Brexit, and hike in G.D.P. it has been difficult for organisations to operate their business. SMEs are getting funded in UK market by bank and government loans.
SMEs in UK market are often get funded by big business organisations to perform their instructed task to purchase materials for their business.
In case of Engage Tech, that deals in consultancy business, gather fund from their clients to perform their tasks.

Good Communication: Effective communication is an important feature of SMEs in UK market.
It has been mentioned earlier that an SME must consider its employee base not more than 250.
Therefore, it is easy for them to maintain a good communication among their employees for conducting their business.

Operation Issues Faced by SME

There are different key factors as well as operational issues that are being faced by SMEs who conduct their business in UK market.
This assignment has taken Engage Tech; an SME operates their business in consultancy environment in UK (Xiang et al. 2017: 54-55).
Thus, there are few problems that are being faced by concerning organisation to conduct their operation.

Leadership: Leadership is a prime key factor that is being faced by Engage Tech operators.
They mainly follow the Train Theory of Leadership along with Behavioural Theory to meet their leadership goals.
This organisation instructed their managers to perform leadership tasks which are often proves fruitless and employees of concerning organisation lose their faith on officials.

Culture: Cultural issue is another significant key factor that is being faced by organisation officials of Engage Tech.
It has been mentioned earlier, that this organisation maintains their employee base of 90.
As opined by Kotler et al. (2015: 22-23) it is important for operators of this company to find out reasons of cultural conflicts.
Employees of this organisation consisted to different parts of UK and it is important for them to maintain their own culture (Kim et al. 2016: 149-141).

Therefore, officials always maintain special observation to avoid cultural clashes.

WHS Policy: Work Health Safety (WHS) Policy is a prime operational issue faced by Engage Tech officials to conduct their business.
This policy refers to employee’s safety in workplace as well as protection on performing any task. This organisation performs their business in consultancy market.
As viewed by Giaoutzi et al. (2016: 45-46) Therefore, it is important for organisational officials to provide them adequate safety measurements in office.
Though, their job does not acquire risks in field work.

Strategy Execution: Strategy execution is an important operational issue faced by Engage Tech officials to perform their business task; it is important for them to evaluate business strategies for their consulting clients.

Prime reason of problem regarding strategy execution is shortage in employee base and inadequate funding.
As stated by Burns (2016: 47-48) shortage in employee base lessens strength of organisation to perform according to strategy. On the other hand, inadequate funding leads organisational strategy to get hampered.

Productivity: Productivity is an important operational issue faced by Engage Tech officials to perform their tasks.
Productivity has been caused due to strategic conflict and employee base which insulates problem in organisational operation or consultation of Engage Tech.

There are various countries where SME's face marketing operational issues and industries globally. There issues restrict these companies to market their products and services effectively.

For instance, one such organisation is Ma Baker which is a micro bakery situated in Fulham, London, United Kingdom and operating in bakery industry.. Due to the events of Brexit and devaluation of pound, the company is facing hardships in acquiring better marketing resources for themselves. Lack of adequate resources is an operational issue that the firm is facing. Due to non-availability of skilled professionals and insufficient money revokes it to access better alternative for marketing.

Another company is The Bhutanese which is a small scale company functioning in Printing Industry in Bhutan located in South Asia. Currently, the country lacks behind access to new marketing trends and technologies and thus, despite of producing effective content, The Bhutanese is lagging behind in marketing its services nationally.

Germany is another nation where majority of population does not use social media. Despite of being technologically advanced, almost 64% of population does not use social media. Fond of Bags is an organisation which operates in clothing industry and face operational issue of choosing the correct type of social media to market its offerings. Alongside traditional methods, the company has several marketing operational issues due to majority of people not available on social media.

It is important for all these organisations operating in various industries to effectively enhance their market presence and resolve these issues which are required to be effectively solved. This is because more challenges would lead to more complexities in operations. Thus, it is essential that effective market practices are adopted to appropriately enhance marketing of their commodities.

Marketing Theories and Practices

UK market consisted to 5.7 million SMEs who perform their daily business in UK market by maintaining different marketing theories and practices.
There are different marketing theories are there which are followed by Engage Tech, a consultancy organisation in UK business market.

Market segmentation is an important instrument followed by Engage Tech to maintain their business.
Market segmentation is based upon groups and peoples especially consumer preference.
This consultancy agency performs their business operation depends on their customer’s demand to perform business (Gherhes et al. 2016: 940-941).

Relationship marketing is another important theory followed by Engage Tech. Relationship marketing emphasizes on long term relationship among organisation and their clients.
This relationship marketing is also important for Engage Tech to attract more clients by using connection of their existing client base.

Brand Equity is another important marketing theory followed by Engage Tech officials for their business operation.
This emphasizes on branding of Engage Tech in field of consultancy business.

Branding of concerning organisation makes a severe impact on business policy followed by Engage Tech officials.

This organisation also follows Market Orientation Theory to meet their organisational demand. This theory emphasizes on customer’s feedback and customer retention practices by this company.

There are mainly five types of marketing practices that have been followed by Engage Tech officials.

They use flyers and posters for promoting their business and attracting different base of clients to take consultancies and advices from them (Donnely et al. 2015: 424-425).
These instruments provide a brief of organisational operation and their success rate in earlier days. They also offer free appraisals to their customers and provide special attention to them as their value-added service.

This is an important feature for organisation’s strategy to focus on customer’s need.
They also use direct and effective communication as an instrument to spread their business.
This policy is known as Cold Call technique to get in touch with their customers. Officials of concerning organisation maintain their business operation by providing update about their news in social media and company website.

Thus, it can be said that the Internet is another important instrument for concerning organisation to maintain their client base and business operation.

Autonomous Learning Skills

Autonomous learning skill emphasizes on self-learning measurements that has been adopted by Engage Tech officials to upgrade their policies and business strategies.
Effective measurements that have been used by Engage Tech to meet their operational crisis can be treated as autonomous learning skills of concerning organisation.

Engage Tech officials need an effective leadership theory and train their managers according to that.
Effective leadership can seek out many problems in organisational body including cultural conflict and wage management of Engage Tech.

Time management is another important segment of SMEs business that injects multitasking in Engage Tech.
It has been mentioned earlier that this organisation has an employee base of 90.
Therefore, it is important for them to plan effective training to their employees for multitasking performance (Badi et al. 2016: 205-206).
Engage Tech infuses effective communication into their employees for performing a task by sharing their views and thoughts.
Thought sharing is an important task for any organisation to conduct their business. In the context of cultural conflict, Engage Tech officials maintain their policy to avoid discrimination in organisational behaviour.

Discrimination of this organisation is based on culture.
Therefore, effective leadership is needed to solve crisis related to discrimination and cultural conflict. Work Health Safety (WHS) is another important tool for autonomous learning of this organisation.

Workers of this company are provided safety measures and training to maintain their safety in office.
It has been mentioned that this organisation performs their business in consultancy business with special reference to business to business style.
Employees of concerning organisation have to conduct survey in different sectors.
Thus, safety is an important instrument for them to perform their job role.

Ideas and Concepts

There are different ideas and concepts are there in the field of marketing which make severe effect on organisational operation of different companies.
In this context, Engage Tech, a UK based consulting organisation has been taken as an example. There are mainly four types of marketing ideas and concepts that are been followed by Engage Teach to maintain their marketing business.

Service Concept: Service concept is an important business policy of Engage Tech for conducting their business.
It has been mentioned earlier that this organisation provides consultancy to their clients for their business development and expansion.

They provide special focus to maintain and upgrade their services.
In this manner they use effective data that are being collected by survey and market observation. On the other hand, they communicate with their clients to know about their demands and preferences (Leppaaho et al. 2016: 160-161).
It is important for them to meet their customer’s demand. It is also an important tool for them to make their business goodwill and improve connectivity with their customers.
It is also important for concerning organisation to collect raw data about business market and make effective strategy according to situation.
This tool is also effective to evaluate competition in market.

Selling Concept: Selling concept is an important factor for any business organisation.
It includes commercialisation of any commodity or service.
It has been mentioned that concerning organisation provide consultancy-based services to their clients who operates business in UK market (Gherhes et al. 2016: 940-941).
Therefore, it is important for them to sell their strategies to their customers. In this regard, it is important for them to upgrade their business plan and bring effectiveness into their strategies.
They focus on upgrading business capability of their plan and focus on their infusion in organisational workforce.

Marketing Concept: Marketing concept and its diagram are important for any business operation. In the context of Engage Tech, officials of concerning organisation make effective plan for their market operation.

In this regard, they also monitor competition in market as well as policies that are being followed by their competitors.
UK market acquires a large field of business competition (Kim et al. 2016: 140-141).
Hence, vast competition lies in the field of consultancy also.
Thus, it is important for Engage Tech officials to prepare an effective marketing plan to meet their organisational demand as well as sustain in competitive market.

Conclusion

This assignment has evaluated significance of SMEs in UK market.
In order to evaluate SMEs, this essay has chosen Engage Tech, a UK based organisation conducts business in consultancy sector.
This essay focuses on evaluating different types of SMEs by their employee base and performance in UK market.
This essay evaluates different marketing as well as operational issues that are being faced by concerning organisation and different theories and practices.
These theories and practices are followed by Engage Tech officials to conduct their business.
This essay also evaluates different theories and concepts of marketing and its relation to SMEs.
In order to conclude this report, researcher has evaluated this concept in the perspective of Engage Tech.

Reference List

Books

• Burns, P., 2016. Entrepreneurship and small business. Palgrave Macmillan Limited.
• Giaoutzi, M., Storey, D.J. and Nijkamp, P., 2016. Small and medium size enterprises and regional development. Routledge.
• Kotler, P., and et. al., 2015. Marketing. Pearson Higher Education AU.

Journals

• Badi, S., Wang, L. and Pryke, S., 2017. Relationship marketing in Guanxi networks: A social network analysis study of Chinese construction small and medium-sized enterprises. Industrial Marketing Management. 60. pp.204-218.
• Donnelly, C., and et. al., 2015. Digital loyalty card ‘big data’and small business marketing: Formal versus informal or complementary?. International Small Business Journal. 33(4). pp.422-442.
• Georgiadis, A. and Pitelis, C.N., 2016. The impact of employees' and managers' training on the performance of smalland mediumsized enterprises: Evidence from a randomized natural experiment in the UK service sector. British Journal of Industrial Relations. 54(2). pp.409-421.
• Gherhes, C., and et. al., 2016. Distinguishing micro-businesses from SMEs: a systematic review of growth constraints. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development. 23(4). pp.939-963.
• Kim, J.U. and Aguilera, R.V., 2016. Foreign location choice: Review and extensions. International Journal of Management Reviews. 18(2). pp.133-159.
• Leppäaho, T., Plakoyiannaki, E. and Dimitratos, P., 2016. The case study in family business: An analysis of current research practices and recommendations. Family Business Review. 29(2). pp.159-173.
• Mole, K., North, D. and Baldock, R., 2017. Which SMEs seek external support? Business characteristics, management behaviour and external influences in a contingency approach.;Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space. 35(3). pp.476-499.
• Spigel, B., 2017. The relational organization of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. 41(1). pp.49-72.
• Xiang, Z., and et. al., 2017. A comparative analysis of major online review platforms: Implications for social media analytics in hospitality and tourism. Tourism Management. 58. pp.51-65.

Website

• Engage Tech (2019), Engage Tech, About Us, Retrieved from < https://www.engagetech.com/about/> [Accessed 26 March 2019]

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