Top Ten Small Business Marketing Environments
Linda P. Morton
Small business marketing environments can affect your business more than by what your do and say in your marketing.
By including these marketing environments in your marketing and business plans, you open many opportunities for your business.
This article covers the top ten small business marketing environments that you need to consider as you plan and market you business.
Small Business Marketing Environment 1: Your Business, Your Employees
Everyone working in your business enhances or diminishes your marketing. If your employees make positive comments about your business to others, that's good marketing. If they make negative comments, it hurts your ability to market.
Small Business Marketing Environment 2: The People You Purchase From
The businesses that you purchase from determine how efficiently you make your product and conduct your business. Some even provide cooperative advertising and promotion opportunities.
Small Business Marketing Environment 3: Distributors
Businesses that distribute your products usually serve many other businesses. In their contact with others their comments can influence the perception of your business and product. They also affect how well you can get your product to your customers.
Small Business Marketing Environment 4: Retailers
Which retailers carry your product, the type of customers they attract, and whether they feature your products in their advertising all affect your marketing. In addition, how well they display your product in their stores or whether they will even give you shelf space influences your marketing.
Small Business Marketing Environment 5: Businesses That Sell Competing Products
Of course, competitors are generally not going to willingly help you market, but how your product and business compares to theirs is an important marketing consideration. You need to know as much as possible about your competitors so you can determine your best distinguishing characteristic. Then you should promote that distinguishing characteristic throughout your marketing messages and consider it in all your marketing strategies.
Small Business Marketing Environment 6: Other People
People external to your business still have an influence on it. For example, government officials can help or hurt your marketing, business and industry with regulations.
Small Business Marketing Environment 7: Target Market
By now, you should know that there's more to marketing than just efforts to reach and sell to your target market . Still your target market have the greatest influence on your sales so you should learn all you can about target market members in order to base your marketing on what best appeals to them.
Small Business Marketing Environment 8: Factual Characteristics
Whether your customers are people or businesses, knowing facts about them can reveal many characteristics that helps your marketing. For businesses, these facts are called firmographics. For people, they're called demographics. Whatever, you call them they help you discover the best appeals to use in your marketing.
Small Business Marketing Environment 9: Economic Situations
Economic situations influence what sells and how much of those products sell. During recessionary economies, people often eliminate unnecessary expenses. During inflationary economies people spend more and on more luxury products. Thus, different economic situations call for different marketing strategies and tactics.
Small Business Marketing Environment 10: Resources
Nature is limited. It can provide us with only so many resources before the supply diminishes and costs go up. If demand for a resource exceeds the supply, it's price goes up. This in turn forces prices to go up for all products that require that resource for production or distribution. So nature influences the marketing mix.
Small Business Marketing Environment: In Conclusion
Each of the ten small business marketing environments influence your marketing by what is said and done within that environment. In addition, each has a direct or indirect influence on some aspect of the marketing mix which affects your business' success.
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