Educating Graduates for Marketing in Small Businesses

Abstract

Purpose. To identify how SMEs define marketing and compare how students view marketingwithin a SME context with the aim of providing appropriate teaching solutions that arecognisant of the reality of small business ownership and student employment.

Method. A qualitative, exploratory approach using semi structured in-depth interviewsamongst 10 owners of SMEs and 20 undergraduate students of a UK University who hadundertaken work placements in SMEs.

Results. Findings revealed that although both SME owners and students’ defined marketingaround meeting customer needs and advertising, the marketing practice deployed in SMEswere not cognisant with how marketing theory and practice is taught in Higher Education.Employment of marketing graduates was not positively perceived by SME owners andmarketing undergraduates did not view it as the work environment of choice.

Conclusion. Universities need to adapt their marketing curriculum to teach students therealities of business in SMEs and to prepare and encourage graduates for future employmentin the SME sector.

Educating Graduates for Marketing in Small Businesses

PurposeThe research seeks to identify how SMEs define marketing and compare this to how studentsview marketing within a SME context with the aim of providing appropriate teachingsolutions that are cognisant of the reality of small business ownership and studentemployment.

ContextAlthough academic research on SMEs has increased in recent years, existing findings havenot been reflected in today’s HE teaching curriculum. Large organisational models applied toa small firms setting have been criticised in the literature (for example, Gilmore et al., 2001).The foundations of what we teach students about marketing typically use examples drawnmainly from large organisations, such as Microsoft and Proctor and Gamble where resourcesand marketing expertise are plentiful. Conventional management theories and models neglectthe uniqueness of SMEs, which can significantly hinder students’ understanding of the jobsinvolved in SMEs and provide graduates with a misplaced view of the reality of working in asmall business (Martin and Chapman, 2006; Stephens et al., 2010). It can also obstructstudents’ career aspirations in terms of SMEs employment (Hart and Barrat, 2009; Martin andChapman, 2006) particularly if a marketing career is sought as SMEs simply do not practisethe marketing carried out in larger organisations (Gilmore and Carson, 1999).Marketingtheories drawn from conventional textbooks (for example, Brassington and Pettitt, 2007;Jobber 2009; Kotler et al., 2008) and academic research (McDonald, 2006) continue to focusprimarily on marketing planning, marketing research and the implementation of marketingmix (4Ps and 7Ps) which are more suitable for large organisations where financial resourcesand marketing expertise are readily available. The broad marketing textbook definitions, suchas marketing as ‘a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtainwhat they need and want through creating and exchanging products and values with others’(Kotler et al., 2008, p.7) may not therefore necessarily apply to the small firm context due totheir unique characteristics. It is evident that the academia has neglected the SME context(Collinson, 1999) and this has impact on future graduates employment in the small firm sector.Hence, it is crucial that HE sector provides relevant marketing curriculum, which couldprepare graduates to obtain jobs using the knowledge and skills they acquire in marketingclasses (Schlee and Harich, 2010). To ensure graduates have the abilities to embrace thechallenges in the workplace, the marketing curriculum should link practices to the realbusiness world as demonstrated in Smart et al. (1999)’s and Walker et al. (2009)’s study.Practising marketing in a SME setting is different from that in large organisations’; SMEowners/managers tend to integrate all the business functions into the overall vision of thebusiness hence marketing students not only need to have knowledge of marketing but alsoneed to have skills of problem solving, communication, leadership and teamwork (Lamontand Friedman, 1997) and a broader based business curricula would ensure that graduates arebetter equipped for future employment in the SME sector (Moy and Lee, 2002).

Research MethodThe research used a qualitative, exploratory approach as this has emphasis on examiningparticipant interpretations and takes account of the research context (Bryman, 1989;O’Donnell and Cummins, 1999). In-depth semi structured interviews were conductedamongst 10 SME owners and 20 undergraduate business marketing and management studentsat a UK University. The SME owners were selected through purposive sampling and drawnfrom contrasting sectors where different factors might influence their approach to marketing.

Student selection was through convenience sampling in that all participants had experiencedemployment in a small business in the last 12 months. Data was gathered around the themesof how is marketing defined, what marketing activities are undertaken, how is marketingplanned and organised, what are the barriers to implementing marketing, what role doesmarketing play in the success of SMEs, can small businesses offer relevant employment tomarketing graduates and how relevant is the marketing curriculum for SME employment.These themes were drawn from current literature on marketing in SMEs (Gilmore et al., 2001;Moriarty et al., 2008; O’Dwyer, et al., 2009a, Smart et al., 2000) and were deemed to be coreto an exploration of the role of marketing within an SME context. Initial findings are detailedbelow; more detailed analysis will be available at the conference in July.

Initial ResultsA focus on customers was a common definition of marketing across both students and SMEowners with recognition that advertising plays a role in marketing. Marketing as perceived bySME owners had no one single definition but responses were commonly contextualisedwithin a customer framework as being a focus on the customer, an identification of theirneeds and providing a service or goods to meet that need. e.g. ‘Marketing is providing thecustomer with the service they want’ (Travel Agency). Other definitions included a salesand/or an advertising association such as ‘selling your products onto other people’(Restaurant Owner) or ‘marketing for me is just marketing my products. I do a lot ofadvertising in trade magazines’ (Jewellery Wholesalers). Another definition of marketing wasthat of networking and making contacts with an owner of a switchgear design businesssuggesting that ‘we’re dealing with most of the people in the market on a one to one basis’and another owner describing marketing as ‘actively engaged in networking and pushing forbusiness that way.’ Students also defined marketing around customer needs; that it involvesadvertising and promotion and is centred in the ‘4Ps’of marketing. Comments ranged from ‘Iwould have just summarised it as a sort of advertising’ and ‘basically the 4 Ps or the 7Ps’ to‘I see it sort of focus on what the customer wants rather than having the goal of profit. sort ofmore the customer needs’. Some students tried to recall text book definitions e.g. ‘I don’tremember the definition but I think its fulfilling customer needs. Yeah, it’s to do withcustomers’ needs through a product or service’.SME owners intergrate marketing activities into the overall business activity; commonresponses were ‘we don’t do any specific marketing’ (Systems SME) but these SMEs wereundertaking activities such as exhibitions, trade press advertisements and directcommunication to customers. Consumer press or TV advertising was not used but 8 of the 10SMEs had web sites and engaged differing levels of activity to market the company throughthe web site. Students articulated marketing activities as planning, market research,advertising, and using models such as SWOT analysis but their work experience suggestedtheir marketing activities were focused on communication via web sites, internet marketing,social media such as Face book, mail shots and cold calling. As a student suggested ‘it allended up being sort of word of mouth. Nothing like TV or radio or anything major sort ofadvertising like that.’SME marketing was not planned or organised in a formal or systematic way and there was nomarketing strategy. ‘Intuition’ was often used to describe the planning of activities in additionto ‘responding to an opportunity.’ Analysis of marketing activities ranged from nothingthrough to a regular and systematic statistical approach with the most common measurementthat of web site hits. There was no formal marketing function in any of the sample SMEs orstudent work experience SMEs; a student commented that ‘when I was being taught aboutmarketing, I thought everyone applies this but a lot of small businesses don’t use marketingstrategies and don’t have a marketing department do they?’

Of the sample SMEs no business employed business or marketing graduates as there was aperception that salary and job expectations could not be met and that marketing or sales andmarketing did not represent a full time job. Where SMEs employed graduates in IT ortechnical roles it was perceived that graduates had positive attitudes and learning skills tobring to a small business. Out of the 20 students interviewed, 17 perceived futureemployment in SME as being secondary to employment in a large organisations due to lack ofopportunity to progress ‘I think you get to a point where you’re sort of stuck’ and lessattractive financial rewards ‘there’s more sort of benefits maybe within bigger companies’.The 3 students positively seeking employment in SMEs cited reasons such as the personal feelof the company, the smaller work environment, the friendliness of the staff and the potentialfor early responsibility. What also emerged from the student sample was that the current HEmarketing curriculum focused heavily on traditional marketing theory and practice; the 4ps,strategy, market research, branding, and large scale advertising and did not focus sufficientlyon marketing practices such as word of mouth communication, relationship marketing,internet marketing and social media.

ConclusionThese initial findings suggest that SME owners and marketing undergraduates definemarketing as being customer focused, meeting customer needs and involving some level ofadvertising but how marketing is practised in small businesses does not correlate to studentunderstanding as typically taught in Higher Education. Current marketing curricula typicallyfocus on topics such as marketing strategy, market research, planning and large scalecommunication activities, none of which are conducive to small business marketing reality.What has emerged from this research is that marketing in SMEs focus on customerengagement, networking and word of mouth communication. Networking, as part ofrelationship marketing, a concept typically contextualised as relying on large scale technology,needs to be taught as a core small business skill in which technology can be easily adapted toaccommodate the size of an organisation. The research findings revealed the emergence ofweb sites and viral marketing as a growing and appropriate marketing tool for SMEs andonline marketing should become part of the core marketing teaching programme. Word ofmouth communication through the use of social networking vehicles such as Twitter and Facebook are inexpensive and effective mediums for small businesses. Topics such as marketplanning should make allowance for SME realities such as short time scales, quick decisionmaking and opportunism and not merely preach the benefits of long term strategic planning.Other changes to the marketing curriculum would be the inclusion of SME case studies andthe instigation of student projects based around a SME context. Universities need to developcloser relations between their career advisors and small businesses to provide studentplacements, which will give the students the opportunity to put their SME marketing skills touse and to convince SME owners that business graduates can contribute to small businessdevelopment. Universities, in particularly the business schools, should build closer links withthe SMEs sector to ensure that graduates are equipped for the world of work; for example,academics teaching on marketing programmes should have more exposure to SME marketingpractice through professional development and training in SME marketing techniques andthrough regular contact with the local small business community. Universities have a vitalrole to play in equipping young people with the required skills and knowledge to enter theworkplace yet this study suggest that, graduates do not seek small business employment as afirst choice. Teaching a marketing curriculum that reflects the practice of SMEs will ensurethat the graduate work force is better equipped with relevant marketing skills and knowledgeto look to the small business sector for employment where they could make a real differenceand be inspired to establish their own business in the future.

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