ABSTRACT

The task of marketing communication is to plan and apply marketing communications tools like advertising, sales promotion, personal selling and public relations. Marketing communication can cover practice across a wide range of marketing contexts, from large companies and political movements to small companies and individual traders. In the context of smalland medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), marketing communication deserves to be examined separately. Unlike large organizations, few SMEs have a dedicated in-house marketing communication specialist or the resources to outsource the role to specialist support agencies that deal with marketing communications like advertising, public relations and media buying. SMEs use marketing communication in ways more specific to their sector than do large organizations. This chapter examines the role of marketing communication for typical SMEs, including the communication tools, the communications mix and the strategic perspective of a network approach to developing marketing communication strategy.