ABSTRACT
What is ‘marketing for SMEs’ and why should it be treated as a separate topic? There are two strong reasons why it is important to view marketing as being different in this context. One is the recognition that SMEs (small to medium sized enterprises), are not simply little big business. By a definition of size they are certainly small to medium sized in relation to large corporations; however, as a consequence of its size an SME has unique characteristics which make it distinctly different, not only to large corporations but also to many or all other enterprises. A significant second factor is the relative number of SME enterprises to large corporations; in any market or region the vast majority of enterprises will be SMEs with only a few large corporations. A consequence of this is that most people who work in marketing are likely to work in SMEs. Of course, many high profile marketing jobs will belong in large organizations but most marketing and related jobs are to be found in SMEs. Further support for this argument can be found by recognizing the growing size of the service sector of any economy and acknowledging that most service firms are inherently marketing orientated and also SMEs.
