Content area
Full Text
The last 20 years have seen a revolution in marketing brought about by the extremely rapid rise in the use of the internet and social media and this is reflected in the new A level specifications. While traditional forms of advertising remain important, few businesses, whether they are multinationals or one person businesses, can hope to compete successfully if they are not making effective use of digital media. Arguably, the digital revolution has had the greatest impact on small and medium size businesses (SMEs). In theory at least, even the smallest business can now reach global markets at relatively low cost when even reaching a regional market could have been prohibitively expensive in the past. However, in practice it is not always as straightforward as it might appear, as the following article and case study of a real business illustrate.
Two Lizards marketing and advertising agency
Two Lizards is a UK marketing and advertising agency specialising in SMEs (small and medium size enterprises). Our clients are typically small scale entrepreneurs without any marketing background or specialist expertise, (www.twolizards.co.uk)
While bigger companies can afford a marketing manager, with smaller companies you are usually sitting down with the actual business owner. We have to listen carefully to their opinions, work out whether they know what they are talking about, then provide marketing guidance that's right for their situation and budget. Being small, a high percentage are focused on selling to clients in a particular catchment area rather than marketing themselves nationwide.
When companies approach us they usually express their marketing and advertising needs as a fairly basic problem such as:
"We don't get enough customers through our door".
"We don't seem to come up on Google, whatever the search term".
"We need customers who are prepared to spend more money.
"Our marketing materials all look different - we don't really have a proper brand".
They will often have fixed on a single solution: a better website, a new brochure, a series of emailings.
Whatever their initial thoughts, we always ask them to first talk in more detail about their company, their customers and their aspirations, using their answers to complete our Marketing Brief form. This asks them basic questions such as:
* What is your...