The importance of marketing in small business

A business which is operated and is owned by the private entity with a limited or small number of employees and relatively low volume of sales is known as small business. Small business are normally privately owned corporations, partnerships or sole proprietorships which fuel local economic growth and innovation.

This essay is about managing small business with context to how a small enterprise named Farmer Brothers & J.D. Beardmore been managed. Farmer Brothers & J.D. Beardmore was established one hundred and fifty years ago as general ironmongers, in Cleveland Street, London. In the intervening years the company’s reputation as a supplier and manufacturer of architectural ironmongery had transcended all the modest origins. Now based on Fulham Road, London Beardmore door furniture, decorative grilles and electrical fittings now graced the grandest public buildings and finest homes in Britain and abroad. For generations, Beardmore has represented the skill of English workmanship, and accommodated the tastes of a discerning clientele. Today this tradition continues, but Beardmore’s are not content to rest on past success. The company, led by its in-house design team, aims to place itself at the vanguard of contemporary style, introducing new product ranges year upon year. Accordingly, Beardmore’s position as the pre-eminent name in English-made, hand-crafted ironmongery and door furniture remains secure.

Managing the business

Setting up a small business is easy, but it has a higher risk of collapsing or taken over by some other big organizations. Managing small business is not as easy as it looks; every detail from the tiniest to the largest has to be managed in-order to run the business smoothly and successfully. Like as in Farmer Brothers & J.D. Beardmore even though it as a small firm but it has taken over a very big market. Since it is an ironmongery shop the investment is a little higher but the income is much higher than the cost so the risk is a little low because of the high income. It has paid much attention towards its cost and expenses and even has a good long term relation with its suppliers. In small businesses, it is very easy to record business transactions. Keeping track of business dealings are easily maintained and updated regularly in Farmer Brothers & J.D. Beardmore. The owner has setup an accounting system on his PC which stores all the transactions that the business makes so it is much easier to check the old transactions if some problems come up. Most accounting responsibilities in Farmer Brothers & J.D. Beardmore are easily manageable but a qualified accountant can be useful in helping business owners make the reports and financial statements to better manage their business. Managing the assets and liabilities are much easier in Farmer Brothers & J.D. Beardmore since it keeps all the transactions recorded and is easily maintainable Small businesses can grow with customer needs. Farmer Brothers & J.D. Beardmore create products and services that address highly personalized requests at a moment’s notice which gives the higher level of customer satisfaction. The communication channel is perfect since there is lesser number of staff it is easier to communicate either from the higher to lower level or lower to higher level. New ideas generated by the staff can easily reach to the owner and vice versa which tends in motivation of the staffs.

Planning is a detailed method, formulated beforehand, for managing all or part of a business. Effective running of a business is smoothly carried on with a good planning. With respect to planning Farmer Brothers & J.D. Beardmore bros keeps the stock of all the goods which are most popular and is determined by looking at the past records that helps them to project their sales. The staff are well managed for the purpose of scheduling, site visit, accounts, sales and logistics so as to create a good customer satisfaction.

A fundamental challenge of small business can be summarized as “too many tasks, too few people”. Organizing small business i.e. putting bits and pieces of a company together to utilize its resources and to get most of it. As on Farmer Brothers & J.D. Beardmore everything is organized at its best. The customers are always prioritized; the customer orders are well managed and kept separate from the customer orders. The dispatch department is separated and all the good are properly checked before being dispatched. All the codes and prices are well labeled so as to avoid any confusion or misunderstanding as there are various range of products available. It has also complied with all the government regulations so as there are no hazards for health and safety and all the suppliers’ payment are well managed so as to avoid any delays on the customer’s order.

Marketing

One of the greatest needs of managers of small businesses is to understand and develop marketing programs for their products and services. Small Business success is based on the ability to build a growing body of satisfied customers. Modern marketing programs are built around the “marketing concept” and performance, which directs managers to focus their efforts on identifying, satisfying and following up the customer’s needs: all at a profit. For using the marketing concept, Farmer Brothers & J.D.Beardmore has determined the needs of their customers, analyzed their competitive advantages, selected specific markets to serve and determined how to satisfy those needs.

Market Research

Gathering information about the customers need or about markets is market research. Market research provides information to analyze and identify the market size, need and competition. A small market research program based in a questionnaire given to present customers and/or prospective customers, can disclose problems and areas of dissatisfaction that can be easily remedied, or new products or services that could be offered successfully. To identify the problems and opportunities in the early stage, Farmer Brothers & J.D. Beardmore does a proper research on the ongoing trend and even monitors the competitors so as to have sufficient information about the market trend.

Marketing Strategy

Marketing strategy is the method of focusing an organization to concentrate its limited resources and energies to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage which can lead to the dominance of a targeted market niche. Marketing strategy helped Farmer Brothers & J.D. Beardmore to identify its target markets and contributed in product development, promotion, distribution, pricing etc. For example: “Use a low cost product to attract consumers. Once our organization, via our low cost product, has established a relationship with consumers, our organization will sell additional, higher-margin products and services that enhance the consumer’s interaction with the low-cost product or service.”

Target Marketing

Target marketing can be a key to a small business’s success keeping in mind that it involves breaking a market into segments and then concentrating the marketing efforts on one or couple key segments. Target marketing simplifies the promotion, pricing and distribution of the product or services and makes it cost effective. Farmer Brothers & J.D. Beardmore mainly focuses or targets the customers like interior designers and builders who specifies the ironmongery products to the relative clients. The trade discount of 15% is provided to the designer and builders. Every year Farmer Brothers & J.D. Beardmore attends Decorex International Design show, showcasing a variety of new and existing products which is attended by the worldwide designers. Brochures are often posted to the designers as a part of marketing strategy. Farmer Brothers & J.D. Beardmore have even built their own website viewing all the product information, product code , contact details. They have even uploaded the picture and information about the recent and previous projects which give a promotional idea of the quality of the services provided. Even with the delivery services, Farmer Brothers & J.D. Beardmore have hired one of the leading courier company for all the deliveries of the products which provides satisfactory result in the customer satisfaction. Price is determined by a number of factors including market share, competition, material costs, product identity and the customer’s perceived value of the product. Various ranges of product with various range of price are made available as the customer needs. Farmer Brothers & J.D. Beardmore also adopted effective product strategies such as providing a bespoke product as per the customers satisfaction, plating facility so as to get the products in different finishes, refund policy, styling, quality, brand name, repairs and support.

Conclusion

Many small businesses fail to reach their full potential, or go bust, simply because the small business owner spends too much time working in the business, and too little time working on the business. For a small business to be successful well required business plan, marketing strategy and a well managed team is required. Farmers having been a small business are still successful by managing its resources and having good marketing strategies.