Marketing “A cost,” or “A key success factor,” for small medium enterprises (SMES), Lusaka Province, Zambia

Abstract

The study was motivated from a practical perspective of a small business owner and a business consultant.In view of the above, a critical literature review in form of a desk research was conducted. Content analysis of secondary information formed a major part of data collection. Further, Small Medium Enterprises in Lusaka district constituted the target population. Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are faced by numerous challenges ranging from, lack of access to finance compared to large enterprises, lack of adequate skills when it comes to financial management, inadequate information and corruption. However, among the number of challenges encountered by SMEs, lack of adequate financial resources makes small businesses to regard marketing activities as an unnecessary cost that should not be included on their financial statements.Empirical evidence (Phiri & Mwale, 2019) have shown that cost of advertisement inversely correlates with sales (i.e. Testing Hoat 5% level of significance, Pv < α (0.016110754 < 0.05); Reject Ho). Therefore, as competition for customers becomes more intense, entrepreneurs (business owners) must understand the importance of developing creative marketing strategies; their success and survival depends on it.Marketing takes the center stage in the realization of revenue and profits for businesses. Successful entrepreneurs recognize that modern marketing strategies must include techniques such as social media and marketing that pull customers into their companies’. The good news is that many of these“pull “strategies are relatively inexpensive and, when infused with a healthy dose of creativity, are extremely effective. Although they may be small and cannot match their larger rivals’ marketing budgets, entrepreneurial companies too are not as powerless when it comes to developing effective marketing strategies. This paper therefore, walks us through the journey of creating an effective marketing plan for SMEs and adoption of some cost effective marketing strategies that SMEs could employ to achieve business competitive edge, profitability and success.