Importance of appropriate marketing strategies for sustainability of small businesses in a developing country

Purpose The study is designed to explore the importance of appropriate marketing strategies for sustainability of small firms in India, a developing economy. Design/methodology/approach A framework based on accepted definition of marketing strategy was developed which could notionally evaluate the appropriateness of marketing strategies and its impact on the market position of the firms. The framework was tested on a set of small scale bakery firms operating in the city of Kolkata. The marketing mix of the firms was studied through case study method. A customer survey was conducted to measure the firms’ market offerings with respect to their target segment. For this, data were collected from 546 consumers and analyzed using multivariate techniques. Findings It was observed that the firms, which could align their market offerings with respect to the target segment, achieved higher performance. Research limitations/implications The framework used was easy and simple to comprehend. The only two input components required were the marketing mix elements and a corresponding survey to understand customer perceptions. The interpretation of appropriateness, which is reactive in nature, is important, particularly for small firms where marketing is mostly informal, unplanned, relies on intuition and differs from that of large companies. The marketing mix elements were composed through qualitative observations and interviews only. Further research may be undertaken to refine the same in future. Originality/value The current research addresses the issue of interpreting the appropriateness of marketing strategy adopted by a set of small firms.