According to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurship, start-up ventures are the trend now and are here to stay. It creates business opportunities for employees and other staff around the globe. There are business instabilities from time to time, which affects the economy, but also gets back to an equilibrium, where entrepreneurs attract favorable business opportunities.
It is usually observed that most marketers and entrepreneurs behave differently about marketing. And today, the concept of entrepreneurial marketing isn’t well developed at all. Today, there’s a big need to set up tools, theories, and principles for helping businesses, mostly small and start-up businesses. It helps them to thrive and survive in an uncertain business environment.
What entrepreneurs like Eric J Dalius had to say about entrepreneurial marketing?
EJDalius and other leading names in marketing and entrepreneurship had delved into entrepreneurial marketing and compared it with conventional marketing. The most common definition of entrepreneurial marketing is that it’s a proactive identification and exploration of scopes for retaining and acquitting potent consumers through advanced approaches for resource leveraging, risk management, as well as the value creation.
There are others as well who feel that the marketing method gets blended into entrepreneurship. Instead of the marketplace as the hub for all transactions, it’s the process which allows customers and producers to co-consume and co-produce. It’s true for not just a product, but also an identity and lifestyle. Hence, in real sense, entrepreneurial marketing is all about co-creating opportunities.
There are many other ways to explain entrepreneurial marketing! One of the ideal ways is the one where it gets compared to conventional marketing.
Conventional Marketing vs. Entrepreneurial Marketing
Usually, four essential elements distinguish entrepreneurial marketing from conventional marketing. They are:
· The business orientation process
Conventional marketing gets defined by consumer orientation. On the other hand, entrepreneurial marketing gets outlined by innovation and entrepreneurial orientation. The earlier usually needs an evaluation of the market requirements before creating a product. On the other hand, the latter usually gets started with an idea and then searches for ways to market it.
· Market information collection
Usually, entrepreneurs know and realize the relevance of managing marketing platforms. However, they make use of informal procedures such as collecting data and personal observation via their contact networks.
· The strategic level
Conventional marketing makes use of the top-down approach, which comprise of a well-defined activity sequence, for instance, positioning, targeting, and segmenting. The successful entrepreneurs usually undertake a reverse process from bottom up. And once a probable business opportunity gets recognized, entrepreneurs usually go and test it via the trial and error method. Once that gets done, the organization starts to cater to client requirements and also expands the business. In this process, the entrepreneur finds out all the preferences of their clients. Much later, the consumers who have a similar profile get added.
· Tactical level
Entrepreneurial marketing is beyond the realms of four P’s of conventional marketing, i.e., promotion, price, place, and product. Also, most entrepreneurs take on the interactive marketing approach that gets driven by personal and direct customer contacts. The entrepreneurs communicate with consumers with several activities such as relational marketing and personal selling. There’s also word-of-mouth marketing to digital audience engagement processes. The entrepreneurs are attempting to get connected with the customers personally. Even if the entrepreneurs come up with a non-profit marketing plan, they are searching for tactics, messaging, and other elements that abide by the principal concepts of connecting and communicating to the consumers.
Sometimes, it is surprising to notice that the best practices of expert entrepreneurs often overlook the conventional marketing concepts. The entrepreneurs always confess that they don’t resort to marketing as they link that with advertising. It is mostly because they aren’t able to pay the high expenses of communication. Also, most of the entrepreneurs seem to get concerned about functional and current problems. They, at times, overlook the long-term ones. Furthermore, their approach doesn’t go by the textbook discipline. However, what appears here might prove to be deceptive.
Most entrepreneurs practice various forms of marketing. Usually, they are flexible about tactics but are always invested in ways to generate long-term consumer value. This approach might not always seem very sequential and logical. Instead, it is organic and unconventional as they cater to their consumers’ preferences.
Several reasons led to the present-daychange in marketing and entrepreneurship. Technology is creating a change in the customer purchase path. It is also increasing the bar on what is essential to stay significant. The customer value sets are shifting at a fast pace. The ongoing economic changes and emerging markets also have a role to play. There’s been a huge leap in the essential touchpoints that connect the customers, with the brands with one another. And together, all these aspects are generating a deep-seated conflict amongst a few CMOs.
Hence, the approach towards marketing needs to undergo a massive change! It is necessary to adopt entrepreneurial marketing and allow entrepreneurs to take put forward their ideas and make the necessary tweaks in conventional marketing. That will help them to thrive in the forthcoming years. One of the concerns that entrepreneurs have is that they, along with their teams, might not know the way to regenerate their brands in the changing marketing and business environment. The rules of marketing and entrepreneurship are changing and will change as the economy and world view changes. Here entrepreneurs must stay clued into the latest marketing and branding trends and leverage the same for their business expansion and brand promotion.
Other than entrepreneurial marketing, the need for the hour is rapid learning, responsiveness, flexibility, and speed. That way, the companies can target their customers better and make positive lead conversions. They are searching for marketing agility. And that needs to get added with the entrepreneur’s vision and expertise that he/she has earned over the years. As brands, they need to be storytellers and connect with the audience at large. They should also try and solve the customer’s problems and issues. That’s the only way customers will connect with brands, and start-up entrepreneurs would attain success.
