Competitive Sme—Building Competitive Advantage Through Marketing Excellence for Small to Medium Sized Enterprises

Marketing for SMEs is inspired and driven by the E.U, initiative futureSME and specifically is a response to the fact that the majority (surprisingly) of the main SME challenges relate directly to marketing. Or at least, the lack of the SME's ability to do it. The book outlines how SMEs, despite the strong and relentless pressure to "act like a major corporate" even when it is obviously not large and does not have the resources or level of management attention to do so, can in fact out-perform larger organizations when it comes to marketing and "being small" can actually be a positive benefit. It introduces the SME to create and manage simple yet effective marketing and branding processes and how to better engage with its market while maximizing its limited marketing resources and adopting a brand new approach to what it actually provides, how to use word of mouth marketing effectively, and a different perspective on how changing to the "currency of the customer" fits with sales and how sales are then optimized.

David Hood specializes in marketing strategy and enhanced competitiveness at Aqua Energy Scotland Ltd. A professional member the Global Marketing Network, he was previously CEO of the marketing communications and digital strategies company Marketing Sans Frontieres and former chair of the Chartered Institute of Marketing's Technology group. He was an early innovator in modern digital and technology led marketing and is a Guest Lecturer at the University of Glasgow.