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What Are the Specific Characteristics of the International Marketing Activities Designed and Implemented by Small Firms?

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International Marketing

What are the specific characteristics of the international marketing activities designed and implemented by small firms?

As defined Robert W. Rowden (Thunderbird International Business Review, March-April 2001), a small firm (with a maximum of 50 employees) is centralized and personalized through management of an owner-manager. This type of organization provides some advantage such as proximity between manager and employees because there is less hierarchy. Furthermore, internal information system is more simple than big companies, it allows an efficient sharing of ideas and to have an adaptability to the market changes. Yet, a small company doesn 't have the multinational 's human and financial resources to
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Commercial actions are realized by defining customer targets on which to focus. For SMEs, it may be also heavier actions. For example, the recruitment of a new vendor or use a commercial agent in the targeted market.
On the marketing aspect, actions may include changes about mix marketing, except the distribution realized by the commercial:
- Product: develop a new offer, make changes about an existing product, marketing products from another supplier...
- Communication: make a new advert, insert advertisements in a magazine, create a new website according specific market factors.
- Price: adopt an aggressive strategy on a specific segment facing some competitors, fix the price on quality/expertise.
Once the actions are implemented, the company 's interest to survey their performance. The main advantage is the ability to adjust or stop an action if the expected results are not there to avoid a dramatic failure.

An example to explain how a small company has succeeded: the company Monnalisa SPA in Italia. The boss, M. Piero Iacomoni explained that the importance of the perspective of an entrepreneur it is based on the example of his own company, which has led a long process of internationalization since its creation in 1968. Currently, Monnalisa employs 60 employees. The company sells 56 percent of its production in Italy and exports 44 percent to 50 countries worldwide. Monnalisa makes 70 per cent of
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