Here you will find a sample of informative articles and features related to a broad spectrum of marketing, leadership, and management issues. These cover all the primary sectors we work in and many other related topics.

You may also wish to join our member area which is completely free and has a wide array of in depth articles, analysis, and our most recent newsletter editions. Click here to sign up for this free service and receive our newsletter direct to your mail box. We update our members area frequently so please come back regularly.

• January 2003 Volume 1 Issue 1

• March 2003 Volume 1 Issue 2

• May 2003 Volume 1 Issue 3

• July 2003 Volume 1 Issue 4

• September 2003 Voume 1 Issue 5

• December 2003 Volume 1 Issue 6

• Position Paper Consultants and Clients

• Position Paper Marketing Department Anyone

• Position Paper Professional Services Marketing

• Position Paper Role of Marketing

• Position Paper SME Branding

• Position Paper Strategy and Marketing

• Position Paper Trappings vs Substance of Marketing

• Position Paper What is Integrated Markeing

Below are some article excerpts from our members area. To read the full text of these articles and many more, please click here to access the information in our members section.

When Entrepreneurial Behaviour Will Kill You!: Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial behaviour are considered the lifeblood of Asian economies which are dominated by small and medium sized enterprises (SME's). Although entrepreneurial behaviour can occur in any context or size firm it is most often associated with the owner/manager of a new or small venture pioneering into new fields ahead. This image is a positive one as the tiger economies of Asia are perceived as fast moving and dynamic. Read more...

Marketing to SME's: The challenge and differences: It seems strange that many large organizations have only recently turned their attention to SME's as a potential source of customers considering that the SME dominates most economies. In Asia , we can see many firms such as Microsoft and IBM battle for share of this huge yet relatively untapped market. Another industry that is aggressively seeking share of the SME market is banking, a quick drive through the eastern tunnel confirms this as huge ads claiming company superiority in one form or another are prominent. All of these activities beg the question of whether marketing to SME's requires some adaptation of typical business to business marketing approaches and whether advertising and other traditional methods are effective and a good utilization of marketing resources. Read more...

Services marketing and professional services marketing: research shows that many service firms give only minimal allocation to marketing activities and do not really understand marketing in general. However, findings in the UK show that a marketing culture links to customer satisfaction, customer retention and profitability. Studying the banking industry among others, the authors (Appiah and Adu, 1997) show that those firms with a stronger marketing culture outperform the comparison firms. Additionally, interpersonal skills were stated as one of the critical dimensions of financial performance. Read more...

SME success factors: the owner/operators of SME's face a constant challenge to remain viable in rapidly changing environments. By analyzing the success and failure of SME's we can go a long way to identifying the behaviours and practices of SME managers that positively and negatively affect performance. In doing so, the practicing manager can gain insight into best practice and compare this to the operation of his/her own firm and determine if, and where, changes are necessary to ensure short and long term success. Read more...

Strategic Philanthropy and Giving: The idea that organizations should give back to society is not new but it has only been in recent years that commercial organizations have attempted to tie in their philanthropic efforts with business objectives, marketing strategy, and overall performance.

One of the first organizations to embrace this idea was AT&T in the US, firms such as Coca Cola and General Motors were also early recognizers of the need to balance societal goals and shareholder expectations. Many similar firms have formed special units or committees responsible for overseeing these initiatives and in the US in 1998, over US$9b was donated to charitable organizations. These organizations are now starting to view these activities as no different to traditional forms of promotion in terms of budgeting and are now integrated into their strategic plans. Our anecdotal experience in Hong Kong suggests that there is a long way to go before organizations here realize or understand the benefits of strategic philanthropy. We have had many instances of large organization heads saying that there is a policy not to give money in sponsorships or other forms of charitable giving. This is ludicrous because a properly planned donation strategically thought out is likely to impact a number of organizational stakeholders and break through the clutter in ways that traditional marketing just cannot do. Read more...

Just What is Entrepreneurial Marketing?: Marketing is not only in danger of losing its credibility, it already has in many circles. The conventional approaches to marketing that include the concepts of segmentation, targeting, and positioning, as well as the marketing mix elements of the 5 P's are still important but such formula driven, rule of thumb steps to decision making are likely to lead to more of the same, which has not been working that well for most firms.

In recent years, there have been some encouraging signs that marketing is at least responding to criticism and this has led to a number of marketing approaches (and fads) that at least break free of the traditional mode of thinking. Read more...

Branding and Marketing – what is the difference?: The idea that branding can be represented by a logo and clever advertising and promotion seems all too common in many circles. Branding consultancies, and there are many who claim to be so, focus on a logo design and name, a new web site and beautiful corporate brochures and claim that this is the essence of branding. An article in the South China Morning Post suggested that branding specialists were in great demand in China, and whilst we would not disagree, the comments from leading industry exponents in the article gave the idea that this was purely related to promotion.

From the SRC perspective, whilst not denigrating the importance of marketing communications, this is a fallacy that will soon catch out many organizations. To SRC, branding and marketing are synonymous with a company wide orientation that focuses on satisfying customers, both internal and external. Sergio Zyman, the author of The Death of Marketing as We Know It, calls this Enterprise Marketing Management. Read more...