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Edgar Centeno
is Lecturer of Marketing at Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM) Mexico. He received his PhD degree from the
University of Strathclyde and holds an MBA and BSc degrees from Clarion University, Pennsylvania. Before starting his
academic career, he worked for over 15 years in large multinational companies and SMEs. He is currently the regional
editor for Latin America and the Caribbean for the Journal Place Branding and Public Diplomacy. He has been Guest Editor
for special issue on interlink of Marketing & SMEs of the Marketing Intelligence & Planning.
Susan Hart
is Dean of Strathclyde Business School. She has worked for a variety of private sector companies, ranging from
multinationals to small manufacturers in consumer and industrial enterprises. Publications have appeared in several
international journals. She holds several distinguished positions. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the
Academy of Marketing and the Senate of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, as well as a Fellow of the Marketing
Society.
Keith Dinnie
is Senior Lecturer in International Marketing at NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences and Director, Centre of City
Branding. He is editor of the acclaimed book City Branding Theory and Cases (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) and author
of the worlds first academic textbook on nation branding, Nation Branding Concepts, Issues, Practice (Butterworth
Heinemann, 2008). From 2009 to 2011 he served as Academic Editor of the leading international journal Place Branding
and Public Diplomacy. He has been Guest Editor for special issues of the Journal of Brand Management and International
Marketing Review. He is the founder of Brand Horizons consultancy.
ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to examine how brands are built in small-tomedium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and to develop a conceptual model of SME brandbuilding. The research design is based on an a priori conceptual framework that helped
direct the fieldwork, data analysis and findings. A series of semi-structured interviews
was conducted among 35 owner/managers from 30 firms. The results indicate that
SME brands are built in a non-traditional manner and contrary to large firm brand
building, with minimum brand planning and limited resources. SME brand-owner/
managers and employees engage in brand exploration phases where they experiment
in a spirit of trial and error based on risk-taking, commitment, creativity and willingness
to learn. Based on these results, the article develops a model of the five phases of
SME brand-building. The five-phase model represents an actionable framework for
managers in an SME context. The model also presents scholars with a theoretical
foundation upon which to construct further theory development.
Correspondence:
Edgar Centeno
School of Business, Monterrey
Institute of Technology Mexico
(ITESM), Calle del Puente 222,
Col. Ejidos de Huipulco,
Tlalpan DF 14380, Mexico
www.palgrave-journals.com/bm/
Centeno et al
INTRODUCTION
The aim of this article is to explore how
brands are built in small-to-medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs). Although brands have
been studied extensively, much of the literature has relied heavily on large company
brands rather than SMEs (Aaker, 1996; de
Chernatony and McDonald, 2003; Keller,
2003; Kapferer, 2004; Krake, 2005). The
type of organisation is one of the key drivers
of brand-building and may influence a particular approach on the basis of the organisations characteristics and context. For
instance, large organisation brands are often
built on resource efficiency, formal structures, expertise, performance evaluation
and measurement and long-term planning
(Aaker and Biel, 1993; Coviello et al, 2000;
Kapferer, 2002). However, SME brands are
often built in a very different context, as
SMEs are usually characterised by flat and
informal organisational structures, innovation, creativity, ad hoc planning and lack of
financial resources and experience (Carson,
1990; McGaughey, 1998; Gilmore et al,
2001). Despite these key differences, it has
been assumed that SME brands may develop
in a similar way to large company brands
and that what may work for larger organisation brands may also work for SME
brands. This has left unquestioned the relevance of brand theories within the context
of SMEs (Abimbola and Kocak, 2007). This
article seeks to contribute to theory development that helps to understand brandbuilding in SMEs through a proposed model
of a five phases of SME brand-building.
SMEs are important contributors to
national economies across different countries
(Lindell and Karagozoglu, 1997; Inskip,
2004). They have also been recognised as a
source of growth, employment and competitiveness (McGaughey, 1998; Acs et al,
1999; Culkin and Smith, 2000; Robbins
et al, 2000; Arinaitwe, 2006; de Noronha
Vaz et al, 2006). Furthermore, it has been
argued that larger companies are no longer
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SME marketing
The number of studies of SME brands is
relatively small; however, there has been
a greater amount of research conducted
into the wider domain of SMEs and marketing. A review of salient literature on this
topic provides insight into the context and
nature of SME brands. It has been argued,
for example, that SMEs have a different
approach to marketing and that traditional
marketing theories are inappropriate for
describing how SMEs practice marketing
(Carson and Cromie, 1990; Hogarth-Scott
et al, 1996; Gilmore et al, 2001). For
instance, Centeno and Hart (2011) examine
brand communication activites in SMEs.
Their study suggests that due to their context and specific characteristics, communication activities which help them to have
a more personalised communication are
more frequent than any other communication activity.
Furthermore, it has been suggested that
traditional marketing may constrain SMEs
activity and impact in the market (Carson
and Cromie, 1990) and that SME marketing may need to consider the unique
characteristics of SMEs, including informal
structures and processes, flexibility and
innovations (Brown, 1985). Moreover, the
marketing activity of SMEs usually takes a
short-term rather than a long-term approach.
Such a perspective is partially due to the
high levels of uncertainty and complexity
confronted by many SMEs, derived from
the diversity of market conditions and the
sophistication of knowledge (Bhide, 1994;
Van Gelderen et al, 2000). It has also been
proposed that during the development
stages of a small organisation, it may
encounter transitional periods of crisis or
instability those problems that disrupt the
organisation due to internal or external
changes which are usually unforeseen and
beyond managements control (Scott and
Bruce, 1987). At the same time, these
periods pose great challenges and risks to
the business as it may require learning and
operationalising new sets of abilities and
activities if it is to continue to survive
(Mount et al, 1993). Such issues pose large
challenges for a long-term marketing perspective in SMEs.
SME brands
Relatively few studies focus specifically on
SME brand research. In particular, the topic
of SME brand-building appears to have
been largely ignored in research to date.
Implicitly, it has been assumed that small
and large organisation brands grow similarly
even when their context and resources are
very different. This new area of brand study
is at a pioneering stage and is yet to show
its full potential and make a significant
influence and contribution to branding and
to the marketing discipline (Boyle, 2003;
Krake, 2005; Merrilees, 2007). Some studies
have attempted to understand the role of
SME branding as a competitive strategy
(Abimbola, 2001; Merrilees, 2007). Such
findings suggest that not all SMEs are
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Centeno et al
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METHOD
Following Silverman (2004), a qualitative
approach was judged to be the most appropriate in order to answer the research question as our aim was to make sense of
and interpret the phenomenon of SME
brand-building. Qualitative methodology
is well suited to exploratory research and
has been recommended for use in areas
not well understood, such as SME brands
(Easterby-Smith et al, 1991; Creswell, 1998).
Furthermore, qualitative research may help
explore the changing and evolving context
of marketing activity within SMEs (Carson
and Cromie, 1990). The case study method
(Yin, 2003) was used as the main method
of data collection. The type of case study
used was holistic multiple case studies as the
Brand Identity
Brand as a
Product
Brand as an
Organization
Brand as a
Symbol
Brand as a
Person
Differentiation
Brand Packaging
Sales Activities
Channel Distribution
Point of Purchase
Activities
O/M
Influence
Figure 1:
Brand Communications
Brand
Budget
Brand Activities
Product Development
Consequential
Conditions
Starting
Conditions
Complexity
Chaos
Uncertainty
Focus on
Brand as A
tangible
Person
operational
elements
Owners tacit
Phase 1
knowledge
Minimum
Planning
Minimum
resources
Order
Long-term
Planning
HiatusExploration
Brand as A
HiatusProduct &
Exploration
Brand
Differentiation
Phase 2
HiatusBrand as A
Exploration
Symbol
Phase 3
Brand as An
Organization
Phase 4
Phase 5
Proactivity
Market
Power
Brand
recognition
Credibility
and Trust
Creativity
Figure 2:
Brand Identity
development
And Brand
Growth
Fitness of
Scope
Opportunity
Seeking
Intuition
HiatusExploration
Brand
dimension
cohesion
Development Stage
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Centeno et al
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RESULTS
The following sections present our findings
in regards to each one of the four brand
identity dimensions brand as a person,
brand as a product, brand as a symbol and
brand as an organisation.
Some cases suggest that the personification of the brand owner decreases as the
SME grows. That is, as more members of
staff are involved in brand decisionmaking, the level of personification may
decrease, as the following respondent
statements indicate:
I cannot think and do not agree to think
that I am the personification of the brand.
The brand is not myself, the brand is the
entire company, the brand is everyone in
the company,
and
The brand is Mr Moran, the technical
engineer, the brand is Laura in charge of
the marketing area and Tony who sales
the products to our clients, all of us are the
personification of the brand, not only me.
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Centeno et al
452
These findings reflect key SME characteristics that suggest they have informal and flat
structures, minimum established processes
and controls with shared values and close
personal relationships (Carson and Cromie,
1990; Carrier, 1994). At the same time,
SMEs were found to have a set of unique
organisational values driven by the personal
values and vision of the brand owners
(de Chernatony, 2001). This finding may
pose a key source for brand differentiation.
Brand as a Product
Brand as an
Organisation
Brand owner/
manager
Brand as a Symbol
Figure 3:
identity.
Brand as a Person
and
I want to believe that Im the one that
drives the brand forward.
and
Ive been ice skating for forty-five years,
I couldnt go one single day without
skating, skating becomes a passion.
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Centeno et al
DISCUSSION
This study explores for the first time the
process of the creation and development of
brand identity in the SME context. We
present in previous sections a theoretical
model (see Figure 2) that illustrates the two
main stages of brand-building (starting stage
and development stage) as well as the five
key phases of SME brand-building, namely,
brand as a person; brand as a product and
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more congruency such as emotional benefits and brand values. SME brand owner/
managers should be conscious that they are
leaving an imprint and legacy to their brand
in the long run.
In terms of the brand as an organisation,
the study findings suggest that SME brands
require having people who can follow
two sets of organisational values. The first
set contains those values which are the
owners own. They permeate throughout
the organisation. These values may also be
a differentiating factor and may offer some
level of uniqueness to the brand. The second
set of values contains particular values that
are mainly due to the small structure and
informality of most SMEs. These values
comprise team-playing, commitment, open
communication, creativity, honesty, flexibility, motivation and innovative thinking
and action. Many brand owner/managers
were found to be in daily oral communication with their members of staff and were
ready to have a close relationship with their
members of staff.
An additional managerial implication from
the study is that a lack of financial resources
is not necessarily a barrier to brand growth,
but may rather be a driver of creativity.
Some brand owner/managers suggested that
their lack of financial and human resources
helped them become more creative by stimulating them to seek innovative ways of
implementing brand activities. In such ways,
they were not only reactive to the market,
but became proactive.
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REFERENCES
Aaker, D. (1996) Building Strong Brands. New York,
NY: The Free Press.
Aaker, D. and Biel, A. (1993) Brand Equity & Advertising. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Abimbola, T. (2001) Branding as a competitive strategy
for demand management in SMEs. Journal of Research
in Marketing & Entrepreneurship 3(2): 97106.
Abimbola, T. and Kocak, A. (2007) Brand, organisation identity and reputation: SMEs as expressive
organisations. Qualitative Market Research 10(4):
416430.
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