SMEs: do they follow a shotgun or rifle approach when it comes to target marketing?

As SMEs are the drivers of employment and GDP in many cases, SMEs are also critical to the development of any economy and their survival and success are, thus, important. With the high levels of failure of SMEs, it has become imperative that there is a drive to ensure the survival of SMEs. A way in which SMEs, can enhance their potential success rate and business performance is by means of proper target market selection in order for the business to focus their marketing efforts. This will allow the business to timeously identify opportunities and threats in the market and to react to these situations. The business will also have a greater understanding of their target market, and their needs and wants. Understanding the target market will assist the business in developing marketing strategies that are suited for the target market and enhance its chances of success. This study aimed to identify whether SME owners and managers have target market knowledge within a South African SME context. The main results indicate that although SME owners and managers claim they are aware of their specific target markets (90%), they do not have customer knowledge regarding the psychographic and demographic aspects of their target market. By using effective target marketing communication, SMEs can improve on their merchandising planning and product assortment and offerings to better serve their target market(s).

Keywords: target marketing, SMEs, South Africa.
JEL Classification: M310, L26