Marketing and Environmental Sustainability for MSME
Published: February 18, 2019
A good marketing strategy in place ensures that the products offered by your enterprise are sought out for in the market. While marketing is a valuable tool that entrepreneurs must integrate in their business, the next two decades will also require equal emphasis on social and environmental sustainability for flourishing the MSME sector.
Many a times there is a debate on why should one spend on marketing when the product is good and innovative enough to get sold on its own merit? But here it is very important to note that you might have an excellent product to offer, but if the consumers are not aware of the same, there is less likelihood that it will translate into good sales. However, marketing should not be confused with sales.
The process of marketing begins from the basic stage of the product. Entrepreneurs must study the consumer habits, trends and the changes expected by them in their line of products. The same amount of research must go into pricing the product after carefully evaluating the competition and the response of the consumers on pricing. Once the product and price are in place, awareness about your product should be done to the right audience. For instance, if you are manufacturing FMCG products, you must study the market beforehand and identify the platforms on which your potential consumers are hooked on so that promotional campaigns can be carried out for marketing the products.
The best available marketing platform in today’s day and age is the digital online platform. Marketing your products through an effective social media campaign can get you maximum leverage for your business.
New age entrepreneurs must give equal emphasis on long term social and environmental sustainability in their business. While entrepreneurs are more focussed on boosting the sales and profits figures, they often tend to neglect the environment that might affect their business in the long term.
For instance, there might be a growing competition in your line of business and you could be in a struggling position to combat that. But if you involve environmental sustainability model in your business right from the beginning chances are that you might score over the competition in terms of pricing as well as brand reputation.
The climate is going to have a strong impact on the business in the next two decades and therefore it is necessary to plan how your business will thrive in those conditions. Example, having an alternate energy model like a solar energy plant can help you cut down costs and affect your pricing.
Similarly, while contributing to the society is generally considered to be the work of big corporates through their corporate social responsibility programmes, entrepreneurs can adopt a social sustainability model for their better brand recognition and reputation. Remember, if you contribute to the social causes through your business, it will have a positive impact on the reputation of your enterprise.