MARKETING AND COMPANY PERFORMANCE - AN EXAMINATION OF MEDIUM-SIZED MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN BRITAIN

In recent years several studies have pointed to the importance of marketing to company performance and considerable emphasis has been placed, in Britain, on improving the marketing performance of small and medium-sized enterprises. Based on a mail survey of 231 medium sized manufacturing firms in the U.K., and in-depth interviews with the Chief Marketing Executive of a sub-sample of 20 firms, the study confirms that the most successful companies are those which are marketing orientated. Nevertheless, several traditional tenets of marketing are questioned by the findings and it would seem that the traditional marketing model, as developed for large companies, is neither entirely necessary nor applicable for the smaller firm.