Research Article
February
2018
Computer Science and Software Engineering
ISSN: 2277-128X (Volume-8, Issue-2)
Attention Economy: A New Marketing and Growth
Approach for Small and Medium Enterprises
Majid A. Dehkordi
Starlight Group, Tokyo, Japan
Graduate School of Commerce and Management, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan
Seiichiro Yonekura
Institute of Innovation Research, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo,
Japan
Abstract – As more communication tasks are being run in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), the question of whether the media strategies affect attention-market is increasingly important. This study attempted to explain uncovered features of communication media that has not been well indicated. In this sense, this study focused on the context of developing countries to understand the applicable facets of media in SMEs. The authors claim that success in the business is highly related to the appropriate choice of attention-sensitive media for communication purpose, and a balance between attention and communication goals is recommended.
Keywords – Attention, Media, Marketing, SMEs
I. INTRODUCTION
The Internet and computer have created one of the most challenging environments for innovative communication and present an opportunity for smaller firms to reduce communication costs, lead to the emergence of new ways of interacting, and make the communication processes richer and wider. These technologies are now the key drivers in most businesses; therefore many companies are conducting marketing strategies through Cyberspace technologies. Media-based technologies shape the way in which organizations implement their marketing solutions and develop customer relationships. Broadly defined, as the environment is constantly shifting and changing, it is hard to consider media and marketing separately. It is because the information infrastructure has changed the marketing environment. Small firms have to maintain competitiveness in the knowledge economy, and they have to be more Internet-based or computer-mediated [1].
Today, competition must be established on speed, not size. Creating high-quality information about your products and services gives you a competitive advantage for every function in your firm. Cultural diversity is a global phenomenon whereby it is important for SMEs to understand diverse customers who may exhibit unique patterns and consumption behaviors. In this era of attention oriented marketing, maintaining effective communications with foreign customers, supplier, agents, and distributors is crucially important to successful business [2, 3, 4, 5]. In this sense, with the explosion of new forms of communication media, it is incumbent on marketers to consider new ways to attend customers focus.
This study seeks to explain the importance of media-based strategies and attention oriented marketing in the performance of SMEs. It is clear that SMEs play an increasingly important role in developing economies. The number of employees varies according to the agency providing the definition. In a European wide context, a SME is defined in employment terms as a company with a workforce less than 250 employees, a definition that embraces readily the importance of tourism businesses in Europe. The US Small Business Administration uses a cut-off of fewer than 500 employees. Harrison et al. [6] and Iacovou et al. [7] utilized a cut-off of fewer than 200 employees. For this study, SMEs with fewer than 250 employees and annual sales of less than or equal to US$50 were selected (according to the European Union (EU) definition). SMEs have unique characteristics that differentiate them from conventional marketing in large organization [8]. These characteristics are included size of operation, stage of development, behaviors of CEO/Entrepreneur, etc. The importance of customer attention in SMEs success has roots in the environment that is changing per moment. Due to the central role CEOs in SMEs, they are responsible for the introduction of communication media into their firms.
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II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
SMEs
Studies that examined SMEs characteristics found that the traditional SMEs can be classified as quality conscious. While the Internet-based SMEs appear to be more sales oriented [1], they cannot do conventional marketing because of the limitations of resources, lack of specialist expertise, and limited impact in the marketplace which are inherent to all SMEs [9]. Therefore, SMEs must rely heavily on developing suitable and appropriate competencies for marketing [10]. Broadly defined, SMEs do not have excess resources and tools, so they can‟t hope that new business will come their way. Additionally, SMEs lack the necessary financial and human resources to engage in formal country market screening. There is often a cultural gap between SMEs marketing and technology, and therefore there is a need IT experts to work side by side with marketers.
The previous research on SMEs explored the personal characteristics of the founder/manager [11], the role of the incubator organization [12], and financial performance [13], while the tenor of research work in this area has changed to marketing abilities, venture capital, and family business. Storey [14] stated that in some sectors all firms may be regarded as small, while in other sectors there are possibly no firms which are small. Also, there is a evidence that organizational structures in SMEs are much less rigid, sophisticated, and complex than in large firms [15]. It is now well established that in SME sector is a prime creator of jobs and hence government interest has grown considerably over the period [16].
It has already been found that there is no absolute success factor in the sense of Guaranteeing good performance since the factors influencing the success are complex and varied [17, 18, 19]. Consistent with the above findings, it should be noted that Agility is an important marketing factor for SMEs. It is unusual for SMEs in this position to be measured based on the deliver-time, quality, product development, and product support. In situations like these, Agile Attention oriented Marketing (AAM) can provide SMEs the best marketplace. It is clear that as SMEs grow, they face threats and opportunities and researchers should seek to examine the influences.
Communication
Ford et al. [20] tried to indicate the characteristics of interaction: There are at least two parties that aware of each other‟s experience and try to understand and influence each other. Further more, as the parties are aware of each other, they are also trying to make the social network around them. One of the main dimensions of SMEs marketing is networking. Networking is a process of developing one-to-one interactions with a few or variety of individuals [21]. For entrepreneurs, networking can mean using a variety of social, personal contact, and business networks. In SMEs, the formation and development of the networks are largely unstructured and coincidental in nature [9]. In a typical entrepreneurial network, the focal entrepreneur is at the center, with direct ties to individuals [22, 23, 24].
Interactive networks have an advantage of communication. Communication is a dominant competency and is not a stand-alone entity, but interaction between other competency elements. In addition, communication is often dependent on the nature of the particular marketing task being undertaken. Cultural diversity sometimes generates conflict as different unwritten rules of social conduct can result in friction due to communication problems or inefficiencies caused by the lack of fit among differing cultures [25]. It should be noted that the resource constraints of SMEs sometimes prevent them from planning about communication media strategies, and actions in such situations will be caused on intuition. The key factor in addressing SMEs deficiencies is effective communication to a wider variety of audiences.
Studies that examined marketing relationships found that small firms are usually the weaker partner in marketing channel relationships and their wider influence in the marketplace is generally quite restricted [15]. It is rather interesting that for entrepreneurs, the costs of marketing through the popular media are implicitly hidden, because any costs are low in the immediate term. For example, one could consider the Internet as the website establishment but not to consider its maintaining costs.
Marketing
Marketing is the factor that adds the essential ingredient for success in business [26, 27]. Some studies emphasized that there is no appropriate small business marketing theory [15, 28, 29, 30, 31]. In contrast, Chaffey et al. [32] indicated that existing marketing theories can be applied in the digital SMEs of cyberspace because the fundamental needs and wants of people have not changed.
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found that SMEs competing on the basis of lowering prices, building long time relations with customers and by keeping the turnover high. In this sense, core communication competencies for SMEs marketing will inherently consist of media-based capabilities, knowledge and experience related to rich negotiation, and Agile Attention oriented Marketing (AAM) facilities.
Media
The most traditional cut to look at the media in the organization is by media differences. Traditional media such as radio, television, and printed ones (newspaper, magazine, catalogue, etc.) are one-way channels that provide us an opposing attention marketing strategy, but the Internet and computer-mediated media present two-way handshaking and self-selected audiences can seek information in a given area.
Face-to-face communication is said to be the richest of our communication media [35], because this type of interaction has non-verbal cues such as body movements and facial gestures that arouse humans. Video Conferencing (VC) is known to allow one to argue that we have something that enables us to accomplish more closely approximate face-to-face. TV-cable offers high speed and good quality data transfer. Vocally, as used in telephone and answering machine, the content can express feelings both in terms of what is said and how it is said. It is possible to hold online, real-time discussions on the Net through MOOS and MUDS, although these require advanced planning, and the technology is still emerging. Instant Messaging (IM) or text-based chat allows an individual to type a message and to see its text at the bottom of the screen. E-mail is comparable to IM in that all communication must be typed [36] and it is the most widespread tool for electronic communication.
It is rather interesting that SMEs use their websites for simple promotion or for provision of data and information and surprisingly do not use it as an online attention resource. It is important for CEOs to know that customer interactions that make place on the Internet cut through the noise [37]. The primary driver for establishing market presence is media advantages in the company that link business more closely with their customers. The modern communication media such as VC, IM, and voice-mail can substantially improve communications with actual and potential customers and generate a wealth of knowledge on the latest technology. Using these media as the basic resources for attention marketing strategies can save dollars in answering customer‟s Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) and significantly reduces catalogue processing and cycle time. The modern media create the possibilities such as: CEO can be updated on customer requirements as necessary, individuals will be able to communicate within machines apart from talking to people, and SMEs can grab the attention of the profitable customers from their competitors. Therefore, studying demographic and life-style factors using communication media can identify customer characteristics and needs for future attention oriented strategies. Previous findings indicated that Internet-based media technologies can also facilitate information dissemination, information gathering, and searching activities [38, 39]. Prior research about ethnic markets has found that successful marketers utilized a variety of media to ensure that the ethnic participants remembered their country of origin on a regular basic [21]. This could be explained by the fact that ethnic marketers attempted to obtain the attention of participants to fulfill the emotional gap between them and their country of origin.
Here, it should be emphasized that despite of traditional small firms are still suitable in the cyberspace, the Internet-based small firms have to utilize modern media to suit and compete in the ever-growing Internet business environment. Media asset management controls the basic building blocks of the strategy – video clips, presentations, documents, and other rich media assets [40]. In many SMEs, the valuable media assets are difficult to locate. They may spread among many internal departments (video production labs, voice-of-customers labs, etc.). In this sense, marketing strategies are continually improvised to fit day-to-day media changes, and marketing implementation actions are adopted to fit with changing modern media. The constant need to improvise means that issues are often emergent and that adaptations occur in real time, without being predetermined [41].
Internet as an attention factor
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The rapid growth of the Internet and Internet marketing suggests that information technology has an important role to play in the process of implementing online marketing communications [42]. It should be noted that the use of the Internet for marketing is one of the best ways in which connectively can improve SMEs ability to develop markets. Ellsworth and Ellsworth [43] list main uses of the Internet for SMEs such as communication across distances, globalization, new product opportunities, inter-firm collaboration, information search, etc. Broadly defined, the Internet is an efficient new medium for conducting market search, gaining feedback from customers, establishing online customer panels, and monitoring individual or group behavior of customers. To establish an appropriate marketing strategy, SMEs must focus on the characteristics of multi-cultural marketplace based on the religion (Islam, Christian, Shinto, etc.), culture (Chinese, Arabic, etc.), and economical stability (stable, unstable). Prior research has found that some successful strategies are identified to be: offering of an unprecedented variety of products and services to online customers, cost reduction stemming from automated purchasing and avoidance of expensive retail space, offering of convenient shopping, personalization of the website, price negotiation, relationship marketing and promotion of e-communities [44].
According to the previous arguments, it should be emphasized that the Internet and its related media demand “active” instead of “passive” marketing strategies. Heinen [37] indicated that the lack of wide spread success shows that managing market tools in an integrated way is not a simple task. Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) includes tracking customer enquiries or demands, perhaps in response to changes in advertising. Broadly defined, market responses to changing plans often trigger further changes in plans and implementation processes [45]. In contrast, some research findings suggest the opposite, i.e., that the Internet does not change the rules of the game in business. Instead of Internet-specific strategies, the more robust competitive advantage will arise from traditional strength such as unique products, proprietary content, distinctive physical activities, superior product knowledge, and strong personal service and relationships [44, 46]. It should be noted that no one has yet systematically researched attention affects on marketing outcomes regarding the communication media in SMEs. This is what this research intends to investigate to provide a vision on the importance of media in attention economy and marketing growth.
Color as an attention factor
It is rather interesting that about 75 percent of the product assessment is based on color alone. Psychologists have classified colors as warm (red and yellow) and cool (blue and green) colors. Of course, because color experiences vary from individual to individual, it is not possible to know how another person experiences color [47]. Studies that have attempted to link colors with memory, mood, cognitive abilities, and personality found inconsistent results [48, 49, 50]. Also, some research findings suggested the opposite that color links to health and doctors can use colors of light to heal ailments [51]. It is believed that red energizes the liver, scarlet increases blood pressure, purple lowers blood pressure, orange strengthens lungs and increase calcium metabolism, green activates sympathetic nervous systems, and yellow energizes the alimentary tract [47]. There are some evidences that relate the color to religion and culture [52], and some other researches relate it to feelings [53, 54, 55, 56]. It has also been found that there are a lot of differences in the perception of colors between genders. Khouw [57] identified that women attend to the combinations of red and blue, while men attend to the gray, white, and black.
Managerially, color can be used as an attention weapon if managed properly. It was found that using colors in conjunction with other stimuli (sound, scent, etc.) determine attention [50]. CEOs can use colors to increase or decrease attention, enhance mood, and reduce perception of waiting time among customers. Kotler [58] indicated that at atmospherics such as noises, sizes, shapes, scents, and colors could help create attention, convey messages, and create feelings that might increase purchase probability. Colors evoke brands, because the importance placed on color is that color has strong emotional leering and able to make more attention from customers.
Global managers need to recognize that different meanings associated with specific colors may facilitate multi-segment marketing opportunities [47]. Websites colors can drastically affect their sales. Depending on their target audiences, websites should choose colors for pages or logos. Today, the market complexity has driven the current growing interest among researchers to better understand color, its significance and characteristics, and it‟s effects on customer attention.
Based on the above arguments, the key question being investigated here is whether medium usage among CEOs tourism SMEs affect satisfaction with the medium. It is useful to understand that we do not intend to investigate media effect positivity, but the main goal of this research is comparing the effect of two media spectrum (High-rich versus Low-rich) in order to highlight attention existence. Below are the questions (Q) and hypotheses (H) of this study:
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III. METHODOLOGY
Participants were top managers of tourism firms. The data was gathered via mailed questionnaire from a population that included 172 tourism SMEs in Tehran. They were randomly selected from a tourism database of Iranair (www.iranair.com), a standard source of data about Iranian small tourism firms. A total of 78 managers provided complete answers to the questionnaire, giving an effective response rate of 45.34 percent. Exactly 68 SMEs had fewer than 50 employees and 10 SMEs had between 50 and 250 employees. The mean of annual sales of SMEs is 167.700$ with the minimum of 50.000$ and maximum of 650.000$.
Each participant received a written consent form and was asked to complete a demographic information sheet and a theory-based questionnaire. For media selection, we combined Cemalcilar, Falbo, & Stapleton [59] suggested technologies for CMC use measurement and some of the most popular media in the tourism context of developing countries. Questions addressed the frequency of media in the firms based on the preferences. Selected media that are low in richness are: e-mail, Instant Messaging (chat), answering machine, and written letters. Selected media that are high in richness are: telephone or voice-chat, Video Conferencing, and face-to-face interaction. A five-point Likert scale (from strongly agree to strongly disagree) was utilized to measure the items about media in use.
All data was gathered over a three week period. To ensure data quality and to enhance response, the research instrument was pre-tested in five SMEs and several adjustments were made before data gathering. Considerable care was taken during the field-based validation of the research instrument to ensure content validity by establishing relevance to practice and elimination of wording problems (such as biased, ambiguous, double meaning or inappropriate items). High reliability of the instrument was found with Cronbach alpha 0.81. Also, despite the applied nature of this study, several precautions were taken to ensure the validity of the measures used. Many of the recommendations by Carmines & Zeller [60] were followed. To ensure content validity, a thorough survey of the relevant literature was undertaken to understand the important aspects of each major construct and its components, and not to neglect any important dimension. Generalized Linear Model (GLM) was utilized for data analysis. Between the GLM designs, linear regression for media usage effect on the annual income was chosen. [e.g. 61]. The analysis was carried out using the SPSS software package (version 15).
IV. RESULTS
The aim of this study was to determine if there are media effect differences on annual income of Iranian tourism SMEs. Linear regression conducted on the data pertaining to media usage to assess hypothesis H1 (which it was predicted that there is a difference between High-rich media usage effect and Low-rich media usage effect on the annual sales). Table 1 reports the results of linear regression on differences in media usage. The results in Table 1 show that the Media usage effect on the annual sales is significantly different across media that are high in richness versus media that are low in richness (Comparing Beta).
Table 1. Results of Regression: Media usage effect on Annual income
Model
Unstndardized Coefficients
Stndardized Coefficients
T Sig.
B Std. Error Beta B Std. Error
Constant 204.688 88.809 2.305 0.024
Low-rich media -3.603 1.172 -0.366 -3.073 0.003
High-rich media 4.537 1.798 0.301 2.524 0.014
a Dependent Variable: Annual income (Iran monetary unit)
Descriptive statistics are presented in Table 2 indicate that media that are high in richness were more utilized than media that are low in richness.
Table 2. Descriptive results
Source Mean N Std. deviation
Media use (high richness) 3.06 78 0.611
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V. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
This paper was designed for marketing professionals to use in establishing their marketing efforts in the new media world such as the Internet. To implement marketing strategies successfully, SMEs need to understand their technological capabilities, and classify media spectrum based on the customer needs. In this sense, the ability to deal with fleeting moments of communication exchange between SMEs and customers need to be captured. The creation and existence of effective communication networks will be concerned with maximizing marketing opportunities ad ensuring SMEs survival and development through proper interactions.
It is important to note that traditional strategic models for SMEs marketing do not work in cyberspace and new approaches to attention oriented media-based ones and “thinking out of the limitations” are required. It also should be concluded that the key to success in entering new markets is to systematically gather and analyze accurate and timely information from communication media [e.g. 62]. Therefore, communication media training for CEOs should now be one of the top company‟s priorities. Another note is that attention-enabled marketing will also be enhanced with the advent of experience, because today decisions are likely to be based on incomplete information and will depend more on intuition. In other words, CEOs will have learn from previous mistakes and will approach the work in a more structured view.
In every industry, there are CEOs who are recognized for integrating knowledge from diverse sources an applying it to solve their company problems. In SMEs, entrepreneur will be the main point of the communication and networking. When CEOs claim to have relationship with a client or company, they are actually referring to their relationship with a few key figures in that company [9]. Broadly defined, possessing a mouth is no guarantee that CEO is able to communicate effectively. According to Carson and Gilmore [10], the nature of SMEs marketing is such that it is influenced by the inherent characteristics of the SME entrepreneur and the SME enterprise itself. In addition, the way an SME entrepreneur takes decisions coupled with the limitations of the SME enterprise determines the nature of SME marketing [21]. Today, a new professional class of owner/manager is emerging because they are seeking greater assistance to take their firms forward.
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ABOUT AUTHOR
Majid A. Dehkordi is Senior Director at Starlight Group, Tokyo. He is currently specializes in HR and Managerial consulting and practices in APAC market. He is graduated from Hitotsubashi University with a PhD degree in Marketing and Management. His areas of research interests include Media and Communication studies, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Marketing, and Green technologies.
