Research objectives

Hypothesis

In the UK and USA, SMEs rarely leverage the internet to its full potential.

Objective

The main overall research objective of this project is to:

Demonstrate that SMEs online marketing strategy is often ineffective and to develop tools and frameworks to assist SMEs in implementing a successful online marketing strategy.

This overall research objective will be achieved through breaking down the research into four sections:

1. To what extent are SMEs using the internet to fulfil strategic objectives?
2. How do SMEs typically start implementing their online marketing strategy?
3. What are the best ways for SMEs to operate effectively online?
4. What tools and frameworks can help SMEs implement effective online marketing strategies?

These objectives are broken down into sub sections and discussed in more detail in the project plan section of this proposal. It is worth noting however that the objective of this project is not simply to criticise the way in which SMEs are approaching online marketing, but through analysing online marketing opportunities, suggest practical ways in which SMEs can have effective marketing strategies. Furthermore, it is hoped that through working with two SMEs and helping them develop their online marketing strategies, good practice will be demonstrated.

Research parameters

UK and USA

It is evident that through focusing this research on the UK and US markets, this study has been limited to analysing SMEs in wealthy developed countries where there is high internet penetration (Internet World Stats 2007). This focus has been given because the US and UK markets are quite similar and because I have had opportunity to work with both British and North American SMEs.

SME

An additional parameter in this research is that of the small and medium sized enterprise (SME) sector. This project will use the European Commission's definition (2003) of SMEs:

"The category of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is made up of enterprises which employ fewer than 250 persons and which have an annual turnover not exceeding 50 million euro, and/or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 43 million."
(European Commission 2003, p.5)

The SME sector is particularly interesting because it is very significant economically for the UK and US (Jutla, Bodorik, & Dhaliwal 2002; Stockdale & Standing 2006) and it is a sector which can use the internet as a key platform to implement strategic objectives (Tiu Wright, Ul-Haq, & Oktemgil 2006).

Online marketing

The term online marketing will be used within this research as an umbrella phrase that encompasses search engine marketing (SEM): search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay per click (PPC), email marketing, social media marketing (through web communities), web design and online branding.  These are all areas that Chaffey, Chadwick, Johnston & Mayer (2006) discuss in their book Internet Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice.

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