Dollinger index

208 ENTREPRENEURSHIP

THE MARKETING AND ENTERPRENEURSHIP INTERFACE

HEquotation that opens this chapter illustrates the importance of effective mar-

keting in today’s competitive international environment: An entrepreneur must

give the customer the most for the least or go out of business. A closer look,

however, reveals that this statement can’t quite be taken at face value. “A top quality

product” may not be easy to define. There is more than one standard for quality; and

various top quality products are available at any given time. Determining what repre-

sents top quality is often a marketing decision. “The world’s lowest price” implies that

there is a specific lowest price, but this is not true. A price adheres to a product/market,

and just as there are many standards for top quality, there are also many possible prices.

The entrepreneur’s pricing decision is also a marketing function.

Finally, the quotation says that if you fail, you are out of the game. This is correct—

but in business there is more than one game going on at any given time. Not all cus-

tomers are the same: They have, as we noted, different preferences and standards, they

are located in different parts of the world, and they belong to different demographic

groups. The entrepreneur’s choices of which games to play, therefore, are marketing

choices resulting from the venture’s marketing strategy. So is the statement of the for-

mer General Electric CEO correct? Indeed it is—once the full range of marketing strate-

gies, choices, and functions has been considered.

Marketing contributes to the entrepreneur’s success in two ways: (1) It determines

the manner in which the firm’s resource advantages will be defined and communicated,

and (2) it is a major factor in creating a sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). The

first role of marketing is fairly straightforward. Organizations—companies—add value

to bundles of resources for buyers, and the culmination of this activity is the transaction

between buyer and seller and their subsequent relationship. Because marketing activities

focus directly on the nature of the transaction—the product, its price, the location and

time of transaction, and communications related to the event—marketing activities are

crucial to the success of the firm.

The second role of marketing is “as its own resource.” Referring back to Table 2.2,

marketing capability and skills encompass intellectual and organizational resources.

Marketing can be a source of SCA. Effective marketing strategies (or aspects of a total

strategy) can be unique, valuable, hard-to-copy, and nonsubstitutable. Aspects of a mar-

keting strategy can exist across resource categories, including technological components,

human dimensions, and reputational characteristics, and the effective coordination of

these elements requires organizational resources. The development of marketing capa-

bility by the new venture is therefore a double imperative. The omission of a marketing

T

possible.” Given the success of Craigslist,

there are apparently a lot of other end-

users—including some willing to pay to reach

others getting a free ride—who feel the same

way.

SOURCE:Adapted from Brian M. Carney, “Zen and the

Art of Classified Advertising,” The Wall Street Journal,

June 17, 2006: A10; “A Talk with Craigslist’s Keeper,”

Business Week Online, September 8, 2004. Retrieved

from the Web May 7, 2006.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/sept2004/nf

2004098_1574_db051.htmand http://www.craigslist.com.