Activities of strategic marketing planning in SMEs¹

SMEs(small and medium sized enterprises) have a great economic importance both for developed and developing countries. In regard to economic development in countries, it can be said that SMEs have much more impetus than big-sized enterprises. On the other side, it is seen that SMEs are sometimes failed in the presence of big-sized enterprises and give up their market share. Researches has showed that SMEs were especially insufficient about institutionalization, strategic planning and strategic management. The lack of strategic planning influences the activities of trade and marketing of SMEs as so bad. From this point of view, the purpose of the study is to evaluate the activities of strategic marketing planning of SMEs in Istanbul and determine whether there is a relationship between the characteristics of businesses and the importance of strategic marketing planning. According to the purpose, a pilot study was implemented on SMEs in Ikitelli Organized Trade Zone in İstanbul. A survey form was set with help of prior researches and focus group interview. Survey forms were distributed to 250 firms and then 137 of them was found as suitable for analysis. As a result of analysis, it was seen that SMEs were insufficient in having strategic marketing planning. Also it was found out that there were some significant relationships between the characteristics of SMEs and importance degree of strategic marketing planning activities.