Management of customer communications – A case study of small scale retail organizations

Marketing communications are assuming greater significance in recent years due to intensified competition and consumers enhanced interest to know more and more information before taking purchasing decisions. The corporate giants as well as the small enterprises have equally recognized the role of marketing communications in achieving their business goals and hence are focusing more attention to develop customer connectivity through communications. Small scale retailers are also keen to use customer communications as an important role to promote their business. Retailers try to communicate to the customers through several means. Customer communications are important to build product awareness. Customer communications are designed to stimulate customer action. This paper studies the policies and practices related to customer communication and examine the means of communication used by the small scale retailers. The findings are based on the study of 225 small scale retailers in five categories which include food & grocery, textile & apparel, electrical & electronics, jewellery and footwear.