It is not in every aspect of my life that I think that Smaller is better but marketing-wise, I believe smaller organizations will be in a better position to face the challenges of the post-recession economy.

Let’s face it, I love Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs).  I always liked the entrepreneurial culture that often emerge from them. It ignites me. However, as a marketer, I went through many frustrations in the past because most SME cannot afford the old School marketing tools (TV Advertising on TV, major promotional campaigns, billboards, big sponsorships and so on). This stuff was meant for Big National brands… Although the cost of traditional marketing is expected to go down, I do not think that lower costs should drive SME to use more the aforementioned traditional tactics to build their brand and be successful.

I am not the only one to advocate that small is beautiful,  Peter Brugman on his Harvard Business Review blog said “Small is the new big. Sustainable is the new growth. Trust is the new competitive advantage.” 

Seth Godin, recently did also a nice post about The Right Size of organizations. He gave numerous examples that show that bigger is often worse. He advocates that companies should not aim to get bigger. 

And that is the whole point, we use to hear the bigger, the better? (it is sometime part of corporate mission statements) Yah right. I think this era is about to end. The post recession-era will greatly favor the Small and Medium Sized organizations. Why? It is plain and bold common sense. Let me give you just a few arguments

• The new economy requires more flexibility than ever. Organizations must be able to adapt their business model to the new reality.
• Post recession consumers will be seeking for “trustable” brands. Big corporations will have to re-build that link with their consumer base and one-way traditional marketing campaigns will not be enough. (And that should start with the big financial corporations…)
• The era of conversational marketing has begun and small companies will be better equipped to leverage the new 2-way marketing communication tools (blogs, social media, etc). Why? Because of their human scale and their true authenticity. Also, the very affordable nature of the new tools make them awfully attractive to SME.
• Post-recession consumers will buy more locally. To encourage the smaller local manufacturers and to show a greener attitude.
• Smaller companies, because of their size, are more capable to adapt their business model to serve The Long Tail.
• Small companies are usually more agile in their market-based decisions. Therefore, they are less liklely to be stucked in the “paralysis by analysis” syndrome that often affect larger organizations.
• They are also more willing to take risks, I mean calculated risks. In that sense, the new marketing tools represent very low risk alternatives to traditional marketing media.

So those are the few top-of-mind-reasons why I think smaller organizations will succeed in the post-recession era. As a SME marketer, I can tell you that we are presently sowing all the seeds required to harvest market success when the economic storm will be behind us. What about you? Are you busy managing the status quo or preparing the ground to build your future growth?