Smart Marketing - A Way out of Smallness of MSMEs

Abstract

MSME sector in India plays a significant role in the economy, however it suffers from various grave challenges and marketing is one of them. While individually MSMEs find it difficult to resolve them, smart strategies through collective actions can play vital role in this direction. However, despite 60 years of planned growth, conscious policy and promotional support by the Government of India, the problems remain unsolved. This paper attempts to analyse various marketing challenges, needs and opportunities faced by the MSME sector and suggest way forward to the policy support system to ensure that all the gaps for marketing bridged where enterprises can come together to undertake new and smart measures such as common brand development and hiring of strategic marketing consultants and exploring new markets, etc. The paper also captures learning from some of the successful practices of competitiveness through innovative collaborative marketing models by Indian industrial clusters and suggests the role of policy to upscale them.