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Transcript of MasterThesis Entrepreneurialmarketingforcreativeentrepreneurs
Master Thesis
A study of the marketing practice of Dutch micro craft
entrepreneurs in the creative industry
Business Studies; Specialization: Marketing
Supervisor: Mr. Tom Paffen
Second Supervisor: Mr. Mark Leenders
Student Name: Yunhe Li
Student Number: 6260195
July 2012
Preface
Before I started my master program in the Netherlands, the creative industry had been
strategically developed in an amazing speed in China. At that time, creative industries had
attracted my attentions, especially for the craft sub‐sector which is included in the thirteen
sub‐sectors under the term “creative industries”. Specifically, my hometown has a large
number of craft artists who devote themselves in this field but most of them are lack of
business skill. Thus, their businesses are quite fragile. When I study in UvA as a master
student, I hope to find some methods to help this kind of entrepreneurs achieve successes.
However, the course content which I learn is mainly focus on large companies. So it is
difficult to apply these theories to small creative companies directly. Thus, I try to find
some academic researches which can be used for small business. Finally, I find that the
term “entrepreneurial marketing” have a high frequency rate in the journal on the area of
small business and entrepreneurship. Thus, I decided to focus my thesis on this topic.
I would like to thank several people who helped me during the process of writing this
thesis. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Mr. Tom Paffen and Mr.Mark
Leenders who gave me very fast feedback and continual support when I was confronted
with difficulties. I also would like to thank all the creative entrepreneurs who were willing
to accept the interviews and showed me very useful information. Without their
participation I would not be able to complete this study. Most importantly, I would like to
thank my family for loving and supporting me. Last but not least I would like to give my
regards to the University of Amsterdam for offering open‐mindedness and inspiring
international academic environment in which I have learned a lot and developed my talent.
Yunhe Li
Den bosch, July, 2012
Abstract
This exploratory study examined how Dutch creative entrepreneurs running micro craft
businesses conduct entrepreneurial marketing activities. Specifically, it assessed how
Dutch micro craft businesses carry out seven dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing
(proactive orientation, calculated risk‐taking, innovativeness, opportunity focus, resource
leveraging, costumer intensity, and value creation) in their marketing activities and how
eight categories of guerrilla marketing weapons (Minimedia, Maxmedia, E‐Media,
Info‐Media, Human Media, Nonmedia, Company Attributes, Company Attitudes) are applied
as promotion tools to communicate with their customers. Semi‐structured interviews with
creative entrepreneurs producing different types of crafts in different regions of the
Netherlands provide qualitative data showing that Dutch micro craft businesses carry out
seven dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing and guerrilla marketing weapons
comprehensively in their marketing practice. The originality of this study makes a
contribution to the gap in the literature by (1) understanding the phenomenon of
entrepreneurial marketing in Dutch micro craft enterprises operated by creative
entrepreneurs and highlighting the innovative marketing approaches—guerrilla marketing.
(2) providing the knowledge of practice in context which can be taught to creative
entrepreneur to improve their business skills (3) helping policy‐makers gain more
understanding of this new generation of entrepreneurs.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
1.1 Background 1
1.2 Purpose of the study 3
1.3 Contribution of this study 4
1.4 Disposition of the thesis 4
Chapter 2 Theoretical Framework 5
2.1 Entrepreneurial Marketing 5
2.1.1 Entrepreneurship 6
2.1.2 Marketing 10
2.1.3 The Relationship between Marketing and Entrepreneurship 11
2.2 Entrepreneurial Approaches to Promotion——Guerrilla Marketing 15
2.2.1 Weapons of Guerrilla Marketing 15
2.3 Creative entrepreneurs 17
Chapter 3 Methodology 19
3.1 Research Design 19
3.2 Conceptual map 20
3.3 Data collection 22
3.4 Cases collection 23
3.5 Data analysis 24
Chapter 4 Finding, Analysis and Discussion 25
4.1 General information of the cases 25
4.2 Themes 29
4.2.1 Proactive Orientation 29
4.2.2 Calculated risk‐taking 32
4.2.3 Innovativeness 32
4.2.4 Opportunity Focus 35
4.2.5 Resource Leveraging 37
4.2.6 Costumer Intensity 38
4.2.7 Value Creation 40
4.2.8 Guerrilla Marketing 41
Chapter 5 Conclusion 45
5.1 Conclusions 45
5.2 Implications for academia and business 48
5.3 Limitations and Future research 50
Reference 51
Appendix 59
1
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Background
According to the UK Government's Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the
definition of creative industries is: “…Those industries which have their origin in individual
creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through
the generation and exploitation of intellectual property” (‘Creative Industries Mapping
Document', DCMS, 2001). The term of creative industries is like an umbrella including
thirteen sub‐sectors defined by DCMS. They are “advertising; architecture; the art and
antiques market; crafts; design; designer fashion; film and video; interactive leisure
software; music; the performing arts; publishing; software and computer games; and
television and radio”.
Over recent decade years, creative industries have developed increasingly fast and play a
key role in creating new job and economic growth. In a research report, Creative Industries
Economic Estimates Statistical Bulletin, conducted by DCMS in 2009 shows that the total
creative employments have increased by more than 0.4 million from 1997 to 2007.During
these ten years, an average growth rate of the whole economy is 1% per annum, while
the growth rate of creative employments is 2% per annum. From the international
perspectives, the creative industries are one of the fastest growing sectors in Organization
for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD). According to the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development, average 3‐5% of workforces are employed by the
creative industries.
Besides economy benefits, creative industry also have benefit on fostering cultural
diversity. Many crafters create handmade products based on the inspiration from their
local traditional cultures. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) commit to this field. They created the Global Alliance for Cultural
Diversity and Creative Cities Network in order to strengthen cultural industries
2
internationally. Through this network, people can share knowledge, build capacity, make
good practice. This Global Alliance promotes cultural diversity by strengthening the
capacity of cultural industries. They produce and distribute goods and services and help
the member join in national and international markets easily.
Creative Industries Economic Estimates Statistical Bulletin (DCMS, 2009) shows that in 2008,
there were an estimated 157,400 businesses in the Creative Industries on the
Inter‐Departmental Business Register (IDBR). This represents 7.3% of all companies on the
IDBR. Charles Leadbeater and Kate Oakley are outstanding consultants and analysts on the
area of creative and new economy in the Blair government. Their report The Independents:
Britain’s New Cultural Entrepreneurs (1999) explored the new concept of cultural
entrepreneurs at that year. This report is related to creative businesses and creative
entrepreneurs and it shows that majority of these creative businesses are small or medium
sized enterprises (SMEs). They are often self‐employed, freelancers and micro‐businesses
of no more than five people. They are often lack of business skill and do not know how to
acquire business skill and support which can help they grow their company. Just as Parrish
(2005) point out that some artists from certain area understand creativity to means “art”
and they think that creativity and business are like oil and water; therefore it cannot be
mixed. These artists do not understand business world and they often worry about that
making a business from art or creativity inevitably means compromising artistic integrity.
In fact, if they find a feasible business formula, it is possible to get a balance between
creativity and business. A reality example is that the creative craft entrepreneurs from all
over the world selling their creative products in http://www.etsy.com/ which is an
e‐commerce website focusing on handmade or vintage items as well as art and craft
supplies. Some of them sell craft products only for funny in several times whereas some of
them are successful creative entrepreneurs who focus both creativity and business. These
creative entrepreneurs may don’t use business jargon and maybe they consider that profit
is not their primary aim believing in ‘small is beautiful’. They usually cannot be successful
3
only in the first time but they are good at learning from failure. Sometimes they put their
success down to good luck. However, there must have a method behind their successes.
1.2 Purpose of the study
In the Netherlands, there is large number of entrepreneurs running micro craft businesses
in creative industry. These micro craft businesses are of great benefits to local economy
and the culture diversity. They are often under‐ capitalized and quite fragile Charles & Kate
(1999). Several authors argue that, for small businesses, the formal marketing approach
carried out by large companies is not suitable for them (Hill, 2001a, b; Blankson and Omar,
2002). However, the studies in this area are limited. It seems that there almost no
qualitative studies of marketing activities of Dutch micro craft entrepreneurs in creative
industry. More specifically, there is no or little attention to entrepreneurial marketing in
micro craft enterprises in the Netherlands. In addition, there is a call for more researches
on “novel, innovative, risk‐taking and proactive ways of marketing in new or established
enterprises (such as buzz marketing, guerrilla marketing, viral marketing, internet
marketing, public relations etc.)” (Kraus, Harms and Fink, 2009, p2). According to my
experiential knowledge and investigation, innovative marketing tools are commonly used
by many micro craft entrepreneurs in the Netherlands. Thus, I propose to do a qualitative
study of six creative entrepreneurs running micro craft businesses in the Netherlands. The
objective of this study not only focus on identify entrepreneurial marketing process which
can realize scholarly goals but also highlights the innovative marketing approaches —
guerrilla marketing which is the best‐known and useful tool adopted by small business for
promotion. The highlights are focused on practical goals which can meet the needs of these
entrepreneurs because their need is to know what marketing tools can help them to do
better business.
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1.3 Contribution of this study
The originality of this study makes a contribution to the gap in the literature by (1)
understanding the phenomenon of entrepreneurial marketing in Dutch micro craft
enterprises operated by creative entrepreneurs and highlighting the innovative marketing
approaches—guerrilla marketing. (2) providing the knowledge of practice in context which
can be taught to creative entrepreneur to improve their business skills (3) helping
policy‐makers gain more understanding of this new generation of entrepreneurs.
1.4 Disposition of the thesis
In order to achieve the objectives, the structure of this thesis is divided into five parts.
Chapter 2 is the theoretical framework part. The existing theory and researches about
entrepreneurship, marketing, entrepreneurial marketing, guerrilla marketing and creative
entrepreneur and my own experiential knowledge are incorporated here to construct the
theoretical frameworks. Chapter 3 is the methodology part. In this chapter, the research
design is explained to show why qualitative case studies and interviews as a data collection
method are chosen. A conceptual map is proposed to developing and clarifying the
constructed theoretical framework in this thesis. The research questions are presented
here, following the conceptual map. Chapter 4 presents the finding, and analysis of this data
with theoretical discussions. Chapter 5 gives the conclusion, implications and future
research.
5
Chapter 2 Theoretical Framework
2.1 Entrepreneurial Marketing
Traditionally, marketing and entrepreneurship are considered to be two separate academic
fields. Over past 30 years, with the acceleration and boom of the entrepreneurship, a large
amount of young firms are emerging. Within the marketing and managerial academic
communities, increasing scholars has paid more attention to these young firms and SMEs
which were neglected in traditional business before. (Hill, Hultman and Mile, 2008)
Different from large, resource‐abundant company, these small, entrepreneurial firms are
resource constraints, capability limits, business objectives, and marketing as a tool often
employed by the entrepreneurs to gain competitive advantage (Miles and Darroch 2006).
Marketing is regard as a key factor to the success of new firms. (Gruber, 2004). However,
these small and entrepreneurial firms are not well served by the theoretical and empirical
study in “mainstream” marketing area which promotes the study movement on the
interface of marketing and entrepreneurship. (Morris, Schindehutte, and LaForge2002;
Hills and LaForge 1992a)
According to Hill, Hultman and Mile (2008), the evolution and development of
Entrepreneurial Marketing can be classified into two stages. In the nascent stage, several
research conferences were held to discuss marketing and entrepreneurship research
directions and the scholars supposed that EM should be ranked into other specialized
marketing areas, such as service marketing, international marketing, etc. In the growth
stage, the quantity and quality of research on EM is gradual growth and the frontier of
knowledge was expanding continually by the studies on theories, processes and tools of
“mainstream” marketing (Collinson & Shaw, 2001)
However, the concept of entrepreneurial marketing is extremely fragmented and
somewhat loosely so far, different researches combine the conceptualizations of
6
entrepreneurship and marketing from different views. (Kraus et al., 2009) Some
researchers focus on the marketing in small and young firms (Hill and Wright, 2000; Stokes,
2002a; Bjerke & Hultman, 2002,Jones and Rowley, 2009). Some definitions do not have
explicit direction to the firm size or age (Morris et al., 2002; Kraus, 2009), and others
emphasis on the relationship between AM and EM firms. (Hill et al, 2008, Morrish, 2010)
Before we get further understanding of entrepreneurial marketing, the meaning of the
terms “entrepreneurship” and “marketing” should be reviewed firstly in the following
paragraphs.
2.1.1 Entrepreneurship
Nowadays, entrepreneurship is universal. It exists in western market economy, transition
market economy and in developing country. Entrepreneurship exists in business context –
starting new venture, within large existing companies ‐ corporate entrepreneurship, and in
social context ‐ social entrepreneurship. The concept of entrepreneurship has a wide range
of meanings, more specifically the term entrepreneur or entrepreneurship has different
meanings in different countries and languages. Some people use the term entrepreneurship
referring to small and micro business; others refer to corporate entrepreneurship or
high‐growth firms. Tracing the history of the term “entrepreneur”, it originates from the
French work entreprendre, which means “to undertake” and was first introduced by the
Irish economist Richard Cantillon (1755). After that, more scholars worked on
entrepreneurship. Some historical definitions are summarized in Table 1.
7
Table 1 Historical definitions
Author Definitions
Richard Cantillon (circa 1730)
“Entrepreneurship is defined as self‐employment of any sort. Entrepreneurs buy at certain prices in the present and sell at uncertain prices in the future. The entrepreneur is a bearer of uncertainty.”
Jean Baptiste Say (1816)
“The entrepreneur is the agent ‘who unites all means of production and who finds in the value of the products…the reestablishment of the entire capital he employs, and the value of the wages, the interest, and the rent which he pays, as well as profits belonging to himself.”
Frank Knight (1921)
“Entrepreneurs attempt to predict and act upon change within market. Knight emphasizes the entrepreneur’s role in bearing the uncertainty of market dynamics. Entrepreneurs are required to perform such fundamental managerial functions as direction and control.”
Joseph Schumpter (1934)
“The entrepreneur is the innovator who implements change within markets through the carrying out of new combinations. As such, the entrepreneur moves the market away from equilibrium.”
Penrose (1963)
“Entrepreneurial activity involves identifying opportunities within the economic system. Managerial capacities are different from entrepreneurial capacities.”
Kirzner (1979) “The entrepreneur recognizes and acts upon market opportunities. The entrepreneur is essentially an arbitrageur.”
Harvey Leibenstein ( 1968,1979)
“The entrepreneur fills market deficiencies through input‐completing activities. Entrepreneurs involves activates necessary to create or carry on an enterprise where not all markets are well established or clearly defined and /or in which relevant parts of the
8
production function are not completely known.”
Rothwell and Zegveld ( 1982)
“Intracoporate entrepreneurship is related to the creation of a new business inside the large corporation, a phenomenon that increases in importance along with degree of concentration of industry, and particularly of the science intensive industries.”
Quoted in Hebert & Link (1988,p.21)
“Someone who engages in exchange for profit; specifically, he or she is someone who exercises business judgment in the face of uncertainty.”
Gartner (1988,p.26) “The creation of new organizations.”
Stevenson, Roberts, and Grousbeck (1989)
“Entrepreneurship is the process of creating value by bringing together a unique package of resources to exploit an opportunity.”
Timmons (1994) “Entrepreneurship is creating something of value from practically nothing.”
Bygraves (1997) “An entrepreneur is someone who perceives an opportunity and creates an organization to pursue it.”
Shane and
Venkataraman (2000,p.218)
“The scholarly examination of how, by whom, and with what effects opportunities to create future goods and services are discovered, evaluated and exploited.”
Ucbasaran (2008,p.221)
“a field of business that seeks to understand how opportunities to create something new (e.g. new products or services or new markets) arise and are discovered or created by specific persons, who then use various means to exploit or develop them, this producing a wide range of effects.”
Resource: Summarized and amended from Ashalata &Acharya, 2009; Deborah, MPH, CSP, CET, COHN‐S and SafeTech Consultants, Inc., 2006; James, 2006; Michael, Minet and Raymond, 2001; Michael, Clare and Alison, 2006)
As shown in the table 1, although entrepreneurship has been studied for more than 200
years, there is no consistent definition accepted by researchers. Definitions have
emphasized a broad range of activities and functions including: nature of self‐employment,
9
exchange function, the bearing of uncertainty, the carrying out of new combinations, the
exploration of opportunities, resource allocation /investment, ( large) intra‐firm activity,
the bringing together of factors of production, the creation of organizations, research fields.
The entrepreneurship studies are combined with many scientific fields. Thus, the
definitions are different from different fields such as economics, strategic management,
business studies, psychology, sociology, technology, and innovation studies, etc.
Strategic management literature has been of profound influence in the field of
entrepreneurship. The following section draws upon the consensus in the strategic
management and entrepreneurship writing, related to the topic of the organizational
predisposition to entrepreneurial management processes. (Kurgun, Bagiran, Ozeren and
Maral, 2011) There are three underlying dimensions that hold the view of the concept of
entrepreneurship: innovativeness, risk‐taking, and proactive orientation (Miller and
Friesen, 1982,Covin and Slevin, 1991; Ginsberg, 1985; Miller and Friesen, 1983; Morris and
Paul, 1987, Miles and Arnold, 1991; Morris, Avila and Allen, 1993; Caruna, Morris and Vella,
1998; Barringer and Bluedorn, 1999 ) Innovativeness pertain to looking for creative, or
novel way to solve problems and needs by developing new products, technologies and new
markets, offering services and new processes. Risk‐taking refers to the willingness of
managers to make reasonable decisions when organization is facing environmental
ambiguity and uncertainties. The word “risk” is different from “uncertainty”. The former
one can be measured and insured but the later one cannot be predicted and uncontrollable.
Proactive orientation is connected with implementation and makes an entrepreneurial
concept happen by using any methods which are necessary. It usually requires for breaking
with existing models to carry out a task and hands‐on management styles are important. It
frequently implies much perseverance, flexibility, and willingness to facing frustration.
(Morris, Schindehutte and LaForge, 2002) Generally, these three underlying dimensions have
been used to indicate the general construct of organization entrepreneurial orientation (Covin,
1991; Miller, 1983) and the extent to which a given organization is entrepreneurial.( Kurgun,
et.al, 2011) As shown above, the study of entrepreneurship are often combined with many
10
scientific fields, such as the field of marketing. As the statement from Miles and Arnold (1991),
the entrepreneurial orientation is positively correlated to marketing orientation. Marketing is
regard as a key factor to the success of new firms. (Gruber, 2004)
2.1.2 Marketing
The elements of marketing changes with the times and many scholars give the definition of
marketing from different aspects. The American Marketing Association (AMA) is a driving
academic and professional association. In order to show the situation of the marketing field,
AMA refines the definition for marketing every five years. In 1985, AMA defined the
“Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and
distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and
organizational goals” (Bennet, 1988). At that time, AMA mainly focused on “large,
resource‐abundant enterprise organizations with highly administrative function whereas
they ignored small firm organizations with entrepreneurial spirits” (Hilis, Hultman, and
Miles, 2008, p.100). Miles and Darroch (2006) supposed this myopic perspective has
tended to ignore the more entrepreneurial firms which are usually resource constraints,
capability limits and business objectives. These entrepreneurs often consider marketing as
a tool to gain competitive advantage. However AMA’s improved their definition in 2004,
“Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating,
and delivering, value to customers and for managing customer, relationships in ways that
benefit the organization and its stakeholders” (Keefe, 2004, p. 17, emphasis by the authors).
This definition implicitly give the allowance of marketing differences and the processes of
marketing function value creating within company of different organizational contexts
(Carson 2000, 1999). In 2007, AMA pays more attention to entrepreneurship functions in
marketing. The updated definition of marketing is “Marketing is the activity, set of
institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings
that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” Obviously, the updated
11
definition consider marketing activities to be a broader activity which offer the improved
products and services continuously in order to satisfy long term value for customer
rather than considering narrowly as a short‐term benefit for the stakeholders or
organization (Kurgun et. al., 2011). Kotler defined the marketing management as “the art
and science of choosing target markets and getting, keeping, and growing customers
through creating, delivering, and communicating superior customer value” ( kotler,
2009,p6).
Traditionally, the marketing activities are generally summarized into four categories—
Product, Price, Place and Promotion (4Ps) which is also called the marketing mix model.
Promotion is not a single tool but have sub variable, which is called promotion mix or
integrated marketing communications including advertising, sales promotion, public
relations, personal selling, and direct marketing(kotler, 2009). As mass markets have
fragmented, the challenge of marketing communication is to blend the elements of the
marketing mix to shifting away from mass marketing to segmented marketing which
“reflects the needs of key target customer audiences, while also enabling the firm to
differentiate itself from competitors on a sustainable basis…the marketing mix elements
are adapted over time to reflect changing market dynamics as products evolve through
their life cycles” (Morris, Schindehutte and LaForge, 2002,p3 ).
2.1.3 The Relationship between Marketing and Entrepreneurship
Based on the discussed above, it shows that the concept of each entrepreneurship and
marketing have different definitions from different aspects. Hence, there might be
multitude definitions of entrepreneurial marketing by combining the concept and
interrelation of entrepreneurship and marketing from different perspective.
12
According to Morris et al. (2004), there are two major streams for investigating the
marketing–entrepreneurship interface. The first stream of the interface can be seen as the
role of marketing in entrepreneurship. This aspect of the usage refers to using marketing
tools, concept, and the theory in an unsophisticated and personal way for the startup or
small business that are resource‐constrained (Morris et al.,2004). The second stream of the
interface can be referred to the role of entrepreneurship in marketing. It means that
entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviors can be used in an unplanned, non‐linear and
visionary way to develop the marketing actions (Morris et al., 2004).
The following Table 2 shows some of the definitions of EM summarized from the literature
from 2000‐2011. Some researchers focus on the marketing in small and young firms (Hill
and Wright, 2000; Stokes, 2002a; Bjerke & Hultman, 2002). Some definitions do not have
explicit direction to the firm size or age (Morris et al., 2002; Hill et al, 2008; Kraus et al,
2009), and some have relevance for large organizational contexts (Miles & Darroch,
2006);others emphasis on the relationship between AM and EM firms. (Morrish, 2010)
Table 2: Definitions of EM
Author Definitions
Hill and Wright (2000, p. 25)
“A new stream of research describes the marketing orientation of small firms as ‘entrepreneurial marketing’. This means a style of marketing behavior that is driven and shaped by the owner manager’s personality.”
Stokes (2000a,p. 2)
“marketing carried out by entrepreneurs or owner‐managers of entrepreneurial ventures”
Stokes (2000a,p. 13)
“The entrepreneurial marketing concept is focused on innovations and the development of ideas in line with an intuitive understanding of market needs; […].”
Morris et al.(2002,p.5)
“The proactive identification and exploitation of opportunities for acquiring and retaining profitable customers through innovative approaches to risk management, resource leveraging and value creation”.
13
Bjerke and Hultman (2002, p. 15)
EM is the “marketing of small firms growing through Entrepreneurship.”
Miles & Darroch, (2006, p.498) The large firms “that adopt EMPs are better suited to discover and create, assess, and exploit attractive entrepreneurial opportunities, and that this enhanced level of corporate entrepreneurship enables the EMP firm to more effectively and efficiently create and renew competitive advantage.”
Hills and Hultman (2008,p.3)
“ EM is ‘a spirit, an orientation as well as a process of passionately pursuing opportunities and launching and growing ventures that create perceived customer value through relationships by employing innovativeness, creativity, selling, market immersion, networking and flexibility’.
Kraus, Harms and Fink, (2009,p9) “Entrepreneurial marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders, and that is characterized by innovativeness, risk‐taking, proactiveness, and may be performed without resources currently controlled.”
Morrish, Miles and Deacon (2010,p.304)
“EM is both wholly traditional AM and wholly entrepreneurship […] (p.304) “[…]marketing and entrepreneurship are synthesized into a comprehensive conceptualization where marketing becomes a proactive opportunity‐focused process that firms can use to act” ( p306)
Although EM concept can be used in both small and large companies, entrepreneurial
marketing in SMEs is different and more important than in large companies. One reason is
that marketing practice is more important for the success of SMEs, compared to planning
and strategy function (Hills and Hultman, 2006). The cycle of entrepreneurial level within
startup companies is typically varies over time (Bjerke & Hultman, 2002). When
entrepreneur set up firms, they often use EM as marketing strategy to take action. With
development of the firms, the organization is becoming mature and stagnation, then the
14
firm need to renew and radicalize its marketing actions. Kotler (2003) also pointed out
similar opinions: with originations growing, there are three stages of marketing practice. In
the first development phase, the company is small so the degree of entrepreneurship is
high and the lever of formalization in marketing practices is low, thus EM is related to the
first development phase. Due to my experiential knowledge and investigation, I know the
business operated by Dutch micro craft entrepreneurs are small, even micro business and
they always stay in the first stage. Thus, the marketing practice conducted by these Dutch
micro craft entrepreneurs belongs to entrepreneurial marketing.
Morris et al. (2002) developed seven core dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing:
proactive orientation, calculated risktaking, innovativeness, opportunity focus,
resource leveraging, costumer intensity, and value creation, which explore the
construct of EM. In this thesis, it will be used for constructing the concept map in order to
analysis the entrepreneurial marketing conducted by Dutch micro craft business. The
reason why this framework is selected to analysis the entrepreneurial marketing activity in
my thesis is that it is accepted in general. Darroch applied Morris et al.’s (2002) framework
of EM to large corporations to explore better how large firms mimic SMEs in their ability to
leverage EM in the pursuit of competitive advantage in 2006 . ( Morrish, Miles and
Deacon,2010) Kraus ( 2009) proposed a definition of EM which is very close to the one
proposed by Morris et al. (2000,p. 5) In the recent research by Kurgun, Bagiran, Ozeren and
Mral ( 2011) they also use this seven dimensions to assess the entrepreneurial marketing
in boutique hotels. In this framework, the proactiveness, calculated risk‐taking,
innovativeness and opportunity focus are entrepreneurial orientation; the resource
leveraging is related to guerrilla marketing; the costumer intensity and value creation is
marketing orientation dimensions (Morris et al., 2002)
15
2.2 Entrepreneurial Approaches to Promotion——Guerrilla marketing
As shown above, Guerrilla Marketing is related to resource leveraging. In 1983, Jay Conrad
Levinson introduced “Guerrilla Marketing” in his book which offers new marketing ideas
and philosophy for small business owner. These ideas are novel, innovative and can be
operated with a small budget. The philosophy of guerrilla marketing based on using
non‐traditional marketing channels, customer proximity, insistency, and patience to gain
success. (Levinson, 2007) It is novel, innovative and proactive ways of marketing
commonly used in new or established enterprise and can be seen as an alternative
perspective compared to traditional marketing. For example, in traditional marketing,
companies often use classical advertisement for promotion, but small business owner need
to use more cost‐efficient tools for promotion. Guerrilla marketing focus on tactic and
promotion instead of strategy and entire marketing mix with the characteristic of “low cost,
effective communications, cooperative efforts and networking, leveraging resources, using
energy and imagination” (Morris et al., 2002, p3). Nowadays, Guerrilla Marketing is
“best‐known and momentarily most successful forms of EM in terms of an entrepreneurial
approach to promotion and can be regarded as the ancestor of the other EM concepts” (Kraus,
et al., 2009, p11).
2.2.1 Weapons of Guerrilla Marketing
Over past decades, guerilla marketer created many innovative methods which were called
weapons. These innovative ways support the root philosophy of guerilla marketing and can
be easily used by small and medium‐sized companies. With the technological development,
guerilla marketing continues to evolve and mature, at the same time some new ways was
included in the old weapon systems. As shown in the table 3, Levinson (2007) classified
two hundreds weapons into eight categories: Minimedia, Maxmedia, E‐Media, Info‐Media,
Info‐Media, Nonmedia, Company Attributes and Company Attitudes.
16
Table 3: Eight categories of guerilla marketing weapons
Categories Characteristics Weapons
Minimedia Due to little practice played by large companies in Minimedia, SMEs come across little competition in these arenas. Personal, friendly, and informal but professional.
Personal letters; yellow pages; postcards; value story; back‐end sales; attendance at trade shows; letters of recommendation; etc.
Maxmedia Mass‐market media; mistakes cost extremely; focus on selling and creating a powerful desire to buy; enhance the success of Minimedia marketing
Newspaper ads; radio spots; TV commercials; Magazines ads; billboards; direct mail
E‐Media Take advantage of internet technology to communicate with customers. Internet is a profit‐producing marketing and direct‐marketing weapon. It is the best relationship builder.
Web site; search engine ranking; blogs; podcasting; electronic brochures; pay per click ads; E‐books; sponsored links; reciprocal link exchanges; etc.
Info‐Media A valuable marketing way keeping out of standard marketing textbooks. If disseminated the provided information properly, sale and cash or other benefits will be bring.
Free consultations; research studies; newsletter; a speech; free seminars; business directory; specific customer data; article; constant learning; etc.
Human Media Less about thins but more about people and ideas. It can be used for all kinds of business with low cost and have potential to transform a business.
Yourself; your employees an reps; employee attire; your own circle of influence; contact time with customers; network; etc.
Nonmedia, Invest time, energy, imagination and information but no money cost. Nonguerrillas do not focus on that. Overlooked this will lead to the lack of profits.
Service; public relations; fusion marketing; gifts; trade show booth; barter; special event; coupons; guarantee; follow‐up
Company Attributes The attributes is important for SMEs, without them, companies will lose money. It is not hard to create and implement and can bring competitive advantages.
Name; positioning; proper view of marketing; copywriting ability; location;hours of operation; price reputation; testimonials; etc.
17
Company Attitudes Attitude is most important things in marketing practice. If attitude is bad, that will undo lots of good works. It is omnipresent and visible and a unconsciously factor between the relationship of customers and business owners.
Easy to do business with; honest interest in people; telephone demeanor; passion and enthusiasm; sensitivity; speed; attention to details; action; generosity; high energy;etc.
(Source: Levinson, 2007)
2.3 Creative entrepreneurs
At this moment, there is no official definition of creative entrepreneurs. McGuinness, a
coach for artists, creatives and entrepreneurs, point out in his article that creative
entrepreneurs are doing their business by a passion to create special things and expressive
relationships. They have different types, such as the artists making a living from their
artwork; entrepreneurs who use creative ways to do their business; independents who
want to live with a unique lifestyle, etc. In general, creative entrepreneurs don’t follow the
traditional entrepreneurial path. They have no interest in enlarging their business scales.
Thus, they often lies on themselves instead VC funding. Although they are open mind to get
profit and impact but they are not that aggressive to beyond themselves and a few
co‐conspirators.
Charles Leadbeater and Kate Oakley are outstanding consultants and analysts on the area
of creative and new economy in the Blair government. In their report The Independents:
Britain’s New Cultural Entrepreneurs (1999), they give the following descriptions of what
the creative entrepreneurs are:
“These independents are often selfemployed, freelancers and microbusinesses of no more
than five people and often producers, designer, retailers and promoters all at the same time.
They do not fit into neat categories. The independents thrive on informal networks through
which they organize work, often employing friends and former classmates. Although some are
ambitious entrepreneurs, many want their businesses to stay small because they want to
18
retain their independence and their focus on their creativity... they have few tangible assets
other than a couple of computers. They usually work from home or from nondescript. Their
main assets are their creativity, skill, ingenuity and imagination…” (Charles & Kate, 1999,
p11)
The creative entrepreneurs are important. Charles & Kate (1999) gave six main reasons to
prove their importance in their article. Job and growth; cultural industries play a key role
in offering job and promoting economic growth. Local economic growth; cultural
industries can offer sustainable job to local communities. These jobs are different from the
job offered by large multinational companies which are deeply influenced by the ups and
downs of global economy. A new model of work; the creative entrepreneur is a career
which combines projects, contacts and skill and often work with new technology. It appeals
to the young people and other industries, such as service industries. In these industries, the
self‐employment and micro‐business are growing. A model of creative production; the
creative entrepreneurs create a creative production model with highly collaborative,
creative and network. It point out how to commercialized and apply creativities in other
industries. The future of cities; the creative entrepreneurs play a key role in rebranding
the new cultural image of a city. They can take over the old offices, warehouses and
factories and give it a new vitality. They can turn the cities which once based their
identities around manufacture and trade to sport and culture. This change will give the old
cities a new expression and attract more tourists, investments and students. Social
cohesion; the creative entrepreneurs also play increasing significant role in promoting
social cohesion and a sense of belonging. In the past days, work, religion or trade unions
can offer a public place to people in diversified, fragmented and unequal society. Now art,
culture and sport can meet this need.
19
Chapter 3 Methodology
3.1 Research Design
Qualitative research methods are selected for my study both because I do not know a priori
what I will find and because I want to examine, understand, and consider the phenomena to
construct a deep and profound picture. Qualitative research is often related to case studies.
Yin (2003) points out that case studies could be divided into three strategies—exploratory,
descriptive and explanatory based on different purpose. In practice, the three strategies are
large overlapped. For this research design, it is both an exploratory and descriptive. Cooper
and Schindler (2006) point out that exploration research design is particularly useful when
the topic investigated may be very new or so vague. This study employs exploratory design
since the concept of entrepreneurial marketing applied by creative entrepreneur and
specifically for Dutch creative entrepreneurs running micro craft businesses is relatively
new and untouched issue. At the same time, the purpose of this research includes the
description of their entrepreneurial marketing activities and the innovative ways of
marketing used by these creative entrepreneurs (such as guerrilla marketing) therefore,
this research combines the design characteristics of descriptive case studies. “Case study
has a distinct advantage when a ‘how’ or ‘why’ question is being asked about a
contemporary set of events over which the investigator has little or no control.”(Yin, 2003,
p11) Considering the research question belongs to ‘how’ form, adopting the case study
design is preferred. Compared to single‐case designs, multiple‐case designs are considered
more compelling and the whole study will be more robust, thereby increasing the validity.
In addition, multiple cases can offers a deeper understanding of processes and outcomes of
cases, as Miles and Huberman (1994) suggest. Since this study is not dependent on a single
critical, extreme, unique, or revelatory case which is only suitable for single‐case designs;
therefore multiple‐case designs is chosen for this research. (Yin, 2003)
20
3.2 Conceptual map
Figure 1: Conceptual map
This conceptual map develops and clarifies the constructed theoretical framework in my
thesis. The conceptual map provides a simplified picture and guideline of my study. The
questions of semi structured interview will cover all the themes presented in the
conceptual map to analyze each case. The left part of this conceptual map consists of
themes derived from the seven core dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing which is
proposed by Morris et al. (2002). They defined EM is: “the proactive identification and
exploitation of opportunities for acquiring and retaining profitable customers through
innovative approaches to risk management, resource leveraging and value creation.” (2002,
p5)
The author point out that the seven components that comprise entrepreneurial marketing
are not independent and not all of the dimensions need to be operating at once for
entrepreneurial marketing to occur. (Morris et al. 2002). For example, at the tactical level,
entrepreneurs can use guerrilla marketing to operate the elements of marketing mix. This
Proactive Orientation
Opportunity Focus
Customer Intensity
Calculated Risk Taking
Value Creation
Innovativeness
Resource Leveraging How Guerrilla Marketing
21
is an innovative way of marketing which can leverage resources and manage or mitigate
risks. In order to realize the practical goals of this study—— meeting the needs of Dutch
micro craft business owners who are willing to know what marketing tools can help them
to do better businesses. The right part of this conceptual map is focus on guerrilla
marketing because it is commonly used and suitable for small and medium‐sized
companies as an innovative marketing tool. The highlights of guerrilla marketing part are
focused on promotion function, because guerilla marketing is nowadays predominantly
used for the marketing mix “P” Promotion, although it can be used for 4P’s. Kraus,et al.,
(2009, p11) also highlights this tool in her recent article of EM. She point out that guerrilla
marketing is “best‐known and momentarily most successful forms of EM in terms of an
entrepreneurial approach to promotion…”
According to the discussion above, the research question of this thesis is:
How can Dutch creative entrepreneurs running micro craft businesses conduct
entrepreneurial marketing activities?
It can be divided into two sub‐questions: (schematically presented in the conceptual map
above)
1、How can seven dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing be applied by Dutch micro craft
businesses?
2、How do Dutch micro craft businesses use guerrilla marketing as a promotion tool to
communicate with their customers?
22
3.3Data collection
In terms of data collection, Evidence has to be collected systematically; Yin (2003)
identified at least six sources of evidence in case studies: documentation, archival records,
interviews, direct observation, participant observation and physical artifacts. Every source
has its strengths and weakness. Observation and interviews are most frequently used. For
case studies, the most important use of documents is to corroborate and augment evidence
from other sources. First, documents are helpful in verifying the correct spelling and titles
or name of organizations that might have been mentioned in an interview. Second,
documents can provide other specific details to corroborate information from other
sources. Third, you can make inferences from document. (Yin, 2003, p 87) One major
advantage of the interview is its adaptability. However there are problems, of course.
Interviews are time‐consuming, and this is a master lever thesis so the time to conduct this
research is too short. So the author will be able to interview only a relatively small number
of people. “If you are using a structured or semi‐structured format which enables you to
tick or circle responses on your previously prepared schedule, you should be able to leave
the interview with a set of responses that can be fairly easily recorded, summarized and
analyzed.” (Bell, 2005, P140).In view of the types of research question and the time
limitation, semi‐structured interview will be adopted in this study. Merriam (1998) said a
semi‐structured interview is a mix of highly structured interviews and unstructured
interviews. It can be used to get target information but also have some room for more
information. “By making a field visit to the case study ‘site’ you are creating the opportunity
for direct observations.”(Yin, 2003, p92). According to the research questions, semi
structured interview will be the primary sources of data collection for this study. In
addition, observation and documentation also will be used for validity.
23
3.4 Cases collection
Miles and Huberman (1994, p 25) defines “a case as a phenomenon of some sort occurring
in a bounded context. The case is, in effect, your unit of analysis. […] the ‘phenomenon’ may
be an individual in a defined context or defined by a role, or a small group, an organization,
a community or a nation. […] In addition, a case can also be defined by events or processes
occurring over a specified period.” In this study, the focus of the case is creative
entrepreneurs and the unit of analysis is the entrepreneurial marketing activities and the
innovative ways of marketing used by those creative entrepreneurs. The boundary defines
Dutch and running micro craft businesses as the context.
According to Yin (2003) replication logic is applied to collect case for case studies, which is
distinguished from the sampling logic commonly used in survey. Each case should be
selected for a specific purpose of the study. Maxwell (2005, p 88) points out the similar
opinion for qualitative research, “quantitative methods texts typically recognize only two
main types of sampling: probability sampling (such as random sampling) and convenience
sampling. However, in qualitative research, the typical way of selecting settings and
individuals is neither probability sampling nor convenience sampling.” Maxwell (2005) call
the third category is purposeful selection or purposeful sampling. Other term is
criterion‐based selection. ( LeCompte & Preissle, 1993,p.69) “This is a strategy in which
particular setting, persons, or activities are selected deliberately in order to provide
information that can’t be gotten as well from other choices.”(Maxwell, 2005, p.88) Unlike
the meaning of sampling in quantitative research (representing the population sampled), in
my qualitative study, I don’t need to get an empirically “representative” sample. The cases
are purposefully selected with replication logic under following criteria:
1. The entrepreneurs are the producers of handmade crafts for their businesses.
2. Employees of the businesses are less than 5 people.
24
3. The entrepreneurs have sole responsibility for marketing planning and
implementation.
4. Using at least one kind weapon of guerrilla marketing as a promotion tool.
5. The businesses last for at least 3 years.
Through extensive research on the website (http://www.flavourites.nl ), going to craft fair
to collect the business cards of the entrepreneurs, using online business/entrepreneurship
magazines, a number of Dutch creative entrepreneurs running micro craft business were
selected.
3.5 Data analysis
According to LeCompte (2000), the data analysis process consists of five stages: tidying up,
finding items, creating stable sets of items, creating patterns and assembling structures. In
the first step, tidying up is important and necessary which can help researchers make
initial assessment of the data. After that, items (units of analysis) need to be found.
Researchers use systematic processes to read interview transcripts and field notes in order
to sift and sort the data which are related to the research questions. The third step is to
compare and contrast the items identified in step two and classify them into categories.
The forth step is to identify pattern after stable sets of items are emerged. “Patterns are
made up of taxonomies that seem to fit together or be related to one another” (LeCompte,
2000, p.150). Finally, researchers need to assemble the patterns into structures and give a
comprehensive description or explanation of the whole phenomenon.
In this thesis, the first step is to tidy up the data and the general information of the six cases
are presented from the qualitative data gathered from six interviews. Then the eight
themes presented in sub questions are used to sift and sort the data thereby finding the
items. (proactiveness, calculated risk‐taking, innovativeness, opportunity focus, resource
25
leveraging, costumer intensity, value creation and guerrilla marketing). Then rich
qualitative data are used to convince the relevant and explain each category. Patterns are
identified and assembled into structures to link with the theory and give a comprehensive
description or explanation to the research questions.
Chapter 4 Finding, Analysis and Discussion
4.1 General information of the cases
The results from the interviews shows that all of interviewed Dutch craft business are micro.
They only have 1 or 2 employees and the creative entrepreneurs are playing multifunction in
their business and they basically work at home. These results are in concordance with the
findings of Charles & Kate, (1999, p11) about the characteristic of creative entrepreneurs:
“These independents are often selfemployed, freelancers and microbusinesses of no more
than five people and often producers, designer, retailers and promoters all at the same time.
They do not fit into neat categories. The independents thrive on informal networks through
which they organize work, often employing friends and former classmates. Although some are
ambitious entrepreneurs, many want their businesses to stay small because they want to
retain their independence and their focus on their creativity... they have few tangible assets
other than a couple of computers. They usually work from home or from nondescript. Their
main assets are their creativity, skill, ingenuity and imagination…” (Charles & Kate, 1999,
p11).
In this part, the general information of six cases is summarized in table 4 following the detailed description of each case.
26
Table 4: Overview general information of six cases
Company Established year
Number of employees
Main products
Sales points Location of companies
A
2006 1 Handmade jewelry and accessories
12 Hulst
B 2007 2 children’s clothing and accessories
32 Almere
C 2009 2 birth and wedding cards
9 Utrecht
D 2009 1 tricycle pillows,
scarves, belt,bibs, toys etc. for children
1 Krommenie
E 2000 1 Oil painting,Watercolors,
and decoration
with paintings on animals themes
36 Sneek
F 2009 1 recycled materials bags
4 Den Haag
Case A
Case A is a handmade jewelry and accessories brand designing and producing business
founded by an enthusiastic creative entrepreneur in 2006. The style of this brand is hip,
happy, colorful, unique using much different materials. It feels good! At beginning, the
owner just sells her products to friends and acquaintances. At this time she sale through
her web shop and several outlets. Her brand is known for its bright colors.
27
Case B
Case B is a business of Dutch design hip children's label for children from 0-8 years with the
style combining east and west. The two creative entrepreneurs started their business in 2007. At
that time both of them play a role of children’s mother at home. So when they want to do a
business, children’s area is their choice. They get together to make fun, cool and affordable
children’s clothing and accessories with the style of combining unique colors, hip patterns and
natural fabrics. Now the selling area of their brand is cover the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain,
Hong Kong and the United Kingdom and expanded even further.
Case C
Case C is a creative paper goods design and product business. It was founded by two sisters
in 2009. They design truly birth and wedding cards for new feeling without harsh colors or
abusive letters. The style of the cards likes the cry of a blue tit. Their work just like magpies
who give beautiful papers, pictures and fabrics to the people who have birth
announcements and wedding invitation. Their products are drawing and clipping originally
and in a personalized way. It is fun and can be hung on the refrigerator or window for long
times.
Case D
Case D is a web based shop founded in February 2009. The store was born from the baby
shower gifts for friends that the founder did before. The owner finds the range of gifts in
the big baby stores are often boring, predictable and too little original and personal. Thus
she decided to make things for themselves by sewing machine. The products are hugs, tag
and teat wipes, bibs, tricycle pillows etc. Many products have the style of retro (child)
substances, Mexican tablecloths and fabrics with nostalgic Holland flavor
28
Case E
Case E is an online gallery set up by a creative artist. He is best known for his watercolors
of cows and other farm animals. On this website people can read lots of information about
his studio and also can order his product—oil and watercolors painting and some
decoration which his painting work printed in. (plates, mugs, cups. Also coasters, oven
mitts, pot holders, one on apron and storage containers, porcelain jar, milk jug, sugar bowl,
cheese board, puzzle, egg cups,etc.) During their opening hours, customers are welcome to
visit his gallery to see if there is anything they want to buy.
Case F
Case F is a label of unique art products, such as bags, paper flowers, curtains, from recycled
materials founded in 2009. The founder gets inspiration from waste and residual materials on the
streets. She makes beautiful new items form the waste and use recycled and residual material,
such as plastic manufacturing waste to redesign and make products. The worn banks may remake
to be a new art piece. Also plastics manufacturing waste deserves a second life. In fact, all the
material is suitable to be processed to a sewing machine. Their products are unique and made in
the owner’s workshop. Sustainability, originality and creativity are paramount in creating
products. The owner has some storage products for their customers but she usually begins to
work when customers make orders. Customers have a strong voice in the design and may for
example decide which liner is used. The sizes of a specific case can be adapted to the tastes of
the customer. The owner not only makes art products by herself, but also allows children to
create art in the workshops. The children are glad to work with material and exploring their
creativity and fun are the end result.
29
4.2 Themes
In this part, the empirical findings of entrepreneurial marketing activities conducted by
Dutch creative entrepreneurs running micro craft businesses are presented and analyzed.
This part is divided in eight sections using the themes (EM seven dimensions and guerrilla
marketing) presented in the sub questions.
4.2.1 Proactive orientation
In terms of the proactive orientation dimension in entrepreneurial marketing seven
dimensions, new product development and new technologies application will infuse vitality
into business. The data form interviews show that all the respondents try to play a role of
“pioneer” to maintain a long term business survival in the craft marketplace.
As pointed out by the owner of case A that “I am trying to do a pioneering business because
people always like unique jewelries which they cannot find in other places. So I need to learn
more continuously.”
The entrepreneur of case B stated “our products are unique in Dutch market. It combines the
style of West and East. That’s why people like it. If you want to satisfy your customers, you
really need to bring something new to the marketplace.”
The owner from case C stated “For me, at beginning the focus of our products is the gap in
existing paper cards market, but we find that some competitors begin to imitate our idea.
[Laughing] So we cannot stop making something new and constantly improve our service
which can maintain our survival in craft marketplace. For example, we pay more attention to
our website layout design. We use new technologies try to give our customer new feeling
which is our business face.”
The owner from case D pointed out that “It is important to develop new product. You cannot
always sell the same thing to people. People will think it is boring. I always try to do
something that other people haven’t attempted, such as my tricycle pillows, people like it.”
30
The entrepreneur from case E expressed the opinion that “My products are not mass market
products. The quantities of my paintings in the market need to below some saturation point
otherwise my paintings will lose its appeal and become cheap goods. So I need to keep the
inspiration for new painting work.”
The owner from case F reported that:
“Actually, there is no No.1 in the craft fields because each brand has its own feature and
attracts the target who likes this feeling. But if you want to maintain a long term survival,
using proactive manner to keeping unique is important. People like the special value of
handmade products, so you cannot make it like the situation of every people having it. There
are lots of opportunities in craft market and you need to find your own way.”
Although all interviewees express proactive orientation manners when doing business, the
extent to which the proactive orientation should be made is related to the budget of craft
business. One of the owners, for example, does not make many products for storage. The
owner produces goods when customers make orders:
“My product is special goods for niche market and I need to control cost. So, I just maintain
very small number of storage. I usually produce goods when people make orders. I cannot
express much proactive orientation in producing, because I need some budget for new
product development and other things.”
When using dynamic manner to offer products and services for customers, balance is an
influential factor during this process: Morris et al., (2004) pointed out that the balance
comes from the right point between leading and adapting to changes in innovation
activities:
Another respondent expressed that:
“I am not truly leader in handmade jewelry area. In fashion industry, every year there have
new trends. I need to adapt to that rather than opposite to it just for special. But I will infuse
31
my own style into it and use other way to let people feel different. Sometimes, some of my
products are similar with other crafters but the whole feeling is different. I often use my
website to communicate my special.”
According to proactive approaches to maintain competitiveness in the craft market, most of
the respondents stated that discovering the gap in the market and taking actions to meet
the customers’ potential needs before their competitors is a crucial way. This is in line with
Miles and Darroch (2006) who pointed out that getting understanding and meeting
customer’s potential needs is important to increasing firm’s competitiveness. One
respondent stated that “we can never stop learning, and we always see if there are some
weaknesses from other crafters. Then we can improve that in our business.” This opinion is in
accordance with Morris et al., (2004) who argued that entrepreneurial marketing as an
integral understanding have important effect on adapting to the environmental changes for
a long term. When entrepreneurs conduct entrepreneurial marketing in their businesses, it
can help them improve corporate skills thereby increasing competitiveness. “…The
proactiveness of entrepreneurial marketing affects the changes in products and services in
terms of maintaining competitiveness” ( Kurgun, et.al, 2011,p.348).
In some sense, collaboration with other crafters can get new techniques and creative ideas.
One respondent shows this perspective: “I don’t need to worry about my competitors too
much because they are also doing very small businesses and don’t have much capacity to
cover the whole market. In fact, we can learn new ideas and cooperate from each other.” This
may due to the characteristics of small craft business, as Leadbeater and Oakley (1999)
stated that creative entrepreneurs are willing to have more connections with each other in
a city or region.
32
4.2.2 Calculated risktaking
According to the risk‐taking approaches, all the responders stated that they need to have
entrepreneurial spirits in taking risk, because of the opportunity contained in the risk.
Keep unique is crucial for them, so they always need to find take action in new business
ventures. This is in line with Miller (1983) who expressed that willing to take risky
ventures and discover proactive innovations to improve business are important qualities.
But one thing need to be mentioned here is that risk management is important when
making use of the opportunities Morris et al., (2002). The results from respondents are in
accordance with this. Before making investment decisions, they use their own way to
measure the risk. If it is rational and calculable, they will take action to utilize this
opportunity. The main approach of risk management for them is testing prototypes
products in the market before making formal products. They usually use this way to
evaluate the opportunities.
“If I have an idea of new products which are not available in the existing market, testing is
important and useful for me. It can reduce my risk. If the prototypes products are popular, this
will be a good opportunity for me and if I am luck, this may become a hot item” stated by one
respondent. Another interviewee pointed out that “my business is different from other
business, there are lot of opportunities can be identified. I don’t need to worry too much about
the risk, because the cost is not that much. I just make one or two sample products and see
what customer’s reactions are. If they don’t like it, I will stop making that.”
4.2.3 Innovativeness
In terms of innovativeness, the data from interviews shows that all the respondents make
innovation constantly. Generally speaking, the innovation is made every half year to one
year. All the interviewees trace the new trends in the craft market. The way of managing
33
and react to the new trends are similar, although some differences exist. The table 6
provides the overview of the method used by each entrepreneur.
Table 6: The methods of managing and react to the new trends
CASE
A
CASE
B
CASE
C
CASE
D
CASE
E
CASE
F
Making observations by
attending craft fairs
☆
☆
☆
☆
☆
☆
Reading craft consumer
and trade journals and
magazines
☆
☆
☆
☆
☆
☆
Subscribing digital
newsletters about the
latest news in craft
industry
☆
☆
☆
☆
☆
Travelling
☆
☆
☆
Watching fashion shows
☆
☆
Observing what new
products are launched in
other relevant shops
☆
☆
☆
☆
☆
☆
Watching relevant craft
TV programmers.
☆
☆
☆
Paying attention to what
my customers want to
buy and communicate
with them.
☆
☆
☆
☆
☆
☆
Buying the new
published craft books
☆
☆
☆
☆
☆
Joining online craft
forums
☆
☆
34
All the respondents keep tracing the new trends in craft industry because it can offer the
direction of what to go and minimize risk of new product development. In general, all of
them make innovations continuously to provide better products and services for their
customers and they think it is critical to further success. The result in line with Covin and
Slevin (1991) who pointed out that innovation is very important to success according to
business and competitiveness. Every respondent has entrepreneurial marketing culture
when they do their business which stimulates the generation of new product concepts. This
is in accordance with the opinion of Martin (2009). On the other hand, Morris et. al. (2004)
pointed out the ability of maintaining a flow of new ideas need to be taken into account
when we make constantly innovation. However, the extent to which the entrepreneurs
have already made innovations or intent to make in further is different. It depends on the
characteristic of the business, firm’s life stages, firm’s ability and budget.
For example, in general, the frequency of innovation is made by the owner every half year
to one year. Due to different abilities and life stages of the firms, the innovation frequency
is different. As one of the owners stated that:
“Recently I add new service in my web shop. People can chat with me online. I don’t have this
function in my website before. But I think this will let people trust me more and communicate
with me directly. I think it will give me competitive advantage. And I always pay attention to
my customer’s feedback and try to improve my product and service. But actually, I don’t have
too much time to do it before. 5 months ago, I just see this as a side job. I am just a parttime
entrepreneur. Now I am fulltime to run my business. So I have more time to do.”
The other owner stated that:
“I constantly pay attention to the new trends. I think it can bring me some inspirations. I will
see what innovation I can make for my new products. For example, I always observe if there
are some new techniques, materials, motifs, colors, etc. can be used for my design or update
the old version. […] I have innovation plan recently, actually I always have, indeed. I follow
35
new trends in order to update my product. But I don’t just follow all of them. I have my own
judgment. Sometimes I use my instincts and add my own idea in it. Because I think if
everybody follow the trends, the product will be similar. That is terrible. My craft business
needs to be unique. That is my DNA.”
This result shows that the characteristic of the craft business decided they need to make
innovation continuously because people are more like unique craft stuff than other stuff.
When crafters make innovation, the firm’s ability and budget have influence on their
innovation activities. For example, one of a respondent stated that :
“In fact, internet is very important to me, because I only have few retail outlets to sell my
product. I mainly use my own website to sell. So I need to put my energy in my website from
building to promoting it. The cost of building website is much cheaper than before but when
you build that, you need to promote it otherwise no one know you. I always think about how
to use some new ways to promote it and I am willing to try any new technology or methods if I
can afford the cost.”
4.2.4 Opportunity Focus
All the interviewees stated that they make efforts to continuously identify something that
other crafters didn’t offer in their regions. They think their businesses can benefit from
finding new market opportunities. It is not only can increase their incomes but also can
bring new horizons and fresh feeling to them. Just as one of the respondent stated that “… It
is a life style business. Identify new things is part of my life. I like to find something new to
inspire me. I don’t like boring things. So do my customers, I think.”
Furthermore, the activities conducted by craft business respondents to select opportunities
are as follows: tracing the new trends in foreign craft market; reading craft consumer and
trade journals and magazines; finding new market opportunities idea from online craft
forums and websites; paying close attention to customer feedback and carry out market
research from customers; building business networks to find the potential opportunity in
36
relevant area; cooperating with other crafters.
Paying close attention to foreign craft market especially for American market is crucial for
selected new market opportunities. As one of the respondent stated that:
“Since Dutch market is very small, many crafters will follow the special idea when it rises.
Then the special will become normal one. So I always try to find new idea from other
countries, especially from American. The main craft trends are from there, and it updated
quickly. […] Why I watch out foreign market? I want to find something new which doesn’t
exist in Dutch market. I use this way to find new market opportunities.”
One interesting finding is that sometimes the entrepreneurs meet unexpected new market
opportunities, but they cannot select it. The reasons are various including lack of time,
employees and maintaining relaxing lifestyle but most important reason is that they want
to select opportunities which are in line with their current strategies and position in the
marketplace. This result is in accordance with Christensen (1997) who holds the opinion
that entrepreneurs who use an entrepreneurial marketing perspective have a better
awareness in opportunities evaluation and selection. They are willing to go further
searching new opportunities which are in line with their current strategies and position in
the marketplace.
When the respondents answer how they exploited the opportunities in the craft
marketplace, one of the entrepreneurs takes the view that:
“… many people like our design so we regularly receive requests for web design and corporate
design. It is our new market opportunity. But we cannot process these requests because we
want to fully focus on our main business. We only have two people, process too much work
will let us crazy. Importantly, Web design and corporate design is not our main business. But
if they want other designs, such as editorial illustration, book covers, I am willing to do that.
37
Actually, I set up another studio to handle these work specifically.”
4.2.5 Resource Leveraging
In terms of resource leveraging, all the respondents stated that the main determinant of
identifying and exploiting an opportunity have been hurt by their current limited resources.
But they can use the limited resource to do their business well. Most of them do not have
much ambition to enlarge their business to much. They know their limitation, thus they
utilize the opportunity based on their current situation. They usually do not peruse
external financing because they want to be independent and using their own ways.
Although their resources are limited, they can control outside resources instead of having
that in order to catch the opportunities. This result is in line with Morris et al., (2004) who
stated that entrepreneurial marketing professionals are not limited to existing resources.
They make use of outside resources through controlling that to catch opportunities.
As one of the respondent stated that:
“… I often try to cooperate with others in order to compensate my lack of resources. I have
some partners who have similar customer base with mine. Sometimes we share the costs to
hold special events in order to promote our products.”
Another respondent stated the similar option that “… we exchange website links. It can save
our money for advertise. They can introduce their customer to me and I give my customer’s
information to them as well.” In fact, the majority of the view presented by the respondent
shows that they are leveraging outside resources for marketing purposes. This may
because using resources in marketing activates is one of the most profitable things helping
their survival and growth. For example, one interviewed entrepreneur expressed that they
often use barter to get services or products they want. It can save their costs and go beyond
their existing limited resources in order to avoid missing the opportunities and it is benefit
for both parties. All of the results show that these creative entrepreneurs have
38
entrepreneurial marketing perspective because they are good at using smaller budget to
realize their strategies. The view has been reported by Hills et al., (2008) as well.
4.2.6 Costumer Intensity
In terms of the costumer intensity dimension of entrepreneurial marketing, all of the
respondents think customer’s needs and wants are the first priority of their businesses.
One interest finding is that not all the respondent holds this opinion all the time. A
respondent admitted that she only stick to her own ideas when she began to start her craft
business. At that time she considered the business is not a real business but her hobbies. So
she didn’t focus on customers too much. However, her business encountered troubles and
it is not work without customer’s satisfaction. Now she becomes more customer
orientation because she consider customer as the critical part to her success if she don’t
want her business disappear.
All of the respondents considered that tracing consumer’s preference and adapting to their
changing expectations quickly are very important. They use various methods to get data for
customer intensity, including making simple market research, face‐to‐face communications,
customer feedback posted in their website, Facebook and Twitters, paying close attention
to the new trends, learning from their competitors. Based on the data gathered, they take
actions for customer orientation and try to provide better products, services than old ones
or create new ones which are not exist in current marketplace. For example, one
respondent expressed that:
“Customer’s needs and wants are the first priority of our business. We are curious about their
thoughts and value their feedback. Sometimes their thoughts can give us inspirations. In fact,
some of our products are influenced by our customers. We get their feedback via our
Facebook, Twitters and facetoface communication in craft fair.”
39
The interviewed entrepreneurs also put forward the view that they measure customer
satisfaction constantly through informal ways. They usually use face‐to‐face
communications when they attend in craft fairs, online feedbacks posted by customers and
suggestions from there retail outlets to measure customer satisfaction. The frequency of
customer satisfaction investigation does not have a regular agenda. Basically, every time
when they take new actions, they will measure what customer thoughts is and see what
they can improve in the next step. Based on these obtained customer satisfaction feedbacks,
they use this information to improve their business process efficiently such as rebuilding
faster and more friendly online shop, improving deliver time, offering online chat function
in their online shop, adjusting product size, offering customization, free products etc. For
example, a respondent expressed that:
“… customer like our product but they are not satisfied with our online shop. Through
facetoface communication and the online comments made by them, we know that we can
provide better service for our customer. To be honest, besides our retail outlets, we sell most of
our products mainly on our online shop. So, I think the online shopping experience is very
important when customer buy products through our website. You see, now we build a new
website which can offer better service. It is faster and more friendly than before. We invest
more budgets on that.”
Hill and Wright (2000) found that personal contact time with customer and satisfied
customer networks play important roles for SMEs of doing business and marketing
practice. The finding about maintaining communication with guests is in line with this
opinion. All of the respondents stated that they always maintain communication with
guests even if the customers finish their buying behavior. They think pervious customer’s
base is very important for their businesses. They need to intensify their customer network
in order to enlarge sales and gain valuable referrals from these customers. They know the
cost of maintain old customer is much cheaper than attract new one. They often use
40
various ways to maintain their communication with customers, such as inviting customers
to workshop events, sending newsletter regular, being interactive with customers through
social media (Facebook, Twitters, and Blog), calling repeated customers on special days,
sending emails when new product launch, offering free products.
4.2.7 Value Creation
In terms of value creation, all the respondents expressed that they make efforts to create
value for their customers. Due to limited resource, they try to cooperate with other crafters
to offer more value for their customers. Kotler (2003) indicated that entrepreneurs can use
two main ways to create value for their customers. One way is that increasing the benefits
offering to customers. The other one is that decreasing the costs which customers gain
their products and service should pay. The results from the interview show that these
entrepreneurs are willing to cooperate with other crafters that can compensate their
limited resources and offer more value to their customers, reducing the cost of their
products and service.
The value created by the interviewed entrepreneurs include: free products (electrical wall
paper, test cards), offer user‐customizable products, workshop activates and faster and
friendlier shopping experience and free gift packaging, better service through cooperation
with other crafters. For example,one of the respondents expressed that:
“ Once a time, I sold my products at a craft fair. One customer likes one of my handmade
jewelry but she is hesitated because she thought the price is little bit expensive. I
communicated with her and I knew she want to find some unique necklace and a dress for her
birthday party. Then, I thought I can cooperate with a crafter who product lovely dress. I
think my jewelry is match one of her dress very well and my customer may like it. If she likes
both of this, I can offer her a big discount. Finally, the two items are sold, but most
importantly, my customer is satisfied …”
41
Stokes (2000b) stated that word of mouth communication and customer recommendation
play a key role in entrepreneurial marketing of promotional function. Different from large
companies, SMEs usually heavily rely on informal way to communicate with their
customers. Thus, when they measure the perceived value of their customers, both of the
respondents did that in an informal way. They mainly use face‐to‐face communication,
customer feedback posted in their website, Facebook and Twitters, joining customer
network to gain relevant information. This is in line with Morrish and Deacon (2009) who
point out that monitoring the market through electronic interactive marketing, informal
networks and word of mouth communication is crucial for the entrepreneurial market
process.
4.2.8 Guerrilla Marketing
According to Kraus, et al., (2009) in a sense, guerrilla marketing can be classified into the
other entrepreneurial marketing concepts. It means that small companies or independent
can use various marketing tactics of low‐cost, high‐impacts to act as big firms. Guerrilla
marketing can be applied to the elements of product, place, price and promotion. But the
main function is used for promotion. When the respondents were asked as to how they
use guerrilla marketing as a promotion tool to communicate value to their customers. And
which weapons do you use and which weapons do you think have better performance?
Their responses show that all of them use several weapons of guerrilla marketing to
conduct promotion function although some of them do not know the term of guerrilla
marketing. The following table 7 summarizes their answers.
42
Table 7 guerrilla marketing implementation
Categories Exemplary Quotations Weapons
Minimedia “…I take my business cards with me wherever I go. I design a very unique one which present a lot of valuable information about my business, I think it can help me …” “… sometimes I wrote personal letter for my customers on special day. I think it can express a personal feeling. Our customer will feel warm in their heart.” “ … I use brochures to show what my business is and who I am […]I often show picture of my work, I think people are easy to remember the visually things…” “…many crafters offer gift certificates. It provides new ideas for customers when they want to give a gift to their friends or families…” “I list my business information in yellow pages. I think, for some people , they can find us easier …”
Business cards Personal letters; Yellow pages; Attendance at trade shows
Maxmedia “For maxmedia, I only use magazine ads. In my opinion, the style is fit for my craft business and the cost is affordable...” “For me, magazine advertisements are good to use. It can show the pictures of my crafts in color…”
Magazines ads
E‐Media “… of course, website is crucial for my business. I think almost every crafter use website, not only show our information but also can sell products through that.” “I write Blogs to enlarge my business influence…” “…I exchange my website link with other crafters’ websites and relevant organization.[…]Both of us can benefit from this, and no cost…”
Web site; Blogs; Reciprocal link exchanges
Info‐Media “… I make newsletters when people subscribe it they will receive my free article, product discount and information.
Newsletter; free seminars; article
43
It helps me communicate with my customer regularly.” “… I organize free workshop regularly in order to get customer loyalty…”
Human Media “We offer stories in our website about who we are and why we start this business. We believe people like to buy something with stories.” “…Network is very important for my business. I my first guest is a person from my network…”
Stories Yourself; Network
Nonmedia, “I attend to many craft shows to sell my jewelers. That is good place to communicate with people face‐to‐face and build my trust among them…” “…I have ever utilized public relations to increase my visibility. I have a friend working in media, so…”
Public relations; Fusion marketing; Gifts; Trade show booth; Barter; Special event; Coupons; Guarantee; Follow‐up
Company
Attributes
“You see our brand name. It has special meaning. It is a symbol of what we want to express to our customers.” “Our positioning is unique. As we know, no one offer that in the Dutch market. It our magic weapon.” “We have a program name ‘Baby Without Borders’. We think that all children born in the Netherlands are lucky. Both mother and child get many medical cares that is needed here. But in third world countries, it is very different. We would like to work with our customers to share our love. And ensure that more babies and mothers and stay healthy…” “… there are lots of testimonials in our website. We think people rely on word of mouth more than advertisements.”
Name; Positioning; Cause‐related marketing; Testimonials;
Company
Attitudes
“In fact, doing craft business is not easy. If you don’t have passion and generosity on making stuffs and dealing with people, you cannot go further…”
Passion and enthusiasm; Attention to details; Action; Generosity;
44
“We constantly offer better value for our customers. Better product, better service and good feeling…” “Paying close attention to details of our products is our principle. You know, mothers are always very particular about baby cloths.
High energy
The interview data provide strong evidence that creative entrepreneurs running micro
craft business in the Dutch market use different kinds of guerrilla marketing weapons as a
promotion tool to conduct there entrepreneurial marketing activities. Although some of the
entrepreneurs don’t know the term “guerrilla marketing”, there activates shows that they
did that in practice. According to the eight categories of guerrilla marketing weapons, the
use more Minimedia weapons than Maxmedia ones. It is corresponding to their business
characteristics of resource constraint. Compared to large firms, they integrated personal
attitudes, feelings and beliefs in their businesses to use more Human media and Nonmedia
to promote their businesses. With the development of information technology, people
increasing rely on internet; creative entrepreneurs are sensitive to this trend. As shown
above, E‐Media and Info‐Media also play a key role in there entrepreneurial marketing
activities.
According to the most effective weapons used by these interviewees, the data shows that it
is hard to say which one is best, the respondents tend to use a package of it. They think that
depending on one or two weapons is not enough and combination is powerful. These
comments are in line with Levinson (2007) who argue that every weapon has its own
particular strength. Try to use as many weapons as you can. At beginning, you cannot
maintain that you don’t go wrong way, but constant testing is good way to help you select a
range of weapons matching your target audience in the end.
45
Chapter 5 Conclusion
5.1 Conclusions
This exploratory study examined how Dutch creative entrepreneurs running micro craft
businesses conduct entrepreneurial marketing activities. Specifically, it assessed how
Dutch micro craft businesses carry out seven dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing
(proactive orientation, calculated risk‐taking, innovativeness, opportunity focus, resource
leveraging, costumer intensity, and value creation) in their marketing activities and how
eight categories of guerrilla marketing weapons (Minimedia, Maxmedia, E‐Media,
Info‐Media, Human Media, Nonmedia, Company Attributes, Company Attitudes) are applied
as promotion tools to communicate with their customers. All the questions were answered
by semi‐structured interviews with creative entrepreneurs producing different types of
crafts in different regions of the Netherlands. The provided qualitative data reached the
conclusion that Dutch micro craft businesses carry out seven dimensions of
entrepreneurial marketing and guerrilla marketing weapons comprehensively in their
marketing practice. Specifically, the conclusions are divided into two parts paralleling to
the sub‐questions of this thesis. They are as following:
RQ1: How can seven dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing be applied by
Dutch micro craft businesses?
(1) Dutch micro craft entrepreneurs try to play a role as “pioneer” to maintain a long term
business survival in the craft marketplace, although the extent to which the proactive
orientation should be made is related to the budget of craft businesses.
(2) Dutch micro craft entrepreneurs use their own way to measure the risk. If it is rational
and calculable, they will take actions to utilize opportunities with entrepreneurial
spirits. They think that the opportunity is contained in the risk and keeping unique is
crucial for them, so they always need to find new business ventures. The main approach
46
of risk management for them is testing prototypes products in the market before
making formal products.
(3) Dutch micro craft entrepreneurs make innovation constantly from every half year to
one year. They trace the new trends in the craft market using various way including:
making observations by attending craft fairs; reading craft consumer and trade journals
and magazines; subscribing digital newsletters about the latest news in craft industry;
travelling; watching fashion shows; observing what new products are launched in other
relevant shops; watching relevant craft TV programmers; paying attention to what their
customers want to buy and communicate with them; buying the new published craft
books and joining online craft forums.
(4) They make efforts to continuously identify something that other crafters didn’t offer in
their regions. The use various way to select opportunities including: tracing the new
trends in the foreign craft markets; reading craft consumer and trade journals and
magazines; finding new ideas from online craft forums and websites; paying close
attention to customer feedback and carrying out market research from customers;
building business networks to find the potential opportunity in the relevant area;
cooperating with other crafters.
(5) They know their limitation, thus they utilize the opportunity based on their current
situation. The majority of the view presented by the respondent shows that they are
leveraging outside resources for marketing purposes. They usually do not peruse
external financing because they want to be independent and using their own ways.
Although their resources are limited, they can control outside resources instead of
having that in order to catch the opportunities.
(6) Dutch micro craft entrepreneurs think the customer’s needs and wants are the first
priority of their businesses although someone does not holds this opinion when she
began to do business. They considered that tracing the consumer’s preference and
adapting to their changing expectations quickly are very important. They use various
methods to get data for customer intensity, including making simple market research,
face‐to‐face communications, customer feedback posted in their website, Facebook and
47
Twitters, paying close attention to the new trends, learning from their competitors.
Based on the data gathered, they take actions for customer orientation and try to
provide better products, services than old ones or create new ones which are not exist
in the current marketplace. They also put forward the view that they measure customer
satisfaction constantly through informal ways.
(7) They make efforts to create value for their customers. Due to limited resource, they try
to cooperate with other crafters to offer more value for their customers. The value
created by Dutch micro craft entrepreneurs include: free products (electrical wallpaper,
test cards), offer user‐customizable products, workshop activates and faster and
friendlier shopping experience and free gift packaging, better service through
cooperation with other crafters. They measure the perceived value of their customers
in an informal way including: face‐to‐face communication, customer feedback posted in
their website, Facebook and Twitters, joining customer network to gain relevant
information.
RQ2: How do Dutch micro craft businesses use guerrilla marketing as a promotion
tool to communicate with their customers?
Dutch micro craft entrepreneurs use several weapons of guerrilla marketing to conduct
promotion function although some of them do not know the term of guerrilla marketing.
According to the eight categories of guerrilla marketing weapons, they use more Minimedia
weapons than Maxmedia ones. It is corresponding to their business characteristics of
resource constraint. Compared to large firms, they integrated personal attitudes, feelings
and beliefs in their businesses to use more Human media and Nonmedia to promote their
businesses. With the development of information technology, people increasing rely on the
internet; creative entrepreneurs are sensitive to this trend. E‐Media and Info‐Media also
play a key role in their entrepreneurial marketing activities. However, it is hard to say
which weapon is effective and best to use. They are preferred to use a package of it. They
think that depending on one or two weapons is not enough and combination is powerful.
48
5.2 Implications for academia and business
As mentioned previously, micro craft businesses are of great benefits to the local economy
and the culture diversity. They are often under‐ capitalized and quite fragile Charles & Kate
(1999). Several authors argue that, for small businesses, the formal marketing approach
carried out by large companies is not suitable for them (Hill, 2001a, b; Blankson and Omar,
2002). However, it seems that there is no or little attention on how Dutch micro craft
enterprises conduct their marketing practices. The originality of this study makes a
contribution to the gap in the literature by understanding the phenomenon of
entrepreneurial marketing in Dutch micro craft enterprises operated by creative
entrepreneurs and highlighting the innovative marketing approaches—guerrilla marketing.
Policy‐makers also can gain more understanding of this new generation of entrepreneurs
from this study.
According to Elizabeth and Alan (2004) small business success can be measured by
financial (such as profitability, growth, firm survival) and non‐financial criteria (such as
autonomy, job satisfaction or the ability to balance work and private life). Not all business
owners prefer more financial goals, for example, Charles & Kate (1999) find that some
creative entrepreneurs do not have many ambitions to grow their business rapidly and
they are prefer to have more autonomy. The latest research from Marjan, Ascalon and
Stephan (2011) also shows that Dutch small business owners value more personal
dimension ( such as the balance of work and private life) than business dimension ( such as
growth )when assess business success. In this study, all the craft businesses running by the
interviewed entrepreneurs survive for more than three years with proper growths. Besides,
they prefer to balance their work and life. If we use these multiple criteria to assess the
business success of interviewed craft businesses, their businesses can be seen as relative
success, using the seven dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing and guerrilla marketing
as promotion tools. Although their methods should be improved, instated of pointing out
49
the deficiencies of their entrepreneurial marketing, this study shows some implications of
providing the knowledge of practice in context which can be used by creative
entrepreneurs and someone who want to start a craft business as a starting point to
improve their business skills.
This study suggests that:
(1) Micro craft business owners should have attitudes of passion and generosity.
(2) Running a good craft business is not easy and make sure you are willing to pay your
time, energy, patient and imagination when you want to start a craft business.
(3) Innovation is important for craft businesses because people always like something new
in the craft market. You need to find your unique positioning when you begin to start
your craft business and trace the new trends constantly to maintain your unique
position.
(4) Due to resource constraint, you cannot catch every emerged opportunity; you need to
make a trade‐off. Focus on the place where can maintain your core competency.
(5) You need to be good at cooperating with other crafters or relevant people which can
save your costs and leverage your limited resource. Most importantly, both parties can
benefit from that.
(6) You need to put your customer’s needs and wants at the first priority of their
businesses. Value your customer lifetime value, creating more repeated customer is
wise for your business growth.
(7) Guerrilla marketing is good to use for craft businesses. Make sure to use as much
weapons as you can to find a set of package which fit for your business well. Combining
various weapons can make synergies and the effects are always better than single one.
50
5.3 Limitations and Future research
There are certain limitations attached in this thesis. First, due to limited time of Master
level thesis, the scope of this study is limited to six different business types in six different
cities in the Netherlands. For future research, the study needs to enlarge the scope into
more craft business types and other regions to improve, confirm, contradict and generalize
this result. Second, these findings are limited to Dutch craft micro business, and other
sectors might have different results due to the different business characteristic compare to
this micro craft business. Third, this study is a qualitative style with large descriptions from
the interviewee’s perspective. For future research an advanced qualitative techniques
analysis and quantitative analysis should be conducted. However, due to lack of relevant
research in this specific field, this thesis can be seen as a good first step for future
researchers who want to explore the field of entrepreneurial marketing conducted by
Dutch micro craft businesses.
51
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Appendix
Interview Protocol
General Information:
1. Name of your company?
2. Established year?
3. Number of employees?
4. Main products?
5. Sales points?
6. Location of company?
Research Questions:
Proactive Orientation
1. Do you consider yourself as “pioneer” with respect to new product development,
technology application and offering new products to the craft market? If so, could you
please give examples?
2. Could you please give examples about how you maintain competitiveness in the
marketplace with a proactive approach?
Calculated Risk Taking
3. What is the risk taking approach of your business in terms of new business ventures?
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Innovativeness
4. In the process of doing business, how do you manage and react to the new trends in the
craft market? Could you please give examples?
5. Are your products and service innovated continuously? If so, could you please give an
example of such innovations?
6. Do you have innovation plan for your business considering product, service, technology,
investment, new markets recently?
7. Do you frequently change product, services or technology in order to create competitive
advantage? If so, how frequent? Could you please give examples?
8. Could you please point out the major dynamics of competition in craft business sector?
Facing competition, what kind of strategies do you make in order to be successful?
Opportunity Focus
9. How are the opportunities selected by your craft business?
10. What kind of activities do you do in order to identify opportunities in the craft market?
Could you please give examples in terms of the opportunities that you have determined
and exploited previously?
Resource Leveraging
11. When you identify and exploit an opportunity, is the main determinant limited to your
current resources? If so, do you move towards external financing or outsourcing in
order to avoid missing the opportunity?
Costumer Intensity
12. Do you think that your customer’s needs and wants are the first priority of your
business?
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Is your business able to identify the changes in customer’s expectations successfully?
How can you benefit such data in your business?
13. Does your craft business measure customer satisfaction? If so, how do you do that and
what is the frequency? Do you use these customer satisfaction results efficiently in
improving your business processes?
14. Do you always maintain your communication with guests even if they finish their
buying behavior? Could you please give examples in terms of the activities that you
take for this purpose?
Value Creation
14. What efforts do you make to create value for your customers?
15. Do you cooperate with other creative entrepreneurs running craft business in order to
create value for your customers? Could you please give examples?
16. Do you measure the perceived value of your customers in terms of your products and
services? How do you do that?
Guerrilla Marketing
17. How do you use guerrilla marketing as a promotion tool to communicate value to your
customer?
18. Which weapons do you use and which weapons do you think have better performance?