Do you have ‘small business syndrome’?

I often meet small business operators who say that they

can’t do the type of marketing that big corporations do
because they don’t have anywhere near the same large
budgets. I say why not? I call this the small business
syndrome and I hear it all the time.
Big business spends a lot of money on advertising and
marketing. Large corporations have to invest millions of
dollars on market research and high profile advertising on
television, radio and in newspapers just to maintain their
share of the market. Competition is always strong and at
the end of the day, the companies with the best marketing,
backed up with good products and good service, tend to
be the most successful.
How different is this for a small business? I believe that
there is really no difference except for the number of zeros
attached to the size of the budget. If an advertising or
marketing idea works for a large company, why can’t you,
the small business operator, adopt the same idea?
A prime example of this is the customer loyalty program
used by many large corporations. The most well known
loyalty programs are the frequent flyer campaigns offered
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by virtually every airline around the world. The basic
principle of this system is that the more you fly with one
particular company (and its associated partner airlines) the
more free flights and other bonuses you will receive.
Why can’t this principle be used by any small business
from a coffee shop to a car wash? Reward your customers
for being loyal. By doing this you are acknowledging that
your customers have a choice and they have chosen you.
The loyalty program is discussed in more detail later in
this book and there are many other ideas used by big
business that can easily be adapted and used by smaller
businesses for a fraction of the cost.
Forget about the ‘small business syndrome’ and use the
ideas that big corporations have proven to work; then reap
the rewards of their investment. All of the ideas in this
book are used by major corporations.