Digital Marketing Communication of Small and Medium Enterprises and the Decision Making in Hiring Advertising Agency

Abstract

This qualitative research aims to explore the digital marketing communication of small and medium enterprises in regards to their methods as well as their perspectives and factors that affect in the decision making process for hiring an advertising agency. The concept of customer and advertising agency theory in the digital era, together with the concept of factors and decision-making, was used as a framework for the study.  An in-depth interview method was employed to collect the data with eight key informants from all types of small and medium enterprises who are users and non-users of the advertising agency.

The study results reveal marketing communication guidelines for small and medium entrepreneurs in digital marketing that for business groups that have just opened for 1-2 years, they tend to look at goals and focus on increasing the number of customers to create stability for the business. In contrast, the businesses that have been opened for more than 10 years, passing down from generation to generation tend to focus on the sustainability and find new opportunities for their businesses.  The small and medium enterprises perform their digital marketing communications by themselves, assign someone to take responsibility, and hiring an advertising agency. They do hire advertising agencies because they can gain advantage of specialized knowledge and resources from an expert since they feel that marketing especially when it comes to digital marketing is not really things that they are experts in this field. Not only this reason but hiring advertising agency can also help them to better manage their resources improving return on investment and save their time as well as discovering new opportunities and approaches to business. For those who not hiring, on the other hand, the internal issue within their organization are the main reason. For instance, they are not currently really focusing on branding and marketing aspects and the factor of financial budgets.

In regards to the perspectives towards advertising agencies, both users and non-users of the advertising agency do share similar perspectives that advertising agency is expertise who expert in marketing and advertising fields. Hiring an advertising agency is a good opportunity and a good investment for brand and business. Those who have never had experience in hiring agency; they also feel that hiring agencies might not be a good choice for small and medium enterprises but it could work for big businesses that have more resources comparing to small and medium enterprises.

In terms of factors that affect small and medium enterprises’ decision-making in hiring advertising agencies. Various factors are revealed, including cost of service, credibility and expertise, previous works, recommendations from peers and lead time. It is a decision that they do need time and effort to search for information and consider carefully before making any decisions.