Raising awareness of a brand strategy by a high tech SME manager: The effect of previous practice and felt needs

Abstract

Despite the common knowledge that we live in a branded world, not all industries have found brands. In the present study I examined how previous practice and felt needs affect when a high technology (high tech) Small and Medium sized Enterprise (SME) manager raises his/her awareness of a brand strategy. Qualitative data was collected from personal face-to-face in-depth interviews in the USA and in Finland. The findings richly describe the very early stage of a brand strategy adoption process in high tech SME context. The findings suggest several courses of action to be taken by academic and industrial experts, public organizations and communities in order to allocate resources for high tech SME companies for finding means to compete and succeed. The findings encourage high tech SME managers to acquire more knowledge on branding in order to fully assess its advantages. The theoretical contribution of the present study to branding theories is in the context perspective. This paper differentiates the impact of the new marketing phenomena on commencing and adopting a brand strategy. This paper also contributes to high tech marketing and SME brand management theories by increasing theoretical understanding of how previous practice and felt needs affect a brand strategy adoption.