How marketing affects an SME firm's profitability, growth and success

Among manufacturing industries can be found many well-known small- and medium-sized enterprises with established brand status in their home markets. When such a company has a plan for growth through exporting, they need to put significant effort in marketing. This marketing effort is useless, however, if the company is not believable from the international customer's points of view. To ensure profitable growth in international markets, the company should be managed well at all operational levels: purchasing, manufacturing, delivering and marketing. One challenge for operation management is how to update all business functions to fulfil the needs coming from international markets. Marketing is a tool for a company to visualise its own capabilities, offerings and the brand for the export markets. This paper is a story of one company from Finland with great products, willingness for growth, and the effort they have used in operations management to support their growth in international markets.