, NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 25 – Small and Medium Enterprises (SME)will now have an opportunity to access advertising in the mainstream media at a negotiated cheaper rate, unlike in the past where advertising spaces have been dominated by large businesses.
Vizeum which is the first SME incubator of its kind in Kenya will be the link between SMEs and the media to generate their business growth without using big budgets.
Vizeum has approached mainstream media houses to have special rate cards for SMEs which are affordable to assist them access advertising opportunities which have for a long time been the preserve of big companies with deep pockets and big budgets.
At the launch of the service, Tuesday, the agency’s Managing Director Roxanne Boyes said that their work will be to convert consumer intent into action through strategy, media and design.
“This incubator is to help accelerate SMEs processes using media as a catalyst for change. All you need to do is have not more than one hundred employees , not owned by a non SMEs ,then you qualify to be within this incubator for two years and you get access to all the different learning opportunities and all the SMEs packages and rates,” she explained.
The benefits would be access to exclusively negotiated SME packages, access to media and consumer research and planning tools.
“SMEs often struggle to get a grip of the market share and increase their influence and customer base, not forgetting that marketing is one of the direct ways of growing SMEs,” said Boyes.
For startups, failing to implement the right marketing strategies may mean the demise of the business.
So as to maneuver up to the food chain, SMEs have to gain the attention of potential customers by applying the right marketing strategies.
Currently, most SMEs leverage on the free marketing tools that are readily available like social media, website marketing, email and search engine optimization which may not fully engage the existing customers and reach out to a wide range of potential ones. This is due to lack of strategy and access to media and consumer research and planning tools.
Vizeum brags of having conducted a data based research for the last seven years, which can assist the SMEs get an array of collaboration and working options available and also suitable towards generating business growth.