PROMOTIONAL STRATEGIES FOR ROMANIAN SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

In the perspective of sustainable development, the promotional activities have to be oriented to an integrated communication, through which all the categories of stakeholders be correctly informed on product’s characteristics and company’s activities. In this orientation, the promotional messages outline the environmental benefits of products and the company’s interest in developing CSR programs. The informative content of messages is necessary to be high as to assure to the customers the most important information in decision making process. Also, the suppliers of services, as media or advertising agencies, must have a sustainable behavior. The present paper aimed to analyze the promotional activities of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that act in the Romanian market. For this purpose, it was done a survey, whose objectives focused on understanding the process of organizing the promotional activities, the budget that sustained them, the attitude towards some promotional techniques, the interest in social objectives, the methods used for assessing the effectiveness of promotional strategies. The main conclusions of the study outline that, for small and medium enterprises, the importance of promotional activities in the marketing mix is high, being surpassed only by the price. Among the most effective techniques were considered: promotional prices, advertising and participating in fairs and exhibitions. The small and medium enterprises are less interested in sustainable communication, the promotional messages being focused more on products’ performances than on the company’s image, the social objectives not having a high importance.