Marketing Resources for Rural Enterprise Development

CEO Praxis, Inc. is proposing to research the feasibility of developing an approach for small and medium sized manufacturing enterprises to implement the key steps needed to 1) evaluate market opportunities and trends, 2) build interfirm relationships with customers and/or collaborators, 3) develop marketing strategies, and 4) execute effective marketing tactics. The research will be completed by CEO Praxis in cooperation with the Center for Innovation and Business Development at the University of North Dakota. Additional expertise will be drawn upon from a consultant at Penn State University and a national expert panel. The technical objectives include: 1) Determine the decision-making process of companies that purchase manufactured products and/or outsource manufacturing fuctions to ascertain the criteria they use in choosing vendors, subcontractors and collaborators in the product life-cycle. 2) Identify and characterize strategeis for addressing the critical marketing needs of rural manufacturing companies and profile a service that can work with companies and local development organizations to improve their marketing capabilities on a timely basis at an affordable cost. An important dimension of the proposed research will be to determine the potential role of local development organizations in working with rural manufacturers and entrepreneurs to improve their marketing strategy and tactics. That is, to improve the potential for building linkages between "place" marketing by the local development organization and marketing by individual or groups of collaborating firms.