Stakeholders in Marketing

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Who are stakeholders and are they important for small and medium businesses?


A stakeholder is any party interested in the company's activities. At first glance, such a definition may raise questions and misunderstandings, which is why, in order to better understand what lies behind the unfamiliar term, let's turn to the origins.

In 1984, Edward Freeman published a book with a theory about stakeholders. In part, this work became a turning point for global entrepreneurship, since the ideas proposed were strikingly different from the usual way of building and running a business at that time. Before stakeholder theory, entrepreneurs mostly focused only on profit and loss indicators when making strategically important decisions. At that time, it was only important to take into account the opinion of the client in order to increase sales. What new did Freeman's theory bring?

According to stakeholder theory, when making important strategic decisions, an organization should not limit itself to the customer's opinion: for the business to operate effectively, it is necessary to take into account the opinions of all stakeholders. But who are these stakeholders and why is it so important to listen to them?

Stakeholders can be investors, company employees, the state, and partners. The list can wordpress web design agency go on. Literally everyone who the company's new ideas can somehow affect are interested parties. It is important to take their opinions into account, since any wrong action that affects one of the parties can work against the company, which will have a deplorable effect on various indicators, from financial to reputational.




Freeman's work has received worldwide recognition. Today, stakeholder theory is an integral part of business ethics and corporate social responsibility courses in many of the world's leading management institutions.

So, back to the original question. Is it important to consider stakeholder opinions in small and medium businesses? Absolutely!

Types of stakeholders. How to work with them?


There are different types of stakeholder typologies. The simplest, perhaps, is the division of stakeholders into internal and external stakeholders. That is, those persons who are part of the company (management, employees, etc.), and those who are not (suppliers, partners, etc.). Such a typology certainly has value, but it is not as effective as some other ways of classifying stakeholders.

For a more detailed analysis, the so-called stakeholder matrix is ​​used, in which all interested groups are conditionally divided into four categories according to the degree of stakeholder influence and interest. Using the matrix, having analyzed all the players, managers can draw up a strategy and come to a conclusion with which of the interested parties the level of interaction should be higher.

High level of influence and interest. Key players. These are the stakeholders whose opinions should not be neglected under any circumstances. It is important that your projects are developed in close cooperation with key players, with their approval.
High influence but low interest. For these groups of people, the company is only required to provide timely information on the progress of the project.
High level of interest but low level of influence. It is important for companies to satisfy the desires of such groups in order to properly maintain interest.
Low interest and low influence. Such stakeholders are a lower priority for the company, as they do not pose any particular threats. It is only worth periodically monitoring whether the situation has changed.
Can interested influencers be stakeholders?


Definitely yes. After all, they are also directly or indirectly participants in the project.

Partnering with influencer stakeholders will undoubtedly give your product, service or project the publicity it deserves. However, despite the many undeniable advantages of such partnerships, your collaboration with influencers can be full of pitfalls. It is worth considering that any mistake in communicating with media personalities is associated with reputational risks.

Make sure that when choosing the people who represent your brand, you do not go against the wishes of key stakeholders. Disagreement can negatively affect the functioning of the brand.
Avoid conflicts with influencers, as if the story is made public among the blogger audience, the brand's reputation can be seriously damaged.
It is also important to realize that stakeholders can be not only the influencers you invited to the project, but also external influencers who have tried the product and reached out to their audience with feedback. This can have both a positive and negative impact on sales.

In conclusion
Proper interaction with stakeholders, meeting their demands and expectations is the key to your brand’s prosperity. With the right distribution of attention to stakeholders and their opinions, you can improve the company’s reputation and financial performance.