On SME´s these two factors are influencing each other. In order to create a creative and stronger brand communication should work with innovation criteria. Their small structure, the deeper relationship with stakeholders, the stronger links between target groups, their wider flexibility, the higher culture motivation and the stronger brand pride help the development of innovation and creativity. On the other hand, some negative variables could affect the process: the lack of resources usually helps the creativity but, in some cases, breaks the innovation; the psychological “walls” among the different work teams; the family culture which prefers the traditional ways of doing things than the innovative one, and unprofessional workers. In any case, a good implementation of an innovative communication strategy is also required.

SME´s are less inclined to count on professionalized communication teams, both inside the business and with external services. The quality of their strategic decisions is strongly determined by this factor. Some SME´s are developing by themselves their communication plan, without a correct strategy, nor accuracy in their goals, media and techniques. Also if your market opinion research is not professional, your communication approach is likely to be wrong.

SME´s smaller structure and size provides them with a more flexible change culture in comparison with multinational corporations. Their teams will adapt faster to new markets and will develop a more innovative strategy. There are also some very small SME´s, usually a family business, with an “outdated” corporate culture. Their flexibility and the closeness of their publics are not in this case taking advantage of their lack of strategic management. The friendly corporate culture of the SME´s enhances the free interpersonal messages exchange among professionals.

An effective communication has to manage its target-groups and messages to obtain their communicational goals, all of them coherent with the corporate strategy -mission, values and vision. The aims are both internal and external, in order to maintain the corporate culture, the work team motivation, the brand proud, the positive corporate image and the balanced harmony among the different stakeholders. The professionalized SME´s develop this factor with more effectiveness than the bigger ones, not only for their more flexible structure, but also for their higher human resources links, creativity and innovation. On the other hand, the less-professionalized SME´s apply to a lesser extent the strategic management, so the communication plan could be less accurate. Their lack of resources, the psychological “walls” among the personnel or their unprofessional communication work team prevents them from creating and releasing messages to their publics with the needed effectiveness. On the other hand, in some SME´s the strategy is shared with stakeholders in such a positive way that we may research this variable with a deeper approach.

Closeness to their publics and stakeholders - Their smaller size lets the different publics be closer and interact with the others in a deeper and more complete way. The human resources links are stronger and the face to face communication is more effective than the digital one.