The research refers to family businesses and identifies the marketing practices that are applied by the first and second generations who manage the firms. Data were collected from a database of Greek private family companies (n = 380) using personal interviews to owner/managers. According to the findings, the owners of family businesses do not conform to conventional marketing rules, since their implementation is haphazard and informal; they make most decisions on their own, respond to current opportunities and circumstances and, therefore, any decision-making occurs in a loose, unstructured, spontaneous way, according to personal and business priorities at any given point in time. Firms should focus on the services or products offer in order to create a competitive advantage and gain advantages in the areas, where large businesses face problems, such as customer service, special relationships with the customers and suppliers and flexibility in providing services.