Marketing innovation is essential for small industries to transform products into profit and therefore, understanding its nature and determinants is of utmost importance. This study aimed at understanding marketing innovation and its determinants in the 60 small food industries in the rural areas of Tehran province, Iran. Using a census sampling method, 111 managers of these firms were interviewed. Results showed that the firms' performance in marketing innovation is generally weak and a higher level of radical innovation in marketing is perceived compared to the incremental innovation. Also, a cause and effect relationship exists between both "product and organizational innovations" and "marketing innovation". Furthermore, while "incremental marketing innovation" was negatively influenced by formal R&D unit, product diversification, and the manager's years of experience, "radical marketing innovation" was affected by the capacity of production, product diversification, and managers' age and education. The study concluded that in order to boost marketing innovation, innovation should be made also in products and organization.Besides, in order to facilitate the process of marketing innovation, practical and up-dated trainings for managers, encouraging incremental innovation in marketing, product diversification, and improving R&D activities in the studied firms should be regarded.