A marketing profession

As marketing has become increasingly more complex, a need has arisen for professional marketers trained in the social sciences who also possess statistical, mathematical, and computer backgrounds. Many colleges and universities now have programs designed to train marketing executives. Courses are offered at the undergraduate and the graduate level in such specialized fields as advertising, administrative practices, financial management, production, human relations, retailing, and personnel administration.
In recent years, as many U.S. manufacturing industries such as steel and automobiles have been weakened because of foreign competition, marketing departments have become increasingly responsible for generating profitable sales volume. Thus, their stature in top-level business decision-making has been enhanced. This trend gives every indication of continuing in the foreseeable future. As competition continues to increase and businesses become even more diversified, the marketing profession is likely to provide more personnel in the ranks of top

mMicrosoft ® Encarta ® 2009anagement.

Price-Adjustment Strategies

Psychological Pricing:
The seller here will consider the psychology of price and the positioning of price within the market place.

Promotional Pricing:
The temporary pricing of goods and services at lower than normal levels for a special promotional effort.

Geographic Pricing
Variable-pricing method in which a selling price is computed according to the customer's location or market's distance.

Dynamic Pricing
Adjusting prices continually to meet the characteristics and needs of individual customers and situations.

Team Selling:

As products become more complex and as customers grow larger and more demanding a single
sales person simply can't handle all of large customers need instead most companies now are using team selling to serve large, complex accounts. Compnies are finding that sales team can unearth problems, solutions, and sales opportunities that no individual sale person could. such teams might include experts from any area or level of selling firms---- sales, marketing, technical and sales services, R & D, engineering, operations , finance and others. In team selling situation the sales person shifts from "soloist" to "orchestrator".

Direct Marketing:

Direct marketing consisits of direst connections with carefully targeted individual consumers
to both obtain an immediate response and cultivate lasting customer relationships.
Direct marketers communicate directly with customers, often on one to one, interactive basis.
Using detailed databases, thet tailor their marketing offers and communicate to the needs
of narrowly defined segments or even individual buyers.

Market Factor Index Method:

a forecasting method that calls for identifying
the potetial buyers in each market and estimating their
potetial purchases.

Market Build up Method:

A forecasting method that identifies market factors that correlate
with market potential and combines them into weighted index.

Total Market Demand:

The volume of a product or services that would be bought
by a defined customer group in a defined geographic area in a
defined time period in defined marketing environment under a
defined level and mix of industry marketing effort.

PASSION - The secret of success

I don't exactly remember the source, as it was back in my 8th grade when I came across this article in a kids mag, but surprisingly kids' magazines have some very useful articles, and even back then it inspired me so much, that I had it saved in my memory after going through it for one time, it was

"Passion is powerful; nothing was ever achieved without it and nothing can take its place; no matter what you face in life; if your passion is strong enough, you will find the way to succeed; so, put your heart, mind and soul into even the smallest of your acts for this is the essence of passion, and the secret of success"

Now at this stage I can realize the full worth of this article. For if we look back to most of the successful persons in the world, whatever time period they belonged to, they had just one thing in common Passion. In pre-historic times, there have been people like Aristotle, there has been a passion behind the Pyramids of Egypt and every other achievement. Recently you see people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and many others including Mr. Abidoon who are now at a much higher level than others only because of their drive and passion.

These four years are probably the most important time of our life. Here, if we indulge ourselves fully into every thing we do, we can definitely be much better off than everyone else we come across.

Market Segmentation & Creating value for Targeted Customers

Companies use this tool to focus on their customers with respect to the different segments like age range, level of income, level of information and education, product usage by the customers, health conscious and taste conscious customers etc. By doing so, they divide the market into smaller groups of buyers with different needs and characteristics. This is a very helpful tool for target marketing because marketers can easily perform their tasks on behalf of this information availability and can market and place their products and promotions specifically. This process creates value for the targeted customers.
For Instance, P&G is manufacturing Pantene and Head & Shoulder; and we all know that Pantene's ads on the TV or Bill boards is only focusing on the women and same with H&S, it only focuses on men.

Sustainable Development Definition:

Definition:
Sustainable development, as defined by the Brundtland Commission (1987) is "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".
By definition, then, sustainable development is development that takes the impact on the environment into account and tries to minimize environmental damage.
I'm of the opinion that sustainable development is a good thing in itself, but whatever your personal opinion, sustainable development is something that all businesses, large and small, should be actively involved in. "Green causes" are increasingly popular with the public, making sustainable development both good for PR and good for sales. It's no accident that so many large corporations have entire ad campaigns devoted to presenting themselves as environmentally friendly.
Small businesses, too, can get involved in sustainable development by adopting environmentally sound business principles and translating them into action. See Sustainable Development For Small Businesses for more information on how to do this.
Also Known As: SD
Common Misspellings: Sustanable Development, sustainabal development.
Examples: Integrating environmental considerations into day-to-day operations is one of the basic principles of sustainable development.

3 Keys to Green Marketing Campaigns

Price setting Strategies

There are many ways to price a product. Let's have a look at some of them and try to understand the best policy/strategy in various situations.
Premium Pricing.
Use a high price where there is a uniqueness about the product or service. This approach is used where a a substantial competitive advantage exists. Such high prices are charge for luxuries such as Cunard Cruises, Savoy Hotel rooms, and Concorde flights.
Penetration Pricing.
The price charged for products and services is set artificially low in order to gain market share. Once this is achieved, the price is increased. This approach was used by France Telecom and Sky TV.
Economy Pricing.
This is a no frills low price. The cost of marketing and manufacture are kept at a minimum. Supermarkets often have economy brands for soups, spaghetti, etc.
Price Skimming.
Charge a high price because you have a substantial competitive advantage. However, the advantage is not sustainable. The high price tends to attract new competitors into the market, and the price inevitably falls due to increased supply. Manufacturers of digital watches used a skimming approach in the 1970s. Once other manufacturers were tempted into the market and the watches were produced at a lower unit cost, other marketing strategies and pricing approaches are implemented.
Premium pricing, penetration pricing, economy pricing, and price skimming are the four main pricing policies/strategies. They form the bases for the exercise. However there are other important approaches to pricing.
Psychological Pricing.
This approach is used when the marketer wants the consumer to respond on an emotional, rather than rational basis. For example 'price point perspective' 99 cents not one dollar.
Product Line Pricing.
Where there is a range of product or services the pricing reflect the benefits of parts of the range. For example car washes. Basic wash could be $2, wash and wax $4, and the whole package $6.
Optional Product Pricing.
Companies will attempt to increase the amount customer spend once they start to buy. Optional 'extras' increase the overall price of the product or service. For example airlines will charge for optional extras such as guaranteeing a window seat or reserving a row of seats next to each other.
Captive Product Pricing
Where products have complements, companies will charge a premium price where the consumer is captured. For example a razor manufacturer will charge a low price and recoup its margin (and more) from the sale of the only design of blades which fit the razor.
Product Bundle Pricing.
Here sellers combine several products in the same package. This also serves to move old stock. Videos and CDs are often sold using the bundle approach.
Promotional Pricing.
Pricing to promote a product is a very common application. There are many examples of promotional pricing including approaches such as BOGOF (Buy One Get One Free).
Geographical Pricing.
Geographical pricing is evident where there are variations in price in different parts of the world. For example rarity value, or where shipping costs increase price.
Value Pricing.
This approach is used where external factors such as recession or increased competition force companies to provide 'value' products and services to retain sales e.g. value meals at McDonalds

Reference: http://www.marketingteacher.com/Lessons/lesson_marketing_mix.htm

Psychological Pricing:

In psychological Pricing sellers consider the psychology of prices and not simply the economics. for example consumers usually perceive higher priced products have high quality. when they can judge the quality of a product by examining it or by calling on past experience with it, they use price to judge quality. But they can't judge quality because they lack the information or skill. Price becomes an important quality signal.

Allowance:

Promotional money by manufacturers to retailers in return for
an agreement to feature the manufacturer's products in some way.

By Product Pricing:

setting a price for by products
in order to make the main products
price more competitive.

Captive-Product Pricing:

Setting a price for products that must be used along with a
main product, such as blades for razor and film for camera.

Optional-product Pricing:

The pricing of optional or accessory products along with a main product

Product Line Pricing:

Setting the price steps between various products in a product line
based on cost differences between the products, customer evaluations
of different features an competitors prices

Marketing You!

The First Step to Landing Your Dream Job

By Laura Lake, About.com Guide

In the past I've reviewed numerous resumes for open positions in companies I've worked for. I must admit usually I've found this review process long and boring; very few of the resumes have grabbed my attention. This does not mean that the applicants are not qualified. They have just not taken to the time to create their resumes to grab a potential employer's attention. Are you making that same mistake?

It's a question you must ask yourself; especially when consider many individuals that are in the job market due to the state of our economy. If you are in the job market it is important to realize that your resume is your personal marketing tool; unfortunately very few job seekers treat it as such. Do not fall into the trap of grabbing a resume book and copying your information into a familiar format or just pasting your information into a commonly used Microsoft template. If you gain anything from this article it should be that job hunting is about having the skill to market you.

Take some time and single out the unique qualities and experiences that will make you stand out of the crowd. Remember in today's market an employer is inundated with resumes on a daily basis. However, do not let this be discouraging. You can use common marketing techniques and strategies to get that potential employers attention and land your dream job. If you don't know what makes you unique and you can't showcase the skills and talents that you posses, then how do expect a potential employer to see it when they give your resume a 5-second scan?

In the next ten minutes I will walk you through the process of creating a road map that will help you in effectively marketing yourself in today's job market. Take a few moments to grab a pen and notepad before you continue reading, so that you can answer each question below as you read it. Do not over analyze the question simply write down the first thought that comes to your mind. You can always review later and tweak as necessary.

• Step 1. What is your career goal? What type of job are you looking for?
• Step 2. What qualities have prepared you for this job? Do you possess more education or experience?
• Step 3. Who is your audience? Who are you targeting?
  Make a list of your targeted employers. Keep in mind your message must be designed for your audience. If you are applying for a technical job, they are more than likely not interested in a conversational novel regarding your personality, rather they are more interested in your technical expertise. However, if you are applying for a marketing position, you will spark their interest with a creative and conversational pitch.
• Step 4. Create your personal sales campaign.
  Now that you've listed your specific goal, qualities, and your target it's time to develop your sales campaign. You do this by embedding these components into the writing of your cover letter, resume, and the development of your two-minute pitch.

I posted this info by Laura Lake because its very interesting to know that we can also develop unique attributes to market our own selves which can be very useful when searching for job posts. A planned resume that has all the unique attributes can lift us a long way above the other candidates. Marketing You! seems to be very interesting as its entirely different from regular organizational product and services marketing. A deep understanding of positioning our own selves effectively is very much necessary to understand this entire marketing You! phenomena.

Reference: http://marketing.about.com/cs/marketingjobs/a/marketingyou.html

Social Media Marketing - Is It Right For Your Business?

Is social media marketing right for your business?

This is the question few companies ask themselves before launching into social media marketing. And, as a result, their forays into social media marketing often result in frustration and, sometimes, failure. Not because social media marketing doesn’t work – just because they didn’t do it correctly. Social media marketing is like any other campaign, it must have an objective and a strategy to achieve desired results.

There are many companies that think it's the quick fix to a struggling business or that it will generate revenue that will help them in a difficult economic time. Truth is that social media can, in fact, affect your bottom line – but, it takes time.

Social media has a sequence of events that transpire before it ever affects a company’s bottom line and, when a business understands this before branching out into social media, there is more of a willingness to invest both the time and the patience in that social media requires.

There are two benefits of social media that are important to businesses, they include:

1. Cost reduction by decreasing staff time.
2. Increase of probability of revenue generation.

If these two things are important to you, then social media is a good fit for your busines, but again, this will not happen overnight. It will take smart strategy, dedication, patience and the input of time.

The sequence or phases of social media process looks like this:

• Phase 1 - Your Investment (Time, Money, Resources)
• Phase 2 - Your Action
• Phase 3 - Consumer's Reaction
• Phase 4 - Non Financial Impact Occurs
• Phase 5 - Financial Impact Occurs

Do you see why social media takes patience? It's not an immediate return on your investment! If you are willing to accept that premise, and invest the time, energy and budget dollars needed, social media can be an effective venue and can help in growing your business.

When you begin to see the non financial impact on your business, you know that you have increased the probability of a financial impact on your business.

Non financial impacts on your business that you should look for and monitor include:

• Increase in website visitors
• Increase of impressions
• Positive press mentions
• Click-throughs
• Positive word-of-mouth mentions
• 
  
• Employment applications submitted to your business
• Blog mentions
• Increased followers through social media venues such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn

When you begin to see these things, you know that the probability of financial impact from social media on your busienss has increased. It also shows you that you are, in fact, utilizing social media in the most effective manner. If you are not seeing any of the above and you've been utilizing social media for awhile, it may be time to check your strategy, investigate your tactics and figure out what you could be doing wrong.

All in all, you must understand that social media is not a quick-fix. It takes a level of dedication, determination and resources to be successful. If you understand that concept and are willing to invest those things – as well as a fair amount of patience, chances are good that it will produce some great results for you.

In order to effectively monitor and gauge the return on investment you are getting via social media marketing, you need to create a baseline that includes online activity of your consumers using the impacts listed above and you should monitor each and every one. As I am prone to say, marketing, of any kind, without measuring, is just not good business. And, in order to measure, you must consistently and effectively employ and utilize monitoring tactics and tools.

Monitoring tools that you can use to see what is being said about your business include:

• Technorati
• Google Blog Search
• Twitter Search
• Google Alerts

I believe that cultural and political factors that are a part of major forces of a company's macroenvironment stress on the need to focus on social aspect of marketing as well. Reading chapter 3 of our book relating to the marketing environment i came across this aspect and therefore searched it for a post. Societal well being is always a marketers focus because its very important for objectives completion therefore i think social media marketing has much significance attached to it

Reference: www.about.com

Eight Basic Steps to Marketing Your Nonprofit Organization

Marketing is an unfamiliar concept for many nonprofit organizations. It's important that these organizations understand that marketing is more than just the old sense of making a sale or obtaining a donation. Marketing is a way to satisfying the consumer and donor needs, but where does the nonprofit organization start? Below are eight steps that will get you started in brainstorming marketing ideas that could make a significant difference in the bottom-line of your organization.

1. Define your target market, research similar organizations and associations.
2. Determine the desired outcome of your marketing efforts.
3. Using the information gathered in Step 1 and 2 develop brochures and marketing materials that describe the benefits, services, donation opportunities, and values of your organization.
4. Develop a social media marketing strategy. Social media such as Twitter and Facebook can provide you with ways to reach out to those interested in your organization in a low cost and effective way. Social media works great when it comes to reaching those who are passionate about causes that individuals hold dear to their hearts.
5. Develop and maintain a professional internet marketing presence by creating a web site. You can use a web site as a great resource to display useful information, news, monthly newsletters, events, create community, share alternatives to donating money, and showcase the benefits of your organization.
6. Research and maintain your prospect and customer databases. Do not let these resources be wasted. Use them for special mailings, follow-up telephone calls, event invitations, alliance development, research profiling, and market segmentation.
7. Show and advertise the results and objectives that your organization achieves. You fill find that it is effective to showcase those that are receiving benefits, inversions, activities, and projects.
8. Always actively search for alliances with other organizations, commerce, government, advertising media, and business. This step alone often brings the most benefit to nonprofit organizations.

I made an attempt to develop some sort of understanding as to how to market nonprofit organizations. Its now an established fact that non profit making organizations also use marketing due to its numerous advantages that are useful for long run survival and growth. Nonprofit making organizations use marketing nowadays as result of major trends and forces that are changing the marketing landscape in this new age of relationships. For more info see Chapter 1 page 27.



Reference: http://marketing.about.com/cs/nonprofitmrktg/a/8stepnonprofit.html

What is a Good Idea?

I just read one of the more compelling definitions of what a “Good Idea” is. This definition is remarkable in its brevity and clarity. You might also agree …

“A really good idea is simple, unexpected and relevant. And it unites extremes: it should risk a lot but nevertheless be easy to implement. Everyone should talk about it, but existing customers should not be irritated by it.”

Nadja Schnetzler
co-founder, BrainStore

Marketing Intermediaries

Marketing Intermediaries are the business firms that operates between producers and consumers. They are also called Middle man. e.g., Retailers, Whole sellers, facilitating Intermediaries. They include Super markets, Departmental Stores, Convenience Shops near to your residences, company franchise etc.
Marketing Intermediaries can also be included in Distribution Channels because they are the main source of accessibility of company products to the customers because approximately 3% of the consumers directly purchase from the direct suppliers and the rest is purchase through these Distribution channels or Marketing Intermediaries.

Ref. http://www.answers.com/topic/marketing-intermediaries
Posted by: MOHSIN ALI

What is this.........................?

Is it a advertisement or a illegal Business?
These things effect a business a lot, such a people also have ability to make fake products, there must be some law and implementation to prevent these kind of things. 
Whats your opinion regarding this??

CHAP 11 Pricing

Even though the book doesn't talk about Economy Pricing and Premium I thought it's good if we know it.

Premium Pricing:

High price, High quality

This is usually seen with luxury products and services.

Cruises, hotels and air travel.

Penetration Pricing:

Low price, High quality

This pricing strategy sets a low price inorder to attract a large number of sales.

Dell, France Telecom, Sky TV

Economy Pricing:

Low price, Low quality

The strategy is used for goods that have low consumer involvement.

Salt, soup.

Skimming Pricing:

High Price, Low quality

This strategy sets a high price for a good new to the market attracting a large profit even if sales are low.

Sony's HDTV, Digital watches.

A Marketing Idea

Source: http://www.gabrielutasi.com/
When starting a company, you have to think, "what makes my business special?" And when you have your answer, think of how to advertise for it. Think of your customers, not yourself. Customers only care enough to the extent that you satisfy their want or need. And the advertising done in this comic, you are pricing 50% of what your competitor (who is you, afterall) is pricing.

Promotional Pricing is great, because many people don't start shopping till they see a big "SALE" sign. Promotional Pricing is a temporary reduction in price and is often used to price products that are just entering the market. This comic, brings humour into the art of advertising and pricing your products that are new. After all there is a limit to how low you can price, before you realize that you're actually losing money rather than increasing sales!

Beliscity-Pakistan's leading online retailer

Beliscity is one of Pakistan’s most well known online retailer based in Karachi. People can order their products online, by phone, by text message and the company are currently planning on opening a retail outlet. The company started in 2001 and specifically dealed in electronics like cell phones and laptops. Today Beliscity has expanded its product line to include jewellery, cars , office supplies and toys. Their corporate aim is to provide customers products as quickly as possible at reasonable prices.

The offer a wide range of brands and even offer brands which are not available in Pakistan. Other than that, Beliscity offers free delivery of products, which customers find very convinient

You can visit the website on this link:

http://www.beliscity.com/

Mr.Ali (who is the assistant by brand manager over all milk):-
He said within 8 months of launching Olpers Milk, they have penetrated 12% of the Tetra Pack (packaged milk) market in Pakistan.. which is outstanding to say the least (especially in light of BIG competitors like Nestle and Haleeb!).
I agree they donot have a very strong Internet presence, and even I preferred Good Milk over Olpers (without testing either.. just through advertisement), but when I used both the brands, I found Olpers to be a thousand times better than Good Milk (Which I think is just powdered milk with water added).
I remember Mr. Ali Akbar said once, “In order to succeed, you should ALWAYS capitalize on YOUR STRENGTHS, and NEVER on your “COMPETITOR’s WEAKNESS!”. Engro Food did exactly that. They used their decades of PR with farmers and used it to provide world class supply-chain management for delivering the ultimate quality milk in Pakistan.
Remember, effective advertisement might be successful in generating initial sales (user trials for the brand), but in the long run only Quality products are able to survive and generate repeated sales.
The high ethical standard of Engro Foods is the driving force behind a quality product which has outperformed all expectations and has penetrated the market at an enormous rate.

level of product and services

each level adds the more customer value. the most basic level is the core benefit.
at the second level:- product planner must turn the core benefit into an actual product. they need to develop product and services faetures, design a quality level, brand name and the packing.
finally product planner must build and augmented product. around the core benefit and the actual product by offering additional consumer services and benefits.

How to overcome a setback in Business

In future, if you want to be a business owner, sooner or later you will face either a difficult financial situation, a crisis within your business or even a business failure. The trick is learning how to come out on the other side stronger and wiser for the experience. Here are some steps to overcome setback in business. Believe and trust in your ability to overcome whatever problems come your way. Seek counsel from someone you trust. Evaluate the situation and determine if it will have a negative impact on your cash flow or cash reserves. Keep a positive, upbeat attitude. Review your current business plan. Relax and unwind. Take a drive, go see a movie or steal away for a short nap. Getting your mind off your worries, if only for an hour, will allow you to come back to the problem and attack it with a clear head.
These were some steps to overcome a setback in business. to know more steps click the link below.

Source: http://www.ehow.com/how_1920_overcome-setback-business.html

Negative Marks for Bad Posts

Hi All

I informed you all in the beginning of this semester that copy pasting is NOT ALLOWED on this blog. You could REFER to a post by linking to it and giving your comments on it. This space was meant for a meaningful, learning exchange of opinions/thoughts. 

I believe Umer Toor installed a good rating system with thumbs up /down feedback. I don't know why that was removed. Umer please see me about that. Umer please reinstall that. And everyone is required to rate posts now. Please be fair in your ratings as I will rate the quality of your ratings also now. 

I am going to read all these posts, and the comments. And the ones i feel are just space fillers please know that i will deduct marks. If you have made poor quality posts and you know about them you HAVE to give to me in writing that you're removing them, and then remove them. Else you will face a penalty. You have time till the class on Tuesday 15th December 2009.

I REMIND YOU ALL: Please use this space to APPLY concepts learnt in class to the environment around you. 

Business-school research

Costing catastrophe

Dec 8th 2009
From Economist.com

Two economists consider how much people would pay to minimise the chance of a distaster.

AFPWhat are the chances?

HOW much will climate change end up costing the world? The estimates, not surprisingly, vary widely. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) estimates between $49 billion and $171 billion annually. A team of researchers at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London has published a report that says UNFCCC is underestimating by a factor of two or three. Between 1996 and 2005, they point out, the annual damages done by hurricanes, fires, and other extreme weather was already averaging more than $50 billion per year. Yet few governments are willing to spend even fractions of that on preventative maintenance. Look at widespread fiddling over climate change; or the neglect of the dams surrounding New Orleans in the years before Hurricane Katrina devastated the city.

So would people be prepared pay to avoid future disasters? And if so, how much? That is the question tackled by Robert Pindyck of MIT's Sloan School of Management and Neng Wang of Columbia University, in a recent paper, "The Economic and Policy Consequences of Catastrophes." It is not easy to calculate accurately the likelihood of disasters. Some, such as rising sea levels or nuclear weapons gone rogue, have few historical precedents on which to base estimates. So Messrs Pindyck and Wang chose instead to model how likely people think it is that a catastrophe will occur, and how much money they would be prepared to spend to prevent it. In their model, the hypothetical household had to decide both the likelihood of a potential catastrophe and its magnitude, since a high-risk disaster with little consequence would affect spending behaviour differently to a rare but devastating event.

The model has the disadvantage of being, like many economic models, theoretical. But it has the advantages of not requiring people to have perfect information about the future, and being applicable to any disaster—not just climate change, but flu epidemics or widespread warfare. (Mr Pindyck himself reports being particularly worried about nuclear terrorism.)

Sky-is-falling economic modelling, so to speak, is not new. Two decades ago a paper by Thomas Reitz, then of the University of Iowa, pointed out that equity owners, even while acting averse to risk, demand high rates of return in anticipation of an unlikely, but severe, crash. More recently Richard Posner, of the University of Chicago, has argued at length that governments should spend more to prevent disasters that will probably not happen, but would be awful if they did. Mr Posner's blogging partner, Gary Becker, an economist, estimated in May the worldwide willingness to pay to avoid another flu pandemic at about $200 billion, even assuming the probability of such a pandemic occurring at only 1% over the next 20 years.

Messrs Pindyck and Wang's study lends credence to previous work which maps not only the probability of a risk occurring, but also the expected damage should it occur. In their model, even when a hypothetical consumer estimates the risk of a disaster occurring is close to zero, he still estimates the scale of potential devastation to be between 26% and 32% of national capital stock, far greater than the effects of Hurricane Katrina or even the 2004 tsunami. To avoid such a disaster entirely, or reduce its impact, the households in the model would be willing to pay a permanent consumption tax of up to 15%, depending on the size of the reduction and the likelihood of catastrophe n theory, then, governments should be able to spend far less than 15% to minimise the danger of catastrophes without suffering (political) risk. Although not every potential disaster could be averted, such studies provide rationale for spending money on the most pressing issues: stockpiling flu vaccines, shoring up rotting infrastructure, and, yes, preparing for higher sea levels. Unfortunately, climate change is just one area where people fail to act as rationally as they do within economic models.

Some Effective Stress Relievers

All of us feel immensely stressed at times, and it is very important how to learn how to relieve ourselves of stress. Here are some effective stress-relievers


1. Meditation
2. Breathing
3. Playing Games
4. Nice Company
5. Laughter
6. Music
7. Take a Walk
8. Plant a Garden
9.Time Management
10. Listen To Music
11. Eat a Balanced Diet
12. Learn Assertive Communication Skills
13. Reduce Caffeine Intake
14. Don’t Procrastinate
15. Drink Green Tea

Find Out, what works best for you. I don't agree with number 13 though, since I always get a coke when stressed and it helps me, yet lots of articles reckon avoiding caffeine to be a good stress-reliever

Skimming Vs Penetration Pricing and what the author of our Mangerial Accounting Text has to say !

So, most of us don't really think it's a good idea to study Ronlad Hilton's Managerial Accounting. Same is my case. But amazingly, though I couldn't learn much from Hilton in Managerial Accounting but when searching for Pricing strategies found a very good tip by Hilton

When To Choose Which Pricing

"The decision between skimming and penetration pricing," said Hilton, "depends on the type of product and involves trade-offs of price versus volume. Skimming pricing results in much slower acceptance of a new product, but higher unit profits. Penetration pricing results in greater initial sales volume, but lower unit profits."

Skimming Pricing

It's a strategy wherein the initial price for the product is set quite high for a relatively short time after introduction. Even though sales will likely be modest with skimming, the profit margin is great. This pricing approach is most often used for high-prestige or otherwise unique products with significant cache. Once the product's appeal broadens, the price is then reduced to appeal to a greater range of consumers.

Penetration Pricing

Penetration pricing is a strategy employed by businesses introducing new goods or services into the marketplace. With this policy, the initial price of the good or service is set relatively low in hopes of "penetrating" into the marketplace quickly and securing significant market share. "This pricing approach," wrote Ronald W. Hilton in Managerial Accounting, "often is used for products that are of good quality, but do not stand out as vastly better than competing products."

Promotion Mix

Marketers have at their disposal four major methods of promotion. Taken together these comprise the promotion mix. In this section a basic definition of each method is offered while in the next section a comparison of each method based on the characteristics of promotion is presented.

• Advertising – Involves non-personal, mostly paid promotions often using mass media outlets to deliver the marketer’s message. While historically advertising has involved one-way communication with little feedback opportunity for the customer experiencing the advertisement, the advent of computer technology and, in particular, the Internet has increased the options that allow customers to provide quick feedback.
• Sales Promotion – Involves the use of special short-term techniques, often in the form of incentives, to encourage customers to respond or undertake some activity. For instance, the use of retail coupons with expiration dates requires customers to act while the incentive is still valid.
• Public Relations – Also referred to as publicity, this type of promotion uses third-party sources, and particularly the news media, to offer a favorable mention of the marketer’s company or product without direct payment to the publisher of the information.
• Personal Selling – As the name implies, this form of promotion involves personal contact between company representatives and those who have a role in purchase decisions (e.g., make the decision, such as consumers, or have an influence on a decision, such as members of a company buying center). Often this occurs face-to-face or via telephone, though newer technologies allow this to occur online via video conferencing or text chat.

• Promotion Summary Table

  The table below compares each of the promotion mix options on the eight key promotional characteristics. The summary should be viewed only as a general guide since promotion techniques are continually evolving and how each technique is compared on a characteristic is subject to change.
  

  
  

  Characteristics	Advertising	Sales Promotion	Public Relations	Personal Selling
  Directed Coverage	mass & targeted	mass & targeted	mass	targeted
  Message Flow	one & two-way	one & two-way	one-way	two-way
  Payment Model	paid limited non-paid	paid	non-paid	paid
  Interaction Type	non-personal	personal & non-personal	non-personal	personal
  Demand Stimulation	lagging	quick	lagging	quick
  Message Control	good	good	poor	very good
  Message Credibility	low-medium	low-medium	high	medium-high
  Cost of Promotion	CPI - Low CPTI - Varies CPA - Varies	CPI - Medium CPTI - Varies CPA - Varies	CPI - None CPTI - None CPA - None	CPI - High CPTI - High CPA - High

  Promotion Choice: Marketing Issues

  Marketing issues that affect the choice of promotional method include:
  

  • Target Market – As one might expect, customer characteristics dictate how promotion is determined. Characteristics such as size, location and type of target markets affect how the marketer communicates with customers. For instance, for a small marketer serving business markets with customers widely dispersed, it may be very expensive to utilize a sales force versus using advertising.
  • Product – Different products require different promotional approaches. For the consumer market, products falling into the convenience and shopping goods categories are likely to use mass market promotional approaches while higher-end specialty goods are likely to use personalized selling. Thus, products that are complex and take customers extended time to make a purchase decision may require personal selling rather than advertising. This is often the case with products targeted to the business market. Additionally, as we briefly discussed in the Managing Products tutorial and will later see in the The PLC and Marketing Planning tutorial, products pass through different stages in the Product Life Cycle. As a product moves through these stages the product itself may evolve and also promotional objectives will change.

Characteristics of Promotional Methods

Before we discuss the different promotional options available to the marketer, it is useful to gain an understanding of the key features that set different options apart. For our discussion we isolate eight characteristics on which each promotional option can be judged.

For our discussion we will look at the following characteristics of a promotional method:

1. Intended Audience: Mass vs. Targeted
2. Payment Model: Paid vs. Non-Paid
3. Interaction Type: Personal vs. Non-Personal
4. Message Flow: One-Way vs. Two-Way
5. Demand Creation: Quick vs. Lagging
6. Message Control: Total vs. Minimal
7. Message Credibility: High vs. Low
8. Cost Assessment: Exposure vs. Action

While these characteristics are widely understood as being important in evaluating the effectiveness of each type of promotion, they are by no means the only criteria used for evaluation. In fact, as new promotional methods emerge the criteria for evaluating promotional methods will likely change.

Payment Model: Paid vs. Non-Paid

Most efforts to promote products require marketers to make direct payment to the medium that delivers the message. For instance, a company must pay a magazine publisher to advertise in the magazine. However, there are several forms of promotion that do not involve direct payment in order to distribute a promotional message. While not necessarily "free" since there may be indirect costs involved, the ability to have a product promoted without making direct payment to the medium can be a viable alternative to expensive promotion option.

Message Credibility: High vs. Low

The perceived control of the message can influence the target market’s perception of message credibility. For example, many customers viewing a comparative advertisement in which a product is shown to be superior to a competitor’s product may be skeptical about the claims since the company with the superior product is paying for the advertisement. Yet, if the same comparison is mentioned in a newspaper article it may be more favorably viewed since readers may perceive the author of the story has possessing an unbiased point-of-view.

Interaction Type: Personal vs. Non-Personal

Promotions involving real people communicating with other people is considered personal promotion. While salespeople are a common and well understood type of personal promotion, another type of promotion, called controlled word-of-mouth promotion (a.k.a., buzz marketing), is emerging as a form of personal promotion. Unlike salespeople who attempt to obtain an order from customers, controlled word-of-mouth promotion uses real people to help spread information about a product but is not designed to directly elicit orders.

One key advantage personal promotions have is the ability for the message sender to adjust the message as they gain feedback from message receivers (i.e., two-way communication). So if a customer does not understand something in the initial message (e.g., doesn’t fully understand how the product works) the person delivering the message can adjust the promotion to address questions or concerns. Many non-personal forms of promotion, such as a radio advertisement, are inflexible, at least in the short-term, and cannot be easily adjusted to address questions that arise by the audience experiencing the ad.

Promotion Decisions

Those unfamiliar with marketing often assume it is the same thing as advertising.Marketing encompasses many tasks and decisions, of which advertising may only be a small portion.

Additionally, when non-marketers hear someone talk about “promotion” they frequently believe the person is talking about advertising. While advertising is the most visible and best understood method of promotion, it is only one of several approaches a marketer can choose to promote their products and services.

In this tutorial we begin our discussion of the third major area of the marketing mix – promotion.

Many view promotional activities as the most glamorous part of marketing. This may have to do with the fact that promotion is often associated with creative activity undertaken to help distinguish a company’s products from competitors’ offerings. While creativity is an important element in promotion decisions, marketers must also have a deep understanding of how the marketing communication process works and how promotion helps the organization achieve its objectives.

Objectives of Marketing Promotions

The most obvious objective marketers have for promotional activities is to convince customers to make a decision that benefits the marketer (of course the marketer believes the decision will also benefit the customer). For most for-profit marketers this means getting customers to buy an organization’s product and, in most cases, to remain a loyal long-term customer. For other marketers, such as not-for-profits, it means getting customers to increase donations, utilize more services, change attitudes, or change behavior (e.g., stop smoking campaigns).

However, marketers must understand that getting customers to commit to a decision, such as a purchase decision, is only achievable when a customer is ready to make the decision. As we saw in the tutorials covering Consumer Buying Behavior and Business Buying Behavior, customers often move through several stages before a purchase decision is made. Additionally before turning into a repeat customer, purchasers analyze their initial purchase to see whether they received a good value, and then often repeat the purchase process again before deciding to make the same choice.

The type of customer the marketer is attempting to attract and which stage of the purchase process a customer is in will affect the objectives of a particular marketing communication effort. And since a marketer often has multiple simultaneous promotional campaigns, the objective of each could be different.

The Communication Process

The act of communicating has been evaluated extensively for many, many years. One of the classic analyses of communication took place in the 1940s and 1950s when researchers, including Claude Shannon, Warren Weaver, Wilbur Schramm and others, offered models describing how communication takes place.

 In general, communication is how people exchange meaningful information. Models that reflect how communication occurs often include the elements shown below:

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Keys to Effective Communication

For marketers understanding how communication works can improve the delivery of their message. From the information just discussed, marketers should focus on the following to improve communication with their targeted audience:

• Carefully Encode – Marketers should make sure the message they send is crafted in a way that will be interpreted by message receivers as intended. This means having a good understanding of how their audience interprets words, symbols, sounds and other stimuli used by marketers.
• Allow Feedback – Encouraging the message receiver to provide feedback can greatly improve communication and help determine if a marketer’s message was decoded and interpreted properly. Feedback can be improved by providing easy-to-use options for responding, such as phone numbers, Internet chat, and email.
• Reduce Noise – In many promotional situations the marketer has little control over interference with their message. However, there are a few instances where the marketer can proactively lower the noise level. For instance, salespeople can be trained to reduce noise by employing techniques that limit customer distractions, such as scheduling meetings during non-busy times or by inviting potential customers to an environment that offers fewer distractions, such as a conference facility. Additionally, advertising can be developed in ways that separates the marketer’s ad from others, including the use of whitespace in mag

Tips For A Start-Up

Here are five great start-up tips from Father of Google Paul Buccheit

1. Launch a scaled-back version

You can find a simple, scaled-down way of launching anything. “Tesla [the financially struggling electric car startup] spent a lot of money making these cars, but there are people making electric cars in their garages. So it’s always possible to do a scaled-back version of what you have in mind.”
2. Notice sluggish competitors

google-logoWhen he considered building Gmail, he looked at Yahoo! Mail, the leading Web-based email provider and noticed that “they were actively making their products worse. Which I think is a really good indicator of an opportunity. Yahoo! decreased their [email storage capacity] from 6 megabytes to 4 megabytes.”

The free email providers at the time “were trying to push you into their paid accounts. And in general, people had a low opinion of Web mail because they thought it couldn’t be good.”
3. You don’t need virality if your product is good

“I think the best kind of virality,” he said, “is a product that people like so much that they just want to tell people about it.”

“Think about Google search itself. Where’s the virality? There is none. But people just love the product, so they tell their friends, and somehow it just grew to where it is now, with some huge share of the market.”
4. Follow your passion

Instead of setting goals, he said, “I have a different approach. I look to see what things I enjoy doing and just try to figure out how to spend my time doing things that I enjoy.”

“I like writing code. I like building product. I like making things that people like.”
5. Sometimes you have to go off on your own

“Inside of a big company like Google,” he said, “you can do just about anything and a million people will show up just because the Google name is attached. That’s kind of like cheating. What you make doesn’t have to be good.”

“Consequently, of course, Google has to be careful that you’re not just releasing random things. That means that there tends to be a lot more process to prevent you from doing those random things. Because that would harm their brand over time.”