6 types of online marketing

1. Display Advertising

2. Text Advertising

3. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

4. Affiliate Marketing

5. Classifieds / Platforms

6. Email Marketing

http://myadengine.com/blog/index.php/2010/01/online-marketing-101-the-6-main-types/

Market leader strategies

1.Creating new market niches

Developing new to world products

Radical innovation

Innovative business models

2.Expanding your existing market

Finding new uses of a product

Finding more usage on each use occasion

Targeting one of more competitors

3.Protecting your existing market share

improving your products

improving distribution effectiveness

improving your services

reducing costs

Toyota's 10 Management Principles

By: Tadashi Yamashima, President, Toyota Technical Center (TCC)

1. Always keep the final target in mind
2. Clearly assign tasks to yourself and others
3. Think and speak on verified, proven information and data
4. Take full advantage of the wisdom and experiences of others to send, gather or discuss information.
5. Share information with others in a timely fashion
6. Always report, inform and consult in a timely manner.
7. Analyze and understand shortcomings in your capabilities in a measurable wa
8. Relentlessly strive to conduct kaizen activities
9. Think "outside the box", or beyond common sense and standard rules
10. Always be mindful of protecting your safety and health

Lessons from IDEO: keeping eyes open for inspiration

The Fun Factor

David Kelley, the founder of IDEO, believed that if he hired people he liked and respected, everybody would have fun and more work done.

Observing people

All IDEO-designed products were inspired by watching real people. "We are not funs of focus groups. We don't much care for traditional market research either. We go to the source. Not the "experts" inside a company, but the actual people who use the product or something similar to what we're hoping to create. It's precisely this observation-fueled insight that makes innovation possible. Uncovering what comes naturally to people. And having the strengths to change the rules," writes Tom Kelley.¹

The Perfect Brainstorm

Brainstorming is practically a religion at IDEO, one they practice nearly every day. "Though brainstorms themselves are often playful, brainstorming as a tool – as a skill – is taken quite seriously." In a company without many rules, IDEO people have a very firm idea about what constitutes a brainstorm and how it should be organized:

1. Duration: Sixty minutes in an optimum length. The level of physical and mental energy required for a brainstorm is hard to sustain much longer than that.

2. Don'ts: "Brainstorming sessions aren't presentations or opportunities for the boss to poll the troops for hot ideas. Nor should they feel like work. And brainstorming is most definitely not about spending thousands of dollars at some glamorous off-site location."

3. Idea engine: "Brainstorming is the idea engine of IDEO's culture. It is an opportunity for teams to "blue sky" ideas early in a project or to solve a tricky problem that's cropped up later on. The more productive the group, the more it brainstorms regularly and effectively."

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

Emotional marketing

Marketing strategies without emotions don't work. The world is driven by emotions and emotions drive consumer behavior. Rational thought leads customers to be interested but it is emotion that sells.

Use the Right Colors in Your Promotional Materials

Its very important to know which emotions or symbolizations will trigger your target audience to buy your product or service. The use of the right colors in your promotional materials – in your marketing brochures, your product packages, or on your web site – can actually increase your sales. When people see certain colors they can change their emotions or they can symbolize things related to the colors. For example, if you're selling a money-making product you should use green and brown colors, as they represent money and strength, and bring out the emotion of greed and comfort respectively.

Selling By Coaching

Treat your prospective customer as a player who wants to achieve extraordinary results. You are to help the player win. listen to words, body language and emotions to understand the player's both conscious and unconscious needs.

Make Your Customers Laugh

Why would people want buy from you if they don't enjoy doing so? Making what you have to sell fun to buy is simply taking the whole process one step further. "If you can make your customers laugh, and excite them with your vision of what life can be, they are not going to walk into your outlets, butrun into them. Running a successful business should be fun for you, and there's every reason why you should be able to communicate that sense of fun to your customers. Certainly, if you aren't having fun, you probably aren't running a successful business."

EMOTIONAL MARKETING- THE STARBUCKS EXAMPLE

Starbucks is the prime example of a company that uses emotional marketing. Starbucks is one of the strongest global brands around. Its complicated logo is not memorable, and most people will not be able to recreate it if you ask them to. They will describe it as “something green” “roundish” with a “person or something” in the middle. The slogan is not memorable either, and before you rack your brains, Starbucks doesn’t have one.

The packaging and collateral are nothing special and I challenge you to find an advertisement in any magazine. Starbucks does advertise, but uses emails as the preferred medium.
So what is the success factor of the Starbucks brand? The emotional experience of its consumers – they feel sophisticated and part of what many brand experts refer to as a "coffee house" community.
For the Starbucks community, coffee is not just a beverage, but it is a ritual, a habit, a treat, and a satisfying reward all rolled in one.

source: http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/marketing_emotional.html

Leadership lessons by Jack Welch

Managers muddle – leaders inspire. Leaders are people who inspire with clear vision of how things can be done better. "What we are looking for are leaders at every level who can energize, excite and inspire rather than enervate, depress, and control."

1. Create a vision and then ignite your organization to make this vision a reality: Get people so passionate about what they are doing that they cannot wait to execute this plan. Have great energy, competitive spirit and the ability to spark excitement and achieve results. Search for leaders who have the same qualities.
2. Focus on strategic issues: Your job is to understand the strategic issues within each of your businesses where they are going around the five questions. Know the talent they need to win in those markets and the amount of capital they need. And make bets.
3. Don't micromanage: our job is to see the big picture. Don't manage every detail. Don't get caught up in the minutiae or obsess over every detail, but instead inspire others to execute of your vision. Surround yourself with great people and trust them to do their job and contribute their best to the organization.
4. Involve everyone and welcome great ideas from everyone: Anyone can be a leader, just so long as they contribute, and the most meaningful way for anyone to contribute is to come up with a good idea. Business is all about getting the best ideas from everyone. New ideas are the lifeblood of the organization, the fuel that makes it run. "The hero is the person with a new idea." There is simply nothing more important to an organization than expressing ideas and creating a vision.
5. Lead by example: To spark others to perform, you must lead by example. Jack Welch mastery of the 4 E's of leadership – Energy,Energize, Edge, and Execution – was always in evidence. "He had great energy, sparked others, had incredible competitive spirit, and had a record of execution that was second to none. This is a key of the Welch phenomenon. Had he been lacking in any of the traits he espoused, he would not have commanded such acclaim."

Jack Welch was the former Ceo of GE.This is just a part of the 25 lessons by Jack Welch in which he talks about leadership in detail, building a winning organization, harnessing your employees and building a market leader company.

read more on:http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/mgmt_new-model_25lessons-welch.html

7 part competitive strategy of Microsoft

"If you possess the market, you eventually possess the profits" -Bill Gates

1. Concentrate your effort on a market with huge potential but few competitors
2. Get in early and big
3. Strive to become the industry leader
4. Set the industry standard to become the industry leader:

a)Make your product the best

b)Make your product the most useful

c)Make your product the cheapest

5.Establish a proprietary position - own what you sell - and protect this position

6.Make your customers and strategic alliances offers they cannot refuse

7.Continually invest in innovation to improve your products and services.

source: http://www.1000advices.com/guru/strategy_competition_7part_gates.html

3 important keys to getting a job

1. Keep in mind that you have only 10 - 20 seconds to make a good impression. Therefore, it’s vitally important to craft each cover letter and resume for a specific company and job opening. Generic mass submissions will be deleted in a snap, if they’re even delivered at all. Many companies are using software to presort resumes for them by searching cover letters and resumes for keywords specific to the job opening. Use this to your advantage by carefully analyzing all the information you can find about a job opening. Use the phrases describing skills and other requirements, as applicable, in your resume. Your resume will stand out and can make it through initial screenings if you’ve taken the time to research job opening and addressed specific requirements directly with your cover letter and resume.

2. While the Internet is a great job-hunting tool, face-to-face networking is vitally important. Seventy percent of people who have gotten jobs have done so through someone they know. Join associations for your industry and attend as many events as possible. Talk to people and get to know them - and let them get to know you, as well. Your goal is to develop a network of contacts who can encourage their hiring managers to pay attention to your resume when it arrives, should a position open with their company that you’re interested in.

3. With so many candidates to choose from, companies are putting more emphasis on choosing people who fit well with their corporate culture and philosophy. In many cases the screening process is longer, with the candidate required to answer more in-depth questions and to meet with more people to determine whether or not their personality is the right fit. Use this to your advantage by being selective and in tune with the companies you apply to. Study the company and the people who work there and emphasize your aspects that best fit the traits they’re looking for.

comments: in the next few years, we all will be looking for jobs and internships as gaining experience is equally important as getting education and in order to get a job, its very important to stand out of the pile otherwise, you might never be able to get a good job. we have a lot of time at this stage and if we start making an effort towards standing out of the pile, it can actually make a huge difference.

source: http://www.resumebear.com/blog/index.php/2009/12/01/3-important-keys-to-getting-a-job/

Direct marketing

Pakistan's Competitve advantage

Pakistan is being viewed as a country with minimal prospects of peace and prosperity. It is being viewed as country who is lagging so far behind in the global competitve market place. The World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness report of 2006-2007 ranked Pakistan 91 out of 125 countries in the competitive list. It is overshadowed by India which finds itself ranked at a very respectable 43rd place, and is also lower ranked than Sri Lanka which is 79th. this article talks about what is pakistan's competitive advantage currently and what should it be.

read the full article on: http://www.dawn.com/weekly/dmag/archive/061112/dmag1.htm

Estee Lauder's 15 rules of entrepreneurial success

1. Find the proper location.

2. When you’re angry, never put it in writing.

3. You get more bees with honey.

4. Keep your own image straight in your mind.

5. Keep an eye on the competition.

6. Divide and rule.

7. Learn to say no.

8. Trust your instincts.

9. Act tough.

10. Acknowledge your mistakes

11. Write things down.

12. Hire the best people.

13. Break down barriers.

14. Give credit where credit is due.

15. Train the best sales force.

    
    

    Estée Lauder founded the Estée Lauder company in 1946 armed with four products and an unshakeable belief: that every woman can be beautiful.Estee lauder's success got her to time magazine's 1998 list of 20 most influential business genius of the Century; the only woman to make it to that list. estee lauder started her business with $50000 and so she din't have the money to advertise her products and so she spent it all on samples that son Leonard carried by taxi to womens charity shows. Thus was born Estee Lauder Companies’ “tell a woman marketing strategy.” she could be defined by the words 'ambition' and 'focus' and that's what made her the "beauty tycoon"

    
    

    read her success story on: http://www.yachtingnet.com/time/time100/builder/profile/lauder.html

Strategy

“Without a strategy the organization is like a ship without a rudder.”-Joel Ross and Michael Kami

Why Is Strategy important?

• A compelling need exists for managers
  to proactively shape how a firm’s
  business will be conducted
• A strategy-focused firm is more likely
  to be a strong bottom-line performer
  than one that views strategy as secondary

Key Elements of a Successful strategy

• Developing a successful strategy hinges on making competitive moves aimed at
• Appealing to buyers in ways to set the enterprise apart from rivals and
• Carving out its own market position
• Involves developing a distinctive “aha”
  element to
• Attract customers and
• Produce a competitive edge

Good strategy+ Good strategy Execution

= Good Management

As The equation shown above, a strategy and its execution defines good management of the company. hence, strategy is very important in terms of where the company and wants to go in the future and how it wants to go there.

read more on:http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:Q-iPVW98GjgJ:www.bus.ucf.edu/cviggiano/4720/Chap001.ppt+what+is+strategy+and+why+is+it+important&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=pk

Google's innovation culture

i saw a documentary on tv about Google's innovation culture and i found it really interesting. i was not able to find that particular documentary on youtube, but i found a presentation similar to that on http://www.slideshare.net/chanezon/google-innovation-culture.

what makes a design 'Googley?'

1. focus on people- their lives, their work, their dreams
2. every millisecond counts
3. simplicity is powerful
4. engage beginners and attract experts
5. dare to innovate
6. design for the world
7. plan for today's and tomorrow's business
8. delight the eye without distracting the mind
9. be worthy of people's trust
10. add a human touch

Fail often, fall quickly and learn

Don't run from failure-fail often, fall quickly and learn. Cherish your history,both the successes and mistakes. All of these behaviors are the way to get better at programming.

If you don't follow them, you're cheating your own personal development.

Eight Rules To Brilliant Brainstorming

1. USE BRAINSTORMING TO COMBINE AND EXTEND IDEAS, NOT JUST HARVEST THEM

2. DON'T BOTHER IF PEOPLE LIVE IN FEAR

3. DO INDIVIDUAL BRAINSTORMING BEFORE AND AFTER GROUP SESSIONS

4. BRAINSTORMING SESSIONS ARE WORTHLESS UNLESS IDEAS LEAD TO ACTION

5. BRAINSTORMING REQUIRES SKILL AND EXPERIENCE BOTH TO DO—AND ESPECIALLY—TO FACILITATE

6. A GOOD BRAINSTORMING SESSION IS COMPETITIVE—IN THE RIGHT WAY

7. BRAINSTORMING SESSIONS CAN BE USED FOR MORE THAN JUST GENERATING IDEAS

8. FOLLOW THE RULES, OR DON'T CALL IT A BRAINSTORM

We discussed about brainstorming in class today so i thought to discuss the rules for any effective brainstorming. These points have been discussed in detail and you can read them on http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_39/b4002412.htm

Steve jobs on problem analysis

When you start looking at a problem and it seems really simple with all these simple solutions, you don’t really understand the complexity of the problem. And your solutions are way too oversimplified, and they don’t work.”

“…Then you get into the problem, and you see it’s really complicated. And you come up with all these convoluted solutions. That’s sort of the middle, and that’s where most people stop, and the solutions tend to work for a while…”

“…But the really great person will keep on going and find the key, underlying principle of the problem, and come up with a beautiful elegant solution that works.”

Brand association with products

last night i went to a stationery shop to buy some cello tape and i asked the salesman to give me scotch tape and and i thought about how the brand 'scotch' was associated with cello tape. same is the case with uhu that we generally don't go to the stationery shop and say "i want glue", we generally say "i want uhu" and i think that these are the prime examples of brand association.

Mission statement

Google

"To make the world's information universally accessible and useful"

Procter & Gamble

We will provide branded products and services of superior quality and value that improve the lives of the world's consumers. As a result, consumers will reward us with leadership sales, profit, and value creation, allowing our people, our shareholders, and the communities in which we live and

work to prosper.

Apple

Apple computer is committed to protecting the environment, health and safety of our employees, customers and the global communities where we operate. We recognise that by integrating sound environmental, health and safety management practices into all aspects of our business, we can offer technologically innovative products and services while conserving and enhancing resources for future generations. apple strives for continuous improvement in our environmental, health and safety management systems and in the environmental quality of our products, processes and services.

Blackberry's target market

I saw a blackberry ad in the newspaper today where they show a picture of a guy having fun and in the end it was written "you don't have to be serious to use blackberry." Traditionally blackberry phones have been targeted to business professionals only but now blackberry is targeting the younger generation too and is adding features to the phone that would attract the younger generation in buying the blackberry too.

Dell Rings Up $6.5 Million in Sales Using Twitter

By Connie Guglielmo

Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Dell Inc., relying on social- networking sites to drum up sales of personal computers, said its promotions on Twitter have helped generate more than $6.5 million in orders for PCs, accessories and software.

The number of users signing up to get Dell’s tweets has risen 23 percent in the past three months and now numbers 1.5 million, said Manish Mehta, vice president of Dell’s online unit. More than 100 employees send out the tweets -- Twitter’s 140-character messages -- over 35 different channels.

Dell, the third-largest maker of PCs, started using Twitter two years ago to reach new customers. The $6.5 million represents the total amount generated through direct customer interactions on Twitter over that time. While those sales are a fraction of Dell’s $61.1 billion in annual revenue last year, the company sees Twitter as one of its most significant ways of interacting with customers, Mehta said.

“It’s a very vibrant channel for us and it’s growing aggressively,” Mehta said in an interview. “It’s not just our reach and growth that has progressed, it’s that it’s happening globally.”

Dell reaches Twitter users in 12 countries, including the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, China and Japan. Brazil’s Twitter users spent $800,000 in the past eight months, Mehta said.

San Francisco-based Twitter Inc., which started in 2006, is the third most popular social-networking service in the U.S., according to Reston, Virginia-based ComScore Inc. Dell also relies on Facebook Inc., MySpace Inc. and YouTube Inc.

Dell, based in Round Rock, Texas, reaches 3.5 million people across the Web through social networks and its own community sites, including Direct2Dell.com and IdeaStorm, Mehta said.

Dell fell 48 cents to $12.81 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading at 4 p.m. New York time. The stock has climbed 25 percent this year.

The company ranks behind Hewlett-Packard Co. and Acer Inc. in worldwide sales of PCs.

summary: this post basically talks about how Dell increased their sales using Twitter. they are using web based marketing in order to increase their sales. this trend of marketing through these social networking sites is growing day by day and it seems to be working for the companies too.

read more on: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=akXzD_6YNHCk

3 Effective Small Business Social Media Marketing Strategies

Social media is easily becoming one of the best communication channels available to reach your consumer base. Businesses all over the world are peering into social media and how it can help them increase their online (and offline) presence and revenue. Luckily, building your brand through social media is a very simple process if a business takes the time to maintain their accounts and assets while following a proper strategy.

This article will outline 3 of the most powerful tools in social media to help your business grow – Facebook, Twitter, and a dedicated blog for your business.

Facebook

Facebook has grown to be a behemoth in social media. Even though it’s inteded purpose was social networking for the younger generation, businesses are now using Facebook to reach out to their consumers.

Facebook Strategy:

1. The first and most important step is securing your company’s account name. Facebook has reserved special accounts for businesses where other users can become “fans” of your dedicated page. The advantage here is that users will receive your updates in their feed.
2. Analyze how your competitors in the same industry are utilizing Facebook to create buzz for their business.
3. Facebook offers seemingly the most targeted ad space on the web. Businesses are allowed to place advertisements on the social networking hub by filtering demographics – in other words, you can direct your ads based on age, gender, marital status, etc. Example: a dating website could have their advertisements only appear on the accounts of those users that are listed as “Single”.

Twitter

Twtter is a micro-blogging tool that very recently has shot up in popularity. Businesses can use an array of strategies to reach their consumers.

Twitter Strategy:

1. As mentioned with Facebook, your first task is to secure an account that matches the name of your business.
2. Build a large, targeted following on Twitter.
3. There are many different ways for a business to utilize Twitter to help them meet their goals. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking:

• Public Relations Channel: Twitter is an easy way to communicate updates and promotions to your customers by sending a simple Tweet. You can post links that lead to news articles and new offerings from your business.
• Customer Service: allow your customers to ask questions via Twitter and provide quick and easy answers that will help them make use of your products or services.
• Just for Fun: Southwest Airlines uses their Twitter account to simply have entertaining discussions with their consumers. They also Tweet when there is bad weather to help your travel plans.

Company Blog

A company blog is one of the easiest and most effective ways to attract new customers to your business.

Blog Strategy:

1. There are 2 options for hosting your blog. You can reserve a new domain or install it on your existing domain (the latter is recommended.)
2. The next step is to write enjoyable articles that relate your industry by including keywords that will attract your customers. For example, if you sell coffee you could write an article titled “4 Benefits of Drinking Coffee.” Anyone who is to Google a related phrase may find your article, and in turn your site will be hit with targeted traffic.
3. If you have a bunch of articles on your site and nobody is going to find them, what’s the point? A very important component of your blog strategy is you need to promote these articles. The best way to do so is through social media channels. Not only should you link to your articles from Facebook and Twitter, but you should also use article submissions sites like Digg, Mixx, Propeller, and Yahoo Buzz. Our marketing firm specializes in this type of promotion so feel free to give us a shout if you need help with this phase.
4. Install plugins that will help users spread your article on the web. For example, there are plugins that will place “Share” buttons on your articles where users will be allowed to submit your articles to the sites mentioned in #3.

Conclusion

Social media is the rising star in communication channels for businesses to connect with their customers. It works because you know that you are marketing your products or services to real people who are looking for fun and interesting content on the web. People are spending more time on the internet than ever and social media is where you can reach them.

If your business is looking to employ a solid social media strategy but does not have the time or resources to do so, we can help. Our marketing firm will help you compose and roll out a strategy that will effectively leverage social media to bring your business traffic, exposure and a great ROI

summary: this post is in relation to branding strategies. it talks about how companies are using social networking sites to develop strong brands. this articles talks 3 ways of using social media for marketing. the first being facebook, second twitter and lastly designing a company blog. to some extent i would agree with this as we do notice the advertisements on facebook and twitter but as far as a company blog is concerned, i dont think anyone would actually be interested in reading a company blog. personally, i dont think i would be interested in reading a company blog.

read more on: www. Bloomberg.com