Marketing Environment

Each marketing strategy has to meet certain challenges when it was launched on the market. A detailed identification of these challenges is through a rigorous study of market to any marketing component is not overlooked. In fact, the basic task carried out by marketing teams is analyze the environment of marketing in such a way that the firm plans can be met in time. In addition, the marketing environment is a broad term that includes various factors that affect the business of a company, one of whom may be the marketing, as mentioned above. In a nutshell, in the environment of marketing concepts can be explained in general terms in the following two ways:

Internal and external forces / factors / parameters that may influence directly or indirectly (positively or negatively) a company's ability to carry out their business plans.

Laws, business rules and trade regulations existing at the time that the company's business has no direct control, but it can be phenomenal to influence the company's business.

Components of the marketing environment

There are two components of the forces of the environment of marketing knowledge., external factors and internal factors. We will see in detail about these two features.

External factors

Classified, external factors consist of micro and macro-ambiente environment. We are going to discuss in detail.

Ambient correlacion: this type of marketing the business environment influences directly. Includes suppliers, distributors, consumers and local interest groups whose every step affects significantly the activity of the company.

Macro-Medio environment: in this type of marketing environment, all factors that affect the business of the Organization are beyond the control of the company. For example, consider the laws of foreign trade. The company not framing these laws and must follow these laws, inevitably. Globalization is also an example of constantly changing factors such as policy, trends in marketing, culture, economy in which a company does not have any control, but change according to the needs of the market.

Internal factors

In the domestic market environment, the parameters that are fundamental for a company are all internal or within the company. The five pillars around which revolves around of internal marketing are five m, IE.:

Men

Machine

Money

Materials

Markets

Management of internal factors in a marketing environment is essential for a company to carry out at the peak. It has to be understood rather than external control, improvement in internal plans can be done easily, if the company is working hard to improve its efficiency.

Most important environmental factors marketing

To gain a competitive advantage, companies have to make sure we are able to continue successfully some of the marketing tools that can help them greatly in the external marketing environment. They are as follows.

SWOT analysis

What is the strength of your business that you can leverage in a difficult market environment? It is its place of business, a new product / service that I thought to start or experience in marketing specialist? They only focus on their strengths. These are the key factors that marketing teams must analyze while that the planning of marketing objectives. Once you are aware of the SWOT of your marketing and your business team, you will be able to perform more effectively. Do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis the analysis for each market segment and not together for the entire company, as it will decrease your task.

PEST analysis

Pest refers to the political, economic, socio-cultural factors and Technlogical which may have a significant influence on a company's business plans. As part of your market research, analyze properly, how each of these factors affects your chances of success. Success in a hard external marketing environment depends largely on's as well that use the potential of the market and avoid the traps. This is true especially in countries where there is a great demographic diversity of culture. What appeals to a community, cannot appeal to others. Thus, pest factors have given importance.

Five forces analysis

As with previous tools, five force analysis is one tool to ensure that the company is prepared for all risks. However, unlike previous tools, five forces analysis is focused on a single objective of SBU or strategic business unit. Strategic planning for has

Niche Marketing Examples

Before moving on to take a look at a couple of examples, we will first understand what the marketing of the place is everything. Well, it's a marketing strategy that focused all efforts of marketing a product or service specific to a niche or market segment. This is both a marketing and a strategy of business that starts before even manufacture or acquisition of a product or service, the tastes, preferences and needs of the niche segment are taken into consideration on the basis of the utility that is created. To put it another way, place marketing focuses the promotion of commercial utility, either a good or a service, a clearly specified target audience that is only a part of the consumer population.

Niche marketing ideas is often applied to segments of consumers who do not fall in the category of mass market. Some of the best niche markets are those who are considered as minority or a segment of mass market sub-segments. Extreme sexual minorities orientation, geographic location, specific age groups, religious groups, etc can be the basis for the formulation of successful marketing strategies for niche consumer groups.

Fundamentals of niche marketing

If the rules of the game are diligently followed, the commercialization of the place they can get more revenue for the manufacturer or the service provider of any marketing strategy as in this case, the efforts of marketing and promotion costs are focused on a particular niche segment. This translates into a reduction of waste in promotional activities and frequently results in the cost effectiveness of marketing campaigns, resulting in client most of the marketing strategies of mass conversions. There are three basic rules that, if implemented thoroughly, obtain great benefits of niche marketing activities:-

Identify and meet the unique needs of your place of destination. These niches have very specific requirements and failure to comply with these requirements to the T can spell disaster for the seller.

The way of approaching its goal of the place is very important. Your marketing message must make their niche audience feel that the utility offering is custom made for them. This would give them the feeling that someone cares about their needs and they have come up with a product that is closest to fulfill those needs.

Test market your product / service before you dive into a full-fledged marketing plan. Although it is possible you have researched your niche audience extensively and been put in the efforts of much to come up with a product that seems more appropriate for a niche, is never more sure.

Niche Marketing Strategy examples

The following examples will give you a clear idea of what we've been talking in the preceding paragraphs. While looking at these examples, you will notice that the products, public services and their corresponding ideas promotion of marketing and advertising catch phrases are very specific to a particular need. These needs and utilities are such that the niche audience doesn't mind spending some extra money to comply. Examples of some products, services and utilities that come under the scope of the commercialization of the place are:-

Products that are intended to cope with physical conditions such as dermatitis, dandruff, acne, melasma, wrinkles, etc.;

Environmentally-friendly products such as automobiles of zero emissions, without spray, deodorants and perfumes, etc;

Products of fitness oriented to specific areas such as abdomen, thighs, etc.;

Line of fashion clothes for women with overweight and wide structured or pregnancy;

Budget wedding services Planner;

Some of the commercial products that enter inside place marketing examples are as follows:-

Kosher milk

Timothy hay

Organic food

Commuter airlines

These products and services cater to a very specific group of consumers whose needs can not be met by the most efficient form of communication products. These examples clearly show why this marketing strategy is most effective in some cases of mass marketing strategies. The niche audience can constitute a percentage low population of the market, but these consumers are eager to buyers who would not mind handing out a little extra money to get more close to a solution to possible consumption needs.

Marketing Management Concepts

Sales and marketing management has undergone a sea change in the last few years. The very basis of the process of manufacturing goods has grown from just producing goods that producers want, now produce goods that consumers want. This is because there has been a concept of inclusion and execution of various marketing management. The very basic concepts shows that production is now a consumer centric and that without a proper marketing strategy and tactics, there is no way that a business can survive. Let's delve further into the concept of marketing management, in this article a Buzzle.

The Important Concepts Of Marketing Management

The importance of marketing in the process of business activities has increased over the years. Where initially, the goods are sold on the basis of any manufacturer wants to sell, currently, manufacturers must pay attention to your needs and requirements, the demands of the consumer. Otherwise, consumers will find someone who meets these needs and switch to it. As a result, he will suffer loss. Let's look into the basic concepts of marketing management that helps manufacturers to measure what will be produced and how much to produce.

Production Concept

The concept of mass production arises from beliefs and evidence that the person's goods in high demand and will be purchased, no matter what. The basic idea is to identify which is the most widely used products by consumers. Do your research and through the basic steps of the marketing research process, find out what products will always have a request and who are the ones that consumers will buy anything. Then, start large-scale production of this product and start selling them at low prices and accumulate huge profits through the sale. Why the low price? It is true that there will always be demand for the product, but remember consumers would prefer to buy the same product from another vendor, which provides him with a lower price. So while, there is demand, there is also competition.

Product Concept

From the above, it is clear that consumers will not buy anything from you if he got it at a lower rate anywhere else. In addition, remember that consumers also know about the quality of the product. So, he will also measure the quality of your product, especially if he gets it at a very low level. So, make sure that the product you sell is durable, has a good value for money and offers great quality features. Consumers are not stupid. If she felt cheated once, it will not be returned. So focus on the quality of the product.

Selling Concept

Selling products is one of the hardest jobs in the business. You can produce, market and advertise work, but actually make consumers pay money and buy the product was a chore. Therefore, the heart and soul of the business must be located on a strong sales promotion. Just when consumers see a product you would think about them buying it. So, applying different methods of sales promotion so it can concentrate on product sales up in time. This would lead to a quick turnover and profit.

The concept of marketing

Different promotion methods that business organizations that adopt the line of their lives. If their marketing strategy fails, they have little to look forward to. To ensure a reasonably good sales and at least marginal gains, business organizations have to follow a concept so simple and fundamental. They should remember that ' the consumer is King '. So the strategies they adopt to focus entirely on making the consumer feel important and very special. Products must be marketed in such a way that the consumers should feel like it has been created specifically for him and that it is the best you will get. Once you have the consent of the consumer there is little else to do. You will have Your customers loyalty and he will have the satisfaction of getting a very good product. Profits will roll in

The Community Concept Marketing

While designing and manufacturing products, in order to give your product the advantages and also to be on the safer side, always focus on the impact that your product will have on the general public. The well-being of people should be at the top of the list, followed by a production goal of consumer satisfaction and then, profits from the company. This is the sequence that should be preserved and highlighted through your marketing strategy as well.

How to Market a Product

Marketing is making available a new commodity, which will meet the demands of customers. However, if you've found something new and you want to sell your product, then that's where you have to use your marketing strategies and tactics. We often face difficulties in marketing the product because we lack a good marketing and sales techniques for the product. To overcome the obstacles, we should try to make products that are popular. More popularity, more demand.

Because the primary purpose of any small or large organization is to be successful, well planned sales and marketing strategy can help organizations to develop. It is important to know and understand the product and the right ways in which it could be introduced in the market. Therefore, it is important for an organization to conduct thorough research on the market situation and the type of customers who are likely to buy the product.

If you have created a new product and want to sell it, then apply these marketing techniques will make the product a success. Let's take a close look at some successful marketing technique.

Market Research

Selling products is a big task. Therefore, companies need to do market research to promote the product. Analyzing the new trends, competitors and customer requirements while doing market research. This will help you to market your products better.

The price of the product

Pricing strategies for the product must be prepared before bringing the product to market. After careful market research and analysis, makes a decent price, that would be convenient for buyers and sellers. A company should try to reach out to the maximum number of buyers and make a good profit.

False Advertising

This is a good tool to promote your products. The ad became a lot better if the brand products are also involved in it because it will create an identity for the product. There are many important brands in the field of advertising. Advertising is a form of communication where one can convince target customers to buy the product. One can use many media such as the internet or tele-media to advertise their products. These days, ads on the internet proved to be beneficial for product marketing. This helps in making the product popular and can attract a lot of potential customers for the organization.

Analyze Customers

The success or failure of products lies in the hands of ordinary people. A company must know to whom they should target before selling their products. There are many types of customers and it is important to know their tastes, likes and dislikes. This will help the company to decide on how the product should be sold.

Reaching out to Retailers

This is another way through which organizations can build their products. Creating awareness among retailers and try to convince them to buy your product. Retailers can prove very helpful because they act like the relationship between the customer and the organization.

Packaging

Packaging is the first attribute of a product which creates an impression on customers. The packaging should be appeals so that customers feel like buying a product.

Maintain and manage the quality of the product

After the product is on the market, the next step is to maintain the quality of the product. It is important for the seller to ensure that the product meets the needs of the buyer and must work to maintain the quality. Typically, buyers tend to compare a product with other products/commodities and therefore, it becomes necessary to keep a check on the quality of the product. High quality, the higher the sales.

Marketing plays a critical role in selling the product. If your organization must meet the demands continue to increase, they have to want to have your ideas organized and creative marketing. Market research, advertising and packaging is a tool to get the maximum benefit and get more sales.

We have now seen some important steps for marketing the product. Therefore, we can conclude that the marketing of not only introduces the product but also maintaining product quality. Any company that introduced the new products will have to keep a check on new market trends and continually improve their products. This should be the goal of every company to serve the best to their clients.

Using Facebook for Business Marketing

Facebook has become one of the best platforms to promote business in the world today. Any entrepreneur, with a small business or large will wish to promote on social networking websites. Because there are so many people who compete in this platform, marketing your business here need proper consideration and planning. Facebook is a place where you can reach out to millions of people and that too free of cost. The advantages of Facebook for business is a way for many to be listed out, and this makes us understand why it's so important to have a company profile on this website. Marketing and advertising are two different concepts and it is important you understand the true difference to start marketing your business. The fundamental difference between the two is that the marketing will decide how your business will reach people and advertising will decide how your business is visible when reaching the people. This is a very common differences but I hope you can now at least tell the two apart.

Tips to market your business on Facebook

Make a Page

The first step is to create a page for your company, explain in detail what your business to enter the information here should be complete and correct as the people need to know what actually it is your business does. When you create this page, fill out all the details so that no part of the business that remains mysterious or unknown persons. This page will become your business card in detail to everyone on Facebook. Although this is the first step, it's the most important.

Tagging

Now that you have created a page for your business, you have to start showing people it exists, doesn't it? People will not just pass by and suddenly realized that there was a page that they need to visit. To address this possibility, you should start asking your friends to ' tag ' your page in their status or post. After tagging, people in your friend's friends list will be able to see your page. Finally, many people will come and visit it.

Share

Start sharing your post put on the page of your company from your personal profile page and ask your friends to do the same thing. If their business is good, people will still do it. You can also ask people to share it through the messages and, if necessary, you can hire people who will work on this. On the Facebook platform, share options are considered to be the best way to disseminate information, so make sure you take advantage of optimally together. To share any post, you need to click on the ' Share ' button which is given usually at the bottom of the post.

Invitation

Send an invite is another way to market your business on Facebook. Invitations can be sent if you are holding an event that relates to your business. This event may be held on Facebook itself. You will come to know the number of people who attended and those who were not present on the event page. The numbers will show how much your business pages being viewed per day. People are not able to reply directly on the page but once you have confirmed the information that they have visited the page, there is a possibility that they might come back later.

Deals & Discounts

When you share your business page with people on Facebook, make a request for them to like this page. Such options are given on the right of the page. After people like this page, they will be updated about all the posts you publish at any time. To make this option more profitable, you can put up some deals and discounts that will also be published. People will be tempted to find out about deals and discounts and in that way, they will visit your business page.

Now that you know how to market your business on Facebook, soon to do it and do it right. Although there are many advantages of advertising on Facebook, it may take you some time to realize this. However, the key is to keep at it and keep sharing. The more you share, the more you increase the chances to make business. Platforms like Facebook very little, so make sure you make the most of it.

Communication Process for Viral Marketing

"Viral marketing" might sound strange to those who have never encountered the term. This may surprise you because of how terms like virus can be inserted into the marketing industry terminology? Well, no doubt you will probably hold the rule of validity. This of course gives the connotation of Sly to those who did not collect a bit of an idea of the concept. Ironically, this is one concept that also topped the eyeball in creating self-awareness. Viral marketing is suitable to define himself as a wise marketing strategy which concentrates on spreading awareness about a particular product, thus, also maintains the ideology of Word-of-mouth. This is a systematic marketing industry uses terminology to gain the interest of the masses via the internet. The communication process is such that the most important information that can attract the attention and interest of the consumer is posed, or circulated through techniques of word-of-mouth.

The communication process can be referred to as ' fire ' virus. I say this, because I believe that to a certain extent, viral marketing works on the principle of how this virus is contagious in nature. It is through the spread of the virus that many people might survive colds, or fever, by the same token, it is only through viral marketing there are people who pass on the good news about the product, or service that they have been withdrawing, and found it favourable or satisfactory. This serves to become virtual spreader to spread its marketing strategy, through the news. There are basically two ways in which communication occurs: spontaneous and unplanned.

Communication Method

Spontaneous Communication

The viral communications strategy that is spontaneously focused on providing products or services by the company. When customers or consumers are satisfied, they will give their feedback in the form of availing the service or product all over again and continue to use the method they offered. Through this method, people who have been using this product will convey a positive impression to friends or potential buyers who may be interested in our services and products. In turn they can do the same thing to people they know. In no time, you will have a number of people who use the product or service.

A Communication Plan

A study conducted by Phelps et al. (2004), produced a report on the effectiveness and frequency of publication of forensic email forwarding, relating to classify email communication mode into four parts. They are also discovering that email spawned human emotions that highlight specific things a little, have a larger probability to be forwarded. Email that functions as a virtual Bulletin Board tend to get attention by the recipient. So while engaging in viral marketing, email proved to be a strategic instrument for the effective communication and agile.

Email is, therefore, a communication model that is planned. The planned communication is a program set up by a company or organization to let the masses know about products or services they have on offer. The communication process have proposed strategies which functions on the principle of elements.They are the following:

Take Away Products

This is the standard, and the most popular method in helping companies market their presence. "Free" and "discount" is the favorite in terms of marketing terminology. They will offer their products for free trial to let the masses know that they are ' on the market ', and their products competitive. In terms of service, there is a text message and email forwarded so that information can be used by those who are interested. Coupons and benefits distributed by email to create awareness about the products or services they deploy. In short, they serve to be an incentive for the masses to try the product, or service.

Easy Message Is Transmitted

The organization is planning a specific technique to help people get the message across quickly and easily, without fuss, or time-consuming tactics. They are of the view that the consumer is too much work, and it is best to provide them with alternatives that do not consume a lot of their time. This is how they can let other people know, especially when they have accessed via the media to do it.

Preparation for the response Variable

The Organization has released a campaign had to be ready for one of the two sets of responses, maybe a small scale (which involves very few people to participate), or a large scale (to face number 'n ' from people who are interested in availing the benefits you have put forth).

Concentrate on the mentality of the typical Man

Organizations must understand, m

How to Market Your Invention

It may seem like the world has run out of innovative discoveries in recent years, but the fact is that the most dedicated mind will always find a way to make something new. This type of technology and tools that are available to ordinary people today has made it possible to push the boundaries and explore new avenues, and people who are curious about how things work will always find a way to build something that has never been seen before.

Assuming that you have completed this step, you will now definitely be looking to market your invention effectively. Find the right audience for the discovery is very important to success, and this is an area where a massive technology setup in place is very useful. There are a number of new channels and roads in place today for people who want to sell something and this needs to be managed effectively.

Measures for the marketing of the Invention

The most important thing to remember is to not get carried away by someone who is more enthusiastic to help you out. You have to be wary of scams out there, because there are a lot of them are present in today's world. Duplicating the idea and invention is one of the easiest things to do today, so you have to be very careful about who you are dealing with. If you are satisfied that the person (s) you are dealing with is working in your best interest, then you can go ahead and follow the instructions on marketing your invention.

Step # 1: Know your Target market

You can't figure out a way to market without knowing who to sell it to. Because you have made a discovery, you will be the best judge who it was meant for, and who the people who will use it most. Save target in mind and then think of ways to reach them. Any business venture and marketing operations starting with the planning process and the recognition of the targeted audience before anything else.

Step # 2: Create a marketing plan

Once your target audience has been pointed, you should start working on a plan to reach them. Utilize various media outlets such as the local press, national press, the international press, the internet, television, radio, trade publications, magazines and other outlets. Make your presence felt and create awareness campaigns that bring your invention to the attention of the world. Take advantage of some of the techniques of advertising such as advertising OTL (Over The Line), BTL (Below The Line) and the OOH advertising (Out Of Home). Allocate a budget for all the way and choose the best way possible and ask for professional help if necessary. Also remember to file a patent application for your invention or others will undoubtedly steal your ideas, no matter how small a scale as possible. You will need to ask for assistance from a patent lawyer for this purpose.

Step # 3: Settle on pricing strategies

For this purpose, you will need to determine the price at which it's sold, and also a distribution strategy that you intend to follow. Select the price that covers operating costs and give you some advantage, but did not mention a price that is too ambitious. Binding with retailers and distributors so that the product will be supplied to the market in a timely fashion. Indeed, this is a process that will greatly depend on the nature of the product itself. Some people also choose to get their products licensed and purchased by the seller in the market and sell it under their brand name. Determine how to carry out all the procedures will definitely need help from a professional experienced in this business.

There are a lot more nuance and subtlety to the marketing of products, but they are all further subsets of these steps. Entrepreneurship is not an easy path to go down, but in the end could be very beneficial. You should know that most new business is emerging, perish and fail in a short time. So one needs to have good business acumen to make things like this work, but most importantly, someone needs to have a good product to sell.

Types of Guerrilla Marketing

Do you know what is guerrilla marketing? This is a unique way to promote your brand and products by relying on a strategy that is high on creativity rather than a big budget. Marketing techniques tends to be a unique, unconventional, and surprising, which is why they are getting the attention of consumers. The term guerrilla marketing, created by Jay Levinson stated that traditional forms of marketing are meant for small businesses that don't have the budget of large companies. This technique generally take advantage of understanding human psychology and trying to manipulate consumer behavior accordingly.

Guerrilla Marketing: Different Types Of

Now you know what guerrilla marketing is, you might want to learn about the various forms of marketing. Find different examples of guerrilla marketing and you'll see how one can be entirely different from the others.

Alternative Marketing

This is a popular type of guerrilla marketing that uses non-traditional ways of advertising the products. General form of marketing involves using some form of publicity statements issued by companies that are not directly to market or promote the products but create a base appeal to these products, so that consumers are informed of its existence.

Ambient Marketing

Of all the different categories of guerrilla marketing, ambient marketing tend to cost the most. This is due to the fact that this type of marketing usually involves utilizing the site and then created it, costs can be quite high. In the form of marketing, you use a single thing that is most synonymous with the company and then placing it in other places or things that are normally not associated with the company or product.

Astroturfing

This form of marketing is very similar to a grass-roots movement in which individuals promote a product because of the good experience they had with that. But unlike the latter, which is the promotion of honest, astroturfing (that is generally done through blog), the people who promote products often at salaries from companies or have a company on its own. The blogger did not reveal that they are connected to the company.

Experiential Marketing

In the form of marketing, this effort was to allow prospective consumers to experience the products in question, so that they have something tangible to connect with. The company allows people to experience the products in question. It is often stated that the marketing forms allow consumers to make more informed decisions and smart.

Think Marketing

This is a form of guerrilla marketing in which the company aims to make people aware of the presence of the product. They try to achieve this by putting the product in places where they are bound to get a lot of recognition and exposure. Product placement in films and television shows are often regarded as a kind of marketing. On the Internet when you place notes or photos on the different websites you are involved in marketing.

Tissue Pack Marketing

Popularized in Japan, this form of advertising as the name suggests, involves promoting products on the cover of tissue paper. Because it is a product that is commonly used and can be stored for a while, it is a great way to ensure that these products remain in the memory of the consumer. This technique is generally considered to be more useful than an ad in the flyer.

Undercover Marketing

Also known as a stealth marketing, involves the use of celebrities to advertise products with using it in a public place. They voiced their loyalty to the products they are using. In this way, the celebrity that encourages fans to use the same product that he uses, and creating awareness about the product.

Viral Marketing

This kind of guerrilla marketing using social networking sites is different and popular video games and to make recognition of the brand and the product. This technique is such that if the commercial catch the attention of the target base, it will be released by them without the company having to issue any charges. The reason it is called viral marketing is because of comparisons that have been created for the spread of computer viruses.

Wild Posting

Unlike other types tend to be subtle, this form involves the over-the-top promotion of your product by placing posters wherever they can be placed and make the message is hard to miss. Of course, the cost factor involved in this form of marketing is less which makes it effective in the long term.

This is the main Division that can be made of guerrilla marketing. In a time and age where consumers are increasingly becoming more savvy to the tactics of advertising, guerrilla marketing is a great way to memprom

Marketing Strategies that Work

An efficient marketing strategy is one of the pre-requisites for the success of a business. Numerous researches have been carried out to know which strategy can guarantee success. But, the fact is with rapidly changing global markets, organizations need to be at their innovative best to come up with strategies that cater and appeal to the target customers. There are numerous successful strategies and generalizing them would not be fair as what may work for one product or service may not work for another. There are certain basics of marketing that have proven to be useful and effective over the years. Let us take a look at these.

Efficient Marketing Strategies

Know Your Customers

The first and the foremost thing that you need to do before you get down to brainstorm on your marketing strategy is to identify which segment of population will the product or service cater to. For example, if you are a sports goods manufacturer, it is highly possible that your clientele will have a vast majority of people in the 16-35 age-bracket. If your company specializes in making computers, a lot of your customers will comprise adolescents, teenagers, doting-dads, and may be some senior-citizens who want to gift a computer to their grandchildren. When you know who your target-audience is going to be, you get then decide which direction your marketing strategy should take. The golden rule here is to know who the buyer is going to be.

Promote Your Product

Before you plan a promotional offer, it is important that you have the know-how on what your competitors are up to. If you feel that the offer you have is unique and tempting then you should definitely go ahead with your plan. One of the significant benefits of running a promotional offer is that it gets you a lot of word-of-mouth publicity. I remember buying some beer mugs from a store some couple of months ago which my friends found quite impressive. Last week I got a promotional message from the same store and as soon I went to their website, I found that the same beer mugs were once again on offer. I conveyed this to my friends and they had them at their home by the evening. This is one of the biggest reason why even well-established brands don't shy away from putting their stuff up at half the price. It increases your traffic, gets people to talk about you, and most importantly converts potential customers to happy buyers!

Choose a Strategic Location

The location of your outlet or franchise is another important factor which determines the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. If your outlet is placed at an important junction or near a landmark, chances are that you will get more browsers. Have you ever noticed that majority of McDonalds outlets are at some of the busiest places in the world. The location plays a very important role as it creates an opportunity for you to be accessible to customers. How many times has it happened that you just step into a store to just have a cursory look around and something appeals to you so much that you can't help but buy that product. Therefore, it is important that your business is located at a busy place.

Use Web-marketing

As we mentioned in the beginning of this article, organizations need to be innovative if they have to stay ahead of the competition. One of the steps in this direction is the visibility of your business on the internet. If you would have noticed, every prominent website offers a link to customers through which they can go to a company's homepage, place orders or know about an upcoming offer. Putting yourself up on popular social networking sites can help you to know your customer's tastes and preferences. In fact, market researchers are of the belief that internet marketing will be one of the dominant marketing tools in near future.

Build a Strong Relationships with Employees

Your employees are one of the most important part of your marketing strategy. If your employees feel strongly about the company, it reflects in their behavior and helps in creating a positive impression on customers and within their own social circles. It is important therefore, that you instill a feel-good factor in your employees so that they have nice things to say about the organization. This will help in building a positive brand-image for the organization.

The strategies are generic rather than specific and it is important that organizations focus on these to ensure that the organizations make their present felt in the market. In the end, we hope that this article would have helped you to know some effective marketing strategies that are essential for every business organization.

Kickstarter Marketing - The Money's Secondary.

Kickstarter launches in the UK at the end of the month and there will be lots of media coverage about this "funding platform for creative projects" and its new way of raising money. But, it occurs to me, it's not really about crowdsourced funding at all.

After all, many of the successful projects could arguably have found traditional funding if the founders had been willing to give up some control to traditional third parties, and many of the projects find themselves funded far beyond the original goals.

No, the money's secondary. Something else is going on. This isn't just crowdsourcing, it's momentum sourcing.

Momentum that's derived from proof of concept; momentum that's derived from building a tribe of promoter-users who are incentivised via the range of prizes on offer; and momentum that's derived from being able to leverage critical mass with future investors, distributors and customers.

Most people see it solely as a fund-raising exercise and that's great, but they shouldn't overlook the baked-in marketing. That's priceless.

Demographic Segmentation

In marketing, it is very difficult that a single organization to meet the needs of all consumers, and therefore has to rely on the concept of "market segmentation". Through segmentation of the market, it is possible that the Organization for the needs of all consumers who belong to a particular niche, rather than trying to meet the needs of the market - which is virtually impossible. Several market segmentation strategies are being used by different organizations today, and "demographic segmentation" seems to be the most coveted of all of them.

Why segmenting your market?

Market segmentation is basically the market division into smaller segments to make marketing easier and avoid the waste of resources. Helps your organization leverage the resources available to meet the needs of a particular sector of the market that caters to. In a nutshell, helps companies to identify potential customers and direct them - which, in turn, translates into an efficient use of resources. Market division is carried out using one of the five strategies of segmentation

» Behavior segmentation

» Utility segmentation

» Segmentation psychographic

» Geographic segmentation

» Demographic segmentation

In the case of the geographic segmentation, market is divided into different geographical regions. It helps a company dedicated to air cooling systems, identify and focus on the tropical market in which consumers are expected to buy air coolers, rather than go to cold regions where air coolers are of no.

Demographic segmentation

Demographic segmentation is, basically, the market segmentation executed through the adoption of various demographic factors such as age, gender, social class, etc, into consideration. ('Demographic' the word is derived from "demographics" of the word, i.e., the study of the population.) It helps the Organization divided the market into several segments or groups, each with a common variable, and point to each of these groups to improve the performance of the organization. This strategy of market segmentation aims to understand the potential market, and take the necessary measures to ensure that the needs of a population group that are met.

Variables

Segmentation variables are essentially the factors that help the organization in the determination of the target group. Demographic segmentation, variables are mainly composed of factors demographics such as age, ethnicity, occupation, etc then we have given a list of variables that are commonly used to divide the market into smaller segments.

» Age

» Sex

» Family size

» Family life cycle

» Rent

» Occupation

» Education

» Ethnicity

» Nationality

» Religion

» Social norms

Based on these variables, an organization can decide which group they should be addressed. An organization that focuses on sports cars, for example, will need to refer to persons of the age group 20-40. On the other hand, the magazine a publication of the women's organization has to focus on white to the female population. It helps these companies to identify their respective consumer and efficient to meet their needs.

Advantages and disadvantages

If the demographic segmentation is one of the most popular methods in today's market segmentation, is because of certain benefits that make it the first choice for various organizations. The two major advantages of this segmentation strategy are:

The organization can categorize the needs of consumers on the basis of factors demographics such as age, gender, etc.

Its variables are much easier to obtain and measure, in comparison with other strategies of segmentation variables.

One of the disadvantages highlighted in this segmentation strategy of market, which is often cited by critics, is the one-dimensional approach that follows it. In this segmentation strategy, it is generally believed that all individuals who belong to a particular "group" have the same needs - which is not necessarily the case. If an organization is using only demographic segmentation, it is more likely to be vulnerable to competitors.

Demographic segmentation helps the Organization to understand customers and their needs. In a market driven by intense competition, market segmentation analysis can be of great help. Basically, the market segmentation is based on the simple fact that you can not please all consumers with a single product, and therefore you have to identify the market pot

Tips for Tea Marketing

Ever recall a shopping list which had items in the grocery listed as Dole bananas, Starbucks coffee and Danon yogurt. This typical list has so many brand names that we have unconsciously associated with these raw products. So how in the world do these companies successfully market these products and form a trademark on our mind? Their marketing strategies are so unique that it not only creates a brand value, but also has consumers in the form of fans attached to their products. As there are so many big corporations involved in marketing these products, it's extremely important to keep innovating the marketing plan and keep launching new products in order to gain a competitive edge over the competitors.

The strategy basically involves using marketing techniques like positioning tactics and various promotional strategies to market this basic product. Tea since ancient times has been used for beauty treatments, as a soothing agent, as dye colors used on clothes and as a cleaning agent. Even now, the ever expanding tea market continues to grow despite hitting saturation. Tea has always been termed as instant wisdom. So how do marketers explore this potion of wisdom to their benefit? Tea also has medicinal properties and is favored more than coffee now in the market. Also there are varieties in the tea market - black tea, green tea, ready-to-drink tea and fruit teas, which have already captured a major segment of the market. Following are some tips for tea marketing:

Researching the Market
It's necessary that you decide on the market you want your product to sell. Through market segmentation, you can divide the market on the basis of geographic, demographic, behavioral, psychographic factors and on price too. After segmentation, your goal will be more well-defined and it will help you to reach your customer in a more refined manner. Also, new strategies like finding out the motivation factor and social characteristics in the target market can serve as an answer to searching and reaching your goals. In your research, it is also necessary to conduct a survey and rely on the primary data, which will help you decide the future course of action related to your marketing goals.

Analyzing the Product through Matrices
Once you have zeroed in on the market, the next step is creating a matrix according to the needs of your product. This analysis will help you in identifying your product while measuring the relative market share and market growth. By identifying, your product can be classified as high earner or low earner.

Finding Suitable Channels of Promotion
After you have found your niche market, it's important to select a promotional tool that is effective in conveying the message. Promotional tools include television, radio, sponsorships, Internet and other advertising mediums. Also, the cost incurred while promoting the product should be taken into account. The new trend of promotion is making your presence felt at the new social websites.

Finding the Perfect Location
After choosing a suitable channel for promotion, location plays an important role. The product needs a strong distribution channel where your product can easily reach the customer at low cost. Also before the product is extensively advertised, the product should be before the customer's eyes. As it is a convenience product which is purchased through minimum effort, the product should be available at all possible locations. The plus point here is that as the customer doesn't have any strong preferences, new products are easily acceptable by the customer. This point can serve as an added advantage while marketing the product.

Marketing Audit
After your product has been successfully launched, it's time to keep a tab on your marketing plans, sales and profits. Through auditing techniques, one can find out the deviations between actual and expected performance. In this cut throat competition, marketing strategies need to be changed after a period of time. Therefore, auditing serves the purpose by measuring the performance of every plan and alerting the marketer if any changes are to be made.

In America, where convenience is of utmost priority, ready-to-drink tea markets have emerged as the best choice of customers. Now is the time for new innovations as many market segments have saturated. The positive aspect about tea market is that because of its positive health benefits, its market is never going to be extinct. In fact, declining sales in soft drinks and coffee has boosted the market for tea. Tea is finding its uses in many industries too, so there are more niche markets that can be developed. So the saying, "It's not your cup of tea" is certainly going to change with new product lines, new brands and new packaging.

How Marketing Functions have Changed Over the Years

With the surge of social networking portals, multifunctional cell phones, and gadgets, the face of marketing has undergone a major makeover in the past decade. It has in fact become an imperative practice for companies to follow the latest marketing trends to not just get new customers, but also to retain the existing ones. Aggressive, competitive, and innovative marketing strategies are the precept today. Technological advancement has become a blessing for consumers and given them a sense of empowerment. Product information is available at the click of a finger and there are more competitors than ever in the market. Hence, every company aspiring to rule the roost has had to embrace the metamorphosis of its marketing functions. In fact, this evolution has been a global affair. However, if Internet and technology has benefited the consumers, it has also created new media for marketing around the globe in the virtual world. Within this decade, new non-traditional marketing concepts have emerged, such as viral marketing, social media marketing, undercover marketing, and attraction marketing.

Out with the Old, In with the New
In the beginning of the 21^st century, companies were armed with human resources to build personal relationships with their customers to boost sales through one-on-one interaction in a controlled environment. Consumers believed the information dished out to them by sales professionals. The tables have turned around and it is now the consumers that have an expanse of verifiable information available at hand at the click of a finger. The past decade has also seen a change in the consumer attitude. They now expect more features for a lower price. According to the statistics given by Pew Internet & American life Project, as of May 2010, almost 80% Internet users conduct an online background research on a product before making a purchase decision. Customization and segmentation have emerged as the new indispensable marketing tools. Although, the objective of marketing remains the same, its approach has changed. The need for this development stemmed from the demand of consumers as witnessed with the commencement of this decade. The new-age consumers became more demanding, adventurous, and enthusiastic to try out different market offerings. Marketers exploited this behavior as an opportunity to steer consumers in their favor. This gave rise to greater emphasis on creating a brand value. A brilliant marketing strategy can even convince its prospective customers that the product will satisfy their needs and persuade them to overlook the product's shortcomings.

The New Age: Internet Marketing
You can buy almost everything online today. The internet has drastically changed the face of trade and commerce in the past decade. Hence, it is not surprising to note that it has also been responsible for marketing as it is au courant. The massive online presence of consumers prompted a revolution in the way of advertising and marketing. More companies have stretched these functions to the realms of the virtual world to influence consumer behavior in their favor. They are attempting to build a strong network that allows them to get closer to their clients. While online advertising began in the form of banner ads on websites, it has now taken the forms of viral videos, blogging, promotional campaigns on social networking websites, and consumer discussion forums. Marketers are beating their brains out to keep themselves abreast with the changing trends in consumer needs and tastes. In fact, internet has proved to be a reliable source for gathering data for the same. A marketer can research on the target market through surveys, polls, and interaction with focus groups through online media. This has enabled the consumers to contribute in the decisions pertaining to product offering. Nevertheless, the whole process can now be conducted much more speedily than ever before. It would be absolutely unfair to skip the subject of search engines here. They were the propellers of these changes in marketing. A product that has no mention in any of the domineering search engines, has instantly lost its reputation amongst prospective customers. An example of this trend in internet network marketing is the fundamental - "If Google doesn't know, nobody does."

Thanks be given to the world wide web, it is now possible for the marketing to facilitate instant sales through the option of mail order shopping, instant access to product information and subsequently, acceleration in the time taken to make a sale. Companies have transposed their focus to garnering online traffic to their websites, blogs, ads, and social networking accounts through search engine optimization of keywords, publishing extensive content, purchasing customer database from other companies, and establishing consumer-friendly interfaces to solve queries. The size of the company's scale of operations is no longer a factor for consideration to plan a fruitful marketing strategy. Ten years ago, companies could afford to rely on consumer loyalty to maintain a stake in the market. However, if a company does not make its market presence felt through adequate marketing, its position will be quickly taken over by its competitors.

Internet Marketing Statistics

According to HubSpot.com:

• Twitter has assisted 42% companies present on its portal to bring a new customer.
• 66% marketers rank blogs as an important source of increasing online traffic to company website.
• 57% company blogs are credited for acquiring new customers.
• Facebook has helped 67% B2C companies and 41% B2B companies to generate business.
• Inbound Marketing costs as much 62% less than outbound marketing.

According to Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies:

• 51% fans of a company's Facebook page will make a purchase.
• 79% followers of a company's Twitter account will recommend its products to others.

The Evolution of Marketing
Looking back at the past decade, the forms of marketing that nobody had ever heard about, are now into play and they are being employed with noteworthy results. Take the instance of electronic marketing. In the start of the millennium, e-mail marketing was the greenhorn. Today, it is an essential part of nearly every marketer's PoA. In the field of marketing, it initially gained recognition as a means to reach many customers through a single source of communication. Now, it is the medium of marketing that is used to send personalized messages to different target groups segmented into smaller sizes. And, this trend seems to be present in all other forms of marketing. Marketers have come to realize that each consumer has a varied psychology and in order to get more customers, they must reach each one discretely. While this knowledge was established during this decade, it was not until recently that the marketing strategies designed specifically concentrated on manifesting it. The concept of 'mass marketing' and 'high economy of scale' is now passé. A visionary company now spends a considerable portion of its budget to distinguish the consumers' needs and offer products that satisfy each one. This has resulted in horizontal diversification of the product line. Such an approach is less likely to culminate into the total failure of the marketing plan.

This is just a brief insight on how marketing has changed over the past 10 years. Not to miss out, the global recession crises and unfavorable employment rates in most economies has also prompted companies, big or small, to devise more riveting marketing strategies. The world population may be growing, but how many people can they really sell to? Marketing is the medium of stimulating sales in the future and subsequently, it's one of the most important functions of the management of a company. In the present consumer-driven market, companies cannot afford to let their competition have access to any window of opportunity to take the lead. Marketing is the solution to that. Take a closer look, marketing is not limited to just profit-driven companies anymore. Almost every person, organization of our commercialism-driven society is marketing itself today.

Importance of Product Packaging in Marketing

The flashy orange of Hermès, the legendary aqua blue of Tiffany & Co. or the deep red that defines Cartier packaging elicits sighs even before one opens them to discover the plush contents they carry. The containers of these iconic brands have their devoted section of fans who, believe it or not, even source them from online auctions, knowing that they can't afford the expense of actually buying something luxe in order to obtain those coveted boxes. I'm aware that this might sound completely far-fetched to those who view the concept of packaging with nonchalance, but marketing experts are sure to tell you otherwise.

Unlike advertising, where you'd have to scream from the rooftops to get the consumer's attention, innovative packaging just sends out sublimely effective pick-me-up signals that are irresistible even to the hardest of cynics. You could also call it a final sales pitch, especially because it is common knowledge that emotions play a massive role when it comes to buying. Therefore, it isn't a coincidence when brands with the highest recall value (Nike, Apple, Coca-Cola) are those who invariably invest a great amount of thought behind their packaging.

Brand Association

As a consumer, entering a supermarket and finding endless aisles of similar brands can be assaulting to the senses. What do you think happens next? The vast array of goodies on display compels the consumer to remember and associate a certain kind of package with the brand of their choice. Recognizable brands have a definite edge, no doubt, but think... who will possibly pick up a Coke that's packaged in a steel-gray can with black lettering instead of the regular, flashy red and white? Innovative packaging, with the company logo emblazoned across it makes an established brand stand-out. A perfectly legal attention-grabbing tactic, it tests the consumer's loyalty to the brand and reinstates a recognized brand's presence.

Simply Outshine!

There is no denying that we humans are a judgmental lot, and we take great pleasure in creating preconceived notions based on appearances. As a seller, it would be a crime not to cash in on a golden opportunity like this one. Have you ever wondered why a Barbie doll always comes in a pink box? Or that men's deodorants are mostly packaged in black cans? Science does have a role to play here, but the simple explanation is that companies stereotype, and customers willingly succumb. You see, there is a reason why Tiffany & Co. use that special aqua blue box with a white ribbon to pack their jewelry in, and Nike made that special stadium shoe box for football crazy kids.

Practicality Scores

Product packaging is not limited to appearances, mind you. It goes beyond wrappers and ribbons when it comes to certain wares, perishable commodities in particular. In such cases, freshness rates above everything else and packaging standards must comply. The USFDA has specific rules regarding packaging of edible products, and manufacturers have to adhere to those. Having said that, sellers need not necessarily shed their creativity to accommodate practicality, (there are some very funky juice cartons which prove my point).

Go Green!

Environment friendly packaging never fails to impress, moreover, it helps you establish an image that is austere and conscientious. Reusable, environment friendly containers are usually a big hit with the consumers who will appreciate your concern for planet Earth. Green initiatives spruce up a company's image in no time, and as a brand, you end up doing your bit towards undoing environmental damage to some degree. It is also the need of the future, as most governments are more or less likely to enforce strict rules regarding usage of environment friendly packaging.

Bait the Customer

When it comes to luring customers, nothing does the job better than the manner of packaging. Shopping is a multi-sensory experience and manufacturers must view it that way. New products looking at making a breakthrough can edge out complacent competitors solely on the basis of attractive packaging. With certain products like cosmetics, customers appreciate the company's attention to aesthetics. Be it gourmet chocolates or garbage bags, beautiful packaging matters, and it is sure to give you results.

Don't Get Too Excited

It's time to curb the enthusiasm a bit, because it is very easy to get carried away with creativity. Packaging, ultimately, has but one aim - to get the consumer to buy the product in question. It is not an avenue for product designers to showcase their creativity by thoroughly neglecting the primary purpose which is product sales. Designers have to possess the sensibility to refrain themselves from viewing product design as a contest. After all, a good product package is the one that sets the cash register ringing.

To sum it up, product packaging is serious business, and it calls for attention. As a manufacturer, you need it to be adequately enticing without making it ridiculously over the top. Though it's hard not to cross the fine line that separates the swishy from the trashy, it's totally worth the effort once you get it right.