2.

1: Pastel and Five Forces analysis of Singapore Airline

Singapore Airline has been widely acknowledged as well known brand name in the aviation industry since it was established in 1947, particularly in term of safety, innovation and excellent services. Due to the route network spans over 93 cities in more than 38 countries (singaporeair.com) with the most modern fleet in the industry, in addition to Star Alliance member airlines to co-operate with more than 20 international airlines over the world, Singapore Airline has provided the best services to its customer and built the strong brand in their mind. For over 38 years independent existence since it was separated from alliance Malayan Airway Limited in 1972, Singapore Airlines has continuously developed and rapidly become one of the great airlines of the World based on the superior values and the specific culture that it dedicates to customer. Besides, through the provided services, SIA has impressed in customers mind by its creativity, diversity and continuous improvement; throughout it could satisfy better the customers demand as well gaining the certain competitive advantages in the target market

Environment Analysis

Nowadays, in harmony with the development of global economy, the interaction between environment and companies become more and more closely, the slight change in the external situation impact dramatically to the companys existence and development. Therefore, macro environment analysis become an indispensable part and throughout the opportunities and threats that the businesses have to face will be revealed. Especially in the aviation industry, the challenges from external environment such as: politic, economy or technology that plays the key role in the sustainable development. In the following sections, I will analyse the factors (Politic, Economy, Social, Environment, Legal and Technology) that influence significantly on Singapores economy and Singapore Airlines as well.

Political Factors
Basically, this refers to governmental policies such as degree in the intervention in the economy or what goods and services that government want to provide to its audiences. In fact, Singapore is an enterprise friendly country with the open policies in order to make the best environment for not only local firms but also international firms. Moreover, Singapore Airlines major shareholder being the Government of Singapore, so SIA has always received tremendous support from the tax to the fuel policies. Besides, there are some competitive policies in aviation industry gave the certain challenges for SIA such as deregulation of airline industry has enabled other airlines to enter the market with lower barriers to entry as in the case of Low-Cost Airlines.

Economic Factors
The economic health of countries determines viability of business operations, especially the exchange rates, tariffs, tax legislation or economic crisis, etc that not only impact significantly on customers needs but also make the changes in the relationship with suppliers and other partner over the world of Singapore Airline. More detail, the last time when rising fuel costs that occurred over the world lead to that the businesses in aviation industries had to face range of difficulties and Singapore Airlines was unexceptional. In order to keep on providing the excellent services with the competitive price in the context became serious problems for not only SIA but also other airlines in the world.

Social- Culture Factors

Basically, culture trends can present both threats and opportunities for wide variety of firms, in which considering peoples beliefs, values, attitudes, opinions and lifestyles is one of the important things to gain the customers belief and build strong brand name in the market. Singapore is a multi -culture nation where Indian, Malaysian and special Chinese culture live together, therefore, these affected significantly on SIAs operation, range from the provided services, building the brand and business strategies as well.

Technological Factors
Other dimension of environmental analysis is technological trends that occurring outside the market that has the potential to impact strategies, they also can represent opportunities and threat to those in a position to capitalize. Basically, new technologies can create the new product, new tools and new process as well. Especially in the airlines industry, the technological development will create significant changes in improving the service quality and increasing the customer satisfaction. Indeed, rapid adoption of relevant technologies enables to create competitive advantages for Singapore Airline. Actually, SIA was quick to trial and adopt the latest in-flight entertainment systems for its consumers, besides, IT & telecomm technology have improved efficiency and business operations growth in e- business strategies. Moreover, information systems have led to more efficient targeting of segments within market and customised marketing offers

Environmental Factors
Nowadays, global warming become a strict problem for every people, every industry and all countries over the world, therefore, green industries is the first concern that firms need to consider for their businesses. Especially, Singapore that is one of the clearest nations in the world, environment factors is really strategic factors that impact dramatically on the development of the industries. In the context, SIA always attempt to seek ways of decreasing significantly the negative effect on the environment while giving green brand on its sustainable development. Taking an example is A380 aircraft that

Singapore Airline use for their fleets is a cleaner and greener aircraft compared to the Boeing 747 on per seat basis.

Legal Factors
Although Singapore was established in 1965, however its legal system has been one of the most attractive factor pulling the foreign investment and make perfect environment for the economic development. With the law of fair-trading, consumer, or natural environmental outlook etc, Singapore not only has guaranteed its regulation but also make so many advantages for its development. In term of aviation industry, Singapore has also clear legal system in order to protect benefit and responsibility of both customer and firms. Therefore, SIA needs to keep abreast of changes in the law to ensure their marketing strategies comply growing emphasis on passenger safety and carrier reliability.

Porters Five Forces Model

If the macro environment might be seen as the factors influences on the success of failure of the firm, the industry environment will create the challenges that the firm has to face directly in the closer

scale. Basically, the industry environment was originally developed as a way of assessing the attractiveness (prot potential) of different industries, it is also called as Porter five forces model, including: the threat of entries and substitutions, the power of buyers and suppliers as well the competitive rivalry. Porters five forces analysis not only provides a useful starting point for strategic analysis but also assesses the attractiveness of an industry or sector and help set an agenda for action on the various pinch-points that they identify as well. In fact, the airline is the specific industry in Singapore market; it is impacted significantly from Porters five forces and other external environment. In the market, Singapore Airline plays role as the market leader with excellent services, strong alliance and well-known brand name in customers mind. However, recently, SIA is facing with not only direct competitors as Asiana Airways, Cathay Airline but also the coming up of new entries with competitive cost strategies, ect. Therefore, industry analysis has become the strategic tool for SIA before it makes changes link to win in competition and throughout gain its goals.

Threat of Entry
In fact, how easy it is to enter on the market influences on the degree of competition and the threats of entries depend significantly on the height of barrier to new entrants. Therefore, high barriers through the factors: experience, differences or the advantages in distribution channels are really necessary for companies in against the threat of entries. Over the year, in harmony the rapid development of Singapore economy and tourism industry as well, Singapore has become attractive destination for not only travellers but also the business in aviation industry, therefore, in order to face with so many potential competitors from popular global airline, Singapore Airline need to increase its differences through the excellent quality and experiences in the market that it is playing as market leader.

The threat of substitutes

Substitutes are products or services that offer a similar benefit to an industrys products or services, but by a different process. Sometimes, manager focused so much on their competitors in the own industry and ignores the substitutes that can reduce the customers demand for their products or create the alternatives for customer in satisfying their demands by the advantages of price, performance or as extra-industry. Actually, airline is special industry that has such high barrier for new entrants and the substitutions as well, especially Singapore where airline is major vehicle for international transportation. However, SIA need to pay attention on threat of its in some strategic market segments as Asian area or Middle East area.

The power of buyer

In fact, customers are essential for the survival of any business. But sometimes customers here buyers can have such high bargaining power that their suppliers are hard pressed to make an y prots at all. Moreover, the buying power for individual customer is too high in airline industry. On the other

hands, there are so many airlines that is seen as SIAs competitors operate in the Singapore and other markets, in this fact individual buyers has so many option to choose which airline he wants to fly. Therefore, SIA need to recognize deeply its customer, their needs as well abilities and throughout increase customer satisfactions by the excellent services and other attractive offers.

The power of supplier

Basically, suppliers are those who supply the organisation what it need to produce the product or service, such as fuel, materials or equipments, etc. However, in fact, most of companies have many suppliers in order to the risk and the power of suppliers. Especially in Singapore aviation industry where the power of suppliers are so significant and impact directly on airlines competitive capacity, therefore, in order to control the power SIA has established strong alliances with not only other airline but also suppliers which provide the aircraft (Airbus), fuel and raw materials.

The competitive rivalry

This is the most considerable force in the Porters five forces model and the factor that influences significantly on the companys operation as well. Basically, competitive rivalry is organisation with the similar products or services aim to the same market. In the target market, nowadays, Singapore Airline met strong competition from not only Asians airline brand but also so many famous brand over the world such as Cathay Pacific Airways, Malaysia Airlines, or Asian Airlines (the best airlines for World Best Airlines Award 2010) and Japan Airlines System Corporation, etc. In order to exist and develop in the busy competitive market, SIA has continuously improved its equipment (aircraft, furniture, etc.) the providing service process, the fleet network or brand culture lead to increase customer satisfaction and throughout gain its goals.

2.2: Useful way to segment the markets for household Detergents

Segmentation is a common strategy used in marketing to break down a large target audience into smaller, more homogenous groups of customers. The point is to make marketing efforts more efficient by investing in communication that connects with customers most likely to buy your product, while minimizing wasted spending on those who won't. Several common techniques are used to segment markets. The detergent industry in India is segmented on the basis of three mail price strategies

Popular Economy Premium

The premium and concentrate segment accounts to about 2% of the total volume. The major players are Nirma, HUL and P&G. In which Nirma and HUL are close competitors, put together controls 30% of volume in the market.

ARIEL Segmentation
Demographic Family size Benefits Quality, service, income Urban and semi urban areas User status- regular user, potential user and non user

Targeting
Housewives as they are decision makers in most of the buying situations. Colour sensitiveness of clothes Washing machine users

Positioning
Ariel is positioned in the premium category and is among the most expensive hand available in the Indian market. The company has launched mid priced brands like Ariel Super Soaker to cater to the lower income group consumer, which forms a significant portion of the Indian market.

Premium brand against its competitors

Superior technology Fragrance oriented detergent Low temperature wash detergent Contains double action system which gets fully dissolved Removes tough stations

SURF EXCEL Segmentation

HLL launched the Sunlight (yellow) , Wheel(green), Rin (blue) and Surf Ultra(white) detergents powders for different market segments. This strategy of segmenting the markets understanding its needs and then evolving marketing mix to suit separate segment needs helped HLL win back its lost market. In fact Nirma made all other consumer product companies sit up and take a fresh look at their markets because of its low price.

Targeting
Surf excel is targeted at the upwardly mobile housewives who prefer to have cleaner clothes without damage and also those households that have washing machines. Surf Excel in HUL is laundry brand for premium-class. Earlier the focus of the brand was on functional attribute of whiteness alone in 1970s (from ad featuring Lalitaji). But over the year the focus of this range of detergent powder has changed to broader emotional positioning and now it claims to cater to constantly changing washing needs of the Indian homemaker.

Positioning
Surf excel mummys best friend is positioned as a brand that a housewife will look to upgr ade herself for better cleanliness without damaging the clothes. The brand is clearly positioned as a premium and upmarket brand and the achievements show an upper middle to upper class small family with a fashionable home and modern clothing collection.

NIRMA
Segmentation
Nirma follows the Value for Money strategy for all its products and both its brands cater to the popular segment of the market. Super Nirma, its brand in the high end of the economy segment is not a focus area for growth. Nirma was introduced at a price that attracted the cost-conscious Indian consumer. Nirma follows the backward integration strategy to become the lowest cost detergent manufacturer in the world.

Nirma is the leader in the economy segment

Targeting Economy segment, value for money, semi urban and rural markets Middle and lower middle income segment Positioning Nirma over the decades has consolidated its position as value for money detergent. The popular jingle of Nirma Doodh si safedi is the longest running jingle on all India radio. Nirma places customer at its centre of strategies and then formulate plans to deliver maximum values to consumers in terms of price and quality.

Useful way to segment the markets for Toothpaste The Toothpaste Market
The package of benefits sought
Whiteness Freshness Good Tasting Product Appearance Decay Prevention Gums Protection Teeth Sensitivity Economy

Benefit Segmentation
Segmenting on the basis of the most important and meaningful benefit Prudential financial security Lomega data protection Wheaties good health Eclipse fresh breath

Useful way to segment the markets for SHOES

Most businesses don't sell in only one marketplace. In the Foot Loose example, athletic shoes are sold to both young people and adults. In addition, the market segments include the various communities in the surrounding area, each with its own unique market and competitors. A market segment is a portion or component of a marketplace; the smaller subgroups of a market. In the example, Serendipity Mall's marketplace has 140,000 residents. Not all of them are customers for athletic shoes. The owners of Foot Loose will identify, analyze, and attempt to draw customers from two primary buying groups. They will also draw from secondary markets, such as neighbouring towns. By becoming a major source for athletic shoes in the area, they will also draw tertiary market segments, like people travelling through the area who stop at the mall The most common methods of segmenting marketplaces are by geography, demographics, psychographics, and behaviour.

Geographic Segmentation
Geography is a study of the earth's surface. Geographic segmentation is the study of economic and cultural information about people who live or work in specific areas. Geographic variables in marketplaces include:

Country: USA, Lebanon, Argentina Region: Pacific Northwest, Atlantic Coast State or province: North Dakota, Quebec Climate: hot, cold, rainy, humid, temperate City: Chicago, Prescott, Camas Zip Code: 90210, 20500 Neighbourhood: Rancho Del Rio, Prune Hill

Before you establish a brick-and-mortar business (one with a physical location customers visit), analyze the geographic segments and opportunities within that marketplace.

Demographic Segmentation
Demographics studies people. Within a geographic marketplace, there may be people with lots of money and people with little. Some will have families and others not. There will be men, women, college grads, high-school dropouts, and people of various ethnicities. These population features will impact what you sell and how. To better understand your marketplace, research the demographic variables of your chosen geographic location. You may discover that your business will be more successful somewhere else. Or you may find that a change in your business concept can reach a more profitable market. Demographic variables include:
Age: 1221, 3548 Education: college grads, technical-school grads Family size: no children, 2.4 children Gender: male, female Income: $25,000 annual, $250,000 annual Language: English, Farsi Occupation: white collar, blue collar Race/Nationality: Euro-American, Latino Religion: fundamental Christian, Baha'i Sexual orientation: heterosexual, homosexual

Each of these segments, if appropriate to your business plan, can be further analyzed. For example, what income group most often buys widgets? Or what are the income levels of the majority of shoppers at Serendipity Mall? You can discover the answers to these and other vital demographic questions using the resources offered earlier in this chapter.

Psychographic Segmentation
Psychographics study interests, attitudes, and opinions of individuals and groups. Your customers can be studied as psychographic segments; doing so will help you better understand their needs and how they make buying decisions. Psychographic variables include:
Attitudes: positive, judgmental Interests: saving money, learning Lifestyle: sedentary, active

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Opinions: conservative, moderate Personality: humorous, serious Values: honest, self-centred

There are hundreds of other variables within psychographics. Some will relate to your customers and others will not be as important. To analyze your business marketplace, you need to understand the behaviourthe psycheof your target customers

Behavioural Conditions
Most people have variable psychographics, another term for behaviours. That is, in one situation your personality may be serious while in others it is humorous. There are so many variables that predicting what a customer group will do under certain conditions can be difficult. Behavioural variables include:
Benefits perceived: easy to use, relatively low cost Brand loyalty: Coke, Pepsi Current financial resources: affluent, broke Decision mode: receptive, argumentative Product end use: new benefits, replacement Readiness to buy: needed, unneeded

Understanding customer behaviour is important to selling. However, it is a condition that you can impact with the design, presentation, and promotion of your business. With an attractive website, you can help customer groups identify a need and increase their readiness to buy. You cannot change their current financial resources, but you can help them understand the value of what you offer and hope that your efforts earn a review of those resources.

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2.3: Targeting strategies

Targeted marketing is advertising to people that are looking for specific products or opportunities. Using targeted marketing, you are placing your product advertisement in front of people who are of a certain age group, cultural background, single, married, etc. Each of these particular groups of people search for different products and services in different ways.

Understand why people buy

To satisfy basic needs To solve problems To make themselves feel good

Market Segmentation:-

Geographic segmentation based on location such as home addresses; Demographic segmentation based on measurable statistics, such as age or income; Psychographic segmentation based on lifestyle preferences, such as being urban
dwellers or pet lovers.

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2.5: New positioning strategy

The Marketing mix is a set of four decisions which need to be taken before launching any new product. These variables are also known as the 4 Ps of marketing. These four variables help the firm in making strategic decisions necessary for the smooth running of any product / organization.These variables are 1. Product 2. Price 3. Place 4. Promotions 1) Product The first thing you need, if you want to start a business, is a product. Therefore Product is also the first variable in the marketing mix. Product decisions are the first decisions you need to take before making any marketing plan. A product can be divided into three parts. The core product, the augmented product and the tertiary product. Before deciding on the product component there are some questions which you need to ask yourself.

What product are you selling? What would be the quality of your product? Which features are different from the market? What is the USP of the product? Whether the product will be branded as sub brand or completely new? What are the secondary products which can be sold along with primary (Warranty, services) Based on these questions, several product decisions have to be made. These product decisions will in turn affect the other variables of the marketing mix. For example You launch a car with is to have the highest quality. Thus the pricing, promotions and placing would have to be altered accordingly. Thus as long as you dont know your product, you cannot decide any other variable of the marketing mix. However, if the product features are not fitting in the marketing mix, you can alter the product such that it finds a place for itself in the marketing mix.

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2) Pricing Pricing of a product depends on a lot of different variables and hence it is constantly updated. Major consideration in pricing is the costing of the product, the advertising and marketing expenses, any price fluctuations in the market, distribution costs etc. Many of these factors can change separately. Thus the pricing has to be such that it can bear the brunt of changes for a certain period of time. However, if all these variables change, then the pricing of a product has to be increased and decreased accordingly. Along with the above factors, there are also other things which have to be taken in consideration when deciding on a pricing strategy. Competition can be the best example. Similarly, pricing also affects the targeting and positioning of a product. Pricing is used for sales promotions in the form of trade discounts. Thus based on these factors there are several pricing strategies, one of which is implemented for the marketing mix.

3) Place Place refers to the distribution channel of a product. If a product is a consumer product, it needs to be available as far and wide as possible. On the other hand, if the product is a Premium consumer product, it will be available only in select stores. Similarly, if the product is a business product, you need a team who interacts with businesses and makes the product available to them. Thus the place where the product is distributed, depends on the product and pricing decisions, as well as any STP decisions taken by a firm. Distribution has a huge affect on the profitability of a product. Consider a FMCG company which has national distribution for its product. An increase in petrol rates by 10 rs will in fact bring about drastic changes in the profitability of the company. Thus supply chain and logistics decisions are considered as very important costing decisions of the firm. The firm needs to have a full proof logistics and supply chain plan for its distribution. 4) Promotions Promotions in the marketing mix includes the complete

integrated communications which in turn includes ATL and BTL advertising as well as sales promotions. Promotions are dependent a lot on the product and pricing decision. What is the budget for marketing and advertising? What stage is the product in? If the product is completely new in the market, it needs brand / product awareness promotions, whereas if the product is already existing then it will need brand recall promotions. Promotions also decide the segmentation targeting and positioning of the product. The right kind of promotions affect all the other three variables the product, price and place. If the promotions are effective, you might have to increase distribution points, you might get to increase the price because of the rising brand equity of the product, and the profitability might support you in launching even

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more products. However, the budget required for extensive promotions is also high. Promotions is considered as marketing expenses and the same needs to be taken in consideration while deciding the costing of the product.

3.1: Develop the product to maintain competitive advantages

To have a competitive advantage, you must create an edge over your competitors. In the aggressive business world, especially in todays economy, every advantage counts to establish your business in the top of your industry. Gaining a competitive advantage takes strategic planning and extensive research.

Analyze your target market and identify your competition:-

Your target market is a specific group of consumers at which a company aims its products and services (Entrepreneur). A target market is distinguished by socioeconomic, demographic, and common characteristics or needs that make them the best audience to focus on selling to. To uncover your target market, answer the following simple questions: What am I selling? Who will most likely buy or consume my product or service? Before you can crush your competition, you need to know who they are. Find out which businesses are going after your same target market. How do they differentiate themselves from other companies in the industry? Where are they located? To find this information, business directories can be used to search free company profiles. Information included in the company profiles are company overview, contact information, location, key facts, employees, and company payment rating.

Learn from your competition and your customers:-

Dont be afraid of your competition, but rather use them as a learning tool and assess their business model. Learn your competitors strengths and weaknesses imitate their strengths, and use their weaknesses to your advantage. Use companies that specialize in business information, such as Cortera, to construct and analyze a competitive landscape of the target market. The business information you learn from your rivals will help you develop the competitive edge you need to surpass them in your industry. Intimate customer knowledge is equally important as competitor knowledge. Gaining in-depth insights about your customer portfolio will allow you to maximize revenue potential, increase customer retention, and boost prospective customers. You can use a mix of many tools and methods to measure consumer insight and both your position in the market and the positions of your competitors. Along with traditional company information resources, consider social media analysis tools that allow consumer insight mining on a large scale.

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Create an Economic Moat:-

Take advantage of barriers to entry into the market, using them to dissuade competitors from challenging your marketing share. In some cases, an established companys ability to manipulate hurdles to enter and compete in its market becomes an effective tool against new competition, further entrenching the business and preserving its profit potential for the foreseeable future.

Stay on the cutting edge:-

Once youve gained a competitive advantage, your work is far from complete. To be successful, you will need to continuously maintain your competitive advantage. After all, your competitors are not going to sit back and allow you to steal their market share. You can maintain your competitive advantage by predicting future trends in your industry, constantly researching and monitoring your competitors, and adapting to your customers wants and needs. Sometimes you may need to take chances to keep ahead of the pack and differentiate your business, but with big risk often comes big reward Just remember to do your research before diving head first into new ideas.

Use Business Information Resources:-

The information revolution is here take advantage of it! It creates a competitive advantage by providing companies with new ways to outperform their rivals. Knowledge is power, and business information companies provide just that. Reliable business information companies include Cortera, Hoovers, Manta, Portfolio.com, and Goliath.

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3.2: How do you plan the distribution channels?

A distribution channel is the method a company uses to get its products into the marketplace for consumer use. The traditional channel goes from supplier, manufacturer, distributor, wholesaler and retailer. Two types of distribution channels exist: indirect and direct.

Indirect Channel
The indirect channel is used by companies who do not sell their goods directly to consumers. Suppliers and manufacturers typically use indirect channels because they exist early in the supply chain. Depending on the industry and product, direct distribution channels have become more prevalent because of the Internet.

Direct Channel
A direct distribution channel is where a company sells its products direct to consumers. While direct channels were not popular many years ago, the Internet has greatly increased the use of direct channels. Additionally, companies needing to cut costs may use direct channels to avoid middlemen mark-ups on their products.

3.3: Set price for ladies wallets to achieve objectives

Corporate objectives can be wide-ranging and include different objectives for different functional areas (e.g., objectives for production, human resources, etc). While pricing decisions are influenced by many types of objectives set up for the marketing functional area, there are four key objectives in which price plays a central role. In most situations only one of these objectives will be followed, though the marketer may have different objectives for different products. The four main marketing objectives affecting price include:

Return on Investment (ROI) A firm may set as a marketing objective the requirement that
all products attain a certain percentage return on the organizations spending on marketing the product. This level of return along with an estimate of sales will help determine appropriate pricing levels needed to meet the ROI objective.

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Cash Flow Firms may seek to set prices at a level that will insure that sales revenue will at
least cover product production and marketing costs. This is most likely to occur with new products where the organizational objectives allow a new product to simply meet its expenses while efforts are made to establish the product in the market. This objective allows the marketer to worry less about product profitability and instead directs energies to building a market for the product.

Market Share The pricing decision may be important when the firm has an objective of
gaining a hold in a new market or retaining a certain percent of an existing market. For new products under this objective the price is set artificially low in order to capture a sizeable portion of the market and will be increased as the product becomes more accepted by the target market (we will discuss this marketing strategy in further detail in our next tutorial). For existing products, firms may use price decisions to insure they retain market share in instances where there is a high level of market competition and competitors who are willing to compete on price.

Maximize Profits Older products that appeal to a market that is no longer growing may have
a company objective requiring the price be set at a level that optimizes profits. This is often the case when the marketer has little incentive to introduce improvements to the product (e.g., demand for product is declining) and will continue to sell the same product at a price premium for as long as some in the market is willing to buy.

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3.4: Promotional activities undertaken by your business establishment The role of promotion Promotion- any form of communication a business or organisation uses to inform, persuade, or remind people about its products and improve its public images. Product promotion- used to convince potential customers to buy products from it instead of from a competitor.
Explains major features and benefits of its products Tells where those products are sold Advertises sales on those products Answer customer questions Introduces new products

Types of promotion
Advertising:Any paid form of non personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor

Six advantages of Advertising

A large number of people usually see the advertisers message Costs per potential customer are usually lower than other forms of promotion Can choose the most appropriate media to reach target market Can control the content of an advertisement Ads are subject to repeat viewing Ads can presale products

PublicityPlacing newsworthy information about a company, product, or person in the media. Can be used to promote particular events and promote particular products. The main purpose of publicity is to build an image. Image- the way a business or organization is defined in peoples minds.

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 Sales PromotionAll marketing activities, other than personal selling, advertising, and publicity, that are used to stimulate consumer purchasing and sales effectiveness.

Objective of sales Promotion

Increase sales Inform customers about new products Create a positive store or corporate image

Personal SellingMaking an oral sales presentation to one or more potential buyers. On a per contact basis, personal selling is the most expensive form of promotion.

3.5: Additional elements of the extended marketing mix?

Product- Product is

your core offering. This is the thing that will fulfil the needs of your

customer. If your product is faulty, everything else fails. The attributes of the product, vis-a-vis the attributes offered by competing products and substitutes, are important in estimating the competitive scenario for the marketing strategy formulation.

Price- Price has a lot of impact on the service buyers satisfaction level. Often, paying a higher
price makes a customer more satisfied. Price is often considered a proxy for quality and viceversa. What is important to note that services being all the more intangible, the price become an important factor for the actual service consumption to happen, after service awareness and service acknowledgement

Place- Place often offers a different side of value (utility) to the customer. Who would want to
travel 10 miles to have a regular dinner, even if that is priced very competitively and has a super quality? Services are often chosen for their place utility. Closer to the customer means higher probability of purchase. Place utility is important to evaluate, for strategizing on the other 6 Ps.

Promotion-Promotion plays

a role in the perception the possible target audience may have

about your service. There has to be a fit between the promotion and the positioning. Promotion leads to service (brand) recognition and further establishes a proxy to evaluate quality of services based by potential customers. Many different promotional tools are often used like internet advertisement, special events, endorsements which happen out of the store or in-store merchandising like plastic dump bins and digital signage.

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People- People are crucial in service delivery. The best food may not seem equally palatable if
the waitress is in a sour mood. A smile always helps. Intensive training for your human resources on how to handle customers and how to deal with contingencies is crucial for your success.

Processes-

Processes are important to deliver a quality service. Services being intangible,

processes become all the more crucial to ensure standards are met with. Process mapping ensures that your service is perceived as being dependable by your target segment.

Physical evidence-

Physical evidence affects the customers satisfaction. Often, services

being intangible, customers depend on other cues to judge the offering. This is where physical evidence plays a part. Would you like eating at a joint where the table is greasy or the waitresses and cooks look untidy and wear a stained apron? Surely you would evaluate the quality of your experience through proxies such as these

4.1: Plan marketing mix (4ps)

Product is the actually offering by the company to its targeted customers which also includes value added stuff. Product may be tangible (goods) or intangible (services). o o o o o o o o o o o o For many a product is simply the tangible, physical entity that they may be buying or selling. While formulating the marketing strategy, product decisions include: What to offer? Brand name Packaging Quality Appearance Functionality Accessories Installation After sale services Warranty

Price includes the pricing strategy of the company for

its products. How much

customer should pay for a product? Pricing strategy is not only related to the profit margins but also helps in finding target customers. Pricing decision also influence the choice of marketing channels.

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o o o o o o o

Price decisions include: Pricing Strategy (Penetration, Skim, etc) List Price Payment period Discounts Financing Credit terms

PlaceIt not only includes the place where the product is placed, all those activities performed by the company to ensure the availability of the product tot he targeted customers. Availability of the product at the right place, at the right time and in the right quantity is crucial in placement decisions. o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o Placement decisions include: Placement Distribution channels Logistics Inventory Order processing Market coverage selection of channel members

Promotion includes all communication and selling activities to persuade future prospects
to buy the product. Promotion decisions include: Advertising Media Types Message Budgets Sales promotion Personal selling Public relations/publicity Direct marketing Sponsorship

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4.2: Marketing differences between consumers and business 2 business markets

Business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing is different. Some people think marketing is marketing and whether you are marketing to consumers or marketing to businesses.

Businesses that Sell to Consumers

B2C

Product driven Maximize the value of the transaction Large target market Single step buying process, shorter sales cycle Brand identity created through repetition and imagery Merchandising and point of purchase activities Emotional buying decision based on status, desire, or price

The ultimate goal of B2C marketing is to convert shoppers into buyers as aggressively and consistently as possible. B2C companies employ more merchandising activities like coupons, displays, store fronts (both real and Internet) and offers to entice the target market to buy. B2C marketing campaigns are concerned with the transaction, are shorter in duration and need to capture the customers interest immediately. These campaigns often offer special deals, discounts, or vouchers that can be used both online and in the store. For example, the goal of an email campaign for a B2C company is to get consumers to buy the product immediately. The email will take the consumer to a landing page on the web site that is designed to sell the product and make purchasing very easy by integrating the shopping cart and checkout page into the flow of the transaction. Any more than a couple of clicks and the customer is likely to abandon the shopping cart. One interesting aspect of B2C marketing, however, is that many companies have realized the importance of loyalty. Amazon, Best Buy, and Staples combine merchandising and education to keep customers coming back. Add great customer service, and you get a winning combination.

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Businesses that Sell to Businesses

B2B

Relationship driven Maximize the value of the relationship Small, focused target market Multi-step buying process, longer sales cycle Brand identity created on personal relationship Educational and awareness building activities Rational buying decision based on business value

Although the goal of B2B marketing is to convert prospects into customers, the process is longer and more involved. A B2B company needs to focus on relationship building and communication using marketing activities that generate leads that can be nurtured during the sales cycle. B2B companies use marketing to educate various players in the target audience because the decision to purchase is usually a multi-step process involving more than one person. For example, the goal of an email campaign for B2B is to drive prospects to the web to learn about your products and services. The email to a business must contain contact information for offline communications and the landing page should contain information on features, benefits, and possibly pricing. This marketing activity is usually the first step in a longer, integrated touch campaign that may include direct mail, telemarketing, Web casts, and newsletters and follow up by sales representatives who will discuss the businesses requirements in more detail and move the prospect through the sales cycle. Content is king for B2B marketing and white papers, newsletters, and coverage of your products and services by the media helps companies educate their prospects.

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4.3: Difference between international marketing and domestic marketing

First, International marketing is facing a more complex market environment. Domestic marketing is conducted in this country and so faced corresponding structure of the market environment is relatively simple, which consists of those factors that are more familiar to companies -- the domestic political, economic, legal, and cultural and so on. However, International marketing is facing a more complex environment; it's a market with multi-level structure. This is because those companies, who engage in international marketing, will inevitably be subjected to the world market environment. Which requires companies to face the world market environment, including the worlds political, military, economic, technological and other aspects?

Second, International marketing is facing more Uncertainties factors The contradiction between subjective understanding and objective reality, coupled with the volatility of the objective process, international marketing faced more uncertainties factors for the companies .Compared with domestic marketing, it's more difficult to make sure the total demand, purchasers and competitors and more difficult to investigate and predict wholesale segment, retail structure, buying habits in international marketing.

Third, International marketing is facing more diverse selection of marketing programs Companies in the domestic market, although also need to deal with different regions and different programs for different target markets, different strategies, and even the use of different promotions, but the overall program is the same however. the international market is a market composed of different countries .Enterprises in the international marketing, its marketing programs are of diversity, Enterprises in different country markets to sell their products, not unified marketing program, and must host country market, different scenarios were developed. Four, marketing in international marketing is more difficult besides the complex environment and the uncertain factors, diverse selection programs, international marketing have more risks and meet more fierce competition. The risks are added by the changing international political situation and the fluctuate exchange rate .Competitor's brilliant competitive strategy in price, promotion and products made the international market more and more narrow.

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