Answer:

the advantage of m-commerce is: 1- providing wider reach. 2- reducing transaction cost 3- streamline business processes. 4- competitive pricing. 5- reducing time to order. The disadvantages of m-commerce. 1- small screens of most devices still limit types of file and data transfer (i.e. streaming videos, etc.) 2- standards guiding applications and technology development and connection(s) 3- WAP and SMS limited to small number of characters and text. 4- use of graphics limited 5- less functionality for mobile Internet over mobile phones and existing generation of handhelds than for mobile computers (laptops and next generation handhelds) 6- user interface is often difficult to learn how to use 7- limited bandwidth 8- limited roll out of higher bandwidth mobile networks and devices (i.e. 3g networks and wireless broadband networks are predominantly located in cities) 9- cost of establishing mobile and wireless broadband infrastructure 10- technology constraints of mobile devices (memory, processing power, display capabilities, input methods) 11- security of data moved across some mobile and wireless networks 12- businesses investment in hardware and infrastructure is seen as riskier as rapid evolution of mobile and wireless technologies continues.
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Marketing strategies serve as the fundamental underpinning of marketing plans designed to fill market needs and reach marketing objectives. Plans and objectives are generally tested for measurable results. Commonly, marketing strategies are developed as multi-year plans, with a tactical plan detailing specific actions to be accomplished in the current year. Time horizons covered by the marketing plan vary by company, by industry, and by nation, however, time horizons are becoming shorter as the speed of change in the environment increases. Marketing strategies are dynamic and interactive. They are partially planned and partially unplanned. Marketing strategy involves careful scanning of the internal and external environments. Internal environmental factors include the marketing mix, plus performance analysis and strategic constraints. External environmental

factors include customer analysis, competitor analysis, target market analysis, as well as evaluation of any elements of the technological, economic, cultural or political/legal environment likely to impact success. A key component of marketing strategy is often to keep marketing in line with a company's overarching mission statement. Once a thorough environmental scan is complete, a strategic plan can be constructed to identify business alternatives, establish challenging goals, determine the optimal marketing mix to attain these goals, and detail implementation. A final step in developing a marketing strategy is to create a plan to monitor progress and a set of contingencies if problems arise in the implementation of the plan.

The company has the responsibility to build, own and operate infrastructure required for the gathering processing, transporting and marketing of oil resources in Ghana. As Oil & Gas Marketing Company it is time for us to make critical decisions about strategy, organisation, operations, technology and mergers & acquisitions and how to beat competitors. We need to work together to develop strategies that focus on results, meet stakeholder needs and generate substantial, sustained financial impact. Strategy Our aim to develop winning national and to global strategies to outperform competition. Our deep insight in oil and gas and knowledge of our competitors is an asset. Our approach is to mobilises top management and encourages them to own the strategy and drive results. External forces are compelling Oil & Gas companies to redefine goals, actively manage their portfolio and, in many cases, reformulate strategy. Building distinctive, resilient and executable strategies will separate top performers from the also-rans. It's a time when "average" is unlikely to be good enough. Organisation Effective organisation is at the heart of successful strategy and plan execution. For many major Oil & Gas companies, reducing organisational complexity is a priority in the current climate. We have to develop highperforming organisations by addressing issues like leadership, decision making, talent, culture and front-line execution. In the Oil & Gas sector, organisation structure-and the business model it supports-remains a key competitive differentiator. Effective organisation also plays a particularly

important role in this sector in lowering costs, capturing new opportunities and realizing the full potential of assets. Operations we have to looks at our business as an integrated, cohesive whole and collaborates with clients to deliver operational excellence. This approach helps companies improveour top- and bottom-line performance through better operations. We have to our helps clients seek excellence in production optimisation, cost and capital management, maintenance and supply chain management. Technology Technology is an essential component of all Oil & Gas organisations today. We haves develop technology and information-technology strategies and assists with technology transfer and implementation. We need to also offers support for IT programme management and outsourcing to our major distributors. In the Oil & Gas sector, lower revenue tempts leaders to pull back on technology investment. Our data shows that in the past, industry players have paid a huge price when they cut back on investing in technology and people. Mergers & acquisitions we have to screened more than 1,000 nonperforming competitors as acquisition targets, supported more than 200 deals with a cumulative value of more than GH20 billion, and worked on more than 500 private equity valuations and transactions. We have to supported investments have performed in the top quartile of all leveraged buy-out transactions. Consolidation in the Oil & Gas industry is underway again. The second half of 2009 is likely to see a wave of deals take place. For many industry players, there will be only two choices: target acquisitions or become a target. Our clients are bold, ambitious business leaders who are dissatisfied with the status quo. They share our passion for results and are prepared to act decisively to achieve them. They focus on substantial improvements not incremental change. Our passion for achieving results for our clients has driven our firm for more than 35 years. We seek to align our incentives with those of our clients through performance-related fees so that we prosper only when our clients do. Our True North values system emphasises doing the right thing, not necessarily the easy thing. We listen hard but are suspicious of received wisdom. We have people you can work with: direct, practical and down-toearth.

Market Segmentation for Segmentation Marketing Why market segmentation? People with similar attributes tend to display similar propensities in their purchasing behaviors. This is often accompanied by social fads and trends that may be specific to certain market segments. Market segmentation is a process that segments a market into smaller submarkets, called segments. Segments are to be homogeneous or have similar attributes. Purchasing patterns and trends can appear prominently in certain segments. Good market segmentation is to create segments where prominent patterns can emerge. Market segmentation may be used to analyze the followings; Market responsiveness analysis: This is very useful in direct marketing since market responsiveness of product offerings can be readily available. Market trend analysis: Analyzing segment-by-segment changes of sales revenues can reveal market trends. Trending information is vital in preparing for ever-changing markets. Market segmentation for Market trend analysis Market segmentation creates segments with the same or similar attributes. It normally uses the following attributes to generate market segments. One or more of the attributes may be used to define market segments. Geographical regions: regions, countries, states, zip-codes, counties, etc. Demographics: gender, age, income, education, etc. Psychographics: life style classification. Sales channels, branches, and departments. Sales representatives. Product and service types (or product categories). Products. Offer types. Segmentation provides opportunities for trend analysis. Trends and patterns embedded in changes of sales revenues can be useful indicators for market shifts. Trend analysis may answer the following types of segment trend information; What are projected sales revenues for the next three months (or quarters)? Which segments are having highest growth in dollar terms? which segments are having highest revenue decline in dollar terms? Which segments are having highest growth rates in percentage terms? Which segments are having highest revenue decline rates in percentage terms? How solid the growth or decline trend is? Which segments are showing exponential growth (or decline)? Market trend analytics

StarProbe OLAP Server provides a robust platform for building sales data warehouses, containing sector-by-sector sales histories. Sales revenue data warehouse can be analyzed with easy-to-use browse tools which can provide various trend analysis information. For example, (short-term) sales forecasting, growth rates, growth percentages, trend significance, trending types, and so on. The following figure shows an example of StarProbe OLAP for sales trend analysis. For more, also read StarProbe OLAP Server.
Market trend analytics
StarProbe OLAP Server provides a robust platform for building sales data warehouses, containing sector-by-sector sales histories. Sales revenue data warehouse can be analyzed with easy-to-use browse tools which can provide various trend analysis information. For example, (short-term) sales forecasting, growth rates, growth percentages, trend significance, trending types, and so on. The following figure shows an example of StarProbe OLAP for sales trend analysis. For more, also read StarProbe OLAP Server.

Market segmentation for Direct marketing and Database marketing

Generally, direct marketing is based on database marketing where database is used as the medium to record customer information. Database often contain variety of customer information that can be used in designing market segmentation, more specifically, predictive segmentation. Predictive market segmentation is described in detail in Customer Segmentation.

Sales trend analysis

Timely identification of newly emerging trends is very important to businesses. Sales patterns of customer segments indicate market trends. Upward and downward trends in sales signify new market trends. Time-series predictive modeling can be used to identify market trends embedded in changes of sales revenues. Understanding of sales trends is important for marketing as well as for customer retention. Typical sales trend analysis includes; Which customer segments are having highest growth in dollar terms? which customer segments are having highest revenue decline in dollar terms? Which customer segments are having highest growth rates in percentage terms? Which customer segments are having highest revenue decline rates in percentage terms? How solid the growth (or decline) trend is? Which customer segments are showing exponential growth (or decline)? and so on. Trends may be categorized as;

Short term trends capture rapidly emerging trends. Mid term trends capture trends developing in between. Long term trends capture trends developing over long periods. Long term trends capture trends developing over long periods.

PSM: Profile -> Segment -> Monitor Trends

PSM is a simple method to manage your most valuable business resources: customers and markets. Profile your customers and markets as suggested in Customer Profiling. Based on profiling, develop customer and market segments. Finally, monotor the following trends; Total sales. Profits. Customers. New customers. Customer churns. Debts and defaults. And so on. The following figure shows a trend monitoring dashboard report on Rosella BI Platform Server;

Sales forecasting
Regression is a data analysis technique used in developing predictive models for numerical data. It automatically derives mathematical functions that summarize trends embedded in past historical data, in such a way that minimizes the errors between actual input data and predicted values by the models. Regression can be applied to time-series data. A time-series consists of a set of observations which are measured at specific time intervals, say, monthly, quarterly, yearly, etc. Observations we are interested are sales revenues. Customer (or market) segments have different sales trends. Some segments may be growing, while others are declining. Segment-by-segment sales forecasting can produce very useful information. Forecasting can be short term, mid term and long term. Long term forecasting may not produce accurate predictions. However it is very useful in understanding market trends. StarProbe develop best sales forecast models for each customer segment. It automatically select a best model out of linear, exponential, square-root, and various polynomial functions.

Segmentation for trend analysis

Market segmentation is a process that divides a market into smaller sub-markets called segments. Normally, market is segmented in such as way that customers of a segment have the same attributes. Commonly used attributes in segmentation include the followings;

Products. Product and service types (or product categories). Geographical regions: regions, countries, states, zip-codes, counties, etc. Demographics: gender, age, income, education, etc. Psychographics: life style classification. Sales channels, branches, and departments. Sales representatives.

and so on.

Trend analysis and The Balanced Scorecard

Segmentation trend analysis may be included in the Balanced Scorecard. Balanced scorecards provide concise, predictive and actionable information about how a company is performing and may perform in the future. Predictive trend analysis can provide vital information for management.

Trend Analysis and Forecasting Software

StarProbe Data Miner Web Service Kit provides a platform for building trend analysis data warehouses, containing sector-by-sector trend histories. Trend analysis data warehouse can be analyzed with easy-to-use browse tools which can provide various trend analysis and forecasting information. For example, (short-term) sales forecasting, growth rates, growth percentages, trend significance, trending types, and so on. Use of trend analysis includes;

Business Trend Analysis

By Osmond Vitez, eHow Contributor

Sales trend analysis - revenue and volume analysis. Product sales trend analysis. Market trend analysis. Equity (share) price trend analysis. Accounting trend analysis. Work force recruit forecasting. Healthcare fraud detection. and so on.

Print this article Related Searches: Business Move Business Page

Business trend analysis is a way for companies to determine future results in economic marketplaces. Reviewing past information can help management understand current trends and where a market niche may be for a product. Current operations may also be reviewed by trend analysis to determine the strength of certain product lines and if the market will maintain the current supply of goods.

1. Definition
o

Business trend analysis is a tool used by management to gauge past economic history and prepare for future events. Many types of trend analysis may be used depending on the business industry. Most trend analysis involves gathering several types of information, inputting the information into a computerized system, generating reports and analyzing the reports for meaning. Companies will review current year information against the previous year to analyze the business cycle.

Importance
o

Trend analysis can provide critical economic information about current business situations. Identifying current product trends, determining the strength of an industry or capitalizing on emerging markets are all results of trend analysis. Trend analysis

also helps to eliminate uncertainties in business, such as slow sales, inventory overstock and seasonal consumer demand. Reliable information allows management to make crucial business decision regarding current operations.

Types
o

Three types of trend analysis are commonly used for trend analysis: intuitive, temporal, and market segmentation. Intuitive is the least accurate; information is gathered and predictions on future outcomes are estimated. Temporal involves looking at past information and assumes the same outcome based on the frequency of results. Market segmentation is the best trend analysis technique; while time consuming and costly, it usually produces the best results.

Market Segmentation
o

Market segmentation is the process of breaking down the marketplace into measurable items or groups. Classifying individuals by age, sex and location; products by type, function and price; or geographical regions into states, zip codes and counties. This allows management to review the marketplace by very specific demographics, creating trend analysis to determine the economic impact each group has on the company.

Computer Systems
o

Trend analysis is largely created by computer programs in today's business world. Most customer information can be extrapolated from the company's management information system into a spreadsheet program and prepared in a trend analysis chart. Microsoft Excel, to name one, has strong trend analysis programs that are user friendly. This allows companies to generate large amounts of analysis data with very little work.

Marketing - Marketing's role in business strategy Marketing strategies explain how the marketing function fits in with the overall strategy for a business. Examples of marketing strategies could be: Business Strategy Grow sales Example Marketing Strategies Launch new products Expand distribution (e.g. open more shops) Start selling products into overseas markets Increase profits Increase selling prices Reduce the amount spent on television advertising

Build customer Implement a public relations programme

awareness

Invest more in advertising

Once a strategy has been identified, then the business must develop an action to turn the strategy into reality. The starting point for this plan is the setting of marketing objectives. Marketing objectives are the specific targets for marketing set by the business to achieve their corporate objectives. Examples of marketing objectives might be:

Increase sales by 10% Launch a new product by the end of the year Achieve a 95% customer satisfaction rating Increase the number of retail outlets selling our products by 250 within 12 months

It is important for a business to set marketing objectives because managers can then have targets for their work. They can then measure more effectively the success or failure of their marketing strategies to achieve these objectives.

Marketing Strategy Marketing Strategy The marketing concept of building an organization around the profitable satisfaction of customer needs has helped firms to achieve success in highgrowth, moderately competitive markets. However, to be successful in markets in which economic growth has leveled and in which there exist many competitors who follow the marketing concept, a well-developed marketing strategy is required. Such a strategy considers a portfolio of products and takes into account the anticipated moves of competitors in the market. The Case of Barco In late 1989, Barco N.V.'s projection systems division was faced with Sony's surprise introduction of a better graphics projector. Barco had been

perceived as a leader, introducing high quality products first and targeting a niche market that was willing to pay a higher price. Being a smaller company, Barco could not compete on price, so it traditionally pursued a skimming strategy in the graphics projector market, where it had a 55% market share of the small market. Barco's overall market share for all types of projectors was only 4%. Even though Barco's market was mainly in graphics projectors, the company had not introduced a new graphics projector in over two years. Instead, it was spending a large portion of its R&D budget on video projector products. However, video projectors were not Barco's market. Barco's engineers had been working long hours on their new projector that would not be as good as Sony's. Some people thought they should not stop work on that product since the engineers' morale would suffer after being told how important it was to work hard to get the product out. However, even considering the morale of the product team, it would not have been a good idea to introduce a product that was inferior to that of Sony. Barco wisely stopped working on the inferior product and put a major effort in developing a projector that outperformed Sony's.

The Barco case illustrates several marketing strategy concepts: 1. Price / Selling Effort Strategies: A firm that follows a skimming strategy seeks to be the first to introduce a product with very good performance, selling it to the innovator market segment and charging a premium price for it. It makes as much profit as possible, then moves on when the competition arrives. The price is likely to fall over time as competition is encountered. Such a skimming strategy contrasts with a penetrating strategy, which seeks to gain market share by sacrificing short-term profits, and increasing the price over time as market share is gained.

2. Competitors have certain strengths and abilities. To succeed, a firm must leverage its own unique abilities. 3. A firm should prepare defensive strategies before potential threats arrive. If the competition surprises a firm with the introduction of a vastly superior product, the firm should resist the temptation to proceed with its mediocre product. A firm never should introduce a product that is obsolete when it hits the market. 4. The competition's probable response to a firm's actions should be considered carefully.

Marketing Research for Strategic Decision Making The two most common uses of marketing research are for diagnostic analysis to understand the market and the firm's current performance, and opportunity analysis to define any unexploited opportunities for growth. Marketing research studies include consumer studies, distribution studies, semantic scaling, multidimensional scaling, intelligence studies, projections, and conjoint analysis. A few of these are outlined below. 1. Semantic scaling: a very simple rating of how consumers perceive the physical attributes of a product, and what the ideal values of those attributes would be. Semantic scaling is not very accurate since the consumers are polled according to an ordinal ranking so mathematical averaging is not possible. For example, 8 is not necessarily twice as much as 4 in an ordinal ranking system. Furthermore, each person uses the scale differently. 2. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) addresses the problems associated with semantic scaling by polling the consumer for pair-wise comparisons between products or between one product and the ideal. The assumption is that while

people cannot report reliably which attributes drive their choices, they can report perceptions of similarities between brands. However, MDS analyses do not indicate the relative importance between attributes. 3. Conjoint analysis infers the relative importance of attributes by presenting consumers with a set of features of two hypothetical products and asking them which product they prefer. This question is repeated over several sets of attribute values. The results allow one to predict which attributes are the more important, the combination of attribute values that is the most preferred. From this information, the expected market share of a given design can be estimated.

Multi-Product Resource Allocation The most common resource allocation methods are:

Percentage of sales Executive judgement All-you-can-afford Match competitors Last year based

Another method is called decision calculus. Managers are asked four questions: What would sales be with:

no sales force half the current effort 50% greater effort a saturation level of effort.

From these answers, one can determine the parameters of the S-curve response function and use linear programming techniques to determine resource allocations. Decision algorithms that result in extreme solutions, such as allocating most of the sales force to one product while neglecting another product often do not yield practical solutions. For mature products, sales increase very little as a function of advertising expenditures. For newer products however, there is a very positive correlation. Portfolio models may be used to allocate resources among major product lines or business units. The BCG growth-share matrix is one such model.

New Product Diffusion Curve As a new product diffuses into the market, some types of consumers such as innovators and early adopters buy the product before other consumers. The product adoption follows a trajectory that is shaped like a bell curve and is known as the product diffusion curve. The marketing strategy should take this adoption curve into account and address factors that influence the rate of adoption by the different types of consumers.

Dynamic Product Management Strategies Two fundamental issues of product management are whether to pioneer or follow, and how to manage the product over its life cycle. Order of market entry is very important. In fact, the forecasted market share

relative to the pioneering brand is the pioneering brand's share divided by the square root of the order of entry. For example, the brand that entered third is forecasted to have 1/3 times the market share of the first entrant (Marketing Science, Vol. 14, No. 3, Part 2 of 2, 1995.) This rule was determined empirically. The pioneering advantage is obtained from both the supply and demand side. From the supply side, there are raw material advantages, better experience effects to provide a cost advantage, and channel preemption. On the demand side, there is the advantage of familiarity, the chance to set a standard, and the choice of perceptual position. Once a firm gains a pioneering advantage, it can maintain it by improving the product, creating a standard, advertise that it was the first, and introduce a new product in the market that may cannibalize the first but deter other firms from entering. There also are disadvantages to being the pioneer. Being first allows a competitor to leapfrog the early technology. The incumbent develops inertia in its R&D and may not be a flexible as newcomers. Developing an industry has costs that the pioneer must bear alone, and the way the industry develops and its potential size are not deterministic.

There are four classic price/selling effort strategies:

In general, products are clustered in the low-low or high-high categories. If a product is in a mixed category, after introduction it will tend to move to the low-low or high-high one. Increasing the breadth of the product line as several advantages. A firm can better serve multiple segments, it can occupy more of the distributors' shelf space, it offers customers a more complete selection, and it preempts competition. While a wider range of products will cause a firm to cannibalize some of its own sales, it is better to do so oneself rather than let the competition do so. The drawbacks of broad product lines are reduced volume for each brand (cannibalization), greater manufacturing complexity, increased inventory, more management resources required, more advertising (or less per brand), clutter and confusion in advertising for both customers and distributors. To increase profits from existing brands, a firm can improve its production efficiency, increase the demand through more users, more uses, and more usage. A firm also can defend its existing base through line extensions (expand on a current brand), flanker brands (new brands in an existing product area), and brand extensions. POSTE D BY SU N IL AT 9:53 PM L ABE L S: CL ASSIC PRIC E SE L L IN G E FFORT STRATE G IE S , MARK E TIN G STRATE G Y , M R FOR STRATE G IC DE C ISION MAK IN G , THE C ASE OF BARC O

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Oftentimes, the challenge in promoting through personalized products lies in how to strategically use and give away them, especially if they are rather common commodities. Say for instance, it is a quality challenge to be able to think of creative and effective techniques to use and distribute personalized sticky notes because they are commonly used as corporate freebies. But if you are really mulling over using them in your next promotion, here are three effective techniques you might want to utilize these famous corporate gifts: Create a culture of gratitude in your work place by bestowing personalized sticky notes. You might be surprised how natural sticky pad note can motivate your employees at work. Try to give away a deck of promotional sticky notes to your employees with a message from your CEO that says how their service are valued by the company and you will directly have committed workers in

your company that can escalate your company's efficiency in no time. Just keep in mind a few significant things when giving out personalized sticky pads: be graphic. If you will praise a specific employee, do not say it mainly, "job well done," instead, say "you handled the (mention the name of the project) with much professionalism" or something like that. Imprint solid and catchy messages in your personalized sticky pads. Sometimes, what are workers need to revive their lost energy at work is to be able to encounter something that will touch them within and you can carry out this by placing a catchy quote in the post-its that you will give away. Generally, you may or may not put a different quote in each of the pages of the personalized sticky notes. It's really up to you, but the ultimate point is to write something that your employees can relate to and something that is remarkable. It is better to invest on this rather than focus on designing the personalized post-it since making it attractive might just distract your target clientele and veer their attention to what is more important-your brand name and logo. Supply these personalized items as supplementary giveaways. You may also choose to give away promotional post-its as additional freebies to other corporate presents, such as custom journals, personalized ball point pens, promo notebooks and so forth. In this way, many people will find it easier to find the relevance of your souvenir. You may choose to give away them together with promo items that are not directly related to them, but it is better if they are. There are many cheap personalized pads in custom items stores so adding them to your corporate gifts will be that heavy on the pocket. http://ezinearticles.com/?Money-Making-Promotional-Sticky-NotesMarketing-Strategies&id=5087841 Wednesday, 2nd November, 2011

Marketing - Marketing's role in business strategy Marketing strategies explain how the marketing function fits in with the overall strategy for a business. Examples of marketing strategies could be:

Business Strategy Grow sales

Example Marketing Strategies Launch new products Expand distribution (e.g. open more shops) Start selling products into overseas markets

Increase profits

Increase selling prices Reduce the amount spent on television advertising

Build customer Implement a public relations programme awareness Invest more in advertising Once a strategy has been identified, then the business must develop an action to turn the strategy into reality. The starting point for this plan is the setting of marketing objectives. Marketing objectives are the specific targets for marketing set by the business to achieve their corporate objectives. Examples of marketing objectives might be:

Increase sales by 10% Launch a new product by the end of the year Achieve a 95% customer satisfaction rating Increase the number of retail outlets selling our products by 250 within 12 months

It is important for a business to set marketing objectives because managers can then have targets for their work. They can then measure more effectively the success or failure of their marketing strategies to achieve these objectives. http://tutor2u.net/business/gcse/marketing_strategy_introduction.htm Wednesday 2nd November, 2011 (http://tutor2u.net/business/gcse/marketing_strategy_introduction.htm ) http://web.mit.edu/hauser/www/Papers/NoteonDefensiveMarketingStrat egies.pdf Wednesday 2nd November, 2011

Marketing strategy From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Marketing strategies) This article may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. You can help. The discussion page may contain suggestions. (May 2009) Marketing Key concepts Product marketing Pricing Distribution Service Retail Brand management Account-based marketing Ethics Effectiveness Research Segmentation Strategy Activation Management Dominance Promotional content Advertising Branding Underwriting Direct marketing Personal sales Product placement Publicity Sales promotion Sex in advertising Loyalty marketing SMS marketing Premiums Prizes Promotional media Printing Publication Broadcasting Out-of-home advertising Internet Point of sale Merchandise Digital marketing In-game advertising In-store demonstration Word-of-mouth Brand ambassador Drip

marketing Visual merchandising vde Marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.[1] Contents [hide]

1 Developing a marketing strategy 2 Types of strategies 3 Strategic models 4 Real-life marketing 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading

[edit]Developing a marketing strategy This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2008) Marketing strategies serve as the fundamental underpinning of marketing plans designed to fill market needs and reach marketing objectives.[2] Plans and objectives are generally tested for measurable results. Commonly, marketing strategies are developed as multi-year plans, with a tactical plan detailing specific actions to be accomplished in the current year. Time horizons covered by the marketing plan vary by company, by industry, and by nation, however, time horizons are becoming shorter as the speed of change in the environment increases.[3] Marketing strategies are dynamic and interactive. They are partially planned and partially unplanned. See strategy dynamics.

Marketing strategy involves careful scanning of the internal and external environments.[4] Internal environmental factors include the marketing mix, plus performance analysis and strategic constraints.[5] External environmental factors include customer analysis, competitor analysis, target market analysis, as well as evaluation of any elements of the technological, economic, cultural or political/legal environment likely to impact success.[3] [6] A key component of marketing strategy is often to keep marketing in line with a company's overarching mission statement.[7] Besides SWOT analysis, portfolio analyses such as the GE/McKinsey matrix [8] or COPE analysis[9] can be performed to determine the strategic focus. Once a thorough environmental scan is complete, a strategic plan can be constructed to identify business alternatives, establish challenging goals, determine the optimal marketing mix to attain these goals, and detail implementation.[3] A final step in developing a marketing strategy is to create a plan to monitor progress and a set of contingencies if problems arise in the implementation of the plan. [edit]Types of strategies This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2008) Marketing strategies may differ depending on the unique situation of the individual business. However there are a number of ways of categorizing some generic strategies. A brief description of the most common categorizing schemes is presented below: Strategies based on market dominance - In this scheme, firms are classified based on their market share or dominance of an industry. Typically there are four types of market dominance strategies:

Leader Challenger Follower Nicher

Porter generic strategies - strategy on the dimensions of strategic scope and strategic strength. Strategic scope refers to the market penetration while strategic strength refers to the firms sustainable competitive advantage. The generic strategy framework (porter 1984) comprises two alternatives each with two alternative scopes. These are Differentiation and low-cost leadership each with a dimension of Focus-broad or narrow.

Product differentiation (broad) Cost leadership (broad) Market segmentation (narrow)

Innovation strategies This deals with the firm's rate of the new product development and business model innovation. It asks whether the company is on the cutting edge of technology and business innovation. There are three types:

Pioneers Close followers Late followers

Growth strategies In this scheme we ask the question, How should the firm grow?. There are a number of different ways of answering that question, but the most common gives four answers:

Horizontal integration Vertical integration Diversification Intensification

A more detailed scheme uses the categories[10]:

Prospector Analyzer Defender Reactor

Marketing warfare strategies - This scheme draws parallels between marketing strategies and military strategies.

[edit]Strategic models This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2008) Marketing participants often employ strategic models and tools to analyze marketing decisions. When beginning a strategic analysis, the 3Cs can be employed to get a broad understanding of the strategic environment. An Ansoff Matrix is also often used to convey an organization's strategic positioning of their marketing mix. The 4Ps can then be utilized to form a marketing plan to pursue a defined strategy. There are many companies especially those in the Consumer Package Goods (CPG) market that adopt the theory of running their business centered around Consumer, Shopper & Retailer needs. Their Marketing departments spend quality time looking for "Growth Opportunities" in their categories by identifying relevant insights (both mindsets and behaviors) on their target Consumers, Shoppers and retail partners. These Growth Opportunities emerge from changes in market trends, segment dynamics changing and also internal brand or operational business challenges.The Marketing team can then prioritize these Growth Opportunities and begin to develop strategies to exploit the opportunities that could include new or adapted products, services as well as changes to the 7Ps. [edit]Real-life marketing Real-life marketing primarily revolves around the application of a great deal of common-sense; dealing with a limited number of factors, in an environment of imperfect information and limited resources complicated by uncertainty and tight timescales. Use of classical marketing techniques, in these circumstances, is inevitably partial and uneven. Thus, for example, many new products will emerge from irrational processes and the rational development process may be used (if at all) to screen out the worst non-runners. The design of the advertising, and the packaging, will be the output of the creative minds employed; which management will then screen, often by 'gut-reaction', to ensure that it is reasonable.

For most of their time, marketing managers use intuition and experience to analyze and handle the complex, and unique, situations being faced; without easy reference to theory. This will often be 'flying by the seat of the pants', or 'gut-reaction'; where the overall strategy, coupled with the knowledge of the customer which has been absorbed almost by a process of osmosis, will determine the quality of the marketing employed. This, almost instinctive management, is what is sometimes called 'coarse marketing'; to distinguish it from the refined, aesthetically pleasing, form favored by the theorists. [edit]See also

Business model Customer engagement Market segmentation Pricing strategies

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_strategies )

(http://www.pdfgeni.org/us/marketing-strategies-notes-pdf.html)

http://www.roselladb.com/market-segmentation.htm Thursday, 3 nov

2011

http://mchb.hrsa.gov/mchirc/_pubs/trend_analysis.pdf

http://www.investorwords.com/5068/trend_analysis.html

http://www.roselladb.com/sales-trend-forecast.htm http://www.ehow.com/about_5249746_business-trend-analysis.html

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_Advantages_and_disadvantages_of_mobile_commerce#ixzz1 cy1KDX7z

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_Advantages_and_disadvantages_of_mobile_c ommerce