sales Jobs

Marketing communications

2008-08-23T06:59:00.000-07:00

Marketing communications breaks down the strategies involved with marketing messages into categories based on the goals of each message. There are distinct stages in converting strangers to customers that govern the communication medium that should be used.

Advertising :

* Paid form of public presentation and expressive promotion of ideas
* Aimed at masses
* Manufacturer may determine what goes into advertisement
* Pervasive and impersonal medium

Functions and advantages of successful advertising :

* Task of the salesman made easier
* Forces manufacturer to live up to conveyed image
* Protects and warns customers against false claims and inferior products
* Enables manufacturer to mass-produce product
* Continuous reminder
* Uninterrupted production a possibility
* Increases goodwill
* Raises standards of living (or perceptions thereof)
* Prices decrease with increased popularity
* Educates manufacturer and wholesaler about competitors' offerings as well as shortcomings in their own.

Objectives :

* Maintain demand for well-known goods
* Introduce new and unknown goods
* Increase demand for well-known goods/products/services

Requirements of a good advertisement :

* Attract attention (awareness)
* Stimulate interest
* Create a desire
* Bring about action

Eight steps in an advertising campaign :

* Market research
* Setting out aims
* Budgeting
* Choice of media (television, newspaper, radio)
* Choice of actors (New Trend)
* Design and wording
* Co-ordination
* Test results

Personal sales :

Oral presentation given by a salesman who approaches individuals or a group of potential customers:

* Live, interactive relationship
* Personal interest
* Attention and response
* Interesting presentation

Sales promotion :

Short-term incentives to encourage buying of products:

* Instant appeal
* Anxiety to sell

An example of this is coupons or a sale. People are given an incentive to buy, but it does not build customer loyalty, nor encourage repeat buys in the future. A major drawback of sales promotion is that it is easily copied by competition. It cannot be used as a sustainable source of differentiation.

Marketing Public Relations (MPR) :

* Stimulation of demand through press release giving a favourable report to a product
* Higher degree of credibility
* Effectively news
* Boosts enterprise's image

Distribution (Place) of Marketing Job

2008-08-23T06:53:00.000-07:00

Channels :

* Manufacturer to consumer (most direct)
* Manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer (traditional)
* Manufacturer to agent to retailer to consumer (current)
* Manufacturer to agent to wholesaler to retailer to consumer
* Manufacturer to agent to customer ( ex : DCL,AMWAY )

Manufacturers :

Reasons for direct selling methods :

* Manufacturer wants to demonstrate goods.
* Wholesalers, retailers and agents not actively selling.
* Manufacturer unable to convince wholesalers or retailers to stock product.
* High profit margin added to goods by wholesalers and retailers.
* Middlemen unable to transport.

Reasons for indirect selling methods :

* Manufacturer does not have the financial resources to distribute goods.
* Distribution channels already established.
* Manufacturer has no knowledge of efficient distribution.
* Manufacturer wishes to use capital for further production.
* Too many consumers in a large area; difficult to reach.
* Manufacturer does not have a wide assortment of goods to enable efficient marketing.
* Direct on-selling advantages.

Wholesalers :

Reasons for using wholesalers :

* Bear risk of selling goods to retailer or consumer
* Storage space
* Decrease transport costs
* Grant credit to retailers
* Able to sell for the manufacturers
* Give advice to manufacturers
* Break down products into smaller quantities

Reasons for bypassing wholesalers :

* Limited storage facilities
* Retailers' preferences
* Wholesaler cannot promote products successfully
* Development of wholesalers' own brands
* Desire for closer market contact
* Position of power
* Cost of wholesalers' services
* Price stabilisation
* Need for rapid distribution
* Make more money

Ways of bypassing wholesalers :

* Sales offices or branches
* Mail orders
* Direct sales to retailers
* Travelling agents
* Direct Orders

Agents :

* Commission agents work for anyone who needs their services. They do not acquire ownership of goods but receive del credere commission.
* Selling agents act on an extended contractual basis, selling all of the products of the manufacturer. They have full authority regarding price and terms of sale.
* Buying agents buy goods on behalf of producers and retailers. They have an expert knowledge of the purchasing function.
* Brokers specialize in the sale of one specific product. They receive a brokerage.
* Factory representatives represent more than one manufacturer. They operate within a specific area and sell related lines of goods but have limited authority regarding price and sales terms.

Concept of Marketing

2008-08-23T06:52:00.000-07:00

"Marketing" is an instructive business domain that serves to inform and educate target markets about the value and competitive advantage of a company and its products. “Value” is worth derived by the customer from owning and using the product. “Competitive Advantage” is a depiction that the company or its products are each doing something better than their competition in a way that could benefit the customer.

Marketing is focused on the task of conveying pertinent company and product related information to specific customers, and there are a multitude of decisions (strategies) to be made within the marketing domain regarding what information to deliver, how much information to deliver, to whom to deliver, how to deliver, when to deliver, and where to deliver. Once the decisions are made, there are numerous ways (tactics) and processes that could be employed in support of the selected strategies.

As Marketing is often misinterpreted as just advertising or sales, Chris Newton, in What is marketing? (Marketing Help Online, 2008), defined marketing as every strategy and decision made in the following twelve areas:

* Identifying and quantifying the need in the marketplace
* Identifying and quantifying the target markets
* Identifying the optimum cost effective media – online and offline - to reach the target markets
* Reviewing the priorities of the product offering in your overall product mix ‘matrix’
* Identifying and developing the most effective distribution channels, be they wholesaler networks, partnering alliances, franchising, or any number of conduits to the market.
* Testing different ways of packaging the concepts or products to find their most 'easy-to-sell' form
* Testing to find the optimum pricing strategies
* Developing effective promotional strategies and effective advertising and supporting collateral, offers, and launch strategies
* Developing and documenting the sales process
* Finding the optimum execution of the sales process – through testing of selling scripts, people selection, supporting collateral, skills and attitudinal training, tracking, measuring and refining
* Ensuring that sales projections reflect realistic production capacities
* Developing nurture programs to optimise the lifetime value of the customer

The goal of marketing is to build and maintain a preference for a company and its products within the target markets. The goal of any business is to build mutually profitable and sustainable relationships with its customers. While all business domains are responsible for accomplishing this goal, the marketing domain bears a significant share of the responsibility.

Within the larger scope of its definition, marketing is performed through the actions of three coordinated disciplines named: “Product Marketing”, “Corporate Marketing”, and “Marketing Communications”.

Marketing

2008-08-23T06:50:00.000-07:00

Marketing is an ongoing process of planning and executing the marketing mix (Product, Price, Place, Promotion often referred to as the 4 Ps) for products, services or ideas to create exchange between individuals and organizations.

Marketing tends to be seen as a creative industry, which includes advertising, distribution and selling. It is also concerned with anticipating the customers' future needs and wants, which are often discovered through market research.

Essentially, marketing is the process of creating or directing an organization to be successful in selling a product or service that people not only desire, but are willing to buy.

Therefore good marketing must be able to create a "proposition" or set of benefits for the end customer that delivers value through products or services.

Introduction :

A market-focused, or customer-focused, organization first determines what its potential customers desire, and then builds the product or service. Marketing theory and practice is justified in the belief that customers use a product or service because they have a need, or because it provides a perceived benefit.

Two major factors of marketing are the recruitment of new customers (acquisition) and the retention and expansion of relationships with existing customers (base management). Once a marketer has converted the prospective buyer, base management marketing takes over. The process for base management shifts the marketer to building a relationship, nurturing the links, enhancing the benefits that sold the buyer in the first place, and improving the product/service continuously to protect the business from competitive encroachments.

For a marketing plan to be successful, the mix of the four "Ps" must reflect the wants and desires of the consumers or Shoppers in the target market. Trying to convince a market segment to buy something they don't want is extremely expensive and seldom successful. Marketers depend on insights from marketing research, both formal and informal, to determine what consumers want and what they are willing to pay for. Marketers hope that this process will give them a sustainable competitive advantage. Marketing management is the practical application of this process. The offer is also an important addition to the 4P's theory.

The American Marketing Association (AMA) states, "Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.

Marketing methods are informed by many of the social sciences, particularly psychology, sociology, and economics. Anthropology is also a small, but growing influence. Market research underpins these activities. Through advertising, it is also related to many of the creative arts. Marketing is a wide and heavily interconnected subject with extensive publications. It is also an area of activity infamous for re-inventing itself and its vocabulary according to the times and the culture.

Employment

2008-08-23T06:48:00.000-07:00

Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as: "A person in the service of another under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, where the employer has the power or right to control and direct the employee in the material details of how the work is to be performed." Black's Law Dictionary page 471 (5th ed. 1979).

In a commercial setting, the employer conceives of a productive activity, generally with the intention of generating a profit, and the employee contributes labour to the enterprise, usually in return for payment of wages. Employment also exists in the public, non-profit and household sectors. To the extent that employment or the economic equivalent is not universal, unemployment exists.

Becoming an employee :

Most individuals attain the status of employee after a thorough process of interviews with several departments within a company[citation needed]. If the individual is determined to be a satisfactory fit for the position, he is given an official offer of employment within that company for a defined starting salary and position. This individual then has all the rights and privileges of an employee, which may include medical benefits and vacation days. The relationship between a corporation and its employees is usually handled through the human resources department, which handles the incorporation of new hires, and the disbursement of any benefits which the employee may be entitled, or any grievances that employee may have.