Drive Without Fear

The marketing philosophy

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 23:45:15 +0000

Marketing is not simply selling goods or services. So many aspiring business people naively assume that if they have a few customers for their products, and obtain orders, a transaction constitutes the marketing function. Orders think that promotion with selling is the total scope of the marketing activity –not so. While many definitions have been presented for Marketing, here’s an easy one:

Marketing is a process by which people and groups fulfill their needs and wants through creating and exchanging products.

As a managed process, value is added to the product and profit is generated for the business activity. The marketing function consist of a mix of tools that are available to the business person: advertising, distribution channeling, promotion, personal selling, pricing, public relations, communications, research, forecasting and other interrelated factors. Not all are used by every business, but each is part of the overall marketing concept and you may find that your venture will rely on certain tools more than others. The really important part of the customer wishes to have satisfied and pleasing the customer is fundamental to your success.

A need is a basic human requirement such as food, clothing, shelter, warmth, social relationship and security. There are frequently suggested ‘Hierarchies of Needs’ that state priorities for human needs, but needs vary with time and circumstances. The need for food is always fundamental and we see established industries supplying the need: agriculture, processing, distribution systems, retail market, shop, and restaurant; all are solely concerned with providing food product to the customer. Similarly home builder, finance sources, developers and real estate agents are in the business of supplying the need for shelter. These needs are primary for personal survival, so business is devoted significantly to fulfilling basic needs.

Questions

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:19:46 +0000

There are problems in using a questionnaire such as that above for the result may not represent honest answer. People often recognize common terms such as cash flow and guarantees and believe that they understand them as well as their ramifications. Similarly questions can be answered in a manner that is inclined to please the questioner, not fully expressing actual knowledge or understanding. This Favored Response Effect is a well known obstacle for market researchers who must structure their studies to avoid misleading data with your own answer its obviously essential to be honest for it may be your future that you are risking.

You will have seen that the questions are both directly related to the information needed to construct much of your Business Plan as well as that typically required to operate a Business enterprise. It’s unlikely that any one publication could provide all the knowledge needed to establish and run a business. However it is possible to bring forth some of the fundamental factors that should be recognize and appreciated prior to starting a venture. In this regard, writing the Business Plan performs a valuable role as it will tell you if your concepts and strategies have commercial reality. As well if you lack experience with, or knowledge, many of the points rose in the list of questions, you would have difficulty in honestly writing your plan. So the questions must be asked and answered.

In additions to the questions every venture should be asking every business should regularly ask it self four important questions:

Where are we now?
What is our market?
Where do we wish to be?
How do we get there?

If the big companies constantly ask these questions of themselves you can imagine how important there are to a new venture.

Some vital questions

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:19:12 +0000

Let’s be honest about the matter –Do you know how to run a business? If you have worked closely with the owner or operator of a small enterprise for sometime you probably have a better grasp of how to run a business than many of the highly respected managers of corporate departments. This is due to their frequently having become specialist in their own divisions and seldom having direct involvement with the many other functions of the company. Of course, the corporations often provide training programs and strive to acquaint managers with the nature and responsibilities of other department as part of the career advancement planning. But, when a business is yours, all the activities and obligations land on your desk –possibly before you even have one. Adhere to the motto: “Be Prepared”.

Pessimism cannot be an attitude if you are serious about pursuing your business interest. How ever you must be realistic about what you really know and what you will likely need to know as you approach the commitment to a venture. At the least you should be able to express your knowledge and capabilities when meeting with your investors, prospective participants, potential staff and industry colleague. A mean of looking at what is already in your experience and knowledge memory bank can be undertaken by asking your self a few questions and checking the YES and NO boxes, along with making any relevant for reference.

Now add up the YES and NO answers for totals. If there are more than six NO answer you should be doing some studying before progressing much further. If there are more than NO answers, you should really be considering whether you are ready at all to commence an enterprise. However, that may be the good news.

Market research

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:18:36 +0000

Market research can be a specialized fields involving trained experts, computer reporting and result interpretation. When governments send out questionnaires on subjects such as health, youth or social benefits, the information from thousand of responses is compiled to design action decision. Corporations do much the same with their product program preparations, often contracting professional research firms to obtain the answer and report on the results. It can be an expensive exercise but for major investment considerations, significant studies are justified.

The new venture entrepreneur may use the focus group strategy to obtain valid assessment of his product and business ideas. Trained group leaders may be appointed to conduct sessions but the group selected for typical or potential acquaintance with the product concepts is directed to freely and openly discuss the product, its potential and acceptability. Often such a group can consist of fellow business being researched. The objective is to obtain ideas and approaches to the marketing process can parallel writing a business plan research is important indeed.

In order to return to the personal time freedoms of the past years, it was necessary to employ someone to look after the shop. The labor costs incurred effectively eliminated any profit from the business, made the account unattractive for any future sale and ruled out the prospect of an income supplement to the public service pension.

Marketing has matured as a discipline in the past 50 years. It is far from being a precise science as the human individual can be unpredictable, either alone or as participant in a group. We know that business exist solely for and because of the customer and the most effective way of communicating with him, the better are the chances for success. Knowledge of the tools in the marketing mix and the adoption of the Marketing Philosophy will support business survival and progress.