What's the Difference Between Advertising, Marketing, Promotions, Publicity, Etc.

There are key things you need to understand in order to run a successful business. It doesn't matter if you have a small home based business, where all you have is a computer and a table in the corner of an apartment, or if you have a multi-billion-dollar corporation with thousands of employees. You need to understand what the difference is between advertising, promotions, marketing, sales, publicity and public relations.

Advertising

Marketing

Every business has a product, be it a service or an actual physical item. Advertising basically, is bringing your product to the current customer or potential customers attention. Advertising is very specific. You have a targeted audience for each specific product. Within the same company one advertisement for a product can be very different from another advertisement of a different product. This can easily be done with brochures, commercials, direct mailings, e-mails, personal contact, etc.

What's the Difference Between Advertising, Marketing, Promotions, Publicity, Etc.

Promotions

Using advertising, promotion basically keeps the product in the minds of the customer. With an ongoing advertising campaign the customer will continually see the product and develop a relationship with the item or service. Public relations is also considered a part of promotions.

Marketing

Within marketing you have two parts. You outbound marketing includes promoting, advertising, public relations and sales. Your inbound marketing includes your market research, competition, research and product positioning. A marketing plan can differ from product to product. The concept remains the same in that the needs of your customer or consumer has to be met as well as your company getting value in return.

Sales

When we talk about sales. We include all the aspects leading up to the closing. We start from cultivating prospective buyers or accumulating leads within a specific market. Once contact is made we convey the features of an item, also mentioning the benefits of our services or products to the prospect. When the prospect is satisfy, then coming to an agreement or closing on pricing and or the services provided. Sales plans are specific like advertising, and the plan can differ from product to product.

Publicity

Publicity is usually not under the control of the company. This is the mentioning of your brand or product within the media. These are articles or news campaigns, written by reporters. These are other peoples opinions on how they feel about your brand, item or service you provide.

Public relations

Public relations by definition, are all the ongoing activities that are related in order to ensure the company has a strong public image. You want to make sure the public understands what your company provides, why it provides your product, or services and how it provides it. Through the media, newspapers, television, magazines, etc. your company helps the public understand the benefit you can offer them.

What's the Difference Between Advertising, Marketing, Promotions, Publicity, Etc.

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What Is Marketing? Marketing Strategy for 2012

The objective of any marketing strategy is to create an awareness of who we are, what we have to offer and why that specific segmentation of the market should want to do business with us. Today 2011 is moving quickly to 2012. However, technology moves much faster than time. Each year, each month and each day bring new opportunities for the Marketer to advance the products, services and ideas of his/her organization.

Everything is faster; technology is developing so rapidly that new changes are occurring before you can even start implementing the last. This means that our marketing strategies must be cutting edge, adaptable to the next change, targeted and flexible enough to be implemented quickly so that we can leverage ourselves.

Marketing

So let's make a quick list of the changes that we can observe on a daily basis.

What Is Marketing? Marketing Strategy for 2012

1. Shrinking Globe

2. Electronic Evolution

3. Trends in Marketing

4. Social Media

5. Search Engine Optimization - SEO

The Shrinking Globe and What This Means to Marketing

This is one of the major changes affecting the concept and implementation of any and all marketing strategies in all markets, all industries and all businesses worldwide. The availability of resources, ease of use and removal of physical boundaries has changed both the attitudinal as wells as the practical application of marketing. These changes have happened because of the extreme developments in electronic communication, the educational advancement of people everywhere, and the technological advancements that make all this possible.

Electronic Evolution / Revolution

The electronic industry is changing at fast, alarming rate which means that if we are to market competitively, everyone involved in the process must update their skills constantly. Computer systems and communication have had major breakthroughs which affect all areas of business including markting.

Trends in Marketing

Another issue that must be considered and understood is change in the trends of marketing. The bottom line of any business plan is to improve the return on investments - ROI. The marketing world, like the technological world is experiencing a dramatic revolution resulting in new channels opening up before the practicing marketers can even grasp or use the existing channels.

However, regardless of our education, our experience it is normal to feel overwhelmed in trying to keep up, trying to identify where to focus our efforts to further our professional development and improve our own marketing skills to keep up with the demands of today and the future. So let's see if we can put some of the trend changes into context.

1. Changes in Customer Service and the Benefit to Marketing

Today and yesterday and tomorrow, the priority for companies is to create and deliver great products and services. Being able to respond quickly and honestly to issues and problems identified by customers and of course, acquiring new customers.

However, customers today are different from yesterday and will continue to have increased expectations when dealing with their suppliers. Especially today when most everything can be done online, so customers today who get slow or poor responses from customer support departments or who don't have their expectations met, will quickly get on the social media forums and relate the experience to all their network contacts - who then in turn can re-tweet and forward the same negative message to their own contact. And the negative information will travel through cyber space.

Customer must now become our core marketing department. Our ability to grow our business, to expand our customer base can now be achieved, in part, by using the social media. However, our message must be very clear, very concrete and be part of a well-designed marketing strategy so that the results recognized actually assist your organization in the achievement of the company vision.

2. Social Media

What is Social Media?

The term Social Media is referring to using web-based and mobile technologies to create an interactive dialogue or communication channel with a variety of people categories. The objective of any social media forum is to allow the users to create their own content. Humans have always networked, whether at parties, conferences, other social or business events. Now, through social media we can network without physically being present with the other parties involved in the network we are creating.

One of the fastest changes areas in marketing today is the social media. Twitter, Linked In, Facebook, blogs, various mobile devices and so on, continue to give us alternative means of connecting to a wide variety of people, customers, clients and potentials globally. However, it is also very important to remember that the way we take advantage of this is very important because once we place something online, that SOMETHING, whether positive or negative is there forever.

Social media is not a one-size-fits all it is a tool that must be customized to fit the specific situation and the desired outcome.

3. Mobile Marketing

Today, more and more people spend time using their portable devices for much more than just to make a telephone call. We no longer even need a laptop because we have iPad, BlackBerry, etc... and can check our emails, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook accounts, create and update blogs, everything we need to do to stay visible online.

However, when we considered mobile marketing, we also have to be very conscious of what we want to accomplish. Because once something, a message, is out there on the internet and cannot be recalled. So make sure the message you are sending is the message you want passed to everyone with internet connections on any forum available today.

4. Email Marketing

Email continues to deliver customer value, brand recognition, saves expense expenditure, and create a buzz. Email, while yesterday's brain-child, is still getting stronger and still plays a vital role in all marketing strategies. Therefore, emails to individuals, mass emails and email campaigns need to be included in our marketing strategies.

Search Engine Optimization - SEO

With the new appearance of updated websites, mini websites and online promotions, search engine optimization - SEO is becoming a high demand competency for everyone working within the Marketing domain.

SEO refers to the use of specific keywords in the titles, abstracts and the body of any document, text or page found on the web. Keyword searches are recognized by search engines when any individual looks for information, products or service online.

Therefore, understanding the tools available, how to use these tools and how to optimize anything that will be published online is essential for the new area of marketing to be successfully implemented by you and your organization.

What Is Marketing? Marketing Strategy for 2012

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Why Marketing Is Important To Your Business

Attraction Marketing can help you build your business faster and with more stability in ANY PROGRAM. Attraction marketing is promoting a product or service in such a way that causes potential customers or prospects to want to hear about what you have to offer. In direct sales, it typically refers to promoting yourself as an expert, offering information that a prospect wants, and builds the basis of a real relationship with that prospect.

This the strategy of drawing highly targeted, highly motivated prospects into your sphere of influence. Highly qualified prospects is the life blood of any network marketing business.

Marketing

It provides valuable information to your customers. The more helpful and valuable your information is the greater the chance those customers will purchase from you.

Why Marketing Is Important To Your Business

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Marketing is the process whereby demands for products, services and ideas are anticipated, managed and satisfied. The marketer does this by first analyzing the marketplace behavior of competitors and consumers and then designing product, promotion, pricing and distribution strategies that will be accepted in the marketplace.

This is about acquiring and retaining customers for products and services by delivering customer value. It is about having a finger on the pulse of the consumer so that it is possible to identify and create needs, and to cater to them effectively and efficiently. Marketing topics of current concern to faculty and students. Offered only when allowed by faculty availability and sufficient student interest.

It is also a war of words and the company with the best words always wins. We'll make sure you win! Marketing plans can feel like a pain in the neck (not to mention other body parts). Small business owners, and others without a boss to impose a due date, often find themselves "too busy" to complete a marketing plan or update the existing one.

Internet marketing your enterprise or small business can improve the search engine placement of a web site, getting it a higher ranking and perhaps generating more internet traffic to the site. Internet Retailer reports that 18.7% of bulk e-mail senders don't even know what their open rates are.

Marketing is analysis, and a sound marketing strategy is based on this analysis. What type of analysis are we talking about? Marketing is full of jargon. And marketing agencies are full of people fluent in jargon. It is not an event, but a process . It has a beginning, a middle, but never an end, for it is a process.

It is changing in radically interesting ways. I do think that marketers are being called upon to draw together the people who make products and the people who use them. Marketing is a complex skill with many different tactics and approaches. Responsible Marketing Consulting Services can help you create, execute and measure the success of a variety of marketing activities. Marketing is not sales. The sale is the exchange between the organization and the constituent or the organization and the donor.

This is an important component of a business enterprise that helps in increasing an organization?s profitability. If a company has not done enough marketing, then it might become .

Why Marketing Is Important To Your Business

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Marketing - The 7 Cs of Marketing

Marketing relates to the advertising and promotion of a company's product or service. When designing a marketing plan, it is important to keep in mind the seven C's of marketing, which are:

1. Cost
2. Creativity
3. Captivate
4. Connect
5. Clarify
6. Convince
7. Close

Marketing

1. Cost - The first step in marketing is to discern how to best price the goods or services to be marketed. There are a myriad of factors to consider when designing a pricing structure for any industry. Find out what all of your major competitors are charging, and determine how your company can make a profit while offering the service or product at a better price/rate than the major competitors.

Marketing - The 7 Cs of Marketing

2. Creativity - It is common for marketers-even many seasoned ones-to create marketing plans based on "proven" models that have worked when previously used by others, rather than utilizing creative energy. Differentiate your product/service from the competition. While sticking to the fundamentals is important, creativity allows you to brand your company in innovative ways. Find a new way to sell an old concept. This will create distance between your company and the competition.

3. Captivate - The attention span of consumers today is short, and appears to be getting shorter-with the increase of cyberspace shopping. You have an approximately 3-5 second time window to catch the attention of the reader/viewer of your promotional campaign. You must captivate your audience immediately with your campaign. Your marketing materials must stand out in a fashion that cannot be ignored or overlooked.

4. Connect - You must try to build an immediate rapport with your potential patrons. Make an instant connection with your clientele base by using the pain/pleasure scale. In most cases consumers are purchasing a product/service because they are running towards something that will give them pleasure, or they are purchasing something that will ease pain or correct a situation that is not in order. Once you establish which side of the scale your product/service offering fits on, you will be able to determine how to best connect with your target demographic.

5. Clarify - Clarity is necessary when marketing any product/service. You must always be cognizant of any laws relating to your brand or consult with your attorney before promoting a product in an industry monitored by professional licensing. Typically, if you are in an industry that would require "fine print" you will surely want to cover your legal bases before structuring your company's marketing plan.

6. Convince - If you are going to persuade the customer to purchase from your company, you will have to be convincing. You have to appeal to the prospects better judgment and common sense. People are always looking for honest people with clean and proven track records. Let your credibility shine by pointing out years of experience, or accolades that your company or management team has within the portfolio.

7. Close - Closing the deal is the most important part of any promotion. After you have presented the offer, and covered all of your bases, it is necessary to finalize the sale. You have to seal the commitment with a proper call to action. Let your prospect know how to make an immediate purchase, and urge them to take immediate action to do so. Include all necessary contact/location information in the promotional materials.

Marketing - The 7 Cs of Marketing

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Marketing Ideas For Small Architecture Firms

Small architectural firms have slowly dwindled, being unable to cope with competition from established larger firms. This makes it essential for the existing small architectural firms to have a well-thought-out marketing plan and effective marketing strategies to become successful firms. Some firms have selected a certain niche to specialize in; others have formed alliances with other services to stay in business. With a good marketing strategy they can attain their target goal more easily.

Some Marketing Ideas for Small Architecture Firms:
- Making use of the Internet is a great way to market small architecture firms. By creating a content-rich, visually pleasing and easily navigable website, you can attract a number of clients. You can make your small architectural firm visible to the whole world using the Internet; and if it is keyword-search optimized, your site can be displayed when keyword searches are done by prospective clients, thus making it highly target market-oriented.
- You can also start a free newsletter service asking those who visit your site to subscribe to it, generating leads as well as staying in touch with potential clients.
- Ask for your satisfied customers to put up their testimonials on your website as this may help persuade other clients to consider your firm.
- Permission-based e-mail marketing is a very cost-effective and easy way to market your services online.
- Use carefully planned advertisements that are well planned and that convey the right message to the clients extolling the benefits of choosing your firm. The TV, radio, newspaper, free newspapers, and magazines can be used effectively to advertise your services. Make sure you advertise regularly and effectively. Try advertising in magazines that deal in home decoration or building and construction. Infomercials on TV that are informative as well as portray your firm as trustworthy and capable can help, too.
- Form alliances with other services that complement your business, in which they can refer you and get a commission from you for doing so.
- Work out deals with local real estate agents who may recommend you to people who are in need of your services.
- Offer excellent customer service, since nothing can compare to word-of-mouth advertisements. Your firm has to appear dependable and experienced and promise them quality work, but make sure you keep your promise.
- Market research and competitive analysis have to be done frequently to stay ahead of your competition and to counter any of their strategies.
- Keep track of how your client heard of you, since it can help give you valuable insight as to which advertising media is working for you and which area is not that effective so that you can allot appropriate funds to the various media.

Marketing

You can use these tips and many more for getting new clients for your firm. If required you can even take the services of professional marketing consultants and business management software for managing and developing your business.

Marketing Ideas For Small Architecture Firms

Marketing Ideas For Small Architecture Firms

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What Does Marketing Mean?

You can have the best little business ever with wonderful potential, but if you can't market it, you don't have a business at all.

Learn how to market yourself, because you are your business. Don't confuse the terms "marketing," "advertising," and "promotion." These terms carry a different tune every time.

Marketing

Marketing means informing your potential clients about your products or service, and finding ways to establish and keep a customer base. Your target market is the specific group of people that consume your product or utilize your service.

What Does Marketing Mean?

Advertising refers to the various media used to convey your message. Printed advertisement, radio air time, television commercials and the Internet are all part of advertising that convey your business message to the public.

Promotion refers to the various methods by which you convey your message to customers. When you communicate with the public, you're promoting your business. Many people will join business associations, or set up displays in malls and craft shows for promotional purposes.

Many people feel lost and uncomfortable with marketing and promotion. However, the longer you research your market, your product and your competition, the more comfortable you will become in marketing and promoting your products and or service. It takes time to learn what works for your business. You will constantly need to effectively find new methods because the old methods will stop working.

Be the very best you can be by working on your personal skills, and successful marketing and promotion will ultimately follow. Best of luck!

What Does Marketing Mean?

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Marketing - Five Ideas on Putting Together a Marketing Plan

Most owners of service businesses fail to put together any sort of marketing plan. Instead, they randomly and occasionally take some action that they characterize as marketing, but there's not actually any plan to it. When they panic because they don't have enough clients and their revenue is dropping, they desperately seize onto some sort of marketing activity.

However, there is no plan to it. There is no continuity. There is no clear messaging to their marketing writing. Also, they get few or no results. The next time your business is in such a situation, here are a few things to consider about how to put together a marketing plan.

Marketing

1. Put together a marketing plan.

Marketing - Five Ideas on Putting Together a Marketing Plan

Set aside some time and put a few hours into deciding how you will market your business over the next year. What will you do? When will you do it? How will it work? What will you say? What will your marketing writing say? Where will you go? Who are you targeting as clients? Plan all the details in advance. Some of this will likely be projections rather than actual and detailed, but block them into a calendar anyway. You can do the research later.

2. Create a marketing plan that "plays to" your strengths and preferences.

Don't plan to do public speaking if you're not good at it and won't do it. The same is true of writing or any other method. Create a plan around what you are good at and enjoy doing. Don't expect that you'll be able to force yourself to do something you hate doing. It won't work.

3. Understand what outcomes you intend to get from your marketing efforts.

Of course, you'll say, "more sales, more clients", but often this is not a realistic short-term outcome. In the short term, your more realistic results would be things like:

* Being contacted by prospects

* Getting inquiries for information

* Being asked questions by curious and interested prospects

Of course, you must still go through the sales process with these potential clients, but realistically speaking, these are the typical responses your can expect from your marketing plan. It's your job to turn interested prospects into clients.

4. Have a clear target market. You can't put together an effective marketing plan without clarity on your target market.

If you don't know who they are, you don't know where they are. If you don't know where they are, you can't know where and how to access them. Don't skimp on putting together a robust, completely clear, and detailed target market. This is critical to the success of your marketing plan.

5. Be prepared with effective written business materials and a web site.

Be sure that your marketing writing and website writing clearly brand your business and deliver all the needed information. As prospects respond and inquire, they will want to know more. You must be ready to supply them with what they need to know so that they will choose to move closer to being your client. Think about it. How impressed are you when you ask a potential provider for more information and they mumble and apologize for their poor written materials? You don't seriously consider them as contenders for your business.

Plan your marketing and execute the plan. That is the only way to be sure that your service business has a steady flow of clients and revenue. Random "marketing" will not do that for you.

Marketing - Five Ideas on Putting Together a Marketing Plan

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Overview of Traditional Marketing

Marketing - A Juggler's Art:

Marketing, in more the one way, is like juggling. This strange analogy will become crystal clear if we take a close look at it. Just like the juggler the marketer too has to do these things to thrive in his business: first, he has to hook his audience; gain their attention through several jazzy tricks; and then hold their attention by still more innovative juggling. All this he has to achieve without losing balance, focus or steadfastness in the art, the industry, in the marketer's case. In short, marketing is all about alluring, attracting and holding a collection of customers for your Company's welfare.

Marketing

The Purpose Behind:

Overview of Traditional Marketing

To quote the American Marketing Association's definition, it 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". If one dilutes all the verbosity and looks at it, marketing means "selling" a product. This is the prime purpose behind any kind of marketing. The "selling" is accelerated with the help of properly chalked out plans called marketing strategies.

Factors that Influence:

With "selling" as the ultimate goal, marketing strategies are influenced by two basic factors: first, acquisition of customers; second, retention of the acquired customers. So every other strategy that is laid out will focus on the above two. A Company has to work closely towards achieving these two to attain the desired cutting edge over its competitors. There are also a few other objectives like creating awareness (informational and educational) about the product, brand-building and accelerating sales.

Traditional Marketing:

With the world changing at every nanosecond, marketing is also reeling under a whirlwind of change. New modes of marketing like e-marketing and online marketing have evolved. Yet traditional marketing still holds sway with many corporates. Traditional marketing operates based on the following strategies.

The Four Ps- Worship them:

The 'Four Ps' or the 'marketing mix' is a cliché with every marketer. Formulated by Jerome McCarthy, the 'Four Ps' refers to the four factors that a marketer has to consider before launching a product or offering a service. The marketing mix comprises of Product, Price, Promotion and Placement. In McCarthy's assessment, first and foremost comes the Product-its production and management; second, the process of fixing an affordable price; third, the promotion of the product which includes advertising, branding etc and finally fourth, the placement or distribution of the product, its retailing and the process by which it reaches the customer. All these four elements have to be decided and well planned before pitching into any product launch.

Segmentation- Categorize your audience:

In traditional marketing, the market is segmented into many subsets or segments depending on geographic, demographic, psycho graphic and behavioral variables. Each segment is homogenous and responds in a particular way to a particular marketing strategy. Small segments are considered as 'niche' markets or 'specialty' markets. A product is aimed at a particular segment and is launched only after thorough market research and consumer research on the segment. This assures the marketer that he is not bungee jumping but walking safely and securely on a well-laid road. Hence a product that is not needed by that particular segment is not produced. This deep analysis of the target segment is called 'depth segmentation'. While the study of the target customer's behavioral traits, nature, lifestyle etc is called 'Buyer's Profile'. With all these the marketer draws a marketing plan, which is fully geared to reach the target consumer.

Other aspects:

Traditional marketing, unlike New Marketing, is Company-focused and product-based. It intends only to increase the visibility of the Company and its brand. The message conveyed to the customer is Company-controlled and motivated unlike in new marketing, which is Consumer-focused and attuned to consumer's interests. The Company becomes the active participant while the consumer fades into the inactive and passive zone. A marketer, adopting the traditional method, will use his product's USP (Unique Selling Proposition) to market it. USP is that unique feature which is exclusive to a particular product from a particular brand. With less number of competitors, USP-marketing is a very novel method. But in today's world every other brand has all the features offered by its competitor. Hence the glamour of USP-marketing is fading away.

Advertising and Promotion:

Marketing plans and strategies finally end in advertising. For it is advertising which exposes the product to the world and places it in a platform for the target customer to view. It gives the product visibility and helps boosts its sales. Advertising, in general, can be classified into two trends: Above-the-line (ATL) and Below-the-line (BTL). ATL covers all the advertising done through media. BTL stands for all the promotions- public relations, sponsorships, merchandising etc. In traditional marketing mostly ATL is practiced. The following media are the ATL modes of advertising:

Print Medium: Newspapers, Magazines, Yellow Pages, Posters and Billboards.

TV & Radio: All kinds of TV and Radio spots

Other Communications: All kinds of mailers and leaflets

Traditional Marketing - Is it valid today?

When the world shifts gears and operates in a faster pace, it is advisable for us also to follow its lead and take up the trend. Traditional Marketing, say many market analysts, fails to work in today's world. The brand recall is very minimal as the customer is exposed to a variety of brands. Moreover, as every other brand is as good as its competitor, there is no particular reason for the consumer to opt for a particular brand. That's why today's marketer aims at 360-degree marketing - an all round marketing strategy covering all the available modes and aimed at constant brand recall. This is where online marketing offer a lot of hope for the marketer as the web reaches out to the prospective buyer in a fastest pace possible. With all these around, the question of whether traditional marketing is valid today rises.

Maybe one can nullify this question by a few well-grounded answers: Traditional Marketing is adjudged as the best method according to a national survey conducted in 2005 in the U.S. jointly by Harris Interactive and Public Relations Society of America. As per the survey, most of the general public, Fortune 1000 businessmen and Congressional Staffers voted the traditional method of marketing as the best method. Though the year 2005 belongs to a dead past now, the statement by the reputed marketer Mr. Wilson will put an end to doubting queries: " Traditional Marketing helps because people still view them".

Overview of Traditional Marketing

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Bachelor Degree - Marketing

A bachelor degree in marketing is probably one of the oddest degrees you're going to earn. Marketing is one of those things that takes quite a few skills and yet doesn't really fall into any one category. You really have to be able to do quite a few things very well. That's why the curriculum for a marketing degree is quite diverse.

In order to get your bachelor degree in marketing you have to take your main marketing courses, which in most colleges are simply called marketing 1 through marketing 4. Each course usually takes two semesters. The marketing courses themselves usually teach the principals of advertising. They'll walk you through developing a product and then developing an advertising campaign for that product. This usually comes in year four, where you will also have to do a major research paper on an established company and how they market their products. The analysis gets pretty in depth.

Marketing

But there is more to a bachelor degree in marketing than just taking marketing courses. As I said, many skills are needed to be a good marketer. You also need to be in possession of some pretty good writing skills. So a bachelor degree in marketing will usually require you to take quite a few English related courses including creative writing. This is absolutely critical if you're going to be a good marketer.

Bachelor Degree - Marketing

Marketing also requires that a person have a pretty good business background as marketing is a good part of business. So, a bachelor degree in marketing will usually also require you to take several basic courses in business such as economics and finance. You might even take some business management courses.

As most students take 32 courses in the course of their four years in college, the above alone only takes up a small fraction of the curriculum. You have to figure four marketing 8 marketing courses, 4 business courses and 4 English courses. This still leaves the average marketing major with 16 courses left to take in his four-year program. How does he fill these in?

Well, as with most bachelor programs, there are a number of "elective" courses that you can take. In the case of getting your bachelor degree in marketing, you'd probably want to take a course or two in psychology. Why? It's probably a good idea to get a basic understanding of how people behave if you're going to try to come up with a marketing plan or advertising campaign that is going to appeal to most people.

It may not be a bad idea also to take some courses in basic math. Why? Well, you're going to have to figure out advertising budgets and may need to be able to do some simple percentages. If you've forgotten this stuff from high school, you may want at least to take a refresher course. A marketer who can't add is not a good thing to be.

After you finally do get your bachelor degree in marketing, there are a world of opportunities open to the creative mind. Get ready for a very exciting life.

Bachelor Degree - Marketing

Michael Russell

Your Independent Bachelor Degree guide.

Marketing - The Four C's

When structuring a strategic marketing plan those in the marketing industry has been using the four P's model since 1960. Recently it's be revised to add three more P's making it a seven P's model. Many companies in the marketing industry felt that the premise behind the model had never been truly challenged. Until now! With the expansion of the internet many of the older marketing industry models have been challenged. Some marketing companies feel it is up to us within the marketing industry to validate which of these models will be best in our marketing environment. Which ones will stand the test of time?

Due to this forward thinking, the four C model was introduced. Most felt that the other models where missing an important component and that was the consumer. How can you develop a plan to market to a particular audience and then forget to include that audience in your plan? That's like selling bananas to a banana farmer. They have all they need, and don't need to buy yours. The four C's model is a consumer based. Consumers are their main point of consideration. The model replaces the P's with C's. The four C's are:

Marketing

* Consumer - placing the consumer first shifts the focus from the product to the consumer. Where satisfying the consumer has become the main focus.
* Cost - this replaces pricing to reflect the true price. The real price that is set by the market. Not the price determined by the company.
* Convenience - with the rise internet and hybrid purchasing models, a consumer no longer has to only visit a brick and mortar location to purchase their goods. Therefore, convenience becomes the distribution channel.
* Communication - takes the promotion level and expands it to reach. Expands its reach to represent a broader focus than simply promotions on a whole. It reaches out to the mass media, by including viral advertising.

Marketing - The Four C's

The four C's model takes into consideration that what the consumer wants should be sold instead of what can be manufactured. The consumer shouldn't have to buy a product just because it's all the store has. Due to the internet consumers now have choices. If you can't find what you're looking for at the store you can find the item online. Some marketing companies use the marketing mix component as viewed from the consumer view point and the marketing materials created from the consumer's considerations for making purchases. The model reflects a customer oriented marketing philosophy.

Marketing - The Four C's

I have a great interest in marketing strategies and marketing companies like Enfatico that go the distance to do something different to survive in an ever increasingly competitive world. If you want to learn more about my marketing opinions, please read other articles from me.

Definition - Marketing

Everyone's idea of marketing is different. Each textbook defines it differently, and each professional will include different aspects of marketing. Marketing is a lot of things.

Merriam-Webster defines marketing as:

Marketing

1 a: the act or process of selling or purchasing in a market b: the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service

Definition - Marketing

2: an aggregate of functions involved in moving goods from producer to consumer.
This definition couldn't be any more general, but that in itself is the point: marketing is anything used to promote, sell, or distribute a product or service. Marketing can be passing out flyers to promote. Marketing can be the way you complete a sell. Marketing can also be who will sell your products. Marketing must be an integrated process that combines a wide variety of activities to promote, sell and distribute your products or services.

Marketing starts with determining a want or need. You must identify a reason for your product or service in order to have something to sell. Once you determine the want or need, you must create or establish the product or service that will satisfy that need or desire. Although this sounds like the beginnings of a business plan, it is also the basis for your entire marketing plan.

There are many steps to marketing once you have established a product or service that satisfies and want or need. You must make decisions about your marketing mix (product, price, place (distribution), and promotion), and you must incorporate your marketing collateral with every step. You also must combine your sales strategies with your marketing strategies to design a successful business model.

Marketing is a lot of things, but ultimately, it is any technique or process of promoting, selling, and distributing your products or services.

Definition - Marketing

Nate Stockard offers free consulting at Stockard & Associates, Inc, a marketing and design firm in Houston, TX specializing in small business solutions.

His 13 years of marketing experience is also put on display at The Market Seedling, an informative source of information, articles, tips, and advice for small business owners and marketers.

Marketing - Target Marketing or Mass Marketing?

Mass marketing versus target marketing, which one will you use? I suggest integrating both. Target marketing simply explained is marketing to an audience more likely to be receptive to your marketing messages. Understanding and evaluating a key market for your goods or services and successfully launching an advertising campaign requires acquiring data through various sources and segmenting these sources into refined data that can then become your target market.

Many starting businesses focus on mass advertising strategies hoping to catch as many customers as possible but working in this fashion can put a strain on your budget and ultimately waste money that could have better well spent on increasing customer satisfaction or expanding your business. There is nothing wrong with mass advertising, what is wrong is advertising to the masses without understanding the mass you are advertising to. I don't care if it is a branding campaign, there must be some focus and discipline, even in a large branding campaign.

Marketing

Creating an ideal market for you to advertise to will require the understanding of some key elements in marketing. One of the most important elements is demography. Demographic data is very important in finding particular information within a geographic region such as gender, age, income, religion, race, etc. Through the harvesting of this data you can better understand what types of marketing message will work or not in reference to what you are selling.

Marketing - Target Marketing or Mass Marketing?

Consumer's might perceive certain advertisements differently and some advertisements may even insult them. Certain audiences can be turned off by a particular message, make sure that you don't offend who you might want as a customer in the future.

If you were to be advertising in BZ City through a mass advertisement you would use demographic information to see how your product might reflect on the majority of the people living there first and what type of advertising messages will be better received. How much of the particular market might actually find value in your goods or services can be determined almost entirely through demographic research.

1.) What you want to do first is research the regional demographic data for your campaign.

2.) Segment the largest percentages into the top two of each demographic trait.

3.) From there start thinking on how your product can benefit each group positively and what their perceptions might be of your goods or services.

4.) Now start to brainstorm what types of advertising and what messages would appeal most to the seniority of these groups.

NOTE: This may require psycho graphic data to be appended to the demographic data for better evaluation of behavior.

5.) Study case studies for marketing for your demographic market to get an idea of what you may be up against.

6.) Now cram all that data together and see how you can create a compelling and inspirational advertisement for your product to all the top two demographic groups in one message. Is it possible? Let the idea stew for a while, you might be surprised.

HINT: This same demographic information can now help you figure out what medias and what media niches will work for your campaign. Ingenuity and creativity will always be fundamental, just make sure it is backed with some hard fact data. Good luck.

© TopSavings.Net

Marketing - Target Marketing or Mass Marketing?

Looking for mass national advertising for branding? Looking for local or national targeted advertising solutions? Visit TopSavings.Net today or follow the links to learn more. Call 7am - 5pm PST (831) 454-8034

The Home Improvement Marketing Plan

Marketing in this industry means finding ways to get people to respond, creating opportunities to make presentations and ultimately to sell a fair percentage of the respondents. A large successful home improvement company is usually a "lead factory".

Leads, from advertising and those self-developed through canvassing or referrals are the lifeblood of a business. The successful home improvement retailer uses a variety of methods to consistently keep the lead pipeline full. The plan to do so is frequently regulated by the territory, economy, average contract size, the weather and even the news of the day. The marketing plan includes a budget. How much will be spent and where. It also includes projections to ensure sufficient leads to provide prospects for the salespeople. A key is the number of leads which are necessary to produce net good business. In a plan where the salesman sells a minimum of 2 contracts per week averaging 3 presentations to 1 sale and where there is a 30% of fall off from leads issued to actual presentations, the plan calls for 9 to 10 leads per salesperson per week. Since an issued lead many cost from 0 to 0, remaining within budget may require salespeople to self generate a percentage of their own leads.

Marketing

How do you know the plan is working? Each week measure the number of leads which have been generated, those which are confirmed, presented to and sold, less those which cancel or are credit rejected. When some aspect of the plan is not working, adjust rapidly - eliminate low producing methods, reduce regularity, intensify methods to produce less costly leads (canvass, referral plan). Unsold leads or those not receiving presentations, have to be rehashed. Experimentation with new methods of lead getting requires concentration and control.

The Home Improvement Marketing Plan

Ultimately, the measure of a successful marketing plan is the amount of net business (ready for installation) you have sold, measured against the cost of procuring the leads to sell that volume of business. If the cost of your marketing program when measured against this net business exceeds your budget - then the plan needs modification.

The Home Improvement Marketing Plan

Dave Yoho (http://www.DaveYoho.com) is president of one of the oldest, largest and most successful consulting groups in the United States as well as being a dynamic motivational speaker. He has produced numerous recorded series that will help you improve your business. Check out his website (http://www.DaveYoho.com) for more information on how his team can help your company meet or exceed its goals - - or call - - (703) 591-2490.

e-Marketing Strategy: 7 Dimensions to Consider (the e-Marketing Mix)

What is e-Marketing?

e-Marketing is still quite a controversial subject to talk about, since no one succeeded to unify the various theories around it; however there is one thing upon which there is no doubt - that e-Marketing first appeared under the form of various techniques deployed by pioneer companies selling their products via the internet in the early 90's.

Marketing

The frenzy around these new marketing techniques created by e-tailers and supported by the internet rapidly gave birth to a new dimension of what we knew as Marketing: the e-Marketing (electronic Marketing).

e-Marketing Strategy: 7 Dimensions to Consider (the e-Marketing Mix)

There are many definitions to what e-Marketing is, the simplest and shortest one being formulated by Mark Sceats: e-Marketing is Marketing that uses the internet as manifestation media. A working definition is that coming from a group of CISCO specialists: e-Marketing is the sum of all activities a business conducts through the internet with the purpose of finding, attracting, winning and retaining customers.

e-Marketing Strategy

The e-Marketing Strategy is normally based and built upon the principles that govern the traditional, offline Marketing - the well-known 4 P's (Product - Price - Promotion - Positioning) that form the classic Marketing mix. Add the extra 3 P's (People - Processes - Proof) and you got the whole extended Marketing mix.

Until here, there are no much aspects to differentiate e-Marketing from the traditional Marketing performed offline: the extended Marketing mix (4 + 3 P's) is built around the concept of "transactional" and its elements perform transactional functions defined by the exchange paradigm. What gives e-Marketing its uniqueness is a series of specific functions, relational functions, that can be synthesized in the 2P + 2C+ 3S formula: Personalization, Privacy, Customer Service, Community, Site, Security, Sales Promotion.

These 7 functions of the e-Marketing stay at the base of any e-Marketing strategy and they have a moderating character, unlike the classic Marketing mix that comprises situational functions only. Moderating functions of e-Marketing have the quality of moderate, operate upon all situational functions of the mix (the classic 4 P's) and upon each other.

1. Personalization

The fundamental concept of personalization as a part of the e-Marketing mix lies in the need of recognizing, identifying a certain customer in order to establish relations (establishing relations is a fundamental objective of Marketing). It is crucial to be able to identify our customers on individual level and gather all possible information about them, with the purpose of knowing our market and be able to develop customized, personalized products and services.

For example, a cookie strategically placed on the website visitor's computer can let us know vital information concerning the access speed available: in consequence, if we know the visitor is using a slow connection (eg. dial-up) we will offer a low-volume variation of our website, with reduced graphic content and no multimedia or flash applications. This will ease our customer's experience on our website and he will be prevented from leaving the website on the reason that it takes too long to load its pages.

Personalization can be applied to any component of the Marketing mix; therefore, it is a moderating function.

2. Privacy

Privacy is an element of the mix very much connected to the previous one - personalization. When we gather and store information about our customers and potential customers (therefore, when we perform the personalization part of the e-Marketing mix) a crucial issue arises: that of the way this information will be used, and by whom. A major task to do when implementing an e-Marketing strategy is that of creating and developing a policy upon access procedures to the collected information.

This is a duty and a must for any conscious marketer to consider all aspects of privacy, as long as data are collected and stored, data about individual persons.

Privacy is even more important when establishing the e-Marketing mix since there are many regulations and legal aspects to be considered regarding collection and usage of such information.

3. Customer Service

Customer service is one of the necessary and required activities among the support functions needed in transactional situations.

We will connect the apparition of the customer service processes to the inclusion of the "time" parameter in transactions. When switching from a situational perspective to a relational one, and e-Marketing is mostly based on a relational perspective, the marketer saw himself somehow forced into considering support and assistance on a non-temporal level, permanently, over time.

For these reasons, we should consider the Customer Service function (in its fullest and largest definition) as an essential one within the e-Marketing mix.

As we can easily figure out, the service (or assistance if you wish) can be performed upon any element from the classic 4 P's, hence its moderating character.

4. Community

We can all agree that e-Marketing is conditioned by the existence of this impressive network that the internet is. The merely existence of such a network implies that individuals as well as groups will eventually interact. A group of entities that interact for a common purpose is what we call a "community" and we will soon see why it is of absolute importance to participate, to be part of a community.

The Metcalf law (named after Robert Metcalf) states that the value of a network is given by the number of its components, more exactly the value of a network equals the square of the number of components. We can apply this simple law to communities, since they are a network: we will then conclude that the value of a community rises with the number of its members. This is the power of communities; this is why we have to be a part of it.

The customers / clients of a business can be seen as part of a community where they interact (either independent or influenced by the marketer) - therefore developing a community is a task to be performed by any business, even though it is not always seen as essential.

Interactions among members of such a community can address any of the other functions of e-Marketing, so it can be placed next to other moderating functions.

5. Site

We have seen and agreed that e-Marketing interactions take place on a digital media - the internet. But such interactions and relations also need a proper location, to be available at any moment and from any place - a digital location for digital interactions.

Such a location is what we call a "site", which is the most widespread name for it. It is now the time to mention that the "website" is merely a form of a "site" and should not be mistaken or seen as synonyms. The "site" can take other forms too, such as a Palm Pilot or any other handheld device, for example.

This special location, accessible through all sort of digital technologies is moderating all other functions of the e-Marketing - it is then a moderating function.

6. Security

The "security" function emerged as an essential function of e-Marketing once transactions began to be performed through internet channels.

What we need to keep in mind as marketers are the following two issues on security:

- security during transactions performed on our website, where we have to take all possible precautions that third parties will not be able to access any part of a developing transaction;

- security of data collected and stored, about our customers and visitors.

A honest marketer will have to consider these possible causes of further trouble and has to co-operate with the company's IT department in order to be able to formulate convincing (and true, honest!) messages towards the customers that their personal details are protected from unauthorized eyes.

7. Sales Promotion

At least but not last, we have to consider sales promotions when we build an e-Marketing strategy. Sales promotions are widely used in traditional Marketing as well, we all know this, and it is an excellent efficient strategy to achieve immediate sales goals in terms of volume.

This function counts on the marketer's ability to think creatively: a lot of work and inspiration is required in order to find new possibilities and new approaches for developing an efficient promotion plan.

On the other hand, the marketer needs to continuously keep up with the latest internet technologies and applications so that he can fully exploit them.

To conclude, we have seen that e-Marketing implies new dimensions to be considered aside of those inherited from the traditional Marketing. These dimensions revolve around the concept of relational functions and they are a must to be included in any e-Marketing strategy in order for it to be efficient and deliver results.

e-Marketing Strategy: 7 Dimensions to Consider (the e-Marketing Mix)

Otilia Otlacan is a young certified professional with expertise in e-Marketing and e-Business, currently working as independent consultant and e-publisher. She developed and teach her own online course in "Principles of e-Marketing" and is also a volunteer Economics teacher.

You can contact her via her personal website at BRAINmarketing.net [http://www.brainmarketing.net] or check out her latest developing Marketing resources project at TeaWithEdge.com

Employee Newsletter Ideas - 7 Creative Ideas for Your Employee Newsletter

Employee newsletters are an effective tool to communicate with your employees. Here are 7 employee newsletter ideas...

#1. Provide Information about Your Customers

\"ideas For Business\"

The more familiar your employees are with your customers, the more successful your company will be. So it's very important that you provide them with enough information about your prospects.

#2. Explain How to Sell Your Products

Share effective tips and techniques to sell your products and services. The more your employees know about selling techniques, the more sales you will make.

#3. Explain Your Company Goals

Every company has some important goals. You can explain your goals, why they are so important, and how your employees can help the company achieve them.

#4. Welcome New Employees

You might have new employees joining your company. Extending a warm welcome message to them makes them work more passionately and with more energy.

#5. Answer Frequently Asked Questions

Your employees might ask you some certain questions frequently. You can save a lot of time by answering them in your employee newsletter.

#6. Deal with Common Complaints

#7. Capture Employee Ideas

You can use surveys in your employee newsletter to capture their ideas. Your employees may have creative ideas that will help you increase your profits (e.g. how to improve your products or customer service).

Wish you much success,

Ladan Lashkari

Employee Newsletter Ideas - 7 Creative Ideas for Your Employee Newsletter

Ladan Lashkari is a respected Internet marketing expert, and the owner of http://www.FreeNewsletterIdeas.com/ where you'll find free newsletter templates, creative newsletter ideas, honest reviews, and helpful resources to start your own highly profitable email marketing campaign.

Friends Link : Management Concept Style

Free Apple iPad Testers Wanted - Become A Product Tester and Get Your Free Apple iPad Today

Nowadays, promotional offers like free Apple iPad can be seen almost everywhere in the internet. Offers such as these seem too good to be true that a lot of people will feel skeptical the moment they come across with such offers.

Considering the status of our economy, people welcome free offers without much hesitation. Freebies are at all times tempting. But the big question is, are these free iPad offers genuine? If they are, why would companies give pricey products free of charge? Let's face it, the price tag of a brand new iPad is more or less 0 and it's really hard to think that a company such as Apple would simply give it to a large number of consumers for free. So what is actually the reason behind these free iPad giveaways? And how can you avail of this offer?

\"market Research\"

Why companies give out freebies?

The main reason is probably the want of companies to make more money from their products. Nowadays, never expect anything to be ultimately free. A good example of this is the free iPad offer. Companies offering free iPad would solicit your feedback regarding their products as a non-monetary payment. Free Apple iPad testers wanted by market research companies should perform a marketing strategy known as "product testing". These companies are in charge of distributing the free iPad giveaways to the testers and collecting feedback from them.

Feedback provided by-product testers aid the company, such as Apple, in upgrading their current products to create enhanced versions. This method is a wise way of ensuring quality products that will surely be patronized by consumers. The main purpose of manufacturing a product is to sell it to consumers, and letting the consumers decide what features to improve or to include makes a product more sellable. Product testing makes it easier for manufacturing companies to make products according to consumer's choices since all they have to do is to apply the features that consumers have asked for.

When to expect product giveaways?

Free Apple iPad testers wanted for product testing aren't an endless offer. Generally, these offers exist only for a brief period of time. This is normally present around the launching date of the product. Don't waste the moment waiting for the right time to be an iPad tester, act now so you can own the unit without having to pay a huge amount.

How can a free Apple iPad be obtained?

Always bear in mind that just like other online promotional offers, scams are involved. Scammers are like predators that are all the time watchful for preys. Usually, they target gullible consumers who aren't prudent enough to safeguard their financial accounts. They do anything just to take money from their victims. Considering this, you have to know the difference between a legitimate offer and a scam. In a legitimate offer, free Apple iPad testers wanted by market research companies are not asked with any payment or required to purchase other products. You should obtain the iPad free of any monetary charges. So, avoid those suspicious site that request for money.

Free Apple iPad Testers Wanted - Become A Product Tester and Get Your Free Apple iPad Today

CLICK HERE To Grab Your FREE Apple iPAD Now!

Test A Brand New iPad & Keep It 100% Free By Going To: http://www.mycoolgadgetsforfree.info

Don't Miss Out!

Friends Link : The Global Marketing

What To Do If You Have An Invention Idea

A lot of people have ideas that they think would make great inventions. Most people don't do anything with the invention idea that they have. Other people struggle with it to a certain extent but never see anything come to fruition. Here are some basic steps that you can take in order to get your invention idea into the marketplace and then into the hands of the end user.

The first thing that you're going to need to do is to make sure that your idea was not already patented by somebody else. The entire patent database is now online and searchable by keyword for anybody with an Internet connection. You should familiarize yourself with the system and then do an intensive search to see if your idea has already been claimed by somebody else. Once you have established that you own the idea, free and clear, hire a patent attorney to do a more in-depth research and then to file a patent for you.

\"market Research\"

Once you own the patent on your invention idea, you're going to have to make a prototype and do a little bit of market research. In order to get your invention into the hands of the companies that can effectively market it, you're going to have to provide them with some numbers that demonstrate how well your invention will do in the marketplace. Although you certainly can do this step yourself, many people hire an invention company in order to take care of it for them.

If you decide to hire an invention company, make sure that they are legitimate. Many people have lost a lot of money by hiring an invention company that was simply a fly-by-night operation. Some simple research at the Better Business Bureau and FTC website, along with looking for end-user feedback will establish the reputation of the company for you. Taking your invention idea from the beginning to the marketplace can be a long, drawn out task. Make sure that you do some of the initial work yourself and hire people when necessary to make sure that your invention is a hit in the marketplace.

What To Do If You Have An Invention Idea

For free reports and research on the invention process and how to turn your idea into cash visit http://www.invent-usa.com Invention Submission by Dean Novosat.

Tags : Management Concept Style Motivational Techniques Advertising Techniques

Change Your Voice Digitally

Most of us may have the idea of disguising our voice once in a while for some purpose, especially small kids. Today, a wide range of voice changing tools are developed, both for kids and business purposes. Simple ones are masks for kids that can change voice to some other voices, and a small box used for mobile phones which can switch among 4-6 voices or so.

Digital voice changers make a great step further. Any voice or sound that goes through a computer can be changed dramatically thanks to the voice changing software, i.e. voice chat, IP phoning, computer recording, music playing, internet streaming,... There are more great possibilities you might want to discover:

\"market Research\"

Change voice freely by adjusting voice values. Some voice changing software can change voice by adjusting voice pitch rather than choosing among a limited number of voices. Voice Changer Software (www.audio4fun.com) provides more adjusting possibilities: voice pitch, voice timbre, and voice frequency.

Change voice in real time. Perhaps the coolest function of voice changer software is that it can change voice right a way. Speak to the microphone and you may laugh the first time hearing your strange voice. Chat addicts now can have tons of fun: they can disguise themselves in voice chat.

Change any audio that goes through the computer. If you want to change voice or audio that is played or recorded from an audio device, say, a CD/DVD/karaoke machine, then all you need to do is to get it lined in to your computer and voice changer software will do its part.

Fake identity? So far Avnex, the author company of Voice Changer Software, claims this possibility as an advanced achievement in voice manipulation, although there are still many different opinions on the morality of its applications. So if you can fake someone's voice, what do you think you would do with it?

Change Your Voice Digitally

Louise Anderson is the Marketing Associate of http://www.Audio4fun.com She works on customer-based market research, product development, and relationship management. Contact her at media@audio4fun.com

See Also : How to time management

Market Sectors - Organizing The Stock Market

Market Sectors - Organizing The Stock Market
Are you a clean freak? Does it drive you crazy when things are out of place or when a picture isn't quite level? If you are at your friend's house, do you wipe dust from a shelf or line up the towels when no one is looking? If so, you will like today's topic; but don't worry, we won't lecture you on your obsessive compulsive side! The topic is market sectors and understanding and using them will not only tidy up your stock portfolio but will also help you to strengthen your trading plan as well.
A Definition of Market Sectors
They say a problem will defined is nearly solved; this can be applied to stocks as well. An investor needs a way to sort stocks; the basis of stock technical analysis relies on this comparison. If you can find common ground between two stocks, you can find a measurement of comparison. The best form of association is market sectors. "Market sectors" is a qualification method which looks at the type of business and groups them based on generally accepted names One of the most common classifications breaks the market down into 11 different market sectors. Two are generally regarded as "defensive" and the other nine are referred to as "cyclical". These market sectors are:

Cyclical Stocks

Market

Transportation

Technology

Health Care

Financial

Energy

Consumer Cyclical

Communication

Capital Goods

Basic Materials

Defensive Stocks

Utilities

Consumer Staples

Defensive Stocks

Defensive investing with defensive stocks are beneficial to a portfolio because companies in these market sectors typically don't experience as much stock volatility when the market has problems because people still use energy and eat. These are good stabilizers to use for portfolio diversification and offer protection in a falling market.
The downside of defensive stocks is that they don't climb with a rising market. Although the market is doing well people necessarily use more energy or eat more food. Defensive market sectors follow the image that their name implies; they can be used quite well as hedge funds, stable stocks that prevent too much volatility in a portfolio.

Cyclical Stocks

Cyclical stocks cover the remaining market sectors and they typically react to a variety of market conditions. They do move independently, however, as one may be going up while another is going down. Because of this, purchasing from the cyclical market sectors requires good stock market strategies.

Why do we care about market sectors?

There are two important concepts with market sectors. First, by understanding the different market sectors, it is possible to find relationships between different companies. If you don't know that one company is in the health care sector and another is in the energy sector, you might compare their earnings per share and draw conclusions that don't apply. Second, understanding market sectors allows you to add valuable protection to your stock portfolio. By investing in a number of different stock sectors, you can build a higher level of security for your investment. For example, if you invested ,000 only in the communications sector and it dropped by 50% you will have lost ,500 or 50% of your investment. If you invested equally in all eleven market sectors and the communications sector dropped by 50%, you will have only lost 0 or 4.5% of your investment. While the example is simplistic, the meaning is very clear; by spreading your investments over a number of market sectors you minimize your risks from a tumble by an entire sector.

Conclusion

Feel like doing a little "spring cleaning" on your portfolio now? By putting the stock market in the right baskets, you can know how to both evaluate a stock and insulate your portfolio from extreme risk. Most analysis matrixes start by comparing businesses from the same sector; as you use your trading plan to evaluate companies in similar market sectors, you will improve your decision making process. Then you can start trying to understand other important things like why those uneven towels bother you so much!

Market Sectors - Organizing The Stock Market

http://www.candlestickforum.com/PPF/Parameters/1_21_/candlestick.asp A site dedicated to stock market investing using Japanese Candlesticks

My Links : The Global Marketing Management Concept Style

Sales KPI Template: Measuring Sales Performance

We humans are lazy creatures. We tend to try and do things with the least effort possible and expect to gain the maximum from these efforts. Once we get ourselves organised into groups or organisations with a common purpose, then the expectation on our motivation tends to take on a different shape. This new expectation is that the more motivated we are to achieve the "mission" collectively, then through peer pressure and not wanting to let the side down, we perform at a higher level. Obviously, there will be those who don't quite see it like that and they need more managing, but by and large, organisations operate on that basis. So, once we have everyone more or less motivated to contribute, we then need to somehow identify within each part of the business and in each role, a system of measuring how well we are doing against each other. One very common system operated by both large and medium sized businesses relies on the development of key performance indicators (KPI's) using a KPI Template.

Key - fundamental to the success

Sales

Performance - the level at which success is measured

Indicator - the skill or competence which is being measured

Within the sales environment, there are a number of key competencies that can be used to measure sales performance. These are generally prioritised by the Business or Sales Manager depending on whether the role is external or internal sales. The quantifying of performance is then required so that individual sales people can understand what the target performance is within each competence e.g Closing the sale - percentage sales negotiations resulting in a sale.

The KPI's are then listed out in priority with the definition of successful performance against them. This is a KPI Template in its simplest format. There are several different applications for its use:

Sales Performance Measurement
Recruit Sales People
Business Planning
Individual Performance Appraisal
Sales Bonus Management

Sales performance can be measured on an ongoing basis, thereby allowing the manager to monitor actual against target performance in each competence within the sales function. This can assist in identifying areas for training and development.

The interviewing process to recruit sales people can use the KPI Template as a basis for competency based interview questions. This concentrates the discussion on only the key skills and knowledge to do the job.

KPI's are very useful in the business planning process as they identify where the key strengths need to be to operate a successful business. This in turn highlights where key resources need to be allocated.

At the sales person level, the application of KPI's allows a means for self monitoring of individual performance. The team all know what they are being measured against and therefore feedback doesn't produce any surprises.

The allocation of sales bonus can be delivered not only on the basis of achieving quota, but also on measured behavioral competencies.

Sales KPI Template: Measuring Sales Performance

Alan Watson is an experienced Headhunter who works in Aberdeen, Scotland. He offers a unique online sales assessment developed by SHL, the world's largest provider of validated psychometric tools. This combined with an information packed blog on how to improve your sales using simple methods, provides a valuable resource to those wanting to increase sales. Click here to read more [http://www.simplesalesimprovement.com]

Related : How to time management Management Concept Style

What's The Role Of The Sales Manager?

There are four major issues that impact sales performance. They are:

1. The type, frequency and content of sales training.

Sales

2. The coaching and training ability of the sales manager.

3. The management style, attitudes and competence of the sales manager.

4. Communication style of the sales manager.

All of these are necessary for effective sales staff performance. The competence, attitudes and the management style of the sales manager, however, is the critical issue in this formula, because the sales manager can either sabotage or contribute to the other three. There are a number of concepts that must be included in this topic area regarding the sales management function. They are the sales manager's:

1. Self-image

2. Sales experience

3. Relationship to senior management

4. Contribution to the overall sales - as well as - corporate culture

5. Willingness to support and go to bat for his or her salespeople

6. Ability to create an atmosphere of trust and respect

7. Ability to treat each salesperson as an individual and not 'lump' him into a group of sales performers

The key principle a sales manager must never forget is - you get the behavior you reward. If you want better margins; reward activity and success in that area. If you want new accounts, then the same rules apply. If you want more sales (numbers), again the same rules impact behavior.

One of the biggest mistakes poor sales managers make is that they fail to understand and integrate this simple, yet profound, concept into their management style and behavior.

Remember the role of sales manager is to manage...not do it, unless, of course, you are a personal producing manager.

What's The Role Of The Sales Manager?

Tim Connor, CSP is an internationally renowned sales, management and leadership speaker, trainer and best selling author. Since 1981 he has given over 3500 presentations in 21 countries on a variety of sales, management, leadership and relationship topics. He is the best selling author of over 60 books including; Soft Sell, That’s Life, Peace Of Mind, 81 Challenges Managers Face and Your First Year In Sales. He is also the CEO of Sales Clubs Of America. He can be reached at tim@timconnor.com, 704-895-1230 or visit his websites at http://www.timconnor.com or [http://www.SalesClubsOfAmerica.com]

See Also : The Global Marketing Motivational Techniques

Ideas for Business Events

If you know that you want to hold a business event but just aren't sure where to start on the whole thing, here are some event ideas that might lead you in the right direction.

Event ideas can be as diverse as the companies and businesses that hold the events themselves. The first thing to think about when choosing what sort of company event to hold is what your reason for having the event is. Depending on the type of information you want to get out - a new business venture, a new product, a promotion - you can decide what sort of event will get your information out in the best way possible.

\"ideas For Business\"

One of the best company event ideas out there is to hire a company event planner. While planning an event yourself might seem easy at first, the logistics of making sure everything will go off without a hitch can often be more than just one person can handle. A company event planner can make sure that you get the right location, food, entertainment and more for your event without having to go and shop around for all of these things by yourself. They can often give you great ideas of what will work for your event and what will not, and whether or not an idea that you have is feasible.

Other ideas can come from looking at previous company events. Take a look at the other events held by competing companies or businesses, and see how well they worked. Take the good ideas from these events, and avoid anything that seemed to be too complicated or unfriendly for the audience. Remember that you don't want to exactly copy any other company's event, but you can definitely take ideas from events that are already passed. Also look back at your company and their own events, and make sure you don't repeat what has already been done.

Finally, company event ideas can be had in many places that are great resources for all event planners - such as books, magazines and the Internet. Look around, there are ideas everywhere. Themes can evolve around the core message of your event, or they can be totally separate and wacky. You can choose to stick to ideas that are tried and true, such as sit down dinners and classic parties, or you can start your own event traditions with picnics and concerts. Many planners get their inspiration from tons of different sources.

Business event ideas are all around - and there are many good themes and ideas to choose from. Picking one for your next event should be a piece of cake, if you take the time to carefully think about the event.

Ideas for Business Events

Aazdak Alisimio writes corporate event planning articles for CorporateEventPlannerforYou.com

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Legit No Fee Work at Home Survey Taking Jobs - Paid Surveys With No Registration Or Membership Fees

Are you looking for an opportunity to earn income from home without having to pay any fees? No membership or registration costs? If you are, then there are some reputable companies that are interested in working with you. No fee, free paid surveys and survey taking jobs are available for teenagers, adults and people practically of all walks of life. It's a good opportunity to make money without having to spend any money.

So what's the catch?

\"market Research\"

The catch is that money is not free and that it will cost you your time. You will have to fill out surveys. Market research companies that gather information for major corporations to be used in the design of products and marketing campaigns, pay you for your opinion. You will be giving your opinion about products and product ideas. The forms are normally short, so you can start making money right away. Companies that pay through PayPal allow you to make money daily, so you don't have to wait for a check to come in the mail.

While I will not propose that this is a career opportunity, it is something that you can do to bring extra money into your home to help with groceries, bills or whatever. If you would just like some extra money to spend on the weekends, then free paid surveys that are legitimate, can be a great way to add a little jingle to your pocket.

Beware of any paid survey companies that charge money or registration fees.

Legit No Fee Work at Home Survey Taking Jobs - Paid Surveys With No Registration Or Membership Fees

*100% FREE Paid Survey Site: FREE PAID SURVEYS ONLINE [http://honestonlinemarketing.com/].

*That link is updated continually with the best current offers from legitimate market research companies [http://www.honestonlinemarketing.com/].

Charlene Calhoun, Platinum Expert Author at EzineArticles.com.

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