How complete is your LinkedIn profile?

The social networking site for business has to be LinkedIn. Anyone in business should have a profile that is properly completed and updated. Failure to do so is like submitting your CV with gaps and omissions, which would certainly not impress a prospective client or employer – since it is both these targets you should…

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Marketing planning process

Strategy – where we want to be; concern overall direction; difficult to reverse; rejection of other strategic options; strong personal commitment Tactics – how we’re going to get there; concern methods of achievement; relatively easy to change; less commitment; run alongside other options Strategy must be totally marketing integrated, require good analysis of the environment,…

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Understanding distribution channels

This is the ‘place’ element of the 7Ps marketing mix. It is about getting the product into the right place, at the right time and in the right conditions for customers to buy them. Physical distribution – this is how to direct the flow of physical products from manufacturers to the point where it is…

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The different kinds of pricing setting policies

Absorption costs – all the costs of producing the product plus an allowance for overheads, eg calculating a break-even point for sales Cost-base and marginal costing – this is customer orientated, and consists of cost-plus and mark-up pricing. Cost-plus pricing – a price that guarantees pre-determined profit target, by calculating the cost of manufacturing and…

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The influences of new product development

Why do businesses create new products? New products are developed to accommodate customers as they become more discerning and savvy within the market, which results in them changing their minds and needs.  In a corporate point of view a new product could help outpace the competition, respond to environmental threats and opportunities and accommodate technological…

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How a product develops through its life-cycle

Characteristics of the product life-cycle (PLC) stages shows how a product progresses through its useful life, just like a living thing: Development – this is when product ideas are considered to be viable, feasible and profitable, but they incur high research, test marketing and development costs, and create no sales. It’s a bit like pregnancy….

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The many aspects of a product

Products are “a bundle of benefits which satisfy a set of wants that customers have”.  There are three key facts here: benefits rather than features, wants rather than needs, and customers, the most important element of a business. You can break a product down into three aspects: physical (what it looks like), functional (what it…

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What is relationship marketing?

Having conformed to the concept of marketing orientation, when the company focuses its efforts around the customers’ needs, the idea of building long-term relationships with those customers came about. It is, of course, much easier to do business with your existing customers than to go about getting new ones. Once a customer has done business…

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What started the concept of marketing?

Marketing is actually a fairly recent phenomenon. It came about as a series of methods to enhance profits, analyse customers and to produce planned processes. After the industrial revolution arose the means of mass production. Companies could produce much more on demand, which in turn created more discerning customers with changing expectations, combined with increasing…

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Which influences can affect company objectives

The definition of an objective is an aim (something that we would like to do) that is measurable (we have means of knowing we have achieved it). During the process of setting objectives a company has to be aware of the internal and external influences that could affect it. It’s no good creating any objectives…

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