Promotions A Communication Link Between Buyers And Sellers Marketing Essay

Promotions A Communication Link Between Buyers And Sellers Marketing Essay The term Promotion and Sales are totally interdependent on each other. Promotion is a communication link between buyers and sellers. It is a function of informing, persuading, and influencing a consumers purchase decision. Promotional activities include: media advertising, direct mail, personal selling, sales promotion and public relations. A sale consists of marketing activities other than personal selling, advertising and public relations that stimulate consumer purchasing and dealer effectiveness. Sales promotion is a subset of promotion. In other words, sales promotion is not the same thing as promotion. Promotion is a much broader term. The Promotional mix works like a subset of the marketing mix, with its product, distribution, promotion, and pricing elements. With the promotional mix, the marketers attempt to create an optimal blend of various elements to achieve promotional objectives. The promotional mix requires a carefully designed blend of variables to satisfy the needs of a companys customers and achieve organizational objectives. I. Personal Selling :- is the oldest form of promotion. It is conducted on a person-to-person basis with the buyer. It involves the search for new prospects and follow up service after the sale. It is mainly face to face presentation and promotions of goods and services. Its more accurately described today as helping others satisfy their wants and needs. This direct form of promotion may be conducted: Public Relations and Publicity:- Public relations refer to a firms communications and relationships with its various publics. These publics include customers, suppliers, stockholders, employees, the government, the general public, and the society in which the organization operates. It is the management function that evaluates public attitudes and procedures in response to public request. Publicity is the marketing-oriented aspect of public relations. It can be defined as non personal stimulation of demand for a good, service, person, cause, or organization through unpaid placement of significant news about it in a published medium or through a favorable presentation of it on the radio, television, or stage. Of course, bad publicity can damage a companys reputation and diminish brand equity. Advertising has gone through five major stages of development: domestic, export, international, multi-national, and global. For global advertisers, there are four, potentially competing, business objectives that must be balanced when developing worldwide advertising: building a brand while speaking with one voice, developing economies of scale in the creative process, maximizing local effectiveness of ads, and increasing the companys speed of implementation. Born from the evolutionary stages of global marketing are the three primary and fundamentally different approaches to the development of global advertising executions: exporting executions, producing local executions, and importing ideas that travel.[24] Advertising research is key to determining the success of an ad in any country or region. The ability to identify which elements and/or moments of an ad that contributes to its success is how economies of scale are maximized. Once one knows what works in an ad, that idea or ideas can be imported by any other market. Market research measures, such as Flow of Attention, Flow of Emotion and branding moments provide insight into what is working in an ad in any country or region because the measures are based on the visual, not verbal, elements of the ad. The first step is of prospecting. Prospecting involves researching potential buyers and choosing those most likely to buy. That selection process is called qualifying. To qualify people means to make sure that they have need for product, the authority to buy and the willingness to listen to a sales message. A person who meets these criteria is called a prospect. In this approach you must learn as much as possible about customers and their wants and needs. In this gathering the information before you approach the customer is critical. As we said an example of CRM selling you would know which people are likely to buy or use it. In this the main idea is to give an impression of friendly professionalism, to create rapport,, to build credibility, and to start a relationship. Often the decision of whether to use a software package depends on reliable service from the salesperson. In the actual presentation of the CRM software, the idea is to match the benefits of your value package to the clients needs. Various companies provide sales proposal software that include everything from power point presentations to competitive analysis. During the presentation is a great time to use testimonal to The selling process isnt over until the order is approved and the customers is happy. The sales relationship may continue for years as you respond to new request for information. Salesperson realy needs to be providers of solutions to their customers and also needs to think about happen after the sale. The follow up step includes handling customers complaints ,making sure the customers questions are answered and quickly supplying what the customers wants. Steps involved in setting up a public relations programme Public relations refer to a firms communications and relationships with its various publics. These publics include customers, suppliers, stockholders, employees, the government, the general public, and the society in which the organization operates. It is the management function that evaluates public attitudes and procedures in response to public request. Publicity is the marketing-oriented aspect of public relations. It can be defined as non personal stimulation of demand for a good, service, person, cause, or organization through unpaid placement of significant news about it in a published medium or through a favorable presentation of it on the radio, television, or stage. Of course, bad publicity can damage a companys reputation and diminish brand equity. Public Relations has three steps:- Listen to the public: Public relation start with good marketing research. Change Policies and procedures : Businesses dont earn understanding by bombarding the public with propaganda, they earn understanding by having programs and policies and practices in their public interest . Inform people that youre being responsive to their needs: Its not enough to simply have programs in the public interest. You have to tell the public about those programs so that they know youre being responsive Public relations has more power to influence consumers because the message comes from source that is perceived as being more trustworthy. Advantages of Publicity: Creates a positive attitude toward a product or company Enhances credibility of a product or company Disadvantages of Publicity: May not permit accurate measurement of effect on sales Involves much effort directed toward non-marketing-oriented goals 5.Promotional techniques used to reach customers There are several Promotional techniques that encourage/stimulate customers to patronize a specific retail store or to try a specific product. These promotional techniques give various benefits/bonuses to customers and these are mainly classified as 1.Coupons: This is the most common technique which usually reduce the purchase price or offered as cash. Need to state the offer clearly and make it easy to recognize. 2. HandoutAwash in Coupons Looks at the volume of coupons (323 bn) and the poor redemption rate (less than 3%). Looks at more innovative media to deliver coupons (currently over 80% are delivered via the Sunday paper).in store by the products, as customers exit the store based on purchasesdiscussed delivering coupons to customers as they enter the store, using a card that swipes to indicate past purchases. Past buying behavior is the best predictor of future buying patterns Users only redeem coupons they would ordinarily purchase. 75% of the coupons are redeemed by consumers who would buy the brand already. . 3 Demonstrations: Excellent attention getters. Labor costs are usually high. 4. Frequent User Incentives: Major airlines, helps foster customer loyalty to a specific company. Credit card companies. Trading stamps-Co-ops back in England, foster retail loyalty. 5. Point of Purchase Display: Outside signs, window displays, counter pieces, display racks. 90% of retailers believe that point of purchase materials sell products. Essential for product introductions. Also with 2/3 of purchasing decisions made in the store, they are important. 6. Free Samples: Stimulate trial of product. Increase sales volume at the early stage of the product life cycle and obtain desirable distribution .Most expensive sales promotion technique. Not appropriate for mature products and slow turnover products. 7. Money Refunds/Rebates: Submit proof of purchase and mail specific refund, usually need multiple purchase for refund. Helps promote trial use, due to the complexity of the refund, it has little impact. Customers have a poor perception of rebate offered products. Used extensively in the Auto and Computer industry. 8. Premium Items: Offered free or at minimum cost as a bonus. Used to attract competitors customers,different sizes of established products. McDonalds Last summer the following tie-in premium programs. Casper with Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Choice Hotels Congo with Taco Bell Batman Forever with McDonalds, Kelloggs , Six Flags, Sears Pocahontas with Chrysler, Nestle, General Mills, Burger King Mighty Morphin with McDonalds Cents-off Offer: Strong incentive for trying a product-very similar to coupons, but are a part of the package. Consumer Contests and Sweepstakes: Consumers compete based on their analytical or creative skills. Must be accurate or you will anger customers/retailers. Sweepstakes are prohibited in some states. Conclusion From the above discussion of various Promotion and sales technique we conclude that promotion with advertising is a part of total system approach that lead to maketing principles. Promotion and sales are interdependent on each other. It helps to increase demand for the product with a view to increase the companys sale and profit.

Campbell and Bailyn’s Boston Office Essay

Executive summary: This case was about issues that Ken Winston, the regional office manager Campbell and Bailyn’s Boston Office faced with as a result of the two recent changes in organizational structure and performance management system to react to the dynamic of the industry and market. The issues created by these two changes were process complication, limitation in competitive advantages, and discouragement on internal collaboration. We recommend Winston to engage KAT and sales specialist team, define measureable goals to each individual, set up one common organizational goal and make it as part of the performance assessment and hold more company events to encourage collaboration and relationship. With this solution, Winston will be able to ease the process, build stronger sales team, maintain market share, gain sales, maintain profit and create good and healthy working environment within the organization. 1. Situation analysis Campbell and Bailyn (C & B), found in the early 1900s and based in New York, was one of the five largest investment bank in the worlds. The firm has good reputation and was doing well in all segments of the investment banking industry. Within the firm, the bond division, which had been the fastest growing unit, had eight regional sales offices around the world. After New York, the Boston office was the largest. Due to the size and the revenue volume, Boston sales group was often used as a bellwether not only for new products but also for management ideas. Ken Winston, the office head, had a long history and profound experience in bond sales, was appointed in 2003 to be the Boston regional manager with the belief by the senior manager to be the supporter and coach to build and grow the local sales team. During the past 10 years, the banking industry changed dramatically. More players came. More products were created to cope with different demands in the market place. It was harder to sell to maintain volume. It was required more bandwidth and better understanding on a more complicated debt instrument to survive. In addition, margin was shrunk due to entrance of low-service, low-price brokers. For those higher-margin products, it was required deep  knowledge and expertise to market and make the sale. In early 2007, the financial crisis and the meltdown in the mortgage-backed securities market directly impacted to the sales force in the C & B and Boston office. Winston had to make two strategic changes in order to maintain the sales growth and operate more effectively. The first move was to create the â€Å"key account team† KAT. Legacy, the five generalists in the taxable bond division sold the entire product line and managed their own list of customers. Winston had combined these generalists and assigned each of them to a specialty sub-segment of the firm’s product offerings. The goal was to enhance the sales team expertise on product details and focus each individual on just one area with in-depth knowledge. Changing from maintaining their sales on customer wise to product wise, they shared their customers, for the first time. For the past several months, there are certain number of customers enjoyed this new change as they see the new sales team more invaluable. Yet there were customers unhappy and perceived it as more complication. Also, some sales people found it complicated themselves on those large and multiproduct trades given the number of people that needed to be involved. Another bigger concern of Winston was the limitation on the natural salesmanship of his people due to this specialization. The second change was to implement new performance management system, called â€Å"multisource† appraisal. The performance review was no longer the combination of sales volume and own manager assessments. It was then a mixture of several factors which included peer review and feedback from traders, product manager, researchers, sales, profits and manager observations. This change aimed to better the collaborations between regional sales force and cross functional teams as well as encourage the sales team to improve gross margin and profit. After the several months of change, there was an up-tick in profit margin. However, there was a risk of losing sales volume with gross margin focus. Besides, the sales team expressed their frustration. They recognized the potential of being scrutinized by other functions as part of their performance management review Below was the Boston office structure before and after the change Before After 2. Problem Diagnosis: Preparing for the annual year-end meeting, Winston had to present on these  new two changes. Observing customer reactions, hearing comments directly from his sales team, he knew clearly the strength and weakness of the new changes. The new KAT team formation did provide value to some customer, yet, it created confusion, more work and complication at both customer end and C & B sales team end. Customer had to deal with multi people instead of a single contact point. More people were required to be involved in large deal. More calls and meeting were needed. The decision of introducing the KAT team had missed the engagement and input from the specialist team who were experts on specialty product. Fair process believed engagement not only communicated management’s respect for individual and their ideas but also encouraged refutation sharpened everyone’s thinking and built collective wisdom (6). There were lack of collaborations and a smooth process within the organization . In addition, the sales team spent more time in house to figure out the new process and fulfill its requirements rather than spent time to meet and entertain customers which was used to be key part of their job and potential source of generating more deals and sales. They lost their connection with customer. Callahan, who was appointed as the nominal head of KAT team, received comments from one of his major accounts, Ashland Capital, expressed the concern on the reducing engaging between the sales and customer since the change was in place. Moreover, the fact that each individual was given a specialty limited his/her natural salesmanship. This specialization might also lead to a siloed organization structure which was definitely not the strategy. Michael Goold and Andrew Campbell stated that in formulating a strategy and organizational design, a company had to address two factors which were identifying the right market and defining the right methodology to gain the an advantage over competitors in those market (6). Many companies ended up with impeding the market strategy rather than furthering it while doing the organizational design changes. One of the failures was to create divisions among units that make it difficult to operate and increase competitive advantages (6). As the members of the KAT team could not sell other product lines outside their assigned specialty, it was difficult for them to expand their customer base. This was not helpful to compete with other competitors. With new compensation system, the organization faced the risk of losing volume sales as well as creating an inner warfare among the team me mbers and unhealthy working environment  between cross functional teams. Since the performance was based on profit, the sales team would rather choose to close a small deal with high gross margin rather than large deal with moderate margin. Peer feedback was part of the review narrowed the information sharing between coworkers. People were more conservative. This failed the purpose of bridging the knowledge gap between sales and product. Besides, since inside relationship and performance were then important, the sales people cared less about their clients and ignore the element of customer service that was a prior differentiator. The new KAT team and performance management system created process complication for both customer and sales people, risk of losing sales volume, risk of losing competitive advantages, and failure to foster the sales team expertise and build an effective operation process within the organization. These issues had to be fixed in order to win customer satisfaction, gain market share and build a well-organized and well-functional org anization. 3. Alternative solutions Solution #1: Merge key account team and specialist team Team up KAT and specialist into one small team. Move sales specialist from specialist team to be pair with each KAT member to create team for product specialization. Table below shows the new suggested structure. Pros: This combination will create more energy and synergy for each specialty sub segments product. KAT team will receive additional supports from sales specialist especially specialist can provide insight in term of how to handle deal from product specialization perspective. It also allows sales KAT team to have more time and bandwidth to target new customer and maintain relationship with key customer accounts. Sales specialist will have an opportunity to deal with bigger accounts which helps them to better their account managing skill and build relationship with major customers. Cons: Changes after changes will create more confusion to both customer and internal team. KAT member and sales specialist will need to spend a lot of time together in order to understand both side and become team. This change requires an absolute support and alignment between the two teams which is  hard to guarantee. Just like every merger, it may run into the risk of having resistance from inside. Sales specialist may not be willing to provide support to KAT because it creates more work for them. They will have to spend time and effort to learn about the new major accounts. If this change does not come with clear direction and well-defined implementation plan, it may make the situation worse. Solution #2: Add more resource to KAT and increase engagement from both team and customer Hire more people to provide the team more support and help. One sub segment product can have one main specialist and one helper. Implement regular inspection and feedback sessions from both the team and majo r clients. Pros: With the helper, the main KAT specialist like Callahan, Jenifer, and John can spend more time on customer relationship building and find new customers. Regular feedback within internal team and from customer side will ensure smooth process and customer satisfaction Cons: Hard to find the right bond sales people. At that time of the economics, it was difficult to recruit bond sales people. This type of job required very unique skill set and characteristics. Candidates had to be outgoing, extremely self-motivated and street smart. Take time for new members to learn and adopt the new environment. It would be a while before these new people, if they can be found, can be on board and helpful. This is not a good timing as these issues need be immediately addressed Solution #3: Multi approaches Engage specialist to support KAT member in term of process. Improve the performance management system by defining more measurable goals for each individual. Add one common team goal to encourage collaboration and information sharing. Hold more internal events to build the teamwork environment and bridge the gap of internal relationship. Pros With the help of sales specialist, KAT member can reduce some time on the process and administrative work to spend time on building relationships with their clients above and beyond the details of the job. Measurable goals for each individual will reduce the risk of inner warfare. Weigh the sales  volume and sales profit equally will boost the sales volume again. Common team goal will present the threat of sales member keep information for herself/himself because he/she is afraid of others will take the chance and perform better. If 20% of the compensation will be depended on the whole organization financial performance, the sales people will help each other, sharing information and customer relationship so that they can all earn this metric. This is a great methodology to inspire people to contribute to one common goal. Additional internal events such as summer outing, weekend retreat, team informal get together help to bring people together. They can talk, share and reduce the re sistance between employee when it comes to time of asking for help or support from each other. Cons Challenge of getting support from sales specialist. They can refuse due to lack of bandwidth. This may very well happen because supporting KAT is not one of their performance metrics. Winston will need to work very closely with his team on defining those measureable goals in order to prevent confusion. Employee needs to understand clearly the details of their goals, the benefit on achieving them and how to get there. Additional events add cost to expense. If the employee can not get the benefit from them, it is just wasting time, money and efforts. 4. Recommended solution: Solution #3: Multi approaches This solution is a combination of several approaches to tackle those different issues caused by the new two changes. Support from sales specialist will better the business process and ease the workload for both KAT and customer. Loss of sales volume and inner warfare are addressed by defined measurable goals. Setting one common goal as part of individual performance metrics establishes win-win situation. It builds the connection among all sales people and prevents the risk of loss sales due to self-performance competition. In addition, this step will solve the issue of limitation on salesmanship when converting to sell on specialization. The sales people can still discuss and work with customer on other product line and then pass the opportunity on to the right person. Again, one member win also means the whole team wins. Winston needs to work closely with both KAT and sales specialist team to ensure the willingness to support from the  sales specialist team. He needs to make sure both side can see the benefit and agree on the future path. Individual goals for each member have to be a compromised. Each of employees needs to agree on goals set up for them. Winston also needs to communicate clearly on the goal and approach. There should be also an action plan for each member set up between Winston and each team member clearly defined how and what to reach the goals. The important factors of this change are good decision making on what needs to be done and good implementation plan on how to get it done. Paul Rogers and Marcia stated that decisions that drive the business execution are as crucial as strategic decisions (8). Making sure the organization operates effectively is as important as wining more customers and beating competitors. How organization is run will determine how many sales it can get and how well it can sustain and grow. Lastly, company events are best practice, create family-like working environments and foster the company culture. According to Rob Goffee and Garet Jones, some of the best ways to increase sociability within organization are to hold employee gatherings inside and outside office (147). It is important to make sure these events enjoyable so that they can create own positiv e, self-reinforcing dynamic. 5. Implementation plan Hold meeting to communicate the new plan to whole bond sales division. There will need to be a formal meeting to announce the plan, as well as communicate what employee may expect from the manager and what manager will expect from the employee Schedule individual meeting with each of KAT team member to set up measurable individual goals Set up the common company goal and formally announce it the whole team After the first meeting, schedule one on one meeting to follow up. One on one meeting is very important since it keep the connection between manager and employee. Also, it keep track with employee status and also provide chance for both to raise and hear feedback from each other Identify event calendar and publicly communicate. Determine major company event days such as summer outing, end of year party, etc†¦ and put it up as company calendar. Preference: 1. Michael Goold and Andrew Campbell Blenko. Do you have a well-designed organization. March 2002. Boston MA: Harvard Business School Publishing 2. Cham Kim, W and Mauborgne, (2003) Fair process. Harvard Business Review 3. Paul Rogers and Marcia Blenko (2006). Who has the â€Å"D†, January 2006. Boston MA: Harvard Business Review 4. Rob Goffee and Garet Jones (1996). What holds the modern company together. Harvard Business Review

Science Boon and Bane

There are no extents to define science. Science is every where around us. Some people say it is a boon and some say that it is a bane. According to me it is a boon as every thing have both cons and pros, but the decision is made by observing which side is better. Some who would disagree with me and would believe that science is a bane. Everyone have his/her different opinion. But, friend! science is the discovery, it is the mixture of creativity of human's mind with his/her intelligence. You would say that earlier when all the comforts were not available, everything was just perfect as science was not there. But the stone weapons, invention of fire, cave, animal clothing, everything was discovery, creation, creativity, intelligence in short science. There was no human era in which science was not present as without science the human would be even worse than the new born baby who is totally confused and does not know where he is, and what to do, but he at least know that he have to cry, but without science, humans would not be even in that state. So friends, no to science and technology does not only means that there will no electricity, TV , ac, fridge, taps, computers, internet, transport, etc but it means even more, it means that human would be nothing less than being a living corpse. I agree that it can be harmful if in evil hands, but is it the fault of creativity, intelligence, no it is the fault evil mind. They can use anything to facilitate their plans and if this is the case, then according to it, if someone is stabbed, then the knife through which the murderer had killed the victim should be punished and is to be blamed and not the murderer.

Clashes Between Monarch and Papal Authority Essay

Medieval secular and papal rulers often crossed paths. Through the many clashes between monarch and papal authority, an overreaching struggle between ecclesiastical and secular powers is present. In fact, not since the earliest days of Christianity had the pope been a mere religious ruler. Some historians, such as Klaus Schatz and Brian Tierney, argue that the primacy of papal authority, when the papacy actively began extending its influence, is relegated to a specific era from 1050 to 1300. Gregory VII, Innocent III, Innocent IV, and Boniface VIII played important roles in promulgating the power of the papacy in many ways as well as the so-called lesser churches of Rome. Gregory VII created the active basis of this movement and subsequent†¦show more content†¦Gregory writes to the Duke Rudolf of Swabia in 1073, â€Å"†¦the empire and the priesthood should be bound in harmonious union†¦and†¦ ought to be pure and free from all deceit†¦Ã¢â‚¬ # Despite or even because of Gregory VII willingness to forgive Henry IV, Henry IV continued to do as he saw fit for his country. Henry IV went so far as to deprive â€Å"the pope of all authority, both legal and moral, to pass judgment.†# This breach in Concordia put Gregory VII and Henry IV in direct conflict with one another. Reorganization of the administrative and legal duties of the pontificate took place in the thirteenth century. Innocent III (1198-1216) facilitated the move to a more concrete legal system within the church thereby gaining authority for the papal office. According to Cruz and Gerberding, Pope Innocent III began to publish formal law books†¦[and] as the papal administration became more complex and legalistic, canon law writers developed a theory called papal monarchy (which Klaus Schatz called papal primacy in his book), describing the Roman Church as the â€Å"monarchum omnium ecclesiarum,† the mother of all churches# Innocent III maneuverings resulted in a proliferation in court cases being heard by ecclesiastical courts rather than in lay courts. Under Innocent III, â€Å"†¦legal disputes came directly to the pope, in conjunction with his cardinals and with lawyers, resolved points of law, settled appeals, and issued written decisions.†#Show MoreRelatedProcess of Urbanization in Western Europe During the High to Late Middle Ages1902 Words   |  8 Pagesin power dynamics. Conflict arose in the 11th century as lay and clerical powers struggled to sustain authority and quarreled over the jurisdiction each possessed. Each of these powers began to test the changes, in the 12th century, in hopes of extending their influence. The following analysis will discuss how the economic growth in the countryside stimulated changes in lay and clerical authority beginning in the 12th century. In order to understand how the lay and clerical powers changed it is essentialRead MoreReligion And Its Impact On Society1310 Words   |  6 Pageshas been religion. As the human race has developed, its growth gas been accompanied by a large number of recorded genocides and religious wars. As religion grew, the power of religious officials increased immensely. These leaders have led clashes between religions which resulted in mass killings throughout history. With that said, can the negative outweigh the positive effects of religion throughout the course of human history? Holy warfare has been integral to religion because of the differencesRead More Understanding Counter Reformation Essay3694 Words   |  15 PagesIn order to understand the Counter Reformation one must consider the political factors and motivators behind them as well as the belief factors when examining clashes with the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church during 16th century experienced a reformation that was both politically and belief driven. The Catholic Reformation also known as the Counter Reformation allowed the church to clearly define its position, eliminate unchristian practices and examine its role in world. This paper will addressRead MoreCounter Reformation3749 Words   |  15 PagesIn order to understand the Counter Reformation one must consider the political factors and motivators behind them as well as the belief factors when examining clashes with the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church during 16th century experienced a reformation that was both politically and belief driven. The Catholic Reformation also known as the Counter Reformation allowed the church to clearly define its position, eliminate unchristian practices and examine its role in world. This paper will addressRead More The Decline of the Holy Roman Empire Essay3137 Words   |  13 Pagesthe empire’s authority slowly decreased over centuries and by the Middle Ages the emperor was little more than a figurehead, allowing princes to govern smaller sections of the empire. Though the various ruling princes owed loyalty to the emperor, they were also granted a degree of independence and privileges. The emperor, an elected monarch, needed the allegiance of the princes and other aristocracy to support him, in turn giving them power or money. This tenuous allegiance between powers was greatly