Friday, June 8, 2007

Beyond the 4 Ps

On a more strategic approach to competitive marketing success.Marketers will consciously build and allocate resources, relationships, offerings and business models that other companies find hard to match.
This does not mean the four P approach is dead, simply ====Resources==== Companies with a of resources than their competitors will have an easier time competing in the marketplace. Resources include: financial (cash and cash reserves), physical (plant and equipment), human (knowledge and skill), legal (trademarks and patents), organizational (structure, competencies, policies), and informational (knowledge of consumers and competitors). Small companies usually have a harder time competing with larger corporations because of their disadvantage in resource allocation.
in life, is based on the relationships you have with people. Marketers must aggressively build relationships with consumers, customers, distributors, partners and even competitors if they want to have success in today's competitive marketplace. There are four type of relationships 1)win-win 2)win-lose 3)lose-lose and 4)compromise

Customer focus

Many companies today have a customer focus (or customer orientation). This implies that the company focuses its activities and products on consumer demands. Generally there are three ways of doing this: the customer-driven approach, the sense of identifying market changes and the product innovation approach.

In the consumer-driven approach, consumer wants are the drivers of all strategic marketing decisions. No strategy is pursued until it passes the test of consumer research. Every aspect of a market offering, including the nature of the product itself, is driven by the needs of potential consumers. The starting point is always the consumer. The rationale for this approach is that there is no point spendingproducts that people will not buy. History a customer focus.

The SIVA Model provides a demand/customer centric version alternative to the well-known 4Ps supply side model (product, price, place, promotion) of marketing management.

Product -> SolutionPromotion -> Price -> ValuePlace ->Access

The four elements of the SIVA model are:

- Solution: How appropriate is the solution to the customers problem/need
- Information: omer know the value of the transaction, what it will cost, what are the benefits, what might they have to sacrifice, what will be their reward?
- Access: Where can the customer find the solution. How easily/locally/remotely can they buy it and take delivery.

This model was proposed by Chekitan Dev and Don Schultz in the Marketing Management Journal of the American , and presented by them in Market Leader - the journal of the Marketing Society in the UK.

The model focuses heavily on the customer and how they view the transaction.

Marketing

Marketing is understanding that marketing operates on 2 different levels.
===Strategic attempts to determine how an organization competes against its competition in a market place. In particular, it aims at generating a competitive advantage relative to its competition. Trout says that war between competitors' and 'the conflict between companies' what he is really doing is defining marketing at the business level.
Top management needs to determine what type of business to run and where the business wants to be in 15 - 20 years time.
Step 2: To enable management to make well informed decisions, information needs to be gathered from the environment. The environment is divided into three main parts namely the micro environment (This represents the business itself and is also known as the internal environment), the market environment (this the business) and the macro environment (this represents political (policies & licenseformat so that the managers can use it SWOT grid. A SWOT grid is a summary of the findings of the situation analysis in Strengths, Weaknesses (both from the internal environment) and Opportunites and Threats (both from the external environment).
Step 3: Decision making. Once the marketing managers are in possession of suitable information, they embark on a process of decision making. The combined result of the decisions forms the marketing strategy. get out of the market (divest). After this decision has been made, the marketing manager must decide what competitive advantages a business possesses. A decision on segmentation follows, and from these segments a business can decide which and how many segments to select as target markets. Following the selection of target markets, a positioning sub strategy should be created for each and every target market selected to serve. Positioning consists of two steps. First, the positioning instruments (marketing mix variables) are employed to create in the mind of a consumer a favorable picture of the business when compared to rivals. Secondly, the position should be communicated to the targeted consumers by using one of the positioning Step 4: Implementation. Once all the decisions are made it is said that the strategy is created. It can be the best strategy ever, but if it stays on paper nothing will happen. Implementation is a two part processBudget Many influences exert pressure on the environment. Some of these include your own and your competitors' business decisions and the , missions and objectives and the whole strategic process repeats itself. This includes the determination of the marketing mix, advertising execution etc..

Saturday, June 2, 2007



Making mesos Guide General
(Becoming rich doesn't happen over night. It requires time and patience, unless you get super lucky here and there which will happen from time to time depending how much you consider alot.Be a cheapskate like me (got it from my dad)When being really cheap there are some factors that come from this. A very important factor is that you shouldn't be so easily willing to let go of mesos so often. If all you do is spend over and over, your pocket might feel a little empty. If you find something in the free market that you need don't buy it right away. Chances are that if you keep looking you find some more of the same thing for a lower price. This way insures you bought it for as cheap as possible. Greed, people say don't be to greedy but that means sharing something and not hogging it for yourself. Sometimes greed can be good. When your friends need to borrow money don't loan anything to them unless you know them in real life. Giving stuff for free causes no profit. And for paying back, just like in the real world when people borrow money from a bank they can't pay you back ever, or they will purposely avoid it. Keep thinking of that, and the fear of that loss will make you greedy if you aren't yet.I didnt even use the cabs until like level 50, I walkedTravel requires money. When you begin Maplestory you won't have that much money, and that little bit can make a difference wether you spend it on using a few cabs, or buying potions, or even your first equpiment items. Not using a cab gave me a good start on Maplestory until I felt that now is the time I can afford it without drawbacks.Quests, quests, and more quests, especailly ones that get you scrolls and icarus cape, etc...Wether you buy quest materials or not, you will got quite the sum mesos out of scrolls you get from quests. Nothing much to say, but make sure you know the reward first so you know what is worth your time, and what is not. Also by looking at the rewards first you can decided to A) buy items needed for it, or B) find the items needed for it. Some items needed will be hard to find and time consuming such as nependeath honey, glass shoes, flaming feathers, and more.Get rare dropsNothing to it but luck. If you get lucky you can sell drops. Some people even figure out what monsters drop what to go hunting for specific items.Potion usingEven though I'm a 76 Priest I still use mana elixers (heals 300 mp) and not anything higher. The reason for this is, the amount of cost for pots and how much they heal. The higher level potion the more the price gets booted up. For example, lets use blue potions to mana elixers.Blue potions heals 100 mp. Mana elixers heal 300 mp. Blue potions also cost 192 mesos, while mana elixers cost 604 mesos. lets get Blue potion up to 300 mp just like one mana elixers so, 3 blue potions to every mana eleixer. 192 x 3 = 576 vs 604 would you rather hit the pot key 3 times and save 28 meos each time? or hit it once and lose 28 mesos each time?Buy low sell higherYes, that's right, you read it correctly, sell higher, not high. If you sell too high, people will just leave you for another. Here was something that I did to show as an example. With about 20-30 Dark Crystal ores I did this. When freemarket permits came out DC ores have dropped from 100k each to 35k each. I bought around 25 for 35k each in the hope that it will boost up again at one one point. Then omega sector had came out with a quest that requires these =]. The price boosted up again and I managed to sell some back for 70k, others for 72k, and some for even 85k! My reason for that range was because I had noticed people selling them for 99k again like old times. But those will be the ones to be bought the least amount of times and when the cheaper ones go out of stock. (This is called undersaling)Sell stuff that is commonly needed and not supplied alotFor example "Alice's moon rocks and star rocks shop". I've seen her shop quote a few times. She sells exactly what her title is. She is one person who even goes around selling these. People are too lazy to collect the ores. So she does and sells it for more than it should be cause of supply and demand. If people need something that is very rare to find, yet commonly needed too, this is where prices sky rocket. You don't have to do it with moon rocks and star rocks, no. Be more original, originality is what made Alice what she is today, so think of something diffrent. If it's the same the price will lower for the both of you, meaning for you as well.Money drops get higher, the higher level you are.Monsters drop a certain range of mesos each time. but they higher level you are means, higher monsters, which means higher mesos at a time. When training pick up mesos as much as possible, don't just leave it laying around, that's a waste.Try your luck at scrollingWork gloves, Lama staffs, Claws, 60% weapon attack scrolls, sauna robes, dark rituals, evil wings, and etc... these all have one thing in common, they probably the most scrolled equipment ever and sold back for millions. lets say you start off with a clean work glove that has 5 slots. You only have 10 million mesos on you, so you buy 5 60% glove attack scrolls for 2 million each. your'e down to 0 mesos for now. You try scrolling the work glove and lets say 4/5 worked on it. That's an 8 attack work glove! Try auctioning it off and start at 13-14 mill or so and maybe people will up the price until eventually someone buys it for 18 mil. You now have 18 mil that's an 8 mill net profit (that you made).Note: But scrolling does require alot of money in the beggining like that example, possibly even alot more at times.Warning: this isn't a for sure fire thing, you will end up failing for time to time and successing from time to time as well. what is only 1/5 scrolls worked to its only 2 attack. You coul probably sell that for 1.5-2 mil. and you spent 10 mil on that you lost 8 mill this time. BEWARE! BeggingThis won't get you ANYWHERE even if people give you 1k each time you can make faster mesos by picking up money from monsters while training (well for me) and plus only like what 1 of 1000 will give you anything at that?Clerics dont need HP potsIf you are hesitant about using up potions, then make a cleric. I didn't want to waste money on pots, so I just stood/sat and waited to heal. That is a waste of time, and time is money. So I made a cleric, I won't have to wait to heal HP and I don't have to waste time. Then I got MP eater, and I spend less pots than normal ofr MP, MP eater is a HUGE mana potion saver. But you will still need some MP pots from time to time. (especailly if you have maxed teleport or not).Master chronosHas REALLY HIGH elixer drop rates which go for 5k each, and you could probably find one every 5 minutes literally. If you know a monster than can drop something like that, that often, ans sells for that high, train there too. I feel master chronos are the best that I know of.What if you like to scroll your weapons?If you like to scroll your weapon alot dont be a mage unless you are a cleric (money makers), cause INT scrolls are X(. Instead be a crossbowman or 2 hand axe, or something else that is really low priced for 60% att'sSave dont spend (really good)This is also probably one of thee best things to do. If you save your money it is just as good as earning it. Benjamin Franklin - "A penny saved is a penny earned". This will help more than you think. If you do spend spend your money alot constantly try this method; Put money in the bank and carry only a few mesos with you, saving in the bank will help those spenders. Or greedyness once again prevails.FM shop permits are teh pwnzorzJust sell everything you have in here. I suggest you do this during school/sleep/work/erran running, that way you can still make money and do something while, doing another thing.Looter methodNote: Cleric recommended, so you won't burn pots, but you can do this with othersGo to coolies, find a sin that is power leveling, take of your weapon and assure him you wont att cause weapon not equip and you are only looting, since he isnt picking up, he'll probably figure its ok and you can act as a decoy party member to help scare people off. This can work at other places where people commonly power level too, such as zombie lupins, hunting grounds 1 if you're a just starting noob, fire/boars, jr. yetis, hectors, and many more...Miss Lady JaneWarning: may backfire!Note: Old trickGive materials to a noob to do janes quest and tell them whatever you get ill buy it for 100k. But the thing is, they might know what youre doing so take the stuff and wont sell it to you, or you can hang out around there and tell them youll buy whatever they get for 100k, that'll require ccing alot maybe.Jane's AssistantMake a character JUST to do janes quest(s). And restart the character over and over. This only works if you are noob in a need of some million mesos, as you get higher level on your main character you'll make more money by just straining that character and getting drops.Tower scrollsNote: This is very well known already.Kill stuff in what ever tower, wether eos tower or orbis tower, to get matterials for the scrolls quest. Do this on youre strongest character, and collect ALOT. Then make ALOT of accounts and 3 characters for that server and give it to them to do the exchange for tower scrolls. Then sell them all.

basic marketing



The essence of marketing is to understand your customers' needs and develop a plan that surrounds those needs. Let's face it anyone that has a business has a desire to grow their business. The most effective way to grow and expand your business is by focusing on organic growth.
Related Resources
Market Using Solution-PositioningMarket Research on a BudgetDevelop Your Positioning Statement
Glossary
Marketing Glossary
You can increase organic growth in four different ways. They include:
Acquiring more customers
Persuading each customer to buy more products
Persuading each customer to buy more expensive products or up selling each customer
Persuading each customer to buy more profitable products
All four of these increase your revenue and profit. Let me encourage you to focus on the first which is to acquire more customers. Why? Because by acquiring more customers you increase your customer base and your revenues then come from a larger base.
How can you use marketing to acquire more customers?
Spend time researching and create a strategic marketing plan.
Guide your product development to reach out to customers you aren't currently attracting.
Price your products and services competitively.
Develop your message and materials based on solution marketing.
The Importance of a Target Market
When it comes to your customers keep in mind the importance of target marketing. The reason this is important is that only a proportion of the population is likely to purchase any products or service. By taking time pitch your sales and marketing efforts to the correct niche market you will be more productive and not waste your efforts or time.
It's important to consider your virtual segmentation by selecting particular verticals to present your offerings to. Those verticals will have the particular likelihood of purchasing your products and services. Again, this saves you from wasting valuable time and money.
Marketing Differs between Small Businesses and Larger Companies
If you are like the majority of small business owners your marketing budget is limited. The most effective way to market a small business is to create a well rounded program that combines sales activities with your marketing tactics. Your sales activities will not only decrease your out-of-pocket marketing expense but it also adds the value of interacting with your prospective customers and clients. This interaction will provide you with research that is priceless.
Small businesses typically have a limited marketing budget if any at all. Does that mean you can't run with the big dogs? Absolutely not. It just means you have to think a little more creatively. How about launching your marketing campaign by doing one of the following:
Call your vendors or associates and ask them to participate with you in co-op advertising.
Take some time to send your existing customers' referrals and buying incentives.
Have you thought about introducing yourself to the media? Free publicity has the potential to boost your business. By doing this you position yourself as an expert in your field.
Invite people into your place of business by piggybacking onto an event. Is there a concert coming to town, are you willing to sell those tickets? It could mean free radio publicity. If that is not your cup of tea, how about a walkathon that is taking place in your area, why not be a public outreach and distribute their material?
When you do spend money on marketing, do not forget to create a way to track those marketing efforts. You can do this by coding your ads, using multiple toll-free telephone numbers, and asking prospects where they heard about you. This enables you to notice when a marketing tactic stops working. You can then quickly replace it with a better choice or method.
Getting Started
By being diligent in your marketing and creating an easy strategy such as holding yourself accountable to contact ten customers or potential customers daily five days a week you will see your business grow at an exceptional rate. The great thing is it will not take a large marketing budget to make it happen.
From Laura Lake,Your Guide to Marketing.FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!
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