Strategic marketing Essays

Strategic marketing Essays Strategic marketing Essay Strategic marketing Essay In today’s economy, marketing is the second critical area in business because it’s the machine or the engine house in business driving it in the right direction. Why? Because when used correctly, its the biggest profit-making tools to find in business. It’s the skill that makes or breaks every business. In real terms, marketing is all about discovering (identifying), addressing and answering the customer’s needs. Because what’s   interesting to you is irrelevant to the customer. What the they want is something that answers their needs not your product or services. Every CEO in an organization need to understand everything about what is going on in business rather that delegating such responsibilities to someone lower in the organization irrespective of him participating in the marking process or not. Thus it is very important to look at your marketing strategy. Replace yourself with that of your customer and see if you will respond to your own advertisement or promotion. If your responds is negative, it’s a bad news! Neither will your customers respond to it. If you cannot see clearly how your strategy or campaign will sell, dump it. When your marketing efforts do not bring new customers to your business and generate sales, then it’s a waste  Ã‚   of money and resources. However to go about this you need to ask yourself one important question. Why should a customer buy from me?. This is the most important question you can ask yourself. Its called â€Å"Value Proposition(VP)†.it’s a special promise you make to your customers that only you can offer, which gives you an edge and compels your customer to want to buy from you instead of someone else. It makes you â€Å"Unique†Ã‚   .So what I’m saying is that-â€Å"make yourself unique† .If you do not have value proposition (vp), I suggest you stop everything and look for one now. Because, without it you have no positioning, no edge and no reason for customers to buy from you other than, perhaps price. It’s the cornerstone to marketing and without it you cannot compete. Your starting point however is always with your customer. Go out and sit face to face with them. Target those who have come in contact with your business yet did not buy from you. Try to discover why they did not buy and address them. Note that those who did not buy or those who refuse to buy will enjoy giving you some feedback, which will tell you how to overcome their resistance and objection in the future. Also they will see that the company cares. In a simple process ask them the following question with respect and politeness: -Why did you choose not to buy or purchase from us? -What could we do next time? -What did like or dislike about us, if anything? -What did you like about our competition that you feel we adopt? -Etc. Once you think you have found you Value Proposition, remember to test it first. Try it in a limited number of ads or brochures and compare the sales or query rate with your usual methods .Example 1:consider a client want a n advertisement written, planned and placed for $10,000.Usually he spends this same amount on   advertisement and it brought $20,000 worth of business and he has been happy. Suppose we write similar ad for him of   the same size   and cost to bring him $100,000 worth of business. imagine how impression will be like. With the same time and effort one can be as much as five times more successful than another. All   because of strategic marketing. Example 2:Creating a magic experience makes your organization becomes more memorable and more people will want to do business with you. Now consider a restaurant giving free snacks and juice to all patrons who are waiting for a table. Staffs usually bring out sample of its entrees and deserts, offering them to those who are waiting. Not only this keeps people happy when waiting, but it encourages the sale of items patrons rarely order. However remember if someone else in your market is offering the same thing, your VP is therefore not unique and its not a VP. And so to create magic, you must be different-think outside the square; whatever others are doing, do not do that. Start by saying thank you to your customers in a meaningful way. Send them a note, a card, some flowers, or a gift basket. Call them later and tell them how much you appreciate doing business with them. Give them the occasional freebies. Invite them back with gift certificate. Do small things that cost you very little but means a lot to your customers. Introduce fun into your business and have fun with your customers. Go one step further. If any one else is offering their customers a cup of tea or coffee, offer yours with cappuccino or fresh squeezed orange juice. if others starts into cappuccinos and orange juice, offer a cocktail! it doesn’t matter how; just be different. Value Proposition (VP) and Price When a good VP has been created that is compelling and that delivers, then you can almost raise your price. Because your VP is unique to you   and can not be found else where is also a reason for increasing the price signifying uniqueness and quality. Doing this some customers may leave you or choose not to. That’s fine! -Don’t panic. Some customers are just not profitable and it ok to let them go somewhere. You can’t afford to keep servicing them anyway without making profit on them But not that if your VP is on the mark, you will attract many new customers who are will and happy to pay your price. In most cases they will pay without hesitating. OTHER VARIABLES In strategic marketing, the key focus is on the customer because business today is no longer about market share but about the share of a single customer. It may sound absurd to you, but usually advertising is not the key way to increase revenue. It is high risk and generally does not work as well as it should. Before spending another cent and risk your business health on in effective advertisings, you first need to develop the cheap, low-risk alternatives for increasing your revenue. And this involves three-strategy implementation. Which are: -Strategy one: Constantly attract new customers. -Strategy two: Develop ways to generate more revenue on each sale. -Strategy three: Develop ways to ensure your customers purchase from you again and again. Working vigorously on these three will generate a thriving, profitable business. The problem with most business today is that they focus on strategy one and forget the rest. However, when a business starts, it has no option but to focus on getting new customers. But once this has been achieved, the other two methods must be used to make sure that the business is a real success. Moreover, allocating all your resources to getting new customers is the most expensive and least profitable strategy. Because it cost six times more to attract new customers than it does to do business with an existing customer. Thus when you begin to use the new strategy and maximize your existing customers, things rapidly change for better. Remember, a customer who has done business with you is likely to be happy with you and feels comfortable with you making them your best prospective buyers for an immediate new transaction, cross-sale. So do not waste the chance. Implementing the three strategy will depend if you are prepared to look there are effective, lower-risk and lower cost opportunity for improving sales than just advertising and they include: -Adding value or creating a new value proposition -Increasing your price -Increasing loyalty and repeat business -Cross selling or selling other product in your range. -Converting more prospect into paying customers It’s not that companies should never advertise but should do this only after maximizing all these opportunities. Once sales are maximize at low risk, then profit can be reinvested into advertising. Since VP and price has been looked upon, lets focus now on Loyalty, cross-selling and Up-selling. Loyalty To have a successful business, your marketing strategy should focus on attracting new customers and hold onto customers faster than you lose them. Although all business lose customers, a successful marketing needs to hold onto the existing one because the longer they remain, the more you can make them buy from you again and again. If you constantly attracts but not keeping, you are suffering from can be termed to as â€Å"leaking† syndrome. To hold on to your customer you need practices just as earlier discussed: Get to know your customer, provide a magic experience, test your VP, take   risk   from   your   customers (provide a Money- back guarantee policy) and build a staff culture and attitude that makes the difference. Cross-selling Customers usually buy in a sequence of product or service because satisfying one need brings about another. How many time have you gone to do shopping and return with what you intend to buy with lot more? when you get to know your customers very well, you will identify sequence in their buying behavior. It can be use to builds a range of secondary products and services that they will want to buy. At time questions like â€Å" would you like   a shoe with that? Asking question which are very simple but rich in common sense are very necessary because one in every three of these customers will always say yes. Thus it involve selling product that are closely related. Up-selling Always try to increase the value of what you sell. that is you do this when the opportunity arise of offering a customer a slightly different product from what the customer first thought the y would need. Whenever that difference meets their need more exactly, it will increase sales. the rule here is that: don’t try to push something that the customer does not want. EASY SELLING Many organization are still making it hard for customers to buy-whether it’s bad service or customer unfriendly practices and policies. its very bad for business that may ruin it.

Understanding Shakespeares Seven Ages of Man

Understanding Shakespeares Seven Ages of Man The poem The Seven Ages of Man is a part of the play As You Like It, where Jacques makes a dramatic speech in the presence of the Duke in Act II, Scene VII. Through the voice of Jacques, Shakespeare sends out a profound message about life and our role in it. Shakespeares Seven Ages of Man All the worlds a stage,And all the men and women merely players,They have their exits and entrances,And one man in his time plays many parts,His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,Mewling and puking in the nurses arms.Then, the whining schoolboy with his satchelAnd shining morning face, creeping like snailUnwillingly  to school. And then the lover,Sighing like furnace, with a woeful balladMade to his mistress eyebrow. Then a soldier,Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,Seeking the bubble reputationEven in the cannons mouth. And then the justiceIn fair round belly, with good capon lind,With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,Full of wise saws, and modern instances,And so he plays his part. The sixth age shiftsInto the lean and slipperd pantaloon,With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side,His youthful hose well savd, a world too wide,For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,Turning again towards childish trebl e, pipesAnd whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,That ends this strange eventful history,Is second childishness and mere oblivion,Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. In this drama of life, each one of us plays seven distinct roles. This, the author says, is the Seven Ages of Man. These seven roles begin at birth and end with death. Stage 1: Infancy Birthmarks the entry of man in the first stage of life. An infant in the caretakers arms is just a helpless child learning to survive. Babies communicate with us through their cries. Having been nourished in the womb of the mother, the baby learns to accept breast milk as its first food. Vomiting is common among all babies. Once a baby is breastfed, you need to burp the baby. In the process, babies throw up some milk. Since babies do nothing most of the day, other than crying and spitting up after feeding, Shakespeare says that the first stage of life is marked by these two activities. Babies have been perceived as cute since the beginning of time. They feed and spit up, and between these two activities, they also cry. A lot. Young parents know the drill even before they become parents. While babies continue to be puking and mewling little adorable beings, the difference between then and now is that raising babies is a concerted effort between the parents. Stage 2: Schoolboy At this stage of life, the child is introduced to the world of discipline, order, and routine. The carefree days of infancy are over, and schooling brings about a regimen in the life of a child. Naturally, the child takes to whining and complaining about the forced routine. The concept of schooling has seen a great change since the time of Shakespeare. In Shakespeares time, school was a forced practice usually overseen by the church. Depending on the status of the parents, a child went to either a grammar school or a monastic school. School  began at sunrise and lasted the whole day. Punishments were common, and often harsh.   Modern schools are quite unlike their ancient counterparts. While some kids still whine and complain about going to school, many actually love school because of the play while you learn approach to schooling. Modern day schools have taken a holistic approach to education. Children are taught through role plays, visual presentations, demonstrations, and games. Homeschooling is another option that most parents prefer to formal schooling. Also, with the abundance of online resources, modern education has extended the boundaries of learning. Stage 3:  Teenager Teenagers in the medieval times were accustomed to social etiquettes of wooing a lady. The teenager during Shakespeares time pined for his lover, wrote elaborate verses of love ballads, and mooned over his object of desire. Romeo and Juliet  is an icon of romance during the period of Shakespeares. Love was sensual, deep, romantic, and full of grace and beauty. Compare this love to the teen love of today. The modern age teen is technically savvy, well-informed, and romantically astute. They dont express their love in amorous love letters. Who does that in the age of texting and social media? Relationships are not as elaborate, or romantic as they were for the medieval teenager. The youth of today is far more individual-centric and independent than those in Shakespeares time. Back in those days, relationships were nurtured towards matrimony. Nowadays, marriage is not necessarily the goal of every romantic affiliation, there is more sexual expression and less adherence to social structures such as monogamy. However, despite all these differences, the teenager of today is as angsty as the teenager of the medieval time. They have to deal with unrequited love, heartbreak, and depression just as those in ancient times. Stage 4: Youth The next stage Shakespeare talks about in the poem is that of a young soldier. In old England, young men were trained for combat. The young soldier developed an attitude of brash courage, raw passion mixed with the impetuous temper that is characterized by unwarranted rebellion. The youth of today have the same zeal and energy for rebellion. They are far more expressive, vocal, and assertive about their rights. Though the youth of today would not necessarily be enlisted for service in the army, they have enough avenues to form social groups to fight for a political or social cause. With social media platforms and the global reach of mass media, the young can reach their voice to the far corners of the world. A widespread reaction is almost instantaneous because of the global reach and effectiveness of propaganda.   Stage 5: Middle Age The middle age has hardly changed over the centuries. Middle age is the time when men and women settle down, and kids, family, and career take precedence over personal indulgences. Age brings wisdom and a sense of peaceful acceptance of realities of life. Idealistic values get pushed behind, while practical considerations become important. While the middle-aged man (and woman) of today have more options to further personal or professional interests, perhaps the medieval middle-aged man had fewer such options, and, not surprisingly, even less so the medieval woman. Stage 6: Old Age In medieval times, life expectancy hovered around 40, and a man of 50 would consider himself lucky to be alive. Depending on the social or economic class of the person, old age could be harsh or at best, ambivalent. Though the old were respected for their wisdom and experience, most old people suffered due to neglect and degeneration of physical and mental faculties. Those who were oriented towards religious pursuits fared better than the household man. Today, life is alive and vibrant for a 40-year-old. Many senior aged people (starting in their 70s) in the modern era are still actively involved in social activities, secondary occupations, or hobbies. Also, there are good retirement plans and financial devices available to make old age comfortable. It is not so uncommon for a healthy and young-at-heart senior citizen to go on a trip around the world, enjoy gardening or golf, or even continue to work or pursue higher education if they so desire. Stage 7: Extreme Old Age What Shakespeare talks about in this stage of man is an extreme form of aging, where the person is no longer able to perform basic tasks such as bathing, eating, and going to the toilet. Physical frailty and incapacity no longer allow them the freedom to live unassisted. During Shakespeares time, it was quite okay to treat old people as senile. In fact, in the Elizabethan era, where slavery and discrimination against women were highly prevalent, ageism  was hardly considered a problem. Old people were treated as little children, and as Shakespeare describes this stage as a second childhood, it was socially acceptable to treat the old with disdain. Todays modern society is more humane and sensitive to seniors. Though ageism still exists and is prevalent in many spheres, with growing awareness, seniors sans teeth, sans eyes, and sans taste still live with the dignity that ought to be afforded to the elderly.