Factors Affecting Consumer Buying Behaviour

Factors Affecting Consumer Buying Behaviour In the early history consumer behaviour has led to theories, research methods and background knowledge of the consumer economy and self-service concepts. Consumer behaviour in the 1950s is based on the concept of marketing through various alternative approaches. Widespread adoption of the marketing concept was the impetus for the study of consumer behaviour (Consumer Behaviour, Leon G. Schiff man, Leslie lazar Kanuk and Havard Hansen). To identify the unmet needs of consumers, companies have participated in extensive market research. So, they discovered that consumers are very complex, subject to various psychological and social needs. Thus, the concept of marketing has emphasized the importance of consumer research and laid the groundwork for the implementation of the principles of consumer behaviour in marketing strategy. It is interesting to note that even before the evaluation of the marketing concept, an intuitive understanding of consumer behaviour has been the key to the growt h of businesses. INTRODUCTION Now-a-days the organisations in any industry are concentrating on the gratification of the consumer needs and desires to run their business operations and eventually develop their business. Organisations are introducing number of activities to make the end user satisfied outside their business operations. (Anderson and Sullivan, 1993). Consumer Behaviour is the process individuals or groups go through to select, purchase, use and dispose of goods, services, ideas or experiences to satisfy their needs and desires. -By Solomon, Marketing Real People, Real decisions, Page-148 Sprott (1958) believes that the group of people around the consumer has become important factor to consider in the consumer buying decision in any industry. He also made known clearly that the group is number of people who act together, that may be a family, may be friends, and may be neighbours. The group that affects the buying behaviour of the consumer is also called Reference group. 2. FACTORS AFFECTS TO CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR The aim of marketing is to satisfy their customer needs and wants (Kotler, 2003; 182). The field of consumer behaviour is to identify that how a customer buys, uses any product and services and dispose it. Schiff man (2002) states that it is never simple to identify and understand consumer needs. However, the behaviour of consumer depends on some factors. There are number of factors in the study of consumer behaviour which plays important role in buying of any new product or services from the selling firm such as customer income, culture, technology, various types of personal factors. 1. Cultural factors: In the field of consumer behaviour, the cultural affects most to the consumer behaviour and within different types of societies. Managers of any firms must have to consider about psychological and behavioural effects (Cleveland and change, 2008). However, the subculture, social class are the also important factors of consumer behaviour. The firms can capture the picture of consumers needs and to identify their wants by indentifying the cultural of their societies. In addition, the cultural is the norms, rituals and traditional among the society (Solomon, 1999; 16). Rosenthal (1992) who identify that within culturally heterogeneous societies like the United States, and the countries of Western Europe, the psychological and behavioural consequences of ethnic group membership are of considerable importance. It is one type of lens through which people can view product and services. The consumer choices cannot be identified without taking culture context in which they are made. On the oth er side, there are some social activities and cultural activities which are considered to obtain the consumer behaviour (Foxall, 1993). Generally, the culture can be divided into the three parts namely cultural, sub-cultural and social class. The role of sub-cultural is to identify the nationalities, religions and geographic regional. In addition, it is quite important to understand about sub-cultural because it helps to the firms to provide the best services and product in the market size (Schiff man Kanuk, 2007). In addition, the all human societies exhibit social stratification and some time, it takes the form of a caste system. However the social class not only includes the income of person but it shows the level of education and occupation (Kotler, 2004; 185).The social class is not same in dressing style or speech patterns but it is different. So in the current situation, it is important to identify the dimensions of cultural before they are going to sell product and services (Solomon, 2007). In addition, the following is the theoretical model of the culture which identifies that how the cultural is affect to the consumer behaviour. Above diagram which presents that the consumer behaviour which is based on culture, values and social norms factors. and in addition, it shows that not only national culture is influence to the behaviour but also there are some religion, value, ethnic level which important when any customer is going to buy any product and services, However, Karanhanna and Evaristo (2005) who argued that the levels of the different cultural is based on the nature of consumer behaviour, thus behaviour which is include strong value and sub cultural. 2. Social factors: Human beings are social animals and our desire is to fit it and or to identify by individuals or groups which are the primary motivation for buying product and services in the services industry. After the cultural factors in the study of consumer behaviour, the Social factors also affect the consumer behaviour. From the early year, Peterson (1987) found that socialization which is determined the way of patterns of behaviour or the process by which the person can adopt social roles. Where the family is more powerful social factors, it affects the consumer behaviour rather than social norms. Furthermore, the social factors include self concept and personality. This social factors is affects by reference groups and family and social roles and statuses (Kotler, 2003; 184). A reference groups of person which include different types of groups like friendships groups, work and shopping groups that impact on consumer behaviour. 3. Personal Factors: The consumer behaviour also depends on the personal characteristics. The way of the consumer behaviour is determined by buyers age and stage in the life cycle, personal occupation, economic circumstances and lifestyle of person and also behaviour is affects by personality and self concept (Kotler, 2003). In addition, in the lifetime, people are not buying the same product and services, their need of product and services are changed by time to time. For the example, in the early year, the person used pager for the communication but nowadays, they are different, they prefer to buy mobile for the purpose of communication. Solomon (1999) argued that in the traditional societies, the lifestyle which is affecting a pattern of selecting product and services and also reflecting a person choice of how he/she spends time and money. In addition, today consumer is buying product and services over others because they are connected with other person lifestyles. However, the research found that the lifestyle of the person is changing by time to time. Nowadays, advertising is become most affecting factor to the consumer behaviour, because advertising is become essential to get information about new product and it result in better products for the public. Furthermore, the personality, product quality, self concept and self power, the way of product display methods are the major factors which impact on consumer behaviour in the services industry (Schiff man and Kanuk, 2007). 4. Psychological factors: Psychological factors play important role to determine the consumer behaviour. These factors are affected by four major factors like motivation, perception, and learning. This psychological factor decides the personality and lifestyle. The demonstration influence is also dependent upon psychology of an individual. Nowadays, learning is the major factors in the study of consumer behaviour because when people act, at that time, they learn something (Kotler, 2003). Furthermore, Learning can change the consumer behaviour from experience. Most of behaviour is learning from the current environment. Personality, lifestyles and attitudes are the major characteristics of consumers which provide understanding about consumer behaviour into the services industry (Schiff man, 2007). Consumers have a wide range of attitudes towards the product, services, advertisements, and internet and towards retail store. Whenever, any customers ask him/her self about product and services, at that time, we are being asked to express our attitudes. If any marketer wants to understand about attitudes of consumer, they need to understand about consumer beliefs towards product or services brand (Kotler, 2003). These beliefs and preference is attributing to define consumers attitudes towards a brand. In the study of consumer attitudes, the lifestyle is the most important concepts to understanding consumer behaviour (Simon, 1999). Most of researchers agree that there are three components like affect, behaviour and cognition. These all components are connected to each other. Where the affect which refers t o the attitudes object and in Behaviour, customer involves intentions to do something towards their attitudes object. The cognition refers the belief on attitudes object. This model of attitudes is called ABC model (Simon, 1999; p.207). To define the market, it is important for marketer to know about what customer is like or dislikes. However, from the early years, the researcher was estimated that family decision is one of important factors that affect on consumer purchase decision (Simon, 1999). In addition, Bonnet who identify that attitudes towards food product or high risk involving product is comes from family .However, the peer group, personality are the also major affecting factor which applicable to change customer buying behaviour. 3. CONSUMER BUYING DECISION MODEL From the early year, the research suggest that following is the way where customers go through five stages for their decision making process to buy product and services. This model is implies that customer pass this all stages in every single purchase process but some time, customer is not going to pass, they often skip or reverse some of the following stages. Need Recognition Information Search Evaluation of Alternatives Product Decision Post-Purchase Decision Table 3.2 (Stages in consumer decision making model) (Source: Marketing: Real People, Real Decisions by Solomon p.150 and Kotler, 2003, p.204). 1. Need Recognition: The process of the consumer buying decision process starts with problem recognition. This steps occurs when customers sees a significant difference between her/him current state or desired state (Bruner, 1987,) .At this phase, the consumer is faced with problem which may be large and small or complex (Solomon, 1999).The problem of the consumer at this steps depends on the nature of her/him needs, it also depends on environment where customers is living. This need which can be drive by either an internal (hunger) or external (passing through burger king stimulates hunger) stimuli. Some of demographic factors like Age, sex, income, education and marital status which are also inferred influence which affects need recognition. In addition, the Psychological factors like motivation are also basic of all consumers (Solomon and Michael, 2007). Moreover, Kotler (2006,) who argues that the perception factors reflect helps how the customers see her/him self as well as their surroundings. This perception is not only important for need recognition phase but also affect to other relevant phase. 2. Information search: In the consumer decision making process, once the problem has been recognized, they need to search some relevant information to solve it. In this phase, where the customer uses different types of way to gather information to fulfil their needs discussed above. Generally, the customer is going to search information by internal or external method. Internal sources applicable, when customer has a some memory about product or some have degree of knowledge. (solomon,1999;274-275).In contrast, where there is need more information about their needs, at this situation ,Generally , customer is prefer to use internal sources like to use advertising, friends, family, point-of-sale displays, radio, magazines. Nowadays, Internet is become necessary tools to adopt information. In addition, the use of an internet has rapidly grown from its early years (Comegys and Hannula, Vaisanen, 2006,). Moreever, in the services industry, customers prefers internet to choose product from information. 3. Evaluation of alternatives: After facing information about their needs, The third phase is evaluation of alternatives where generally, customer is focus to set up rules for choice of product and services, In addition, this phase is evaluate the way of choice of product and services like how does the customer process competitive brand information and make final judgments towards product ( Kotler, 2003; p.205-206). Kotler also identify the several concepts which contribute to understanding into this phase, where first of all, customer is mostly trying to get satisfaction towards needs. Second, the customer is looking certain benefit for their problem. Third, customer is sees product with different types of brands with their attributes, here attributes of customer is vary by product. However, the customer is try to find the alternatives for their product by set of brand beliefs where the each brands stands on each attributes. 4. Product decision: After evaluation stages, once the relevant category is established from the above phase , the choice must be made among them (putsis and srinivasan,1994 ).Here is the process which needs more attention on desired choice .The choice can be influence by internal factors like experience on product and services . First is an attitude of the others, where the attitudes of friend, family, social community which affect to the change the decision on desired choice. secondly, there might be some unexpected situational factors like price of choice product is suddenly gone up (Dubois, 2000).Furthermore, Dubois (2000) submits that when the customer is going to make purchase decision, at this time, still there is need to make some sub purchase decision like way of payment method, time of purchasing where the payment method and price is more major factors affects into mobile services industry. However, some times, the purchase decision phase fails because of perceived risk (Taylor, 1974,).Lack of confidence, the amount of attribute uncertainty are the major influence factors in the purchase decision stage. 5. Post Purchase Behaviour: After the Purchase decision, the post purchase phase occurs. Generally, if any sales representatives want customer come back again towards store, they should be able to understand the behaviour of customers. The post purchase phase is a complex process where satisfaction of customer is utilization. One of Researchers Henard, (1988) submits that the customer satisfaction evaluations can be influenced by consumer expectations and perceptions. Moreover, The Atmospherics is also plays important role in this phase (Hoffman and Turley, 2002). This phase can be divided into two way: post purchase satisfaction and post purchase actions (Kotler, 2006; 198-199) where generally research suggest that if the customers come back to the store, it means they are dissatisfied but Oliver (1999; 33-44,) argued that it does not mean that when customer come back because of being satisfied, they might be other reason when they come back. In addition to satisfaction in this phase include brand preference and repurchase intentions and how it is affect. Here brand is one of major factors in the services industry which is affect on satisfaction about product and services. 4. CONCLUSION Consumer buying process is an understanding of the appropriate fundamentals that impact upon individual buying decision making and the general process through which individual behave and make the decision is an imperative first stage in the development of any marketing communication plan (Fill, 2002), upon the basis of that understanding, marketer device the plan and try to implement well with the sales figure. But, despite all their efforts to pre-sell consumers through advertising, marketers increasingly are recognizing the significant degree to which many purchases are influenced by the store environment. It has been estimated that about two out of every three supermarket purchases are decided in the aisles. The proportion of unplanned purchases is even higher for some product categories (Solomon, 2002).The essay mainly deals with the theoretical approach to the consumer buying behaviour and provided the background about consumer buying behaviour in terms of organisation. However, in the first part of this essay is presented that it is important to understand consumer buying behaviour for firms that why consumers make the purchases that they have done and what type of factors affect to the buying behaviour. This essay also investigated the types of factors affect more to the consumer buying behaviour which is main objectives of the conducting research. Moreover, the essay also contains the theory about consumer buying decision model.

Charitable Organization and British Way

The article â€Å"The advert that beggars belief† by Alexander Chancellor is about beggars in India and Great Britain, they talk about how many beggars there are and what they are using their money on when they get some. Many people try to convince themselves that it's a stupid idea to give beggars money because they use them quite often on many stupid things. Westminster Council making a campaign there says if you give beggars money you â€Å"actually' are guilty in cause of theirs death.It is a bad campaign because they give a wakeup call to people and says it is a bad thing to give money to beggars and you should not do it, because you don't know what they are going to use their money on and if you do It you can cause their deaths. They call you to stop giving them money. 2. Give an outline of the carious attitudes to charity as expressed In texts. The four texts show the different views of giving charity, there are many ways to donate money today, from when you give a coi n to a beggar you see at the streets to end a text on your mobile phone to a charitable organization.The article â€Å"the advert that beggars belief' has a negative attitude to beggars, In Britain they don't want to give beggars money because they says It can cause their lives because they use the money on drugs or something like that. In the article â€Å"Charity never dies, It only sleeps† we hear about the British way of thinking to Improve our own and our families lives, It Is best also to Improve the lives of those around us. It Is a conservative way to think everyone has to be equal.In the article â€Å"the year of charltalnment† they talked about that there are so many charity organizations and you have to focus on one and that helps the famous people with, Angelina Jolle helps to focus on Sierra Leone. 3. Comment on the following statement â€Å"to Improve our own and our families' lives, It Is best also to Improve the lives of those around us. † In th e text â€Å"Charity never dies, It only sleeps† It Is the Brltlsh way of thinking: to Improve our own and our families' lives, It Is best also to Improve the lives of those round us.It Is on way out of many to think that everyone has to be equal, there are many people there think of this, and many people think that you have to be selfish about this, and don't give money to beggars. 4. Write a reply to the article The advert that beggars belief In the form of a letter to the edloter. Summary: Charitable Organization and British Way By Namer going to use their money on and if you do it you can cause their deaths. They call you 2. Give an outline of the carious attitudes to charity as expressed in texts. at beggars belief† has a negative attitude to beggars, in Britain they don't want to give beggars money because they says it can cause their lives because they use the money on drugs or something like that. In the article â€Å"Charity never dies, it only sleeps† w e hear about the British way of thinking to improve our own and our families lives, it is best also to improve the lives of those around us. It is a charitainment† they talked about that there are so many charity organizations and you have to focus on one and that helps the famous people with, Angelina Jolie helps .Comment on the following statement â€Å"to improve our own and our families' lives, it is best also to improve the lives of those around us. † In the text â€Å"Charity never dies, it only sleeps† it is the British way of thinking: to improve our own and our families' lives, it is best also to improve the lives of those around us. It is on way out of many to think that everyone has to be equal, there are 4. Write a reply to the article The advert that beggars belief in the form of a letter to the edioter.

A Killer Marketing Plan Essay

If you are the founder of a new startup or an existing business it’s highly recommended that you develop a roadmap that will get you from where you are today to where you want to be tomorrow, six months from now, or a year or longer down the road. The roadmap is a guide to help you overcome roadblocks, prevent costly mistakes and eliminate time-consuming detours that can prevent you from attaining your goals, and reaching your ultimate destination. We typically refer to this roadmap as a marketing plan. A marketing plan should be a formal written document, not recalled from memory or something scribbled on a napkin. To take your business to the next level requires preparing a written marketing action plan. There are 12 recognized marketing planning models in use today. The Top 5 most popular marketing planning models include: * 7 P’s Marketing Matrix – The seven elements of the marketing mix: Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process and Physical evidence , form the core tactical components (see below) of the marketing plan. * Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning – This three stage process involves analysing which distinct customer groups exist and which segment the product best suits before implementing the communications strategy tailored for the chosen target group. * SOSTAC ® – This acronym stands for Situation, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Actions and Control and is a very popular classic marketing planning framework for creating marketing plans. SOSTAC is more comprehensive and borrows elements of several of the other popular marketing planning models. * Ansoff’s Growth Strategy Matrix – Ansoff’s Growth Strategy Matrix identifies alternative growth strategies by looking at present and potential products in current and future markets. The four growth strategies include: market penetration, market development, product development and diversification. * Porter’s Five Forces – In a blog post dated November 21, 2011, I covered Michael E. Porter’s Five Forces marketing planning model. The Five Forces are Rivalry, Supplier Power, Threat of Substitutes, Buyer Power and Barriers to Entry and are used to analyse the industry context in which the organisation operates. Porter’s Five Forces are required reading in any graduate course on Marketing or Strategic Planning. For my money, the SOSTAC ® marketing planning model is the model I use the most when developing marketing plans. First, let’s begin by defining what SOSTAC is: What is SOSTAC ®? SOSTAC ® is a marketing planning model, originally developed in the 1990s to help with marketing planning by PR Smith, who together with Dave Chaffey co-authored Emarketing Excellence. SOSTAC ® stands for: * Situation – where are we now? * Objectives – where do we want to be? * Strategy – how do we get there? * Tactics – how exactly do we get there? * Action – what is our plan? * Control – did we get there? SOSTAC has been used to develop marketing plans for a broad range of industries. Here’s how SOSTAC is used to summarise the main issues to consider within a digital marketing strategy: You can see it gives a logical order for tackling your plan (with iterations) and a great way to summarise the main elements of each. Why is SOSTAC ® useful? SOSTAC ® has become very popular since it’s simple, easy to remember and covers all the main issues which you need in a marketing plan or business plan. Tips for using SOSTAC ®Ã‚  Here are some tips on how to use SOSTAC ® based on Chaffey’s experience applying the model in companies and in academia. 1. Use SOSTAC ® to review your process – Before looking at how you apply SOSTAC ® at each step to create a marketing plan, use it to review your planning process and how you manage your marketing. Ask yourself what you and your organisation are good at. Maybe you spend too much or too little time reviewing the situation. Perhaps you’re not so good at setting SMART objectives, or developing strategies to support them or the control stage of assessing how effective your strategies and tactics are and adjusting them? 2. Get the balance right across SOSTAC ® – Oftentimes, there is too much time spent on analysis within a plan and not enough on setting the strategies. So as a rule of  thumb, this is how your balance of content could look: Situation Analysis (20%), Objectives (5%), Strategy (45%) and Tactics (30%) = 100% 3. Summarise your Situation in a SWOT Analysis – To give focus to your situation analysis it is recommended that you utilize this form of SWOT analysis. This helps integrate SWOT with strategy. I also recommend that you read my blog post dated November 29, 2011 on how to prepare a SWOT analysis to plan for the future of your company. 4. Make your goals SMART and link them to your analytics/control process – Since digital marketing is so measurable, it makes sense to be specific as possible about your goals by developing a funnel conversion model. You should also setup specific goals in Google Analytics. But it’s worth thinking about the full range of goals indicated by the 5Ss. 5. Integrate the different elements of your SWOT Analysis – Oftentimes in a plan or report there isn’t good flow relating sections. To help this I recommend summarising your entire SOSTAC ® plan within a table. It’s important to note that a marketing plan can be for a product (the iPhone), a series of similar products (e.g. mobile devices) or an all-encompasing plan for a company. General Rules For Creating A Killer Marketing Plan There is no shortage of general rules for developing marketing plans, but if you want to create a killer marketing plan I have found that the following general rules work the best: * Stay focused – Don’t try to â€Å"boil the ocean† by going overboard or overstate the case with too many ideas, products or services. Know what your core business is going to be. Focus on one product or service at a time. * Where Are You Today – You must know where you are today in order to develop a roadmap to where you want to be in the future. * Keep Things Simple – Less is better. Avoid long sentences. Be brief. Avoid geeky tech terminology and acronyms. Use bullet points. Embellish with graphs, charts and images. * Be Realistic – Set realistic and measurable goals. Don’t try to conquer the world. Set goals that you can reasonably accomplish. * Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses – Take an inventory of your individual and management teams strengt hs and weaknesses. * Do Your Homework – Before you do anything do your research. Know your market, your ideal customers, market niches, your competitors, latest trends,  barriers-to-entry, methods of opeation, distribution channels, pricing models, and promotions and advertising methods used in the industry. The Key Steps To Develop A Killer Marketing Plan Using SOSTAC ® For large corporations it is not too unusual to see 100 page marketing plans. For a small startup, a marketing plan should be between 10-15 pages in length including graphs, charts and tables. The Apple iPhone launch marketing strategy provided above is a great example. Before you start preparing your marketing plan make sure that you have completed sufficient market research to determine if your idea, product or service is viable given all that you know about the marketplace you are entering. Situational Analysis – Where are we now? This is where you take inventory of where you are right now. I recommend that you conduct your market research before you prepare your marketing plan. The Situational Analysis should include the following: * Product or Service – Describe the product or service in simple terms. Describe the market need filled or problem your product or service solves. Identify the total value proposition your produce or service offers customers. * Market and Competition – Describe the type, size and geographic location of the market in which your product or service will compete, competitive landscape including the number of competitors, major competitors, direct competitors, market shares, market niches, stage of development and market trends. * Target Customers – Identify the individuals or organizations (â€Å"target market†) and customer segments you are targeting. In some cases, you may have more than one target market. Determine the following: * Who needs your product or service and why? * What is the profile of your ideal customer and what are their attributes? * How many potential customers are there? * How many different customer niches are there? * Is the target market or market niches underserved? * Describe your customers by their shared characteristics for individuals and organizations. * Individuals – Describe them by demographics: age, income, geographic location, and lifestyle. * Organizations – Describe them by number of employees, sales, geographic location,  and industry. * SWOT Analysis – Identify your competitive strengths and weaknesses, business opportunities and potential threats. Arrange your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats into a four-quadrant grid like the one below: The purpose of a SWOT Analysis is to help you build on your business’ strengths, minimize and correct the weaknesses, and take the greatest possible advantage of potential opportunities while formulating a plan to deal with potential threats. Think of a SWOT Analysis as a checkup for your business. Be honest with yourself, if you lack a strong marketing and sales team, list it as a weakness. I also recommend that you read my blog post datedNovember 29, 2011 on how to prepare a SWOT analysis to plan for the future of your company. * Management Team – List the key members of your present management team and very brief description of their business and industry experience and education. If you believe you will need to add key individuals to the management team list their position, title and duties. * Milestones Accomplished – Elaborate on significant milestones that have accomplished to date. Include major new customers, revenues, no of unique visitors, downloads, new patents, major personnel additions and awards. Objectives – Where do you want to be? * Goals and Objectives – Set realistic goals and objectives. Make sure your goals and objectives are measureable and achievable. Measure them against your own efforts and abilities, not your competitors. There are two types of goals and objectives: * Quantitative – Those with specific, measurable results and numbers. * Qualitative – Those that increase value, like improving image or visibility. Strategy – How do we get there? Your marketing strategies answer the big question: HOW do you get from where you are today to where you want to be tomorrow? Be creative and brainstorm with your team. Don’t think in terms of what other organizations or individuals have done, but how you are going to get it done. Your marketing strategies should include the following: * Core Marketing Message – Your core marketing message is a short description of your business, products and services, employees, core values, business philosophy, mission and value proposition you bring to the customer  relationship. Your core message should project what makes you unique and be conveyed in a manner that instantly connects with your ideal customers. * Define Your Brand – Your brand isn’t just your corporate identity like your logo, tag line, motto or its visual associations such as unique design, colors or packaging, but the relationship you have with your customers. Your brand’s value proposition in cludes everything you have promised your customers: quality products, great prices, better selection, great service, more locations, moneyback guarantee, free delivery, etc. * Positioning Statement – How you intend to position your company in the marketplace. Will you compete on the basis of differentiation (e.g. technology leader, quality, durability, broad selection, etc.), target a specific market niche (e.g. Affluent, professionals, SMB’s, management, etc) or compete on the basis of price (e.g. luxury, premium, medium, bargain or low price). Explain why you have chosen this particular market position. * Business Model – According to Peter Drucker, the late Harvard management guru, â€Å"A business model is nothing else than a representation of how an organization makes (or intends to make) money.† But, a business model is far more than this. Mark W. Johnson, the Harvard professor and author of â€Å"Seizing The White Space,† says that a business model consists of three components: 1) It identifies an important job a customer needs to get done and then proposing an offering that fulfills that job better than any alternative the customer can turn to–in short, the customer value proposition (CVP), 2) A pricing model and profit formula that shows quantitatively that you can make a profit delivering on the CVP, and 3) You can identify which company resources and which processes are essential to delivering the CVP. To develop your business model I highly recommend that you read my blog post dated November 5, 2011, January 26, 2012, and February 26, 2012. * Pricing Model – Describe the methodology you will use to set prices for your products and services. Prices should reflect competitive factors, economic conditions, nature of the market and how you intend to position yourself in the marketplace. Pricing should take into account fixed and variable costs associated with each product or service, so that you can generate a sufficient gross profit. Prices and profit margins should be determined by distribution channel. Describe if you will use different price levels depending on quantities ordered and type of customer. * Launch Strategy  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Describe your go-to-market strategy for your product or service. Describe when, the method used to announce your market entry, and how you will manage your market entry during the first 30-to-90 days. * Distribution Strategy – Describe the distribution channels you will utilize to get your product or service to your target market (e.g. direct-to-consumer, ecommerce, retail stores, dealers and distributors, infomercials, mail order catalog, direct mail, email, etc.) and specific reasons you are using each channel. * Sales Strategy – Describe who is actually going to sell your product or service. Will you be using inside sales personnel, inbound or outbound sales personnel, outside sales personnel, manufacturer’s representatives, independent salespeople or network marketing personnel. * Advertising and Promotions Strategy – Determine what media channels you will use to market and promote your products and services to your target market (e.g. print ads, television, radio, direct marketing, ecommerce, social media and events). The types of media channels you will use will depend on your unique requirements, budget constraints, and practices within your industry. * Public Relations Strategy – Describe the methods you will utilize to inform, communicate and educate your public (e.g. customers, media, vendors, academia) about your company and its products and services. * Strategic Alliances – Describe the nature and type of third-party alliances you anticipated will be needed in order to compete effectively in the marketplace. * Word-of-Mouth – Describe how and the methods you will utilize to create word-of-mouth. A few final pointers about developing marketing strategies: * Think strategic first – Too many individuals believe that the marketing tactics — the newsletters, press kits, trade shows, banners, 800-numbers, display advertisements, logos and giveaways — comes before the marketing strategies. Those promotional, publicity and advertising tactics should be contained within a well-orchestrated marketing action plan. But first create your marketing strategy items that will generate leads, build awareness and enhance credibility. * Make the first the last. The executive summary consists of a one-page, top-level summary of the entire marketing plan. It’s placed at the front of the document, but it’s the last thing you’ll write. Its purpose is to convey the gist of the plan to stakeholders,  investors and anyone else who needs to know these facts in a hurry: * The scope of the plan in an outlined paragraph. * The product or service being marketed. * For whom the plan is being prepared. * The time period the plan covers. * The geographic area where the implementation occurs. * The strategic messages and the tactics to get them to the target markets. Tactics – How exactly do we get there This is where you list the specific action steps or programs to achieve each marketing strategy (see above). If you are going to use billboards to advertise your product, indicate the name of the outdoor advertising company, the number of billboards, their geographic locations, cost per billboard and total amount. If you will be conducting focus groups to conduct market research and get feedback about your product, indicate the name of the research firm, dates focus groups will be conducted, cost per focus group and total amount. You should include deadlines and key dates for executing all of your marketing activities. * Media Tactics – If you will invest in different types of media to communicate your core marketing message and product or service offering divide your media into paid, non-paid and non-traditional media. * Paid media: direct mail, newspaper, radio, TV, billboards, direct sales. * Non-paid media – Referred to as public relations because it is exposure through traditional media without paying for advertising in that media. * Non-traditional media: includes everything else — sponsorships, ad specialties,shows/events, electronic media and the Internet. Action – What is our plan? Your business model is the one piece of the marketing plan that puts it all together for you. In a blog post dated February 6. 2012, Floodgate Fund co-founder Ann Muira-Ko says, â€Å"Its the business model that matters the most, rather than the business plan.† According to Miura-Ko, business models do a better job of unearthing assumptions about a company’s users, customers, pricing, demand creation, sales channels, supply chain, and overall logistics – all critical components to building a successful business. A business model answers all the 4 W’s (Who, What, Where and  Why) and the all important How you are going to do it as it relates to the following: * Core marketing message. * Components of your brand identity. * Customer value proposition (CVP). * Industry or market. * Target customers. * Competitive landscape. * Industry life cycles. * Pricing model. * Value chain. * Operations. According to Peter Drucker, the late Harvard management guru said. â€Å"A business model is nothing else than a representation of how an organization makes (or intends to make) money.† But, a business model is far more than this. Mark W. Johnson, the Harvard professor and author of â€Å"Seizing The White Space,† says that a business model consists of three components: 1. It identifies an important job a customer needs to get done and then proposes an offering that fulfills that job better than any alternative the customer can turn to–in short, the customer value proposition (CVP). 2. A pricing model and profit formula that shows quantitatively that you can make a profit delivering on the CVP. 3. identifying which company resources and which processes are essential to delivering the CVP. Use the Business Model Canvas (see below) to guide you in the preparation of your business model provides the answers to the four W’s and the How. The business model canv as is divided into nine grids: * Strategic partners. * Key activities. * Value proposition. * Customer relationship. * Customer segment. * Key resources. * Distribution channels. * Costs. * Revenues. The Business Model Canvas (Click Image To Enlarge) To develop your business model I highly recommend that you read my previous blog posts dated November 5, 2011, January 26, 2012, and February 26, 2012. Control – Did we get there? Establishing a marketing budget allows you to establish quantitative goal and measure actual performance against those goals. Here’s how a marketing budget can help assist you manage, control and measure the return-on-investment (ROI) from the execution of your marketing plan: * Marketing budgets allow you to put a quantitative value to every strategy, tactic or program built into your marketing plan. * Marketing budgets allow you to establish specific budget line items, including sales and related marketing expenses. * Marketing budgets allow you to evaluate and make the best marketing decisions. * Marketing budgets place a cap on every budget line item forcing you to work within those budget constraints. Having a marketing budget in place allows you to evaluate marketing decisions such as advertising in the yellow pages, hiring sales reps or conducting a PR program based on the amount of business a particular initiative generates. Track each initiative and evaluate what worked, what didn’t. Marketing budgets should be established by month, quarter and year so that you can gauge your performance and make adjustments to insure you are within budget. This allows you to determine if you are meeting your stated quantitative goals monthly, quarterly and yearly. Sample Marketing Plan Budget Here’s an excellent of an annual marketing plan budget for a software business: Click Image To Enlarge Apple’s iPhone Launch Marketing Strategy Analysis Example Here’s a great example of the Apple iPhone launch marketing strategy by Borislav Kilprin: Apple’s iPhone Launch Marketing Strategy Analysis View more documents from Borislav Kiprin I often use Steve Jobs’ â€Å"Digital Hub Strategy† (see my blog posts dated August 31, 2011 and January 20, 2012) for inspiration and as a great  example of a grand vision and all-encompasing marketing strategy for a company. On January 9, 2001, Steve Jobs gave a great presentation at MacWorld where he introduced the public to the concept of the Digital Hub, when he said that the PC was not dead, but was evolving. Steve Jobs declared that the Mac would become â€Å"the digital hub for the digital lifestyle,† an emerging digital trend driven by the internet and an explosion in digital devices: digital camera’s, videocam’s, portable music players, PDA’s and DVD video players. Steve’s idea was to use the Mac as a way to add value to those devices by making them more useful by allowing users to share digital files and be able to combine text, images, video and sound to heighten the overal digital experience. Steve Jobs’ 7 Success Principles When you stop and analyze the Digital Hub Strategy you will discover that Steve Jobs’ 7 Success Principles are evident everywhere: * Do what you love. Steve Jobs once told a group of employees, â€Å"People with passion can change the world for the better.† Jobs has followed his heart his entire life and that passion, he says, has made all the difference. It’s very difficult to come up with new, creative, and novel ideas unless you are passionate about moving society forward. * Put a dent in the universe. Passion fuels the rocket, but vision directs the rocket to its ultimate destination. In 1976, when Jobs and Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple, Jobs’ vision was to put a computer in the hands of everyday people. In 1979, Jobs saw an early and crude graphical user interface being demonstrated at the Xerox research facility in Palo Alto, California. He knew immediately that the technology would make computers appealing to â€Å"everyday people.† That tec hnology eventually became The Macintosh, which changed everything about the way we interact with computers. Xerox scientists didn’t realize its potential because their â€Å"vision† was limited to making new copiers. Two people can see the exactly the same thing, but perceive it differently based on their vision. * Kick start your brain. Steve Jobs once said â€Å"Creativity is connecting things.† Connecting things means seeking inspiration from other industries. At various times, Jobs has found inspiration in a phone book, Zen meditation, visiting India, a food processor at Macy’s, or The Four Seasons hotel chain. Jobs doesn’t â€Å"steal† ideas as much as he uses ideas from other industries to inspire his  own creativity. * Sell dreams, not products. To Steve Jobs, people who buy Apple products are not â€Å"consumers.† They are people with hopes, dreams and ambitions. He builds products to help people achieve their dreams. He once said, â€Å"some people think you’ve got to be crazy to buy a Mac, but in that craziness we see gen ius.† How do you see your customers? Help them unleash their inner genius and you’ll win over their hearts and minds. * Say no to 1,000 things. Steve Jobs once said, â€Å"I’m as proud of what we don’t do as I am of what we do.† He is committed to building products with simple, uncluttered design. And that commitment extends beyond products. From the design of the iPod to the iPad, from the packaging of Apple’s products, to the functionality of the Web site, in Apple’s world, innovation means eliminating the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. * Create insanely great experiences. The Apple store has become the world’s best retailer by introducing simple innovations any business can adopt to create deeper, more emotional connections with their customers. For example, there are no cashiers in an Apple store. There are experts, consultants, even geniuses, but no cashiers. Why? Because Apple is not in the business of moving boxes; they are in the business of enriching lives. Big difference. * Master the message. Steve Jobs is the world’s greatest corporate storyteller, turning product launches into an art form. You can have the most innovative idea in the world, but if you can’t get people excited about it, it doesn’t matter. Apple’s Five Key Pillars For Product Success When you dig down into the roots of the Digital Hub Strategy it is all about the product. I have identified five key elements or pillars of strength that have been important in Apple’s product successes: * Creating products that disrupt existing industry paradigms. * Creating products that Apple engineers themselves would love to use. * Creating products that customers don’t know they need yet. * Creating elegant, simple and minimalist products that â€Å"people will lust for.† * Controlling every aspect of the product, including the design, engineering, intellectual property, components, operating systems, applications software, manufacturing, distribution, customer service, advertising and pricing. The Digital Hub Strategy has endured the test of time and every new product  launched by Apple represents a â€Å"spoke† in the Digital Hub. In essence, the Digital Hub Strategy has not only become Apple’s core business strategy, but also its grand vi sion.

Public Participation At San Diego Unified District School...

Public participation is an important aspect of any community and benefits realized from inculcating it in the system of any public setup treats any possible problem. Some of the core merits any public institution produces is enabling the community to participate in decision-making and planning. For this reason, they are more likely to interact with established mechanisms. Moreover, apart from helping bring about a sense of community, public participation enables institutions to set goals and objectives that suit that long-term service delivery. San Diego Unified district school is among the many educational centers in the United States that have embraced this useful method to warrant continuous progress. Therefore, they recently organized a school board meeting on 27th September 2016 to provide an update on what was going on in the institution as well give the public an opportunity to discuss their concerns and contributions. This paper analyzes the nature and role of public particip ation in uniting the community and institutions that serve its members. Evidently, although the meeting had some hitches in terms of short notices and low ethnic representation, it was successful because the community and the institution discussed agenda and non-agenda matters and settled for proposals to increase engagement in the future. The meeting was intended to highlight key issues as stipulated in the agenda. These were recognizing achievements of Maya Salameh who won a national poetryShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Marka, Sample And Prose Presentation1128 Words   |  5 PagesThis instrument is appropriate for investigating all California public schools because it is a holistic and comprehensive dataset that all schools are required to provide data for: â€Å"as of February 2014, OCR received OMB approval to require every public school and school district in the country to respond to both the 2013-14 CRDC† (U.S. Department of Education, 2016). The OCR documentation aims to get full participation from schools, and therefore missing data is negligible. The dataset includes aRead More Implementing Uniforms into Schools Essay1679 Words   |  7 PagesImplementing Uniforms into Schools The argument whether uniforms should be implemented in school has been debated over the last few decades. By implementing a uniform policy within schools would help reduce the rise of violent crimes. In today’s high schools, too many innocent youths become fatalities due to gang warfare that has spread into the school system. Many parents feel that if a uniform policy was implemented , the spread of gang warfare and the idea that children have to have name brandRead MoreThe Career Technical Education Model Curriculum Standards1552 Words   |  7 Pageseconomy require more complex knowledge and skills than the jobs of the past. The California Department of Education and the California State Board of Education are pleased to present the California Career Technical Education Framework for California Public Schools, Grades Seven through Twelve. The California Career Technical Education Model Curriculum Standards, Grades Seven Through Twelve, adopted by the State Board of Educati on (SBE) in 2005, was designed to help achieve that goal by providing educatorsRead MoreEssay on Obesity in San Diego County: A Winnable Battle5475 Words   |  22 PagesObesity in San Diego County; A Winnable Battle. B. Community: San Diego County is located in the south eastern corner of California and lies geographically north of the Mexican Border and south of Orange and Riverside County. (Appendix 1, Fig 1.) It covers an area greater than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined, measuring 4,525.52 square miles.(San Diego County, 2010) In addition to San Diego City, the county comprises of 18 incorporated cities. It is has 193 square miles thatRead MoreDevelopment of a Math Laboratory at the Professional Development School2830 Words   |  12 PagesDEVELOPMENT OF A MATH LABORATORY AT THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SCHOOL Presented to the Faculty Development Committee Dr. Sheila Mehigan Assistant Professor of Education March 11, 2002 RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSAL TITLE OF THE PROJECT: DEVELOPMENT OF A MATH LABORATORY AT THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SCHOOL {PDS} PROJECT SUMMARY This project is being developed for the purpose of funding a math laboratory to be set up during the 2002-2003 school year where preservice (college students) will work with at-riskRead MoreCostco Due Diligence Report28823 Words   |  116 Pagesthe first warehouse club for business shoppers only. The warehouse was located in a remodeled airplane hangar on Morena Boulevard in San Diego, California. 1979 * After a $750,000 loss the first year of operation, Price Club now has two locations, 900 employees, 200,000 members, and a profit of $1 million dollars. 1980 * The Price Company offers public stock on July 12th. 1982 * Jeff Brotman and Jim Sinegal meet and draw up plans to start a new wholesale club business. 1983Read More_x000C_Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis355457 Words   |  1422 PagesStatistics and Data Analysis This page intentionally left blank Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis Third Edition Roxy Peck California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Chris Olsen George Washington High School, Cedar Rapids, IA Jay Devore California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Australia †¢ Brazil †¢ Canada †¢ Mexico †¢ Singapore †¢ Spain †¢ United Kingdom †¢ United States Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis, Third Edition Roxy Peck, ChrisRead MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 Pagessucceed. Visit www.mymanagementlab.com to learn more. DEVELOPING MANAGEMENT SKILLS EIGHTH EDITION David A. Whetten BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY Kim S. Cameron UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Prentice Hall Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montreal Toronto Delhi Mexico City Sao Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo Editorial Director: Sally Yagan Editor in Chief: Eric Svendsen AcquisitionsRead MoreFundamentals of Hrm263904 Words   |  1056 PagesManager Training and implementation support www.wileyplus.com/accountmanager MAKE IT YOURS! Fundamentals of Human Resource Management Tenth Edition David A. DeCenzo Coastal Carolina University Conway, SC Stephen P. Robbins San Diego State University San Diego, CA Tenth Edition Contributor Susan L. Verhulst Des Moines Area Community College Ankeny, IA John Wiley Sons, Inc. Associate Publisher Executive Editor Senior Editoral Assistant Marketing Manager Marketing AssistantRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesOrganizational Behavior This page intentionally left blank Organizational Behavior EDITION 15 Stephen P. Robbins —San Diego State University Timothy A. Judge —University of Notre Dame i3iEi35Bj! Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montreal Toronto Delhi Mexico City Sao Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo Editorial Director: Sally Yagan Director of Editorial Services: