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Marketing Training
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Marketing Management Advice The following are the most popular expert advice articles on marketing management: Marketing Management Advice 1 Marketing & Sales - is a direct or indirect approach best? I've discussed many topics related to High Technology companies over the last several months. One fundamental subject I haven't explored in detail is the promotion of High Tech products. This is a favorite topic of mine, since I tend to become heavily involved with promotional activities with clients, as part of my consulting practice. Many of my clients are at a stage where gaining (or regaining) market traction is crucial to moving the company forward. So finding successful, profitable promotional programs is quite often one of the key activities that we're concentrating on early in a consulting engagement. Same old, same old doesn't work So what's the best way to promote software and other technology products? If you're asking that question, thinking there's an actual answer, you are likely on a path to failure. One-size-fits-all promotional programs rarely work, and if they do, it's probably just lucky. The most important thing to remember about promotion (and marketing in general) is that each company and product line is a unique situation. Even with the exact same company and product line, a promotional program that worked 12 months ago has a high chance of failure today. Markets are not static, particularly fast moving, high growth technology markets. And there is a wide range of market types within the high technology business sector. The proper promotional approach for a $100,000 software package with 1000 potential customers is far different from the best approach for a $49 software package with 5 million potential targets. If you find yourself falling back on some tried and true formula, you're thinking "behind" the market, not "ahead" of it. I always chuckle a bit when I see ads for a new VP Marketing that is seeking candidates only from 10 specific software companies that have had recent success in a particular market. It's very likely that one of those candidates will bring along the "formula" that made "Giant Software Company C" a huge success. Unfortunately, the strategy may be terribly inappropriate for their new company, particularly at a new time/market stage. This is an example of "shooting behind the market"—and with promotional programs, thinking ahead of the market is required. The reason is what usually works in promotions are novel new approaches (or new spins on old approaches, or approaches from other markets). Once something works, others in the market take notice, and the copy-cat campaigns flood the communication channels, and greatly reduce a successful program's effectiveness. Nothing works forever, so you need to constantly being trying to find the next new promotional program—again, out ahead of the market. It's similar to when the coach of a sports team installs a new system for his team—it throws the competition off balance for a time, but they eventually adjust, and match or counteract what is providing the advantage. First Art So how do you approach finding a successful promotional program for your company—do you just guess? Well, not quite. I always say that promotion is a combination of "Art" and "Science"and unfortunately, one that is dramatically underutilized. Marketing promotional programs are all too often put together haphazardly, without much analysis of the specific situation. Often they are designed in a certain way because the VP Marketing or CEO has always done it that way, or are comfortable with it. Executives without much marketing experience like to see print ads, because in their minds, that's marketing promotion. Of if the VP Sales is involved, Trade shows might be what he's used to. Or seminar promotions might be preferred, if the executive comes from a market with high price points. While all of these methods may be very applicable to an individual situation, they are, on average, some of the higher cost, lower return activities in the promotion bag of tricks. I see thousands (and sometimes millions) of dollars wasted on programs that have been given very little thought, prior to large execution expenditures. Worse yet, these programs are often approved and implemented with no ability to judge whether or not the chosen programs end up being a good investment for the company. This brings me to the measurement part of promotional marketing. I've never been a big fan of marketing programs which aren't measurable. When measurement doesn't occur, it's often because program implementation just isn't thought through well enough, and accurate measures could have been put in place—but aren't. Some programs however, such as "Image Advertising", just don't lend itself to correlating the program results to the corporation's performance. While there is, again, a place for such programs, I recommend that they be left to those monster corporations who can afford ambiguous results within some segment of a very large budget. For the preponderance of companies out there for which every nickel counts, I highly recommend that you stubbornly stick to programs with results you can easily measure. A question that often arises when my consulting practice engages with early stage companies is "How should we sell our product? Should we build a sales force, or sell through distributors, dealers or OEM partners?" The answer, like most topics discussed in this forum, is rarely as simple or straightforward as the question itself. It depends—on a lot of different factors. First of all, if direct, does that mean building an expensive direct sales force, or a marketing driven model with direct sales from a website? If indirect, does it mean distribution through 11,000 mass retailers, or a select few, highly specialized, technical Systems Integrators? There are so many different options within the direct vs. indirect argument. I will tell you upfront that I have a bias toward using multiple channels—direct and indirect—if at all possible. It's always been my opinion that this is usually the best way of achieving the highest total return, from the high product development investments that are typical in the technology industry. But that's a general rule, and one that won't always hold up in individual cases. Author: Phil Morettini Marketing Management Advice 2 Management Training For A Developing Business One of the hardest transitions in business is turning your winning business from a small enterprise of 1-3 people into a proper organisation that has the capacity to grow. Often the problem that entrepreneurs and small businesses face is that they do not know how to organize their business to achieve growth and as a result they suffer. This happens in spite of the fact that their product or business is successful. Fortunately there are often simple answers to these problems; answers that can be achieved through training. Many management training providers offer training to help you with organizational change. Unlike a lot of training courses the most beneficial training is bespoke. With bespoke training the training provider will deliver training based specifically around your business. This unique approach means that analysis will be made based specifically on your business and the results of that analysis will determine the type of training you receive. Although each training scenario is unique the provider will often utilize competency frameworks to objectively analyse the performance of the company to measure the success of the training. Management training can be provided for senior management when implementing change in your organisation. This will prepare the organisation for a wide variety of change. Perhaps you are looking to vertically integrate or work toward becoming an international organisation. Whatever your aims may be it is important that you are prepared for the change. The transition stage in a company's progression is one of the most dangerous times for them. They can become vulnerable at this time as many people may not be aware of their new role in the company and often this is when the organisation can become fragmented. This is the main source of failure in many companies. But with management training you can maintain cohesion and manage the change effectively thus making the time of change a time for strengthening as opposed to weakening. Management training is often delivered with extensive analysis to ensure it has been a success. The quality of the management pre-training can be analysed through surveys and reports which are both qualitative and quantitative. This gives the training provider a benchmark upon which they can instigate improvements. Similar analysis can then be taken after the training has taken place so that its effectiveness can be monitored. Analysing the attitude of your customers to your company can be a key indicator of how well your management staff are performing. Surveys and questionnaires completed by your customers could indicate how efficient the communication in your company is. Qualitative data from your clients will often reveal how motivated your lower level staff are. This in turn will show how well your management are able to provide motivation. On the whole if your customers are satisfied your company will be successful. This mantra has to be recognised and followed from the top of the chain of command to the bottom. Psychometric testing is a very useful tool for management training. It will provide a great deal of quantitative information about your management staff. It will enable your management staff to recognise their management styles and the variety of learning styles that the people they manage will respond to. This will mean they are able to improve their own performance as managers and as a result improve the performance of the employees that work under them. Psychometric testing is most beneficial as a method of encouraging your management staff to be self-reflective and to look at the way they conduct themselves with their subordinates. It is a fascinating process that will undoubtedly improve the performance of your organisation. Author: Shaun Parker
Marketing Management Advice 3 Internet Marketing Consulting Services The concept of internet marketing is not new. However, the positive use of the Internet has been constantly benefiting the organizations to reach to its ultimate clients effectively in comparatively less time. Internet marketing has proven an effective method for an organization to promote, advertise, sell, or distribute products or services in the market. Internet marketing is quite techno-functional; therefore a person needs to be abreast with the changing technological trends otherwise it would be difficult to remain competitive in the Internet market. Services included in Internet Marketing Services The special service of training can be availed through email, newsletters, and promotional content formatting, message previewing, outgoing message editing, display formatting, personalized messaging, link structures to search engines, and many others; matching to your needs and requirements. Benefits Since the market is expanding day-by-day, companies require an expert and skilled opinion to gain from the ongoing marketing wave. In order to avail the best benefits of online business demands, regular updation of technology and market environments is required. However, by approaching the right Internet marketing consulting experts, one can get their website to pull its share of the load and add new business. Internet Marketing Consultants are professional people, specialized in helping businesses grow with a variety of internet marketing consulting services. By implementing different strategic methods, these experts strive to provide higher return on investment for companies. Internet marketing is transforming the companies’ prospects and with the help of internet marketing consultants, appropriate consulting can be availed. Author: Editor-123 Marketing Management Advice 4 Strategic Marketing Or Marketing in Aviation
Marketing strategies include a wide variety of techniques aimed to
deliver customer satisfaction and safety. New product and services
development, technological changes mark the main strategic activities in
this market segment. Technology, being a universal factor that crosses
national and cultural boundaries, plays the crucial role in aviation and
aerospace industry. It should be mentioned that technology is truly
"stateless"; there are no cultural boundaries limiting its application.
Once aviation technology is developed, it soon becomes available
virtually everywhere in the world. New transportation technology significantly reduces the level of
prices. The costs associated with physical distribution both in terms of
money and time have been greatly reduced as well. The per-unit cost of
shipping automobiles from Japan and Korea to the United States by
specially designed auto-transport ships is less than the cost of
overland shipping from Detroit to either U.S. coast. Another key
innovation has been increased utilization of 20- and 40-foot metal
containers that can be transferred from trucks to railroad cars to
ships. Marketing departments in aviation and airline industry work closely
with R&D departments to ensure that the products which are developed are
those which cater for the changing needs of target customers and
different needs of varying customer segments. In recent years, high
failure rates in the introduction of new products have led departments
to be very risk averse, with most 'new' products emerging being merely
extensions of existing product lines and not truly new and innovative
offerings. Fund revolutionary, not just evolutionary, changes to the air
transportation system to obtain greater capacity, safety, traffic flow
and automation" (U.S. Aviation and Aerospace Industries, 2003). The above apparently suggests that new product development is purely
finding out what customers want and then delivering it. It is possible
to suggest, however, that customers do not always know what they want,
or at least cannot articulate it in concrete terms. The Choice of Press issues is based on readership. It refers to the total number of people who probably will read the publication. For example trade and technical publications are often read by people other than the purchaser at the purchaser's place of work. Sunday newspapers and colour supplements are invariably passed around the family for reading. Therefore, readership figures may be several times larger than circulation figures and help to tell us how many people may read the publication. The readership profiles usually indicate the demographic characteristics of the readership, such as age, sex, income and, in particular, socio-economic grading of readers, quintessential to the effective targeting of a company's advertising. For instance, "Delta has recently kicked off a new campaign, themed "Good Goes Around." American has been running sentimental TV ads with the slogan, "We Know Why You Fly." (Kiley). For maximum penetration it may help to select primary (first choice)
media that interlock or cross support each other. If deeper penetration
into the same target market, for example, is required, then vertical
advertising in the media that reach the same target market will be
sought. For example, advertising on commercial television may be linked
with advertising in the magazine that provides the program schedules for
viewers, or local radio advertising in a particular area may be
accompanied by direct mail or press advertising. "The airline industry
has literally fought for deregulation that has made each company nothing
more than a commodity" (Kiley). Specification in the airline industry is determined as a result of an
organization's policy, which in turn resulted from decisions on its
market policy, and consideration of the market or customer needs and
requirements, and the activities of competitors. This is the process of
designing quality into the service (Ennew, Reed, Binks, 1993). For
instance, "Airlines are scrambling to fill seats and make their
customers happy, that's clear. British Airways just this week signed a
deal with the Worldwide Travel Exchange (WWTE) hotel-booking arm of
Expedia inc company Travelscape, enabling the airline's passengers to
book rooms at more than 40,000 hotel properties" (Cox, 2002). Today, a wide range of Web services are adopted by airlines and aviation to contact with the customers and to ensure customer satisfaction. It is not a unique and a new form of service but still it is one of the most beneficial areas for attracting a new customers and providing new services for target customers. For instance, "Travelocity provides Internet and wireless reservations information for more than 700 airlines, but it doesn't have special marketing relationships with all of them. It did sign a similar deal with Continental in January and has deals with British Airways, JetBlue and America West, among other airlines" (Cox, 2002). For airlines companies, Internet rationalizes the expensive and
cumbersome proposition of large-scale customer service. Second, the
system serves to reduce at least the appearance of risk associated with
time-space distanciation and the opacity of the expert system. In aviation this approach includes maintenance of high standards
which is a key factor in effective customer contact. The purpose of
maintenance is to attempt to maximize the performance of service by
ensuring that it performs regularly and efficiently. Service, however
complex or simple, however cheap or expensive, is liable to breakdown.
The effective operation of any system is dependent on the maintenance of
all parts of the system, e.g. buildings, services. Indeed, company
welfare or personnel practice is designed partly as a maintenance
activity, e.g. training and retraining to maintain the availability of
appropriate skills, facilities to maintain human capacity, counselling
to maintain interest and motivation (Joines et al, 2003). "Customers can book on-line at www.CanJet.com through CanJet's
Reservations Sales Centre" (Cox, 2002). Service, however complex or
simple, however cheap or expensive, is liable to breakdown. Another
alternative is to deliver ads via third-party ad-server companies which
can serve ad messages simultaneously to multiple Web sites, measure
results, produce consolidated reports, report on the success of the
entire campaign, and analyze these results immediately, enabling
advertisers to quickly assess the ongoing effectiveness of the campaign.
"The leadership position of the U.S. aviation and aerospace industries is being eroded by foreign competitors who benefit from extensive government subsidies" (U.S. Aviation and Aerospace Industries, 2003). In aerospace services is creating new flexibility for consumers and for business, government markets. And innovation is also occurring through experimentation with new approaches to market development in emerging markets There appears to be a mismatch between the technology incorporation cycle and the technology introduction cycle. Just when the customer feels comfortable with a given technology that they have acquired, a new version comes along making the earlier one obsolete. A problem with aerospace industry is that although there are only a
few major companies, these companies have a majority of the control over
the market, requiring an extremely unique spin off of this already
established product to have a chance at success. There are many
innovative products that enter the sector every year. A talented company
management could definitely add these product to the list if they are
willing to work hard, think outside of the box, and put their heart into
their company (UK aircraft and aerospace industry, 2005) A partnership marketing strategy is the quickest and cheapest ways to
develop a global strategy in aviation. It allow share control over
assigned tasks, a situation that creates management challenges.
Partnership in aviation is attractive because high product development
costs in the face of resource constraints may force a company to seek
partners and the technology requirements of many contemporary products
mean that an individual company may lack the skills, capital, or
know-how to go it alone (UK aircraft and aerospace industry, 2005). Author: Andrew Sandon Marketing Management Advice 5 How To Make Sure Your Press Release Gets Read PR, Public Relations and writing Press Releases is something businesses of all shapes and sizes can do to help increase their profits and promote their business. This article looks at how your press release should look to give it the best chance of success. Do you want to promote your business for free and give you the best possible chance of getting your business, product or service in front of the eyes of your customers? If so this article looks at how your press release should be presented to the media to ensure it: 1. Gets read The Format to Success and in particular how your press release should actually be presented to the media will give the best possible chance of success. You therefore need to focus on: 1. The Headline - you have to remember that the purpose of the headline is to get the journalists attention and to get them to read the remainder of the press release. The content of your press release may contain fantastic newsworthy information but unless the headline is strong it may never get read. 2. The First Few Paragraphs - journalists tend to like short paragraphs that grab their attention so the last thing you want to do is follow a killer headline with a block of text that they have to trawl through to find what you're trying to say. The first few paragraphs should therefore focus on generating an interest in what you're saying. 3. The Middle - journalists love facts and figures as they add real credibility to a release. Once you've therefore got their attention with the headline and first few paragraphs you should use the middle section to include any relevant facts and figures that will back up your release. 4. A Quote - a short quote from someone with something to say about the release (it could be you) is always a good idea. A quote gives journalists the chance to put it straight in the publication should they wish to. And providing it's an interesting (or controversial) quote it shows them that if they want to contact you you're likely to have something interesting and newsworthy to say. On this point the quote shouldn't be too long. Just enough to maintain their interest and if possible leave them wanting more. 5. The End - The close of a press release is one of the most important parts but so many people end weakly and therefore miss out on coverage. The close has to include a clear, bold call to action. You have to tell the journalist who they need to contact and exactly how they can get in touch with you. Using something like "If you would like any further information please do not hesitate in contacting me" will not work whereas "To arrange an interview or for further information regarding (subject of release) contact XXXX at e-mail XXXX@email.com or call XXXXXX on 0191 XXXXXXX. Other useful information on the format of a press release: a. NEVER SUBMIT A PRESS RELEASE IN ALL UPPER CASE LETTERS. Some people believe it works as surely upper case means it's important. WRONG!!! It isn't easy on the eye and therefore it won't get read. Use mixed case. b. Spell check - I've mentioned this before but errors in grammar and spelling affect your credibility and potentially risk your release not being acted upon. c. Length - If possible get your press release on one page (two at the most). Journalists don't have time to read war and peace. That said if your press release doesn't have more than one or two sentences, then the chances are it isn't newsworthy. d. Check it again - your press release is a chance to get exposure for your business so you want to make the right impression. Therefore write it, proof read it, get someone else to check it as well, rewrite it if necessary and make sure it says exactly what you want (and much more importantly, it says something of interest). The truth is unless the format of your press release is correct the chances are you will never get your press release published (regardless of how newsworthy it is). Get great at public relations and see how small business marketing can help increase your profits and grow your business. Author: Marketing Buzz
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