How To Be An Effective Leader? 6 Points to Analyzing Your Leadership Skills

As a leader, you are responsible for the overall success, well-being and development of your team. This is a very demanding role that can involve intense demands on your time and the need to juggle priorities in order to be effective. In the ever-changing world of business, every leader – even those that are experienced – must keep improving and re-assessing the methods by which they lead their team. Here are 6 points to consider when analyzing your leadership skills:

1. Organisation

In order to run a team, it is important to have excellent organisational skills. If you miss deadlines or don’t chase your team for theirs, then they will often mirror your laid back attitude and your business will suffer. The same can be said for setting targets and booking meetings – if you don’t follow through on plans, you will lose authority and respect from your workers.

2. Encourage creativity

If your employees consider their jobs mundane and uninspiring they will be less motivated to work hard. As an effective leader, you must offer challenges and targets that will stimulate your team and make them stretch their limits. These must be achievable, so they feel that success is within their reach. Arrange innovative sessions; encourage your team to be creative and explore new ideas. They will feel that their opinion is important and may have suggestions to aid how your company operates.

3. Lead by example

As an effective leader, you need to set an example of behavior that you would encourage within your team. If you behave appropriately, work hard and have a professional manner then you will gain respect. Through this, your team will emulate your behaviour and look to you for guidance on how to conduct themselves. Always keep the goals of your team in mind and focus on encouraging workers to react to challenges positively. Give examples of times that you have been successful and what you learnt from it. This will encourage others to re-create your success, particularly if you show a passion and enthusiasm for the projects they are working on.

4. Adapt to challenges

There will be times when your company ticks along at a steady pace and times when the unexpected happens. Either way, it is important to constantly evolve and adapt as a team to prevent your business from becoming stagnant. Through change you can develop, learn and experiment with new ideas.

Take inspiration from how the public sector have adapted to the pressure of overseeing existing services and the impact they are having on their communities, whilst also transforming internal practice. All these demands need to be managed on a budget that has been cut by up to 25 per cent.

Dr Su Maddock, a senior fellow within MBS’ Institute for Innovation Research, states “the private sector can learn much from those public sector leaders tackling intransigent problems and working with the private and third sectors. In the present climate these leaders possess the qualities of collaboration and agility, exactly the qualities that private business leaders are crying out for.”

The public sector are facing their challenges head-on, adapting to change and to the future rather than relying on old methods. In the same way, you can encourage your staff to adapt to situations with enthusiasm and innovation, keeping ideas fresh and business processes working as effectively as possible. Ask your staff for feedback, take note of past success and explore new ways to motivate your workforce.

5. Communication and recognition

Take the time to listen to your staff. If you are approachable and encourage them to come to you with issues in the workplace then you can help to overcome them. One-on-one communication is a great opportunity to get an insight into how your team handle the pressures of projects they are working on. Ensure that your team’s workload is achievable, so that they do not become despondent or frustrated.

Encourage your team to reach their full potential and praise them when they achieve. By rewarding achievement you encourage them to continue excelling. Rewards and recognition for performance is the ideal way to keep your workers feeling happy and appreciated in the workplace.

6. Further training and development

It is important for every member of your workforce to have the opportunity to learn and develop skills relevant to their role. Make training available to all staff and keep a record of their personal performance plan of long-term goals and success. This should be discussed and assessed regularly on a one-to-one basis in appraisals.

Even as a leader you will need to keep refreshing your skills and learning new ways to work. By completing leadership training courses you can ensure that you are up to date with the methods of best practice in leading your team. After all, a business is only as good as its best people; as a leader that should be you.

What Personal Life Insurance Means For Your Business End

Personal life insurance is an important coverage that you must keep in mind, not just to protect yourself and your family but also considering it from your business end. A business needs to provide life insurance to their employees in most cases, or encourage them to get this protection as a matter to protect yourself from any liability resulting from working at your place, liability insurance would also come in at this point. However, not all the people are aware of the importance of life insurance, business owners and workers alike.

Why Life Insurance Is So Important

The main goal of life insurance is provide the policy holder’s beneficiary with financial support when the policy holder passes, called death benefit. Depending upon the type of life insurance taken, such benefit could be a payment of a lump sum of money equivalent to the price of the policy that the policy holder purchased. While, in the case of term life insurance, or it could be the price of the policy plus the dividends when it comes to whole life insurance, universal life insurance or universal variable insurance that have an investment component to generate dividends from the cash value generated.

Life Insurance and Your Business

Providing your employees with life insurance is often mandatory when the work area in your business encompasses a risk for their lives, or when the developments of their activities do. Many people do not carry life insurance, this is why if they suffer any accident at work, your business insurance policy may cover your liability, but life insurance protects the families of your workers, the same that your personal life insurance protects yourself.

Education for a Better Understanding

The problem with life insurance is that many people dislike the idea to take out a life insurance policy, whether due to mistakenly conceived ideas regarding insuring themselves, or because of the premium that they have to pay. In this last matter, life insurance could be costly for any business, but business owners can quote the price of life insurance from different insurers that often suggest a collective life insurance as an option to protect your workers without having this coverage turning into financial burden for your business.

Difference with Personal Life Insurance

Life insurance from your business end however differs from personal life insurance. When life insurance is taken out for your employees, there is not a named direct or indirect beneficiary in the policy, although death benefits are meant to be claimed by the family of the worker. On the other hand, the premiums that you pay for life insurance for your employees are deductible, as those you pay for other business insurance that cover natural disasters, credit, liability, losses, etc.

Life Insurance Means Peace of Mind

Above all, any kind of insurance provides you the peace of mind that protecting yourself and your workers gives. Any insurance from car insurance, go CarInsurancequote.net, to Liabaility Insurance In the knowledge that your employees are covered by a life insurance policy, you can rest assured because it protects you from any liability, offering to your workers a benefit that protects their families at the time of their death.

The choice is yours as to if you wish to provide life insurance, however, it will provide your employees with an added benefit.

What is Marketing Mix? Definitions, Objectives, and Concepts

What is a marketing mix? Definition of marketing Mix is a marketing strategy that combines several elements in the marketing mix itself that is done in an integrated way.

To achieve business success requires complex proficiency in the business management process. Not only has quality products, many other factors also need to be considered. One of them is the marketing line.

With the application of a mature marketing strategy, will certainly affect the outcome of the success of a business. Simply put, as good as any product or service we offer if we don't know or fail to market it, it will be pointless as well.

Marketing Mix according to experts

Some experts in the field of marketing science have explained about the definition of marketing mix, including:

1. Philip Kotler and Armstrong.
According to Philip Kotler and Armstrong (1997:48), the sense of marketing mix is a tactical marketing tool that can be controlled, product, price, distribution, and promotion combined by the company to produce the desired response in Target market.

2. Buchari Alma.
According to Buchari Alma (2005:205), the sense of marketing mix is the strategy of combining marketing activities, so that the maximum combination is created so that it will appear the most satisfactory results.

3. Sumarmi and Soeprihanto.
According to Sumarmi and Soeprihanto (2010:274), the sense of marketing mix is a combination of variables or activities that are the essence of the marketing system i.e. product, price, promotion, and distribution. In other words the definition of marketing mix is a collection of variables that can be used by companies to influence consumer feedback.

4. Sofjan Assauri.
According to Sofjan Assauri (2013:12), marketing mix is a combination of variables or activities that are the essence of the marketing system, which variables can be controlled by marketing to influence the reactions of buyers or consumers.

5. Nervous Kismono.
According to Nervous Kismono (2001:308), the sense of marketing mix is a combination of variables or activities that are the essence of marketing consisting of product strategy (product), price, promotion, and place.

6. Dhaimesta and Irwan.
According to Dhaimesta and Irwan (2000:74), the sense of marketing mix is the variables used by the company as a means to fulfill or serve the needs and wishes of consumers.

Marketing MIX Activities and Objectives

After understanding the understanding of marketing mix, we also need to know what are the objectives of this marketing blend. Some marketing mix objectives include:

1. Advertising.
Advertising is one of the important activities in the marketing mix. The main purpose of this advertising is to provide information about the product (goods/services) to the target consumer and to increase sales.

2. Sales Promotion.
This is a collection of intensive tools designed to drive purchases of goods/services. Core activities are mostly short-term and are not carried out repeatedly.

The goal of this sales promotion is to increase sales. This activity can be done by giving discounts, procurement of contests, awarding of coupons or product samples.

3. Direct Marketing.
Direct Marketing is an interactive marketing system that uses one or more ad media to generate responses and or transactions that can be measured on a location. The purpose of direct marketing is to communicate products or services directly to consumers who are considered to be potential market targets.

Marketing MIX Concept

If talking about the realm of marketing, there is one common concept that every businessman must know is the concept of Marketing 4 P. What is the meaning? Marketing 4 P is a marketing concept that focuses on 4 things namely Product (product), price (prices), Place (place) and Promotion (promotion). These four things should be the main consideration in crafting how we will be marketing.

But with the development of market conditions that have been very dynamic now causes the concept of 4 P is considered to be less effective. Therefore, many observers feel the need to add another point in the concept. Until popularized the term Marketing Mix or Marketing 7 P.

Is the development of concept 4 P, Concept 7 P is arranged with additional 3 more points namely process, people and physical evidence. To learn more about all the points in the Marketing Mix concept, check out the following details review:

1. Product aspect.
What is meant by products is that we sell in business including goods or services that have the value of use and needed by consumers. The main key of a product i.e. such goods or services must be able to meet the needs or wishes of consumers.

Moreover, it also needs more value than other products to make our products more acceptable to consumers.

2. Price Facets.
Price is the money that consumers should give to get goods or services sold. Price becomes a very important aspect because generally the consumer makes the price a key consideration before buying.

Given its very flexible nature, it's a good idea to keep up with the market dynamics in order to set the price at the right level. Where the price is still acceptable to the community but also still generate profit.

3. Facet.
Place of business is the location where we will do the buying and selling process. For conventional business this aspect is indeed very important. You should pay attention to whether the location is quite strategic and easy to visit consumers.

But with the growing modern business such as online business, now the understanding of the more diverse aspects of the place with the media used.

4. Promotion aspect.
Promotion is a business activity that has a purpose so that consumers can be more familiar and interested in your business products. In this activity, you should be able to change the customer's preconception to be positive about our business.

To do so, there are many promotional techniques either manually through face to face promotion until online promotion that is now growing rapidly.

5. Process aspect.
In business, the process can be interpreted as steps between the seller and the consumer. It includes service and transaction process. Provide a satisfying service experience for consumers through various techniques to make them feel satisfied.

6. Aspects of people.
Which is included in this aspect of course not only the consumer but all the human resources involved include the worker or business team. It is very important to note considering that people of course have different tendencies in the business world.

Providing good attention to the people involved in your business, is a very good starting step.

7. Physical evidence.
Physical evidence is all that is shaped by equipment or devices that are used to support the passage of our business. Primarily for large-scale businesses, it certainly needs more and more complex equipment and their functions and usage.

Considering that all aspects of the Marketing Mix concept are related to each other, then you must run them in tandem and proportionate terms.

This is a brief explanation of the definition of marketing mix, objectives, and the concept of marketing mix in general. Hopefully this article is helpful and add to your insight.

Marketing Management Philip Kotler (Chapter 1-11)

Marketing is the spearhead of a company or organisation. Many experts try to define or discover theories regarding marketing. One of them is Dr. Philip Kotler, known for his marketing theory. Philip Kotler, who does not know that name in the economic field. Many of the works he has written, the following will be outlined in the summary of the Marketing management By Philip Kotler. As a note of this summary I get from browsing the material to add my personal library, if there is an interest please include the original source of the author. Respect the work of others is one manifestation of responsibility. Hopefully can help.

Marketing Management Philip Kotler Chapter 1

1. Today the business world faces three main challenges and opportunities: globalization, technological advancement, and deregulation.
2. Marketing is generally seen as the task of creating promotes, as well as handing over goods and services to consumers and other companies. Effective Ang marketing can be done through many forms. Can be entrepreneurial, formulated, or intrepreneurial; and marketing markets many types of entities: goods, services, experiences, special events (events), people, places, possessions, organizations, information, ideas.
3. The marketers are skilled people in managing the request: they strive to influence the level, timing, and composition of requests. To do that, they face a bunch of decisions, ranging from such a big feature to what a product should have up to a small thing like packing colors, they also operate in four different markets: the customer, Global, and nonprofit companies.
4. For each target market chosen, the company develops a market offering positioned in the mind of the buyer as providing certain benefits. Marketers should understand the needs, desires, and target market demands: the product or offer will succeed if it delivers value and satisfaction to the target buyer. The term market includes a variety of grouping customers. Today there is a physical market place and there are digital markets, and there is also a mega market (Megamarket).
5. Exchange is getting the desired product from someone by offering something in return. The transaction is a trading value between two or more parties: that includes at least two valuable things, the terms of which one agreement agreed, and the place of agreement. In the most common sense, marketers should strive for the other party's responses to tangible behaviour: purchasing, voting, active membership participation in caring activities.
6. Relational marketing aims to build mutually satisfying long-term relationships with key parties-customers, suppliers, distributors-in order to obtain and maintain the surplus (preference) and long-term business them, the summit Outcome of relational marketing is the establishment of a unique corporate asset and is called a network of marketing.
7. The marketers reach the market through various channels of communication, distribution, and sales. The marketers operate in a task environment and in a broad environment. They faced competitive bid and substitute goods from actual and potential competitors. Device tools used by marketers to get the desired response from their target market are called marketing mix.
8. There are six competing concepts used by organizations to choose the way they do business: concept production, product concepts, sales concepts, marketing concepts, customer concepts, and community marketing concepts. The first three concepts have limited benefits today. The marketing concept confirms that the key to achieving the organizational goals is determining the needs and desires of the target market to deliver the desired satisfaction more effectively and efficiently than competitors. The concept begins with a well-defined market, focusing on customer needs, coordinating all activities that will affect customers, and generating profit by satisfying customers, the concept of customers meets Individual needs of specific customers and aims to build loyalty and value during the customer's lifetime.
9. The concept of community marketing confirms that the task of the Organization is to determine the needs, desires, and interests of the target market and provide the desired satisfaction more effectively and efficiently than competitors, through ways that can Maintaining or enhancing the welfare of consumers and society. That concept demands marketers to balance three considerations: corporate profit, consumer desire, and public interest.

Marketing Management Philip Kotler Chapter 2

1. New technological advances and new market forces create a new economy. Companies and marketers need to add new tools and practices if they expect success.
2. Four special drivers of the new economy are digitisation and connectivity, disintermediation and reintermediation, customization and customisation, and industry convergence. Digitisation specifically introduces a new, joyous capabiliation to consumers and the business world.
3. The new economy shifts some of the old economic business practices towards organizing based on customer segments (rather than just product based). Focuses on customer lifetime value (not on Transakai). Focusing on the believers (and not only on shareholders), making everyone do the Prestige, building a brand through behavior (instead of advertising), focusing on retaining customers (as much as acquiring customers), measuring satisfaction Customer, and provide an appointment but give more.
4. The company tried many questions in adopting e-marketing (electronic marketers). Three of them are knowing how to design a compelling website, knowing how to advertise on the web, and knowing how to build a healthy revenue and profit model for their dot com business.
5. The company has also become skilled in the customers ' relay management (CRM: Customer Relationship Management), which focuses on meeting the individual needs of important customers. Skills demand the establishment of a customer database and perform data mining to track trends, segments and individual needs.

Marketing Management Philip Kotler Chapter 3

1. Customers behave to maximize value. They formed a hope for value and acted upon that expectation. Buyers will buy from companies that they consider to offer value to customers (customer delivered value) Supreme, which is defined as the difference between total customer value and total customer cost.
2. Buyer satisfaction is a function of performance that is considered to be present in the product and buyer's expectation. Because realizing that high satisfaction leads to high customer loyalty, many companies now lead to TCS – Total Customer Satisfaction (Total customer satisfaction). For these companies, customer satisfaction is a target and marketing tool.
3. Robust companies develop capabilities/capability to manage core business processes: realises new products, managing dosage, finding and retaining customers. Managing these core processes effectively means creating a network of marketing work through the network that companies cooperate closely with all parties in the production and distribution chain, from raw material suppliers to distributors Retailers. Companies are no longer competing – the competing networks are now network – Network Marketing.
4. Losing customers who are able to generate profits can have a dramatic impact on the company's profits. The cost of attracting new customers is estimated at five times the cost of pleasing existing customers. The key to retaining customers is relational marketing. To always please customers, marketers can have the financial and social benefits to the product, or create a structural bond between the company and its customers.
5. Quality is the whole feature and nature of a product or service that affects its ability to satisfy both expressed and implied needs. Today's companies have no choice but to do a total Quality management program if they want to maintain their solvency and profitability. Total quality is the key to value creation and customer satisfaction.
6. Based on quality, marketing managers have two responsibilities. First, they must participate to formulate strategies and policies designed to help the Company to excel in competition through Total quality greatness. Secondly, they must provide marketing quality in addition to production quality. Each marketing activity – marketing research, sales training, advertising, customer service, and so on – must be implemented with high standards.

Marketing Management Philip Kotler Chapter 4

1. Market-oriented strategic planning is a managerial process to develop and maintain the suitability that generates success between objectives, expertise, and organizational resources with a number of constantly changing market opportunities. The strategic planning objective is to form and improve the company's business and products so that it achieves its profit and growth goals. Strategic planning is conducted on four levels: corporations, divisions, business units, and products.
2. The corporate headquarters are responsible for the implementation of the strategic planning process. Corporate strategy becomes a framework for divisions and business units in preparing their strategic recana. The establishment of a corporate strategy includes four activities? Defining corporate missions; Strategic business Units (SBU); Charge resources to each business unit based on market attractiveness and business strength; Planning new businesses and streamlining old businesses.
3. Strategic planning for certain businesses includes the following activities: Defining business missions, analyzing opportunities and external threats, analyzing internal strengths and weaknesses, formulating targets, formulating strategies, formulating programmes Support, implementing programs, and collecting feedback and carrying out controls.
4. The marketing process consists of four steps: Analyzing market opportunities, drafting a marketing strategy; Planning a marketing program; and organizing, implementing, and controlling marketing efforts.
5. Each product level in a particular business unit must create a marketing plan to achieve its goals. The procurement plan is the most important result of the marketing process, and the plan must contain the following elements: Executive overview and table of contents; Review of current marketing situations; Analysis of the opportunities and issues faced by the product; Overview of the financial and marketing objectives of the plan; A review of marketing strategies to be used to achieve plan objectives; Overview of program activities to be executed to achieve the purpose of Recana; Projections of profit-loss reports; and overview of controls to be used to monitor the progress of the plan.

Marketing Management Philip Kotler Chapter 5

1. Three developments are increasingly improving the need for marketing information today than in the past: the emergence of global marketing. Emphasis on buyer desires, and trends towards non-price competition.
2. To carry out the responsibilities of analysis, planning, implementation, and control, the marketing managers need a marketing information system (SIP), the role of SIP is to assess the needs of the managers ' information, arrange the information needed , and distribute such information in a timely manner.
3. SIP has four components: (a) internal logging system, which includes order-to-payment cycle information and sales reporting systems; (b) Marketing intelligence systems, a set of procedures and resources used by managers to obtain daily information on the development of the marketing Environment (c) Marketing research systems that enable the design, collection, analysis, and systematic reporting of data and findings that are relevant to specific marketing situations; and (d) A computerized marketing decision support system that helps managers to interpret data and relay information and make that system a fundamental marketing action.
4. Companies can conduct their own marketing research or hire other companies to conduct research for them. Marketing research is good with scientific methods, creativity, multiple research methods, accurate model formation, analysis of benefits costs, healthy skepticism, and ethical focus.
5. The process consists of defining the problem and research objectives, drafting a research plan, collecting information on analyzing information, and presenting the findings to the management, in conducting research, companies must decide whether they Will collect your own data or use existing data. They should also decide which research approaches (observations, focus groups, survey behavior data, or experiments) should be used. In addition, they have to make decisions about sampling plans and contact methods.
6. One of the main reasons for conducting marketing research is to find market opportunities. After Selseai research, the company should evaluate its chances carefully and decide which markets to enter, after being in the market, the company has just prepared a sales forecast based on the inking estimate.
7. There are two types of requests: market demand and company demand. To estimate current demands, companies are trying to determine the total market potential, regional market potential, industrial sales and market share. To estimate the demands of the future, companies can survey the buyer's intention, ask for input from the salesperson, collect expert opinions, and conduct market tests. Mathematical models, advanced statistical techniques, and computerized data collection procedures have been critical to all types of demand and sales forecasting.

Marketing Management Philip Kotler Chapter 6

1. Companies that successfully realize that the marketing environment provides a series of opportunities and threats that are not inexhaustible. The primary responsibility of marketers is identifying significant changes in the Enterprise macro environment. Exceeding other groups within the company, marketing managers must be trending trackers and opportunity seekers.
2. There are many opportunities found by identifying trends (the direction or sequence of events that have momentum and survival) and Megatren (major changes in social, economic, political, and technology that have prolonged impact).
3. In a rapidly changing global situation, marketers should monitor six key environmental strengths: Demographics, economics, Nature, technology, politics, law, and socio-cultural.
4. In a demographic environment, marketers should observe the growth of the world's population; Changes in age mix, ethnic composition, and education level, the revival of non-tradition families; Large shifts in geographic populations; And the shift to micro-marketing and mass marketing avoidance.
5. In the economic arena, marketers need to focus on revenue distribution and savings, debt, and credit availability levels.
6. In a natural environment, marketers must observe raw material deficiencies, increase energy costs and pollution levels, and change government roles in environmental protection.
7. In the technological arena, marketers must take into account the acceleration of technological changes, innovation opportunities, R&D budget diversity, and increased government regulation caused by technological changes.
8. In the political-law circle, marketers must be subject to a wide range of legislation governing business practices and in various groups of special interest.
9. In the socio-cultural arena, the Pamasar must understand the views of people, neighbors, organizations, communities, the environment, and the universe. They must market products related to basic values and secondary values of society; And to think about and find solutions to the needs of different sub-cultures within the community.

Marketing Management Philip Kotler Chapter 7

1. Consumer behaviour is influenced by four factors: culture (culture, sub-culture, and social class), Social (reference group, family, and role and status); Personal life (age, lifecycle, occupation, economic circumstances, lifestyle, personality, and self-concepts), and psychological (motivation, perception, learning, beliefs, and attitudes). Research on all these factors can signal like how to make people become consumers and serve those consumers more effectively
2. To understand how consumers make actual purchase decisions, marketers must identify who is making and provide purchase decision inputs: People can be the triggers, influencers, decision-makers, buyers, or Users, and different marketing campaigns can be directed to each type of person. Marketers should also study the level of buyer engagement and the number of brands available to determine whether consumers are engaging in complex purchasing behaviour, purchase behaviour dissonance/inconvenience, purchasing behaviour due to And purchasing behaviour that seeks variation.
3. The typical purchasing process consists of the following sequence of events: problem recognition, information retrieval, alternative evaluation, purchase decision, and post-purchase behaviour. The job of marketers is to understand the behavior of buyers at each stage. Other people's attitudes, unanticipated situation factors and thought risks can influence purchasing decisions, as well as post-purchase customer satisfaction levels and post-purchase corporate actions.
4. Other purchasing decision process models include the health model and the customer activity cycle model.

Marketing Management Philip Kotler Chapter 8

1. Purchasing an organization is a decision making process made by a formal organization in order to determine the need for goods and services to be purchased, then identify, evaluate, and set options from various Brand and supplier alternatives. The business market consists of all organizations that acquire goods and services used to produce other goods and services that will be sold, rented, or supplied to other parties.
2. Compared to the consumer market, business markets usually have fewer but larger buyers, more customer relationships-a tighter supplier, and more geographically concentrated buyers. Demand for business markets is derived from consumer market demand and fluctuates following the business cycle. However, the total demand for various business goods and services is somewhat elastic against the price. Business marketers need to be aware of the role of professional shoppers and people who influence them, as well as the importance of direct purchases, returns, and leasing.
3. The purchase center is a decision-making unit in certain organizations that make purchases. The purchase center consists of the trigger, user, influencer, decision-maker, approver, buyer, and gatekeeper, to influence the parties, marketers should pay attention to environmental, organizational, private, and personal.
4. The purchase process consists of eight stages called the Purchase stage (buyphases): (1) The introduction of the problem, (2) The general requirement formulation, (3) product specification, (4) Supplier Search, (5) Request for Proposal submission, (6) Supplier selection, (7) Routine order specifications, and (8) performance assessments.
5. The institutional market consists of schools, hospitals, medical halls, prisons, and other institutions that must deliver goods and services to the people they manage. Buyers in government organizations tend to ask for very many administrative jobs from suppliers and tend to prefer open tenders and domestic companies. Suppliers must be prepared to adapt their offerings to the specific needs and requirements of the institutional market and the government market.

Marketing Management Philip Kotler Chapter 9

1. To prepare for an effective marketing strategy, the company must study the competitors as well as the actual and potential customers. Companies need to identify competitors ' strategies, objectives, strengths, weaknesses, and reaction patterns. They also need to know how to design an effective competitive intelligence system.
2. The company's closest competitors are those who strive to satisfy the same customers and needs and make the same bid. The company should also pay attention to its latent competitors, which may offer new ways or other ways to satisfy the same needs. The company must identify its competitors using industry analysis and analysis based on the market.
3. Competitive intelligence needs to be gathered, interpreted, and disseminated continuously. Managers must be able to receive timely information about competitors.
4. Managers should conduct customer value analysis to wave the strengths and weaknesses of their own company relative to competitors. The objective of the analytable is to determine the benefits that customers want and how they perceive the value of the competitors ' bids.
5. The market leader has the largest market share in the Relvan product market. To remain a dominant company, leaders are looking for ways to enlarge the overall market demand, trying to protect its current marketshare, and perhaps trying to enlarge its share.
6. The market challenger attacks market leaders and other competitors aggressively to enlarge market share. Challengers can choose from five types of common attacks: frontal, rib, siege, transport, guerrilla, or a combination. Challengers should also choose a special strategy: discount prices, produce prestigious goods, standardises a variety of goods, innovate the field of product or distribution, improve service, lower manufacturing costs, or advertise intensively .
7. The market's follower is the second ranked company (behind the market leader) who wants to maintain its market share and does not want to cause turmoil. Followers can act as counterfeiters, clones, imposters, or adaptations.
8. Market niche fillers are companies that cater to small market segments that are not served by large corporations. The key to being a niche filler is specialty.
9. As important as orientation to competitors in the global market today, companies shouldn't overexaggerate the emphasis on competitors. The company must manage a good balance between monitoring against customers and monitoring against competitors.

Marketing Management Philip Kotler Chapter 10

1. Goal marketing includes three activities: Market segmentation, Target market assignment and market positioning.
2. Markets can be shot on four levels: segments, niche, local, and individual. Market segments are large groups that can be identified within a particular market. Niches (niche) are groups that are defined more narrowly. Marketers localize specific marketing campaigns based on specific trade regions, residential environments, and stores. Finally, more and more companies are now practicing marketing tailored to the needs of a specific individual in a mass. In the future, consumers have more initiative in designing their products and brands.
3. There are two basic consumer market segmentation: consumer characteristics and consumer feedback. The main segmentation variables for the consumer market are geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral. Those variables can be used singly or in combination. Business marketers also use all of these variables, alongside operating variables, approach to purchasing, and situation factors. To be useful. Market segments must be measurable, large, accessible, distinguishable, and enforceable.
4. Once the company identifies the opportunity for its market segments, it has to evaluate the various segments and to have the number of different segments and the segment that will be selected. In evaluating cement-segme, he should pay attention to the indicator of the attraction of segments as well as the purpose and resources of the company. In choosing which segments to target, companies can choose to focus on a single segment, several segments, specific products, specific markets, or an entire market. If he decides to serve the entire market, he must choose between differentiated and undifferentiated marketing.
5. Marketers must choose a target market with social responsibility. Marketers should also monitor the relationships between segments, finding the economical scope of segments and the potential of a super segment of marketing or not doing. Marketers should devise a segment-by-segment attack plan. Finally, the market segment manager must be prepared to cooperate in the interest of the company's overall performance.

Marketing Management Philip Kotler Chapter 11

1. Many marketers choose to promote only one product benefit, thus creating a unique selling proposition when assigning their product positions. People tend to remember "number one." But positioning with double benefits and three benefits can also be successful, as long as it is used carefully.
2. The key to competing excellence is product differentiation. Market offers can be calculated according to five dimensions: Product (form, feature, quality of work, quality of conformity to standards or specifications, durability, reliability, ease of improvement, style, design), service (ease of booking, delivery, Installation, customer training, customer consultation, maintenance and repairs, other services), personnel, marketing channels or imagery (emblem, media, atmosphere, and event). The difference is worth being held as long as difference is important, distinctive, superior, communicative, avoided from impersonation, affordably priced, and profitable.
3. As economic conditions change and competition activities fluctuate, companies generally feel the need to reformulate their marketing strategies several times during the product lifecycle. Technology, product form, and brand also show a life cycle at a typical stage. The general sequence of each lifecycle stage is introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. The majority of products are currently at maturity stage.
4. Although many products show the life cycle of bell-shaped products. There are many other patterns, which include patterns of growth-deterioration, recurring cycle and cycle patterns, and notched patterns, product life cycles for style, fashion, and fads can be very unpredictable; The key to success in that field is to create a product that is always strong.
5. Each stage of success in life of the product requires a different marketing strategy. The introductory stage is characterized by slow growth and minimum profit, if successful, the product enters the level of Pertumbhan marked with rapid sales growth and increased profits. The company strives to improve the product, entering new market segments and distribution channels, and slightly reducing prices. Next is the maturity stage that is when sales growth slows down and profit is stable. The company seeks innovative strategies to update sales growth, which includes market modifications, products, and marketing mix. Finally, the product enters the decline stage i.e. only a few can be done to stop the sales and profit independence. The company's job is to identify really weak products; Strategize for the continuation of each product, focus, or blush; And finally take off the weak product in a way that minimizes difficulties with corporate profits, employees, and customers.
6. Like drift products, the evolution of the market is through four stages: emergence, growth, maturity, and decline. 

(Source: https://islamic-banking.academia.edu/YayanWijaya)

The Definition of Marketing From 10 Experts

What is Marketing? The Definition of Marketing From 10 Experts - Last month at the TS2 Show I taught a class about lessons learned as a trade show marketer. After all the other students had left, a young exhibit manager approached me and asked, “Everybody in my company thinks of me as the trade show guy. How do I make them think of me as the marketing guy?”

He’s certainly not alone in his quest to grow more into a marketing role. To get into marketing, it helps to understand what exactly marketing is. So here are 10 experts definitions of marketing, plus for good measure my reactions to the strengths and weaknesses of their definitions.

1. “Marketing is the process by which companies create customer interest in products or services. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business development.  It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves.”  — Wikipedia I like how this is so focused on both the strategic and functional aspects of marketing, but especially that it’s so customer-focused – the word customer is in it three times, more than any other word!
2. “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”  — American Marketing Association. This definition took the AMA years of debate to create.  It is a very comprehensive, yet concise definition, encompassing the product development, marketing communications, pricing, and strategic aspects of marketing.
3. “Marketing is everything.” — Regis McKenna. Regis McKenna’s bold statement exemplifies the school of thought that everything you do – not just your products, pricing, promotion, and distribution, but even your billing, how you answer the phone, your speed of handling problems –it all affects how your customer perceives your company, so everything is marketing.
4. “Marketing is not only much broader than selling; it is not a specialized activity at all.  It encompasses the entire business.  It is the whole business seen from the point of view of the final result, that is, from the customer’s point of view.  Concern and responsibility for marketing must therefore permeate all areas of the enterprise.” — Peter Drucker. Management guru Drucker also advocates that marketing is everything, plus he provides reasons to back it up.
5. “Marketing is the social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others.” — Marketing Definition Philip Kotler. This is more of an old-school, college-professor definition, which while accurate, is fairly cold.  I think the “social process” part diverts attention from the business side, and “individuals” sounds more clinical than “customers” which is the gold standard in many of these definitions.
6.  “Marketing is the process whereby society, to supply its consumption needs, evolves distributive systems composed of participants, who, interacting under constraints – technical (economic) and ethical (social) – create the transactions or flows which resolve market separations and result in exchange and consumption.” – Bartles This is even more a college-professor definition.  The idea of society evolving distributive systems seems to take the shine off of the inventiveness and initiative of individual marketers.
7. “Marketing is any contact that your business has with anyone who isn’t a part of your business. Marketing is also the truth made fascinating. Marketing is the art of getting people to change their minds.  Marketing is an opportunity for you to earn profits with your business, a chance to cooperate with other businesses in your community or your industry and a process of building lasting relationships.” — Jay Conrad Levinso. This is just part of a passionate rant by Jay Conrad Levinson of Guerilla Marketing fame, which highlights the role of persuasion in marketing.
8. “Marketing is getting someone who has a need to know, like and trust you.” — Jon Jantsch (of Duct Tape Marketing fame). Jantsch’s definition also picks up on Levinson’s theme of persuasion, at an even more personal level than Levinson.
9. Marketing is “The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.” — The Chartered Institute of Marketing. I like how the CIM’s definition is so concise and yet so all-encompassing, and how marketing’s job is to take care of the customer, while making a buck, too.
10. “Marketing is the process of anticipating, managing, and satisfying the demand for products, services, and ideas.” — Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. This too-concise definition is nearly identical to the CIM definition right before it, without the management, the profitability, and especially the customer.  So I like the CIM definition better.

The underlying thread in many of these definitions that resonates most with me is that marketing’s job is to understand what the customer needs and then to provide it – and that the job of marketing goes beyond the marketing department.

So if you want to have a greater role in marketing, then focus on how the entire experience your customers have in your trade show exhibits and displays creates more impetus for them to buy from you, rather than just the logistics of shipping your exhibit properties.  At that point you’ve shifted your mindset into the realm of marketing.

Does that help?  Whose definition do you like best?  Let us know in the comments box below, or share a better definition of marketing that you prefer.

Source: http://www.skyline-etips.com/

Different Ideas of Fall Arts and Crafts for Kids

Different Ideas of Fall Arts and Crafts for Kids | Summer is over and fall is coming. If your kids are a bit gloomy about the fact that they won’t be seeing summer in another year, you can always cheer them up by including them in the fall arts and crafts for kids. No, you don’t have to join special classes to make eye-catching and attractive crafts. You can find loads of sources around and then tag them along so they won’t be bored. If they are included within the fun craft activities, they may forget that summer is over. In fact, they may now think that fall is the new summer.

Fall Arts and Crafts for Kids

So, what are the great fall arts and crafts for kids that you can try with your children? Simple. Fall is the sign for Thanksgiving, so you can find various activities based on it. you can make cornucopias that are designed and created in different ways. Expand your creativity and you can find interesting way to deliver the perfect result. You can make the mosaic version for fruit and cone spill or torn papers that are glued to bigger paper sheet. You can also tag your children to create papier mache which require more focus and efforts. If you are thinking about cooking or baking, tag them along when you are preparing turkey. They can be responsible for the plating, so you can focus on the cooking.

If Thanksgiving doesn’t appeal you, you may be interested in including natural theme into your project. After all, fall is identical with beautiful colors, especially from the leaves. These leaves can be made into interesting part of the centerpiece. You can also ask your kids to dry the leaves and turn them into various types of crafts, like bookmarker, candle holder, wall mosaic, and so many more. The sky is the limit, so you should find more ideas to try for this fall craft.

Kids Craft Ideas To Celebrate National Craft Month

Various Craft Ideas to Celebrate National Craft Month

The national craft month is just around the corner and you really want to do something to celebrate it. After all, when you tag your kids along in this kind of activity, they can actually learn a lot. Not only they can develop their artistic sense, they can also learn about making use of the available stuffs around them and not easily spend money to buy stuffs that they want. So, there are some simple yet great craft ideas to celebrate national craft month. If you want to, you can tag along and learn the possible activities to do.

First of all, you can do the most common types of craft activity: the paper craft. The paper craft is basically one of the simplest forms of craft that you can try as the materials are easy to find and the implementation is easy to do. If you want to teach your kids about making cards, for instance – whether it is greeting cards or others – all you have to do is preparing different types of colorful papers, glue, scissors, and additional accessories like stickers, different images or pictures, and more. You can also expand your creativity by making other items, like the bird’s nest. Simply use papers and also unused pom-poms will help you create the craft that you want.

Paper is a versatile material that can be combined with almost anything. if you have unused photo frame and small piece of wood, you can create artistic wall hanging. Simply cut the wood into any shape that you want, glue it with buttons, and put it into the frame. Any colorful paper can be used as the background. If you aren’t so good with the craft, why not baking cookies and adorn them with stuffs that you like. Who says that you can’t cook as a part of craft ideas to celebrate national craft month?

Get the HALLOWEEN Idea: Inspired Crafts and Creations

Various Kinds of Halloween Crafts

Get the HALLOWEEN Idea: Inspired Crafts and Creations | Halloween is just around the corner and yet you are still confused of what to do to celebrate the day. Everyone knows that Halloween is a special day where you can create spooky yet cute and adorable items. Why should you buy such decoration and spend money for it when you can make one for yourself? After all, making the Halloween crafts can be fun for both kids and adults. You can tag your kids along and have your special bonding moment together.

Here are some great Halloween crafts ideas that you can try at home. You can do it on your own, with friends, families, or your kids.

• Creating unique pumpkins. Forget Jack o’Lantern, as such decoration becomes old and boring. You can decorate pumpkin in loads of various ideas. Cover the pumpkin with overall white or black paint, for instance. Draw geometric lines or whatever patterns you like on the pumpkin and make it a great outdoor decoration. If you want to, you can also try the Binky Babies model, the Brad new, the Junk Foodies, and so many more. Browse for ideas from the net and you can come up with hundreds of examples.
• Creating unique accessories. Such items like Mummy Candy Holder, Trick or Treat Bag, and so many more can make your Halloween time so special as well as fun and adorable. If you tag your kids along in the craft project, they surely won’t mind.
• Planning Halloween activities. If you are planning Halloween activities, don’t forget to include Halloween accessories and stuffs too. You can create paper bag with owl patterns, Jack o’Lantern model, and so many more. Just be creative and see how far you can go!

There are basically lots of ideas of Halloween crafts that you can try, if you want to spend your time browsing around. Who says everything has to be spook during Halloween?