"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care - about them and their problems." Robert Cavett
"The last thing you want to do is to say something or engage in an activity that may irrituate your referral prospect. Any contact you have with the referral will more than likely be related back to its source. It is vital that any feedback is positive, otherwise, your source for referrals will terminate." Scott Kramnick
"The best prospect is the client who has already dealt with you. The second best is the one referred to by a client who has dealt with you previously. The third best is the on e referred to you by another trusted professional or friend." Marilyn Jennings.
"The way of the world is meeting people through other people." Robert Kerrigan
"Customers set up a hierarchy of values, wants, and needs based on emperical data, opinions, word-of-mouth references, and previous experiences with products and servies. they use that information to make purchasing decisions." Regis McKenna
"A product or company in its infancy has no real meaning. But it acquires meaning from its environment, and it changes as the environment changes." Regis McKenna
"[consumer]Perception extends from the quality reputation of the product and its manufacturer to the reputation of other established users of the product." Regis McKenna
"Customer loyalty begins with an experience." Regis McKenna
"People are deluged with promotional information, and they are beginning to distrust it [advertising]. People are more likely to make decisions based on what they hear directly from other people, including friends, experts, or even salespeople. These days more decisions are made at the sales counter than in the living room armchair." Regis McKenna
"The no-questions-asked policy allows customers to communicate honestly with the dealer." Regis McKenna
"Like it or not, people are talking about your business all the time. Some talk is positive, but because of a quirk in human nature, negative talk reaches a much wider audience than positive talk." Jerry Wilson
"Everybody has a horror story about goods and services. People love to tell horror stories. I guess inquiring minds want ot know the worst." Jerry Wilson
"Sociologists say the average person interacts repeatedly with approximately 250 other people, including neighbors, family, and co-workers." Jerry Wilson
"Informal conversation is probably the oldest mechanism by which opinions on products and brands are developed, expressed, and spread." Johan Arndt
"Word of mouth is the business world's equivalent of gossip; which may explain why it is so likely to be repeated when it is negative." Chip Walker
Friday, October 2, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
An Inspirational film that touches your Soul
The people who believe will succeed and you can too. We are all winners waiting to claim our prize of living a fruitful life with passion.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
5 Dynamic thoughts to engage your audience
One of the challenges most speakers would face is to engage the audience or get them involved. To have a non responsive crowd would not be a good thing. The speaker with all his enthusiasm and excitement pounces into action to inspire the audience to speak and has a mental timer inbuilt waiting to trigger of the audience to be involved. One of the many outcomes the speaker could face would have not knowing when would be the appropriate or right time.
It just would be too late and awkward to realize from the time the presenter asks for the crowd’s participation and coming to the rude awakening that he is not getting the desired outcome. That would crush him or cause him or her to make further mistakes, creating a not so promising atmosphere and an uneventful presentation.
My brothers and sisters, we can avoid these situations. Let me spark off some ideas that could alter the course of your presentation and making it not only interactive but interesting as well.
Build Bridges
Some preparation that you could do is to make as many friends of the audience as possible. You could do it before your speech or during the speech complimenting your audience, possibly gaining some favouritism or eventually some fans. Just by making friends so that you are not talking to a cold audience.
Observe bodies that speak
Look out for possible gestures and movements of your audience and pay closer attention to those that nod for approval or smile and build on them. They are your anchors that illuminate your environment. They can possibly assist you in the interactive portion of your speak.
Be a Story Teller
Stories are always great, but people would be more engaged if it were your story, personalize it to make it powerful. By doing so, it allows the audience to relate to you and share with them you are actually one of them. The walls of barriers would come down. If possible inject some witty humour or even ask the audience what they think the morale of the story is or it would be even better letting them share a similar short experience or story, encouraging participation. You would be able to set the scene or the mood; this allows you to channel your energy to the audience, making it two ways.
Play the Game
Everyone that I know of loves to be involved in a game. Playing a game allows the creative juices out, makes us relive our childhood and enables us to relax. When you show the audience or make them have a great time, you will be rewarded with the flood gates of an appreciative crowd. Use it as a fantastic leverage.
Gift Giver
Leading you on a truth, just like a kid with a candy, everyone adores the fact of walking away with something. If they realize that they would be gaining something from their painstaking presentation that would charge them up.
See it in your mind's eye of having a dynamic and engaging presentation, gaining participation is a mental obstacle. Use these five ideas to help you in your road to motivating and inspiring your audience. A food for thought from E.W Howe "No man would listen to you talk if he didn't know it was his turn next."
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Energize the magnet that attracts money
“So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what the root of all money is?”Quote from Ayn Rand
"Show me the money!","He is a filthy rich selfish scrooge!", "She is born with a golden spoon, born into riches!", "Money is the root of all evil!”. Stop for a moment and realize what you are saying, money is not bad, money is good, it is my friend, it is just material. Bo Derek had a saying “Whoever said money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to go shopping.”
What I sincerely am trying to share with you is that, find a meaningful purpose for the use of that money, the choices that you have, how you could bring joy to your loved ones and go into dream mode. Benjamin Franklin had a saying “Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one.” Find the cause, what you hope to achieve, find the vacuum filler.
Napoleon hill the author of "Think and grow Rich" mentioned something very vital."Thoughts become things." What you see in your mind’s eye and consciously believe it, it might eventually become a reality. Imagine yourself already having that money. Do you see yourself in a volt full of money or do you see yourself with your loved ones in a beautiful environment. It is all about the reason behind why we need that money. It gives us the choice of being free. We no longer have to be a prisoner of our work. No longer to we have to fall in the quicksand of debts and the bugging bills that we have to pay. Just like a ship having a rudder, we have to have a purpose. Do not be a victim of circumstances, be a victor.
My question imposed to all of you is that have you energized your magnet allowing enormous, massive amounts of money rushing towards you, flowing into your life?
Believe you deserve to be comfortable, believe it is one of your family members. Believe in the luxury of life you are destined for. Helen Gurley Brown had a saying “Money, if it does not bring you happiness, will at least help you be miserable in comfort.” Unless if you not believe and if you are going to have a self talk saying that you feel miserable, instead of being poor and miserable, be rich and miserable. Best is to be wealthy in heart, with money and happiness.
In a world of scarce resources, we have use the power of our creativity and imagination to come up with endless possibilities. No Limitations, No Boundaries and No Barriers actually hold us back from achieving the things we want to, our destiny of happiness and abundance of wealth.
Remember you make it possible, you make it happen, and you are the fire started in your engine for attracting large and massive amounts of money in your life. Ayn Rand had another saying “Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.” Don't be a passenger and let things happen, be the pilot and take charge, what is required for attracting money would be your action and a positive attitude that that would align your channel of wealth.
I would like to sign off with some parting thoughts from Mike Phillips who had a saying “Money will come when you are doing the right thing.” So my friends, it all comes from within, do the right thing and you will see the money.
Spark of the Soul - Laughter
A secret that has been burning inside me and I sincerely would love to share it with anyone and everyone I meet. It is something which does not really require much effort and it is not rocket science. Futhermore it does not cost much at all. Then, what is it that I am rambling about. It simply is the willingness to laugh and have a good time. Laughing is the best medicine for the soul.
Mark Twain had a saying "The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter." This saying is so true, it orders to break a tension, and you just have to alter your tonality of speech, bearing in mind not to offend anyone. A person who in fact laughs all the way actually lasts. Have sometime to gather some of your very close friends and have an organized laughter session. The amazing part is that the fake laughter would blend in so well with the real laughter, that it would nourish the soul.
Voltaire had a saying that "God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." We are too concern of what others would think of us that we keep it to our self and not break the pain that consumes us and eats us alive. Laughter is probably the best release mechanism, just like our mouth is the release valve that extinguishes the hatred and pain and replaces it with a great feeling that makes us want to live each day with joy and passion.
Cat Stevens had a saying "I always knew looking back on my tears would bring me laughter, but I never knew looking back on my laughter would make me cry." It is important to realize that by changing our physiology, our human structure and posture that we can alter our presence of mind a ignite the fire of happiness. We all go through pain in our life. What does not break you makes you. I would like to share with you of a story I once heard about a guy who came across a caterpillar in a cocoon on its journey to transform into a beautiful butterfly. He was standing there admiring nature, looking at the beauty of the transformation process. Something that bugged him deeply was seeing the caterpillar struggle to come out of that cocoon. He felt extremely disturbed and sad. He decided to help the poor insect and end its misery of its struggle by using a stick to enlarge the hole so that the caterpillar could come out. The caterpillar slid out easily from the cocoon. To his horror, he realized his greatest mistake. The caterpillar was all shriveled up not able to move. What a mistake he made and came to the understanding that it was nature he was playing with. The caterpillar had to go through that process of forcing itself out of that tiny hole so as to inject the stream of fluid to its wings for it to fly. My intervening, the caterpillar does not have the strength in its wings to fly. His biggest lessons he learn that also applied to us. What does not break you makes you. All of us have to go through the struggle of life to makes us stronger arming us with the vital experience of handling the journey of life. Any tough situation only calls us to laugh out loud that we are being equipped with more experience to face life. Life is good and Life is great.
I would like to close off by saying this quote from Alan alda "Laugh at yourself, but don't ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don't leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory."My brothers and sisters out there laughter is actually the trigger and the spark of our soul.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Twelve points to ponder - time management.
There was a saying by William Penn, “Time is what we want most, but... what we use worst.” We all desire to have abundance of time, yet when we have it, we often miss use it. So when it comes to time management, we misunderstand it. The belief that most of us have is eventually to finish the task that was set forth, that needs to be done. However, a key element would be in time management is basically to do the right things at the right time.
Twelve points to ponder when it comes to time management.
1. Accomplish your mission and don’t be seduced by distractions in your quest to achieve your goals. They actually just add on to your stress level.
2. Great to have a time buffer – Just like water filled in a cup becomes the cup and water filled in a bottle becomes the bottle, adopt some flexibility when it comes to each day, which would be intensely scheduled.
3. Waste no time my friend writing down second natured routine activities.
4. If you think it, you got to ink it – Pen down all your task, whether work or pleasure, even if you want to adopt a new habit or it is a one of thing that needs to be done.
5. Avoid being a Yes Man – Like a cup can only contain so much of water, when you add more, it would overflow, eventually causing you to feel overloaded.
6. Avoid being a No Man – Convenient to say no, but too often said, we might lose that opportunity destined in our path that might be important or possibility enhance our status in our career.
7. Be a great Delegator or outsource. Work on your strength and outsource your weakness.
8. Give yourself a stopwatch for new projects, adopt a counter checking mechanism and not going according to plan, offer alternatives.
9. Try not to be a Superman – we get the point you are multi-talented. Why must you over schedule yourself. Details are important, but not in every task.
10. You win some, you lose some – In order to get new projects or task, please let go the old ones.
11. Don’t be shackled by the balls and chains of technology, prisoning yourself to the IT world, by allowing your emails or I-phones or PDAs control your life. Remember, it is totally okay to give them a holiday too.
12. Don’t be a dinosaur, go techno - use gadgets and technology to your advantage. Avoid time wastage on unnecessary calculations and writings. Use soft wares or new programs on your desktop (computer).
Hope these twelve points serve as a guide to time management.
When it comes to good time management, we don’t have to get all our task or get everything done, just do the right things at the right time. I leave you with a thought from John Archibald Wheeler. “Time is what prevents everything from happening at once.”
Twelve points to ponder when it comes to time management.
1. Accomplish your mission and don’t be seduced by distractions in your quest to achieve your goals. They actually just add on to your stress level.
2. Great to have a time buffer – Just like water filled in a cup becomes the cup and water filled in a bottle becomes the bottle, adopt some flexibility when it comes to each day, which would be intensely scheduled.
3. Waste no time my friend writing down second natured routine activities.
4. If you think it, you got to ink it – Pen down all your task, whether work or pleasure, even if you want to adopt a new habit or it is a one of thing that needs to be done.
5. Avoid being a Yes Man – Like a cup can only contain so much of water, when you add more, it would overflow, eventually causing you to feel overloaded.
6. Avoid being a No Man – Convenient to say no, but too often said, we might lose that opportunity destined in our path that might be important or possibility enhance our status in our career.
7. Be a great Delegator or outsource. Work on your strength and outsource your weakness.
8. Give yourself a stopwatch for new projects, adopt a counter checking mechanism and not going according to plan, offer alternatives.
9. Try not to be a Superman – we get the point you are multi-talented. Why must you over schedule yourself. Details are important, but not in every task.
10. You win some, you lose some – In order to get new projects or task, please let go the old ones.
11. Don’t be shackled by the balls and chains of technology, prisoning yourself to the IT world, by allowing your emails or I-phones or PDAs control your life. Remember, it is totally okay to give them a holiday too.
12. Don’t be a dinosaur, go techno - use gadgets and technology to your advantage. Avoid time wastage on unnecessary calculations and writings. Use soft wares or new programs on your desktop (computer).
Hope these twelve points serve as a guide to time management.
When it comes to good time management, we don’t have to get all our task or get everything done, just do the right things at the right time. I leave you with a thought from John Archibald Wheeler. “Time is what prevents everything from happening at once.”
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Seven tools that would help you achieve the desired effect - Leadership
What are some of things that leaders would like to achieve. First things first, having the task in mind or getting the job done. The next important element would be the ability to effectively motivate and manage their staff, so that the outcome would be desirable. We need to see how to equally distribute or balance the two elements.
There are seven tools that would help you achieve the desired effect.
1. You have to be current, relevant and be great in your job: If you appear as an authority of competence in the field you are in, then without a shadow of doubt, you would gain that much deserved respect and authority. Whatever task that is laid forth, your staff will look up and listen, and before you know it the job done is done. An amazing fact would be that the more competencies you dish out in front of them, the direction you set will be followed willing.
2. Remember your employees are humans: The finest distribution to a human body, two ears and one mouth. You got to be an active and great listener. Be approachable and treat your employees with humanity. The people working for you will reciprocate with their devotion and respect you tremendously. They would even share with you the situations and problems they face. You have to be trustworthy and honest, a person of integrity.
3. Free your time to oversee: Delegate more of your work by training and coaching the workers. Encourage them to make independent decisions and give them more assignment when they are more capable. Make your presence be felt and observe their work progress at different time intervals and exercise compliments work good work that is done, show your appreciation.
4. Be the fire starter, take the first step: If you realize that things are not going accordingly, when you feel that you have to step in and do something, as Nike would say it “Just Do It”. Have the initiative and do it yourself. In my honest opinion, try not to push the problem to your boss and regret of being told what to do. Be the pilot and take charge of what has to be done.
5. Do not let Stress overwhelm you, manage it: You can hide but you cannot avoid it Stress is existent in our workplace. Sometimes it is a countercheck mechanism to tell us that what does not break you makes you. The moment you are faced with a problem, draw up a cause and effect diagraph to find the root causes or break the problem into smaller task. Give it your best, and in doubt ask for help and just move on to the next problem. We have to stop worrying about the problem and start living the solution.
6. Take up Golf – Go on learning forever: In order to be on the top of the food chain, constantly update yourself with new innovative ideas that could create an impact and help your work. Armed with a variety of methods, processes, practices, latest concepts and new procedures, you would be able to overcome being obselete.Be the Change, blanket the old with the new processes of how things used to be done. In the corporate jungle, in order to survive, adopt lifelong learning and keep yourself abreast of current issues and affair, being up-to-date.
7. Be in the best shape of your life: Being on top, leading the pack, your work would be challenging and require a lot from you. Having a clear mind and a healthy body would be useful and certainly essential for you to cope with the pressure from people and the workload. The vibrant, younger, more energetic and fitter Obama, the president of the United States of America is an example of why you have to be in shape.
There are seven tools that would help you achieve the desired effect.
1. You have to be current, relevant and be great in your job: If you appear as an authority of competence in the field you are in, then without a shadow of doubt, you would gain that much deserved respect and authority. Whatever task that is laid forth, your staff will look up and listen, and before you know it the job done is done. An amazing fact would be that the more competencies you dish out in front of them, the direction you set will be followed willing.
2. Remember your employees are humans: The finest distribution to a human body, two ears and one mouth. You got to be an active and great listener. Be approachable and treat your employees with humanity. The people working for you will reciprocate with their devotion and respect you tremendously. They would even share with you the situations and problems they face. You have to be trustworthy and honest, a person of integrity.
3. Free your time to oversee: Delegate more of your work by training and coaching the workers. Encourage them to make independent decisions and give them more assignment when they are more capable. Make your presence be felt and observe their work progress at different time intervals and exercise compliments work good work that is done, show your appreciation.
4. Be the fire starter, take the first step: If you realize that things are not going accordingly, when you feel that you have to step in and do something, as Nike would say it “Just Do It”. Have the initiative and do it yourself. In my honest opinion, try not to push the problem to your boss and regret of being told what to do. Be the pilot and take charge of what has to be done.
5. Do not let Stress overwhelm you, manage it: You can hide but you cannot avoid it Stress is existent in our workplace. Sometimes it is a countercheck mechanism to tell us that what does not break you makes you. The moment you are faced with a problem, draw up a cause and effect diagraph to find the root causes or break the problem into smaller task. Give it your best, and in doubt ask for help and just move on to the next problem. We have to stop worrying about the problem and start living the solution.
6. Take up Golf – Go on learning forever: In order to be on the top of the food chain, constantly update yourself with new innovative ideas that could create an impact and help your work. Armed with a variety of methods, processes, practices, latest concepts and new procedures, you would be able to overcome being obselete.Be the Change, blanket the old with the new processes of how things used to be done. In the corporate jungle, in order to survive, adopt lifelong learning and keep yourself abreast of current issues and affair, being up-to-date.
7. Be in the best shape of your life: Being on top, leading the pack, your work would be challenging and require a lot from you. Having a clear mind and a healthy body would be useful and certainly essential for you to cope with the pressure from people and the workload. The vibrant, younger, more energetic and fitter Obama, the president of the United States of America is an example of why you have to be in shape.
PBM: Motivation Theories : Abraham Maslow
Abraham Maslow had a saying “If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.” It is similar to the concept of what is called scarcity, if there is abundance of that particular item you do not find the urgency to get it, but when there is scarcity or limited supply of that item, the intensity of wanting it becomes more. It just like water, staying beside a reservoir, that would be no necessity of worrying about water, but if now we are placed in a desert, the craving for water increases. Abraham Harold Maslow (April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970) was an American psychologist. He is noted for his conceptualization of a "hierarchy of human needs", and is considered the father of humanistic psychology.
Let us take a look at the bottom, the base need, the Physiological needs which are biogical needs and they consist of needs for air, oxygen, food, sleep, sex, shelter, water, and a relatively constant body temperature. Anything the physical organism needs to survive .This is the basic need of the body. It must be satisfied to remain alive, it is very fundamental life or death needs. When these are not satisfied, we feel discomfort and this feeling would motivate us to alleviate it as soon as possible to establish homeostasis. Once it is alleviated, we will think about other things. They are actually the strongest needs because if a person were deprived of all these needs, the physiological ones would come first in the person's search for satisfaction. A person’s needs for food, water and shelter are some of the specific needs within this level."...it seems impossible as well as useless to make any list of fundamental physiological needs, for they can come to almost any number one might wish, depending on the degree of specificity of description.".
When all physiological needs are satisfied and are no longer controlling thoughts and behaviors, the needs for security can become active. This would be the safety needs. Life is an ongoing process of choosing between safety which would be doing things out of fear and having a need for defence and risk in order to for the sake of progress and growth.
Safety needs have to do with establishing stability and consistency in a chaotic world as an individual is concerned about safety and security. Adults have relatively little awareness of their security needs except in times of emergency or periods of disorganization in the social structure as good example would be during a widespread rioting. Children often display the signs of insecurity and the need to be safe. People generally need a social security in a family and it would be a society that protects against hunger and violence. Protection against danger is important. For most people or individuals, long-term job security is important. Another aspect would be unfair and harsh working conditions violate the safety needs of an individual. Safety needs at work could include physical safety; an example would be protective clothing as well as protection against unemployment, loss of income through sickness. "If the physiological needs are relatively well gratified, there then emerges a new set of needs, which we may categorize roughly as the safety needs.” These needs generally are mostly psychological in nature. When we have all physiological needs being satisfied and they are no longer controlling thoughts and behaviors, the seed for the need for security will become active. Take for example if we have a family is dysfunctional such as an abusive husband, the wife cannot move to the next level because she would be constantly consumed and concerned for her safety. Love and belongingness will have to wait until she is no longer cringing in fear. Safety needs sometimes motivate people to be religious. Religions comfort us with the promise of a safe secure place after we die. These are other example of our safety needs such as security and stability. There would also be a sense of dependency, having the need for protection, being free from fear, anxiety, and chaos, the necessity to have structure, order, law, and limits, we would be in search for the strength in the protector who could enforce safety and security.
Next on the list of needs would be love, belonging and the social needs. As when the needs for safety and for physiological well-being are satisfied, the next class of needs for love, affection and belongingness can emerge. Maslow states that people seek to overcome feelings of alienation and loneliness. This would involve both giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging. The need for love, affection, and a sense of belonging are part of social needs. Relationships in the workplace are important to individuals. T-E-A-M – Together everyone achieves more, through group work and being member of teams enable individuals to have their social needs met. Many Organizations encourage group involvement and participation as other means of satisfying the social need. Social needs recognize that most people want to belong to a group. These would include the need for love and belonging and some examples of this would be working with colleagues who support you at work, teamwork, communication, clubs, work groups, religious groups, family, gangs, and so forth. We all need to feel loved by others, to be accepted by family, friends, society and others. We need to be needed and this involves giving and receiving. "If both the physiological and the safety needs are fairly well gratified, there will emerge the love and affection and belongingness needs, and the whole cycle already described will repeat itself with this new center. The love needs involve giving and receiving affection. When they are unsatisfied, a person will feel keenly the absence of friends, mate, or children. Such a person will hunger for relations with people in general ~ for a place in the group or family ~ and will strive with great intensity to achieve this goal. Attaining such a place will matter more than anything else in the world and he or she may even forget that once, when hunger was foremost, love seemed unreal, unnecessary, and unimportant. Now the pangs of loneliness, ostracism, rejection and friendlessness are preeminent."
When the first three classes of needs are satisfied, the needs for esteem can become dominant. Yes my friend the esteem need and these needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a person get from others. One of the need human beings thrive for is having a need for a stable, firmly based, high level of self-respect, and respect from others. When these needs are satisfied, the person would gain and feel a great sense of self-confidence and valuable as a person in the world. When he comes into a situation when these needs are frustrated, the person feels inferior, weak, helpless and worthless. There would be a need to be a unique individual with self-respect and to enjoy general esteem from others. Some of these needs would include internal and external esteem factors. Internal esteem factors include self-respect, autonomy, recognition and achievement. External esteem factors include recognition and status. It could also be classified to two needs and it involves needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a person gets from others. First is self-esteem which results from the mastery or competence. Basically to be good in what you do and secondly there is the recognition and attention that comes from others. This is similar to the belongingness level; however, wanting admiration has to do with the need for glory, fame and power. People, who have all of their lower needs satisfied, often drive very luxurious expensive cars because doing so raises their level of esteem. It is about the image that we would like to portray or display. “All people in our society (with a few pathological exceptions) have a need or desire for a stable, firmly based, usually high evaluation of themselves, for self-respect or self-esteem, and for the esteem of others. These needs may therefore be classified into two subsidiary sets. These are, first, the desire for strength, achievement, adequacy, mastery and competence, confidence in the face of the world, and independence and freedom. Second, we have what we may call the desire for reputation or prestige (defining it as respect or esteem from other people), status, fame and glory, dominance, recognition, attention, importance, dignity, or appreciation." "Satisfaction of the self-esteem need leads to feelings of self-confidence, worth, strength, capability, and adequacy, of being useful and necessary in the world. But thwarting of these needs produces feelings of inferiority, of weakness, and of helplessness."
"The most stable and therefore most healthy self-esteem is based on deserved respect from others rather than on external fame or celebrity and unwarranted adulation."
Last but not least, we have the Self-actualization need. As Abraham Maslow had a saying - “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.”
Don’t be like the person who has got each foot on a different boat, if the boats go in different direction, you risk of falling into the river. It is very important to eexperience things fully, maximizing each and every experience it a vivid and selfless manner. Dive into the experiencing of something and be totally immersed, let in absorb you totally and concentrate on it fully with all your energy and effort.
Make the growth choice a dozen times a day. When all of the foregoing needs are satisfied, then and only then are the needs for self-actualization activated. Maslow describes self-actualization as a person's need to be and do that which the person was "born to do." "A musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write." These needs make themselves felt in signs of restlessness. The person feels like he or she is placed on the edge, tense, lacking something, in short, restless. If a person is hungry, unsafe, not loved or accepted, or lacking self-esteem, it is very easy to know what the person is restless about. There would be clear visible indication. It is not always clear what a person wants when there is a need for self-actualization. Individuals want to achieve growth, and achieve one’s potential. Self-actualization is about how people think about themselves - this is often measured by the extent of success and/or challenge at work. Some of the self-actualization indication would be the need for Vitality, creativity, self-sufficiency, Authenticity, playfulness, meaningfulness, Experience purpose, meaning and realizing all inner potentials. It focuses on self-fulfillment of individuals. The need for self-actualization is "the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming." People who have everything can maximize their potential. They can seek knowledge, peace, esthetic experiences, self-fulfillment, and oneness with God, etc. It is usually middle-class to upper-class people or students, who take up environmental causes, join the world peace organizations, go off to a pilgrim or monastery."Even if all these needs are satisfied, we may still often (if not always) expect that a new discontent and restlessness will soon develop, unless the individual is doing what he or she, individually, is fitted for. Musicians must make music, artists must paint, and poets must write if they are to be ultimately at peace with themselves. What humans can be, they must be. They must be true to their own nature. This need we may call self-actualization." Maslow later redefined self-actualization as a function of frequency of peak experiences. Some pointers for self actualization would be to find out who you are, what you are, what you like and don’t like, what is good and what is bad for you, where you are going, what your vision, mission and goals are. Opening yourself up to yourself, trying to understand oneself by this way means identifying defences, finding faults, bad habits and then finding the courage to give them up or eliminating or minimizing them from your system. It is good to self emerge oneself and trying to block or shut out the negative or external factors as to what you should think, feel, say, and so on, and let your experience enable you to say what you truly feel. When in doubt, be truthful and honest to yourself. If you look into yourself with integrity and honesty, you will also take ownership and responsibility. Taking responsibility is self-actualizing. The self talk helps. Listen to your own inner voice. With your unique ability of intelligence, work to do well the things you want to do, no matter how insignificant they seem to be. Every drop amounts to a great ocean and a small leak can sink a great ship.Make peak experiencing more likely and eliminate or get rid of illusions and false notions. Find out your strengths and weaknesses and learn what you are good at and what your potentialities are not.
PBM: Decision Making Process
The decision making process, is a series of steps that starts with identifying a problem and ends with the evaluation of the effectiveness of the decision.
We will describe the decision making process in 8 distinct steps. They are:
Identify the problem
Identify the decision criteria
Assign weightage to decision criteria
Develop possible solutions/alternatives
Analyse each alternative
Select the best alternative/possible solution
Implement
Monitor/Evaluate
Step 1: Identify the Problem
Decision making begins with the presence of problem. Problem is defined as ‘ a discrepancy between an existing and desired state of affairs” .
For example, when a manager notices that her daily sales figure (existing) is lower than her set target (desired state of affairs) than it is a problem. In other words when there is a difference between the actual situation (the actual sales was $5000) and set standards (the original standards was $6000), the difference is a shortfall of $1000. Now we have a problem to solve.
Most of the time it is not easy to identify the real problem. The existing situation could be simply a symptom of other underlying problems.
In analysing and defining a problem, it is necessary to look for information from internal and external sources
Fact-finding is an important part in this stage. Additional information is gathered through personal observation and discussion.
To make it easier for us to follow through the steps, let us look at the decision making process with an example: Your office computer is out of order and it is not worth repairing. That is your problem. You need to buy a new one.
Step 2: Identify the decision criteria
Prior to developing possible solutions to the identified problem, managers normally pay attention to one other specific area. They need to identify and agree on the criteria that will be used to determine the relevance of each alternative.
For example, in buying a replacement computer, you may wish to compare your choices by making reference to price, features, after-sales service etc. This factors you consider in making a choice is known as decision criteria.
Step 3: Allocate weight to criteria
Once decision criteria are identified, you have to allocate to each criterion.
This is based on the assumption that we normally value certain criterion more
than another.
For example in our example, all things being equal, we may make our final
choice based on pricing rather than on other factors. In this case we will
assign higher weightage to this factor.
Step 4: Develop alternatives
Factors such as price, features and after sales service are some of the factors (commonly known as decision criteria) that can be used to validate each possible solution are identified. Criterion, which is considered as most important, is given higher weightage.
Manager lists as many viable solutions as possible. Generating alternatives can be done alone or may involve others through activities such as brainstorming.
In brainstorming, the group leader presents a problem to group members and encourages them to generate as many solutions as possible. The emphasis is on quantity and not on quality of solutions. No criticism of ideas is allowed. Later, each solution is reviewed critically.
Using the earlier example, now you have to identify few brand/models of computers as possible choices. You may collect information on specific models of Acer, Toshiba, and IBM.
Step 5: Analyse each alternative
You, as a decision maker now must compare each model against the decision criteria - price, features and after sales service.
The benefits to be gained from each alternative must be identified.
The possible risk of each alternative must be identified
The amount of resources required for each alternative must be identified.
Step 6: Select the best alternative
Once, each possible alternative is evaluated against set criteria, the decision maker simply chooses the item with the highest score.
Once a systematic approach is adopted, such as using decision criteria, the choice becomes obvious.
Manager can choose an alternative that gives highest possible benefit.
At times highest possible benefit option is not available, a manager may opt for a minimum gain, but that will also reduces high risk.
Risk aversive manager may choose an alternative that is not too risky.
Step 7: Implement
Having selected the preferred choice, manager must now implement the decision. The relevant resources are secured to make the implementation effective. Employees are briefed about the choice and the reason for selecting a particular model.
Successful implementation requires effective planning, organising and leading.
Step 8: Monitor/Evaluate
The last step in decision making involves evaluating the outcome of the decision.
This relates to the control aspect of the functions of management.
The actual performance is monitored closely; It is compared to the set standard to make sure the problem no longer exist. If the problem still exist, then manager need to take corrective action.
If necessary manager need to go back to step 1 of the decision making process.
We will describe the decision making process in 8 distinct steps. They are:
Identify the problem
Identify the decision criteria
Assign weightage to decision criteria
Develop possible solutions/alternatives
Analyse each alternative
Select the best alternative/possible solution
Implement
Monitor/Evaluate
Step 1: Identify the Problem
Decision making begins with the presence of problem. Problem is defined as ‘ a discrepancy between an existing and desired state of affairs” .
For example, when a manager notices that her daily sales figure (existing) is lower than her set target (desired state of affairs) than it is a problem. In other words when there is a difference between the actual situation (the actual sales was $5000) and set standards (the original standards was $6000), the difference is a shortfall of $1000. Now we have a problem to solve.
Most of the time it is not easy to identify the real problem. The existing situation could be simply a symptom of other underlying problems.
In analysing and defining a problem, it is necessary to look for information from internal and external sources
Fact-finding is an important part in this stage. Additional information is gathered through personal observation and discussion.
To make it easier for us to follow through the steps, let us look at the decision making process with an example: Your office computer is out of order and it is not worth repairing. That is your problem. You need to buy a new one.
Step 2: Identify the decision criteria
Prior to developing possible solutions to the identified problem, managers normally pay attention to one other specific area. They need to identify and agree on the criteria that will be used to determine the relevance of each alternative.
For example, in buying a replacement computer, you may wish to compare your choices by making reference to price, features, after-sales service etc. This factors you consider in making a choice is known as decision criteria.
Step 3: Allocate weight to criteria
Once decision criteria are identified, you have to allocate to each criterion.
This is based on the assumption that we normally value certain criterion more
than another.
For example in our example, all things being equal, we may make our final
choice based on pricing rather than on other factors. In this case we will
assign higher weightage to this factor.
Step 4: Develop alternatives
Factors such as price, features and after sales service are some of the factors (commonly known as decision criteria) that can be used to validate each possible solution are identified. Criterion, which is considered as most important, is given higher weightage.
Manager lists as many viable solutions as possible. Generating alternatives can be done alone or may involve others through activities such as brainstorming.
In brainstorming, the group leader presents a problem to group members and encourages them to generate as many solutions as possible. The emphasis is on quantity and not on quality of solutions. No criticism of ideas is allowed. Later, each solution is reviewed critically.
Using the earlier example, now you have to identify few brand/models of computers as possible choices. You may collect information on specific models of Acer, Toshiba, and IBM.
Step 5: Analyse each alternative
You, as a decision maker now must compare each model against the decision criteria - price, features and after sales service.
The benefits to be gained from each alternative must be identified.
The possible risk of each alternative must be identified
The amount of resources required for each alternative must be identified.
Step 6: Select the best alternative
Once, each possible alternative is evaluated against set criteria, the decision maker simply chooses the item with the highest score.
Once a systematic approach is adopted, such as using decision criteria, the choice becomes obvious.
Manager can choose an alternative that gives highest possible benefit.
At times highest possible benefit option is not available, a manager may opt for a minimum gain, but that will also reduces high risk.
Risk aversive manager may choose an alternative that is not too risky.
Step 7: Implement
Having selected the preferred choice, manager must now implement the decision. The relevant resources are secured to make the implementation effective. Employees are briefed about the choice and the reason for selecting a particular model.
Successful implementation requires effective planning, organising and leading.
Step 8: Monitor/Evaluate
The last step in decision making involves evaluating the outcome of the decision.
This relates to the control aspect of the functions of management.
The actual performance is monitored closely; It is compared to the set standard to make sure the problem no longer exist. If the problem still exist, then manager need to take corrective action.
If necessary manager need to go back to step 1 of the decision making process.
PBM:STEP 5: EVALUATE THE STRATEGIES IMPLEMENTED
The final step in the strategic management process is to evaluate the outcome. The actual performance is measured and compared against set standards. If necessary corrective action is taken.
PBM: STEP 4: IMPLEMENTATION
To be successful, strategies must be implemented carefully. People with the right skills may be needed to make some of the strategies to work.
• Re-organising the existing structure to meet the new business environment may be necessary as well.
• Employees and managers at all level must be briefed about the strategy, so that there will be a unified vision in the organisation.
• Re-organising the existing structure to meet the new business environment may be necessary as well.
• Employees and managers at all level must be briefed about the strategy, so that there will be a unified vision in the organisation.
PBM:STEP 3: FORMULATE STRATEGIES
Using the SWOT analysis as a basis, managers develop appropriate strategies to take advantage of its resources.
• Strategies are developed for the corporate, business and functional levels of the firm.
• Most organisations look at GRAND STRATEGY, a model comprising four primary strategies when formulating strategies.
Grand strategy – Growth: the organisation attempts to increase its level of activity; may increase its market share through mergers and acquisitions.
Grand strategy – Stability: organisation chooses to remain as it is without any major change. Concerned in maintaining its market share; a preferred strategy in a stable environment.
Grand strategy – Retrenchment: useful to deal with organisational weaknesses; useful to stabilize its operation, while saving valuable resources.
Grand strategy – combination: organisation adopts two or more of the three strategies.
• Strategies are developed for the corporate, business and functional levels of the firm.
• Most organisations look at GRAND STRATEGY, a model comprising four primary strategies when formulating strategies.
Grand strategy – Growth: the organisation attempts to increase its level of activity; may increase its market share through mergers and acquisitions.
Grand strategy – Stability: organisation chooses to remain as it is without any major change. Concerned in maintaining its market share; a preferred strategy in a stable environment.
Grand strategy – Retrenchment: useful to deal with organisational weaknesses; useful to stabilize its operation, while saving valuable resources.
Grand strategy – combination: organisation adopts two or more of the three strategies.
PBM: STEP 2: SWOT ANALYSIS
In this step, manager analyse the environment – internal and external. SWOT model (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) is used to identify the threats and opportunities in the external environment.
• The specific and general environmental factors must be examined carefully, in order to know the threats and opportunities facing the organisation.
• The external environmental analysis, make it possible to recognize the market trends and their effects on the growth of the organisation.
• After completing the external environmental analysis, managers must analyse the organisation’s internal resources and capabilities. This process will highlight the strengths of the organisation, as well as the weaknesses.
• SWOT analysis helps managers to identify areas which can be exploited by the management.
• Managers normally re-evaluate the mission, objectives and strategies after the SWOT analysis. If necessary, changes are made in the organisation’s mission, objectives and strategies.
• The specific and general environmental factors must be examined carefully, in order to know the threats and opportunities facing the organisation.
• The external environmental analysis, make it possible to recognize the market trends and their effects on the growth of the organisation.
• After completing the external environmental analysis, managers must analyse the organisation’s internal resources and capabilities. This process will highlight the strengths of the organisation, as well as the weaknesses.
• SWOT analysis helps managers to identify areas which can be exploited by the management.
• Managers normally re-evaluate the mission, objectives and strategies after the SWOT analysis. If necessary, changes are made in the organisation’s mission, objectives and strategies.
PBM:STEP 1: IDENTIFY ORGANISATION’S MISSION, OBJECTIVES & STRATEGIES
Every organisation has a purpose. Strategic management planning must begin with a thorough understanding of the organisation’s current mission, objectives and strategies.
The organisation’s mission and objective provides the basis for the strategic management process.
The organisation’s mission and objective provides the basis for the strategic management process.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
DM -Segmentation strategies part 5
The lists are used in conjuction with statistical and mathematical techniques to identify group of prospects or individual prospects based on their psychographics, demographics and/or behavioural characteristics such as purchase histories.
Direct marketers use list segmentation to select those people from whom they expect response rates greater than that from the population in general.
List segmentation can also be used to split a list file into several smaller homogenous files, where a firm mails only to individuals in those smaller files because they are expected to ba profitable.
The more a list is refined, the higher the response rate a firm will get to a given campaign. Direct marketers mail or telephone the names expected to be most productive first and move down the list until the incremental response rate is equal to the break-even response rate.
Direct marketers use list segmentation to select those people from whom they expect response rates greater than that from the population in general.
List segmentation can also be used to split a list file into several smaller homogenous files, where a firm mails only to individuals in those smaller files because they are expected to ba profitable.
The more a list is refined, the higher the response rate a firm will get to a given campaign. Direct marketers mail or telephone the names expected to be most productive first and move down the list until the incremental response rate is equal to the break-even response rate.
DM -Segmentation strategies part 4 (List brokers,compilers & managers)
List brokers rent list on behalf of list owners. The vast majority of all list rentals are made through brokers. The list renter pays a fee to the list broker for the use of a list and the list owner receives that payment less the commission that the list broker takes for its services.
List brokers know about
- what lists are available
- how the list tend to perform
- how can they be best used
List compilers create lists from such sources as census data, telephone directories, facebook, social networking sites and other information. They then organize those lists into groups of people or businesses having similar or common characteristics, such as households with above average incomes or businesses with more than one million employees.
List managers represent the interest of list owners. They interact with list brokers and keep track of all aspects of the process relevant to the owner.Compared to list brokers, list managers are more likely to recommend only the lists they manage.
List brokers know about
- what lists are available
- how the list tend to perform
- how can they be best used
List compilers create lists from such sources as census data, telephone directories, facebook, social networking sites and other information. They then organize those lists into groups of people or businesses having similar or common characteristics, such as households with above average incomes or businesses with more than one million employees.
List managers represent the interest of list owners. They interact with list brokers and keep track of all aspects of the process relevant to the owner.Compared to list brokers, list managers are more likely to recommend only the lists they manage.
DM -Segmentation strategies part 3 (Lists)
A list is a collection of addresses and names of customers and prospects who could be the target of an offer. List information is usually stored in a database. The list are either classified as a compiled list or response list.
Compiled lists– are put together from numerous sources and sold by list marketing companies. These compilations are derived from various sources or smaller lists with a common characteristics.This is because compiled list do not necessarily include mail-order or telemarketing buyers, they may not be as responsive to telemarketing or mail solicitations. However, they are valuable to direct marketers in that they allow firms to reach large numbers of people.
Response lists – are based on the product or service interests of the person on the list. The names on such a list come from companies that have done business with particular group of customers and know about their service orproduct interests
Compiled lists– are put together from numerous sources and sold by list marketing companies. These compilations are derived from various sources or smaller lists with a common characteristics.This is because compiled list do not necessarily include mail-order or telemarketing buyers, they may not be as responsive to telemarketing or mail solicitations. However, they are valuable to direct marketers in that they allow firms to reach large numbers of people.
Response lists – are based on the product or service interests of the person on the list. The names on such a list come from companies that have done business with particular group of customers and know about their service orproduct interests
DM -Segmentation strategies part 2 (requirements)
The segmentation requirements of direct marketing are similar to those of general marketing.
They are
Substantiality – relative size of a particular segment
Differential response – whether a target market has a higher propensity to buy
Identification – about being able to quantify the existence of target markets and to use that statistical information as the basis for managing a marketing program.
Stability – indicates whether target segments are relatively stable overtime
Accessible - target market segments are efficiently reachable through one or more media that best communicate a direct marketer’s offer.
They are
Substantiality – relative size of a particular segment
Differential response – whether a target market has a higher propensity to buy
Identification – about being able to quantify the existence of target markets and to use that statistical information as the basis for managing a marketing program.
Stability – indicates whether target segments are relatively stable overtime
Accessible - target market segments are efficiently reachable through one or more media that best communicate a direct marketer’s offer.
DM -Segmentation strategies part 1
Direct Marketing strategies would use market segmentation to focus on a particular population subset that are expected to be more responsive to what a firm is selling than the whole population.
Market segmentation is about identifying clusters of buyers who form cohesive groups that differ from one another as to their specific needs.This would contribute to the development of strategies with marketing mixes( product,price, place, promotion) that would best fit the demand for the specific products and services.
The segmentation options for the b2b(business to business) direct marketers are very similar to those for marketers that target consumers. There are, however, major differences because the specific variables used within segmentations differ between consumers and industrial segmentation analysis. In b2b direct marketing, demographic variables such as income, age and geographic location have different meanings than in consumer marketing, although they describe similar concepts.
Market segmentation is about identifying clusters of buyers who form cohesive groups that differ from one another as to their specific needs.This would contribute to the development of strategies with marketing mixes( product,price, place, promotion) that would best fit the demand for the specific products and services.
The segmentation options for the b2b(business to business) direct marketers are very similar to those for marketers that target consumers. There are, however, major differences because the specific variables used within segmentations differ between consumers and industrial segmentation analysis. In b2b direct marketing, demographic variables such as income, age and geographic location have different meanings than in consumer marketing, although they describe similar concepts.
DM-Comparison Between Direct and Traditional Marketing
Direct Marketing
Direct selling to individuals with customers identifiable by name, address and purchase behavior
Products have the added value of distribution direct to the customer, an important benefit
The medium is the marketplace
Marketing controls the product all the way through delivery
Advertising is used to generate an immediate transaction … an inquiry or an order
Repetition of offers, promotional messages, toll-free numbers and web addresses are used within the advertisement
Customer feels a high perceived risk – product bought unseen, recourse is distant
Traditional Marketing
Mass selling with buyers identified as broad groups sharing common demographic and psychographic characteristics
Product benefits do not typically include distribution to the customer’s door
The retail outlet is the marketplace
The marketer typically loses control as the product enters the distribution channel
Advertising is used for cumulative effect over time for building image, awareness, loyalty and benefit recall. Purchase action is deferred.
Repetition of offers and promotional messages are used over a period of time
Customer feels less risk – has direct contact with the product and direct recourse
Direct selling to individuals with customers identifiable by name, address and purchase behavior
Products have the added value of distribution direct to the customer, an important benefit
The medium is the marketplace
Marketing controls the product all the way through delivery
Advertising is used to generate an immediate transaction … an inquiry or an order
Repetition of offers, promotional messages, toll-free numbers and web addresses are used within the advertisement
Customer feels a high perceived risk – product bought unseen, recourse is distant
Traditional Marketing
Mass selling with buyers identified as broad groups sharing common demographic and psychographic characteristics
Product benefits do not typically include distribution to the customer’s door
The retail outlet is the marketplace
The marketer typically loses control as the product enters the distribution channel
Advertising is used for cumulative effect over time for building image, awareness, loyalty and benefit recall. Purchase action is deferred.
Repetition of offers and promotional messages are used over a period of time
Customer feels less risk – has direct contact with the product and direct recourse
DM - Marketing Segmentation
Because buyers have unique needs and wants, each buyer is potentially a separate market. Ideally, then, a seller might design a separate marketing program for each buyer. Market Segmentation is the process of dividing a market into distinct groups of buyers who might require separate products and/or marketing mixes, then developing profiles of the resulting segments.
A. There is no single way to segment a market. Marketers may have to try different segmentation variables, alone or in combination, hoping to find the most appropriate view of the market structure. Here, we will look at the major geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioristic variables used in segmenting consumer markets.
1. Geographic segmentation calls for dividing the market into different geographic units such as nations, states, regions, counties, cities, or neighborhoods. For example, General Foods’ Maxwell House ground coffee is sold nationally but is flavored regionally. For the lodging companies, Holiday Inn began as a regional motel company out of Memphis, Tennessee. Motel 8 began in Aberdeen, South Dakota, with original appeal to the Midwestern and western market, but expanded well beyond regional boundaries. Hyatt Hotels initiated a program to offer regional dishes on its menus. The Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C., became concerned about offering local cuisine.
2. Demographic segmentation consists of dividing the market into groups based on demographic variables.
a. It is the most popular bases for segmenting customer groups.
• Because consumer needs, wants, and usage rates often vary closely with demographic variables.
• Because demographic variables are easier to measure most other types of variables.
b. Demographic variables include age, gender, family life cycle, income, occupation, education, religion, race, and nationality.
• Age and life cycle stage: consumer needs and wants change with age. Some companies offer different products or marketing strategies to penetrate various age and life cycle segments. For example, McDonald’s offers happy meals that include toys, aimed at young children. American Express focuses much of its marketing attention on the “mature” market. Nevertheless, age and life cycle variables can be misleading. For instance, some customers were not the physiologically young but the psychologically young. Southwest Airlines realized that many senior citizens are psychologically young. Their advertisements for senior fares show active older people enjoying themselves.
• Gender: Currently, women accounted for 40 % of all business travelers. Hotel corporations are now taking women into consideration in designing their hotel rooms. Most effective when combined with lifestyle and demographic information.
• Income: Income alone does not always predict which customers will buy a given product or service. It should combine with other variables. For instance, the St. Moritz on-the-Park Hotel in New York City has combined income and geographical segmentation variables to set its prices. Middle-income consumer is by far the largest segment but is difficult to attract and retain.
3. Psychographic segmentation divides buyers into different groups based on social class, lifestyle, and personality characteristics.
a. Social class: social class has a strong effect on preferences for leisure activities. For example, afternoon tea at the Ritz-Carlton is aimed at the upper-middle and upper classes. A neighborhood pub near a factory targets the working class.
b. Lifestyle: marketers are increasingly segmenting their markets by consumer lifestyles. For example, nightclubs are designed with certain clientele in mind: young singles wanting to meet the opposite sex, singles wanting to meet the same sex.
c. Personality: marketers also use personality variables to segment markets. For example,, Frontier Airlines is building a personality around animals by putting colorful graphics on their planes.
4. Behavior segmentation divides buyers into groups based on their knowledge, attitude, use, or response to a product. Six variables are commonly used: occasions, benefits sought, user status, usage rate, loyalty status, and buyer readiness stage.
a. Special Occasions: Buyers can be grouped according to occasions when they get the idea, make the purchase, or use a product.
• For example, air travel is triggered by occasions related to business, vacation, or family. Mother’s Day has been promoted as a time to take your mother or wife out to eat. Some hotels in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, specialize in the honeymoon market. Doubletree’s “Room at the Inn” program offers free short-term lodging for travelers needing emergency lodging between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
b. Benefits sought: Buyers can also be grouped according to the product benefits they seek.
• For example, a study indicated that the benefits sought by patrons of different types of restaurants are different.
• Knowing the attributes or benefits sought by customers is useful in two ways. First, restaurant marketers understand what to provide and promote to attract a specific segment. Second, identification of customer types is possible. This type of information reduces waste in advertising and increases effectiveness. The French Trianon Palace Hotel found a specific niche for travelers who want to travel with their best friend – their dog – by offering special services for their pets.
c. User status: Many markets can be segmented into nonusers, former users, potential users, first-time users, and regular users of a product. Potential users and regular users often require different marketing appeals.
d. Usage rate: Markets can also be segmented into light-, medium-, and heavy-user groups.
• Heavy users are often a small percentage of the market but account for a high percentage of total buying. For example, a study found heavy users of fast food restaurants account for only 20% of the customers but 60% of fast food transactions. Heavy users of airline travel accounts for only 4.1% of the customers but 70.4% of total airline trips. Heavy users of pleasure trip users of hotels and motels account for only 7.9% of the customers but 59.4% of room nights.
• One of the most controversial programs ever employed by the hospitality and travel industries to ensure heavy patronage by key customers is the frequent flyer or frequent guest program. Clearly, marketers are eager to identify heavy users and build a marketing mix to attract them.
e. Loyalty status: Markets can also be segmented into four groups: hard-core loyalty, soft-core loyalty, switchers, and no loyalty. In the hospitality and travel industries, marketers attempt to build brand loyalty through relationship marketing. Loyal customers are generally more price insensitive.
f. Buyer readiness stage: At any given time, people are in different stages of readiness to buy a product. Some are unaware of the product; some are aware; some are informed; some want the product; and some intend to buy. The relative number in each stage makes a big difference in designing a marketing program.
A. There is no single way to segment a market. Marketers may have to try different segmentation variables, alone or in combination, hoping to find the most appropriate view of the market structure. Here, we will look at the major geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioristic variables used in segmenting consumer markets.
1. Geographic segmentation calls for dividing the market into different geographic units such as nations, states, regions, counties, cities, or neighborhoods. For example, General Foods’ Maxwell House ground coffee is sold nationally but is flavored regionally. For the lodging companies, Holiday Inn began as a regional motel company out of Memphis, Tennessee. Motel 8 began in Aberdeen, South Dakota, with original appeal to the Midwestern and western market, but expanded well beyond regional boundaries. Hyatt Hotels initiated a program to offer regional dishes on its menus. The Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C., became concerned about offering local cuisine.
2. Demographic segmentation consists of dividing the market into groups based on demographic variables.
a. It is the most popular bases for segmenting customer groups.
• Because consumer needs, wants, and usage rates often vary closely with demographic variables.
• Because demographic variables are easier to measure most other types of variables.
b. Demographic variables include age, gender, family life cycle, income, occupation, education, religion, race, and nationality.
• Age and life cycle stage: consumer needs and wants change with age. Some companies offer different products or marketing strategies to penetrate various age and life cycle segments. For example, McDonald’s offers happy meals that include toys, aimed at young children. American Express focuses much of its marketing attention on the “mature” market. Nevertheless, age and life cycle variables can be misleading. For instance, some customers were not the physiologically young but the psychologically young. Southwest Airlines realized that many senior citizens are psychologically young. Their advertisements for senior fares show active older people enjoying themselves.
• Gender: Currently, women accounted for 40 % of all business travelers. Hotel corporations are now taking women into consideration in designing their hotel rooms. Most effective when combined with lifestyle and demographic information.
• Income: Income alone does not always predict which customers will buy a given product or service. It should combine with other variables. For instance, the St. Moritz on-the-Park Hotel in New York City has combined income and geographical segmentation variables to set its prices. Middle-income consumer is by far the largest segment but is difficult to attract and retain.
3. Psychographic segmentation divides buyers into different groups based on social class, lifestyle, and personality characteristics.
a. Social class: social class has a strong effect on preferences for leisure activities. For example, afternoon tea at the Ritz-Carlton is aimed at the upper-middle and upper classes. A neighborhood pub near a factory targets the working class.
b. Lifestyle: marketers are increasingly segmenting their markets by consumer lifestyles. For example, nightclubs are designed with certain clientele in mind: young singles wanting to meet the opposite sex, singles wanting to meet the same sex.
c. Personality: marketers also use personality variables to segment markets. For example,, Frontier Airlines is building a personality around animals by putting colorful graphics on their planes.
4. Behavior segmentation divides buyers into groups based on their knowledge, attitude, use, or response to a product. Six variables are commonly used: occasions, benefits sought, user status, usage rate, loyalty status, and buyer readiness stage.
a. Special Occasions: Buyers can be grouped according to occasions when they get the idea, make the purchase, or use a product.
• For example, air travel is triggered by occasions related to business, vacation, or family. Mother’s Day has been promoted as a time to take your mother or wife out to eat. Some hotels in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, specialize in the honeymoon market. Doubletree’s “Room at the Inn” program offers free short-term lodging for travelers needing emergency lodging between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
b. Benefits sought: Buyers can also be grouped according to the product benefits they seek.
• For example, a study indicated that the benefits sought by patrons of different types of restaurants are different.
• Knowing the attributes or benefits sought by customers is useful in two ways. First, restaurant marketers understand what to provide and promote to attract a specific segment. Second, identification of customer types is possible. This type of information reduces waste in advertising and increases effectiveness. The French Trianon Palace Hotel found a specific niche for travelers who want to travel with their best friend – their dog – by offering special services for their pets.
c. User status: Many markets can be segmented into nonusers, former users, potential users, first-time users, and regular users of a product. Potential users and regular users often require different marketing appeals.
d. Usage rate: Markets can also be segmented into light-, medium-, and heavy-user groups.
• Heavy users are often a small percentage of the market but account for a high percentage of total buying. For example, a study found heavy users of fast food restaurants account for only 20% of the customers but 60% of fast food transactions. Heavy users of airline travel accounts for only 4.1% of the customers but 70.4% of total airline trips. Heavy users of pleasure trip users of hotels and motels account for only 7.9% of the customers but 59.4% of room nights.
• One of the most controversial programs ever employed by the hospitality and travel industries to ensure heavy patronage by key customers is the frequent flyer or frequent guest program. Clearly, marketers are eager to identify heavy users and build a marketing mix to attract them.
e. Loyalty status: Markets can also be segmented into four groups: hard-core loyalty, soft-core loyalty, switchers, and no loyalty. In the hospitality and travel industries, marketers attempt to build brand loyalty through relationship marketing. Loyal customers are generally more price insensitive.
f. Buyer readiness stage: At any given time, people are in different stages of readiness to buy a product. Some are unaware of the product; some are aware; some are informed; some want the product; and some intend to buy. The relative number in each stage makes a big difference in designing a marketing program.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Environmental factors
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS
POLITICAL
-government legislation regulating business
-changes in government agency enforcement
-emphasis on social regulations
-emphasis on ethical regulations
etc
ECONOMICAL
-changes in income levels
-changes in spending pattern
-changes in natural resources
-changes in cost/ availability of energy
-imports tariffs
-export tariffs
LEGAL
-central laws
-state laws
-local government laws
-export regulations
-import regulations
-consumer laws
etc
SOCIAL
-changes in demography
-changing structure of population
-changes in family structure
-geographical shift in population
-changes in education level
-changes in ethnic diversity
etc
TECHNOLOGICAL
-changes in technology
-R& D expenditure
-increased regulations on technology.
etc
POLITICAL
-government legislation regulating business
-changes in government agency enforcement
-emphasis on social regulations
-emphasis on ethical regulations
etc
ECONOMICAL
-changes in income levels
-changes in spending pattern
-changes in natural resources
-changes in cost/ availability of energy
-imports tariffs
-export tariffs
LEGAL
-central laws
-state laws
-local government laws
-export regulations
-import regulations
-consumer laws
etc
SOCIAL
-changes in demography
-changing structure of population
-changes in family structure
-geographical shift in population
-changes in education level
-changes in ethnic diversity
etc
TECHNOLOGICAL
-changes in technology
-R& D expenditure
-increased regulations on technology.
etc
Basic aspects of culture
Basic aspects of culture:
It is not innate, but learned.The various facets of culture are interrelated - touch a culture in one place and everything is affected.It is shared by group members, and defines boundaries between different groups.Edward T. Hall, Beyond Culture (1977).
Social and cultural influences on the international buyer
• Cultural differences
– language, spoken and silent
– mental processes and learning
– values and norms
– rewards and recognition
• Type of buyer behaviour
– consumer
– business
– government
• The influence of others in the buying process
• decision-making unit
• family
• peers
• SLEPT influences on buyer behaviour
• Specific cultural influences
– religion
– education
– family
– reference groups
• The influence of the market
– distribution channels
– manufacturer
– service provider
It is not innate, but learned.The various facets of culture are interrelated - touch a culture in one place and everything is affected.It is shared by group members, and defines boundaries between different groups.Edward T. Hall, Beyond Culture (1977).
Social and cultural influences on the international buyer
• Cultural differences
– language, spoken and silent
– mental processes and learning
– values and norms
– rewards and recognition
• Type of buyer behaviour
– consumer
– business
– government
• The influence of others in the buying process
• decision-making unit
• family
• peers
• SLEPT influences on buyer behaviour
• Specific cultural influences
– religion
– education
– family
– reference groups
• The influence of the market
– distribution channels
– manufacturer
– service provider
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