What exactly is marketing and why is it important to you as an entrepreneur? Simply stated, marketing is everything you do to place your product or service in the hands of potential customers.
It includes diverse disciplines like sales, public relations, pricing, packaging, and distribution. In order to distinguish marketing from other related professional services, S.H. Simmons, author and humorist, relates this anecdote.
"If a young man tells his date she's intelligent, looks lovely, and is a great conversationalist, he's saying the right things to the right person and that's marketing. If the young man tells his date how handsome, smart and successful he is -- that's advertising. If someone else tells the young woman how handsome, smart and successful her date is -- that's public relations."
You might think of marketing this way. If business is all about people and money and the art of persuading one to part from the other, then marketing is all about finding the right people to persuade.
Marketing is your strategy for allocating resources (time and money) in order to achieve your objectives (a fair profit for supplying a good product or service).
Yet the most brilliant strategy won't help you earn a profit or achieve your wildest dreams if it isn't built around your potential customers. A strategy that isn't based on customers is rather like a man who knows a thousand ways to make love to a woman, but doesn't know any women. Great in theory but unrewarding in practice.
If you fit the classic definition of an entrepreneur (someone with a great idea who's under-capitalized), you may think marketing is something you do later -- after the product is developed, manufactured, or ready to sell.
Though it may feel counter-intuitive, marketing doesn't begin with a great idea or a unique product. It begins with customers -- those people who want or need your product and will actually buy it.
Entrepreneurs are in love with their ideas, and they should be. After all, why would anyone commit their energy, life savings, and no small part of their sanity to anything less than a consuming passion. Because entrepreneurs are passionate about their idea, product, or service, they innocently assume other people will feel the same. Here's the bad news -- it just doesn't work that way!
People have their own unique perceptions of the world based on their belief system. The most innovative ideas, the greatest products, or a superior service succeed only when you market within the context of people's perceptions.
Context can be many things, singly or simultaneously. To name a few, you may market to your customers within the context of their wants, needs, problems solved, or situation improved. Entrepreneurs need to be aware of many other contexts, such as social and economic trends or governmental regulations, which we'll discuss another time.
People don't just "buy" a product. They "buy" the concept of what that product will do for them, or help them do for themselves. People who are overweight don't join a franchise diet center to eat pre-packaged micro-meals. They "buy" the concept of a new, thin, happy and successful self.
Before you become consumed with entrepreneurial zeal and invest your life savings in a new venture, become a smart marketer. Take time at the beginning to discover who your potential customers are, and how to effectively reach them.
Without a plan, your entrepreneurial dream is really wishful thinking. While a marketing plan can be a map for success, remember that the map is not the territory. A strategy that ignores the customer isn't an accurate reflection of the landscape.
A good marketing plan can help you focus your energy and resources. But a plan created in a vacuum, based solely on your perceptions, does not advance the agenda. That's why market research, however simple or sophisticated, is important.
Just keep in mind that research attempts to predict the future by studying the past. It reveals what people have done, and extrapolates what people might do -- not what people will do.
Planning is imperative, research is important, but there's no substitute for entrepreneurial insight. After all, as Mark Twain wrote, "You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus".
Monday, November 30, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Hardware
Hardware is a general term for the physical artifacts of a technology. It may also mean the physical components of a computer system, in the form of computer hardware.
Hardware historically meant the metal parts and fittings that were used to make wooden products stronger, more functional, longer lasting and easier to fabricate or assemble.[citation needed]
Modern hardware stores typically sell equipment such as keys, locks, hinges, latches, corners, handles, wire, chains, plumbing supplies, tools, utensils, cutlery and machine parts, especially when they are made of metal.[citation needed]
In a more colloquial sense, hardware can refer to military equipment, such as tanks, aircraft, ships or munitions. In the case of vehicles, such may instead be referred to as armour.
In slang, the term can also refer to trophies and other physical representations of awards.
Monday, November 23, 2009
No war within Mumbai Police: Commissioner
Naming some of the seniors, Hasan had told The Week, "I told you there were a handful. For example, KL Prasad refused to come to the Trident and decided against hitting the roads. Devena Bharti, K Venkatesham and Parambhir Singh did not appear keen on responding to the situation as it kept dawning on us."
Prasad was then the joint commissioner of police (Law and Order) while Bharti was the additional commissioner of police (Crime). Venkatesham was the additional commissioner of police (South Region) and Singh was the additional commissioner of police (Anti-Terrorism Squad).
"Yes, there was dearth of eagerness on the part of a handful of senior officers to be on the ground during those days," Gafoor had said in reply to a question on whether he noticed a bit of unwillingness among the senior officers.
Asked how he felt when he was let down by his own men and if there was a bigger embarrassment, Gafoor said, "Yes there was, indeed. On November 28, I attended a meeting with the DGP and Home Minister. I was told to withdraw the NSG and instead use the Mumbai Police for the ongoing operations. The DGP told me that the entire world was watching us and so we should put an immediate end to the siege and help defuse the crisis. This sounded ridiculous, as the NSG is an elite force that can tackle such crisis situation. I said it was even preposterous to even think of taking off the NSG."
Gafoor is now the Director General of Police (Housing).
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Thursday, November 19, 2009
Plan
The most popular ways to describe plans are by their breadth, time frame, and specificity; however, these planning classifications are not independent of one another. For instance, there is a close relationship between the short-and long-term categories and the strategic and operational categories.
It is common for less formal plans to be created as abstract ideas, and remain in that form as they are maintained and put to use. More formal plans as used for business and military purposes, while initially created with and as an abstract thought, are likely to be written down, drawn up or otherwise stored in a form that is accessible to multiple people across time and space. This allows more reliable collaboration in the execution of the plan
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
DIVIDENDS
Dividends are payments made by a corporation to its shareholder members. It is the portion of corporate profits paid out to stockholdersWhen a corporation earns a profit or surplus, that money can be put to two uses: it can either be re-invested in the business (called retained earnings, or it can be paid to the shareholders as a dividend. Many corporations retain a portion of their earnings and pay the remainder as a dividend.
For a joint stock company, a dividend is allocated as a fixed amount per share. Therefore, a shareholder receives a dividend in proportion to their shareholding. For the joint stock company, paying dividends is not an expense rather; it is the division of an asset among shareholders. Public companies usually pay dividends on a fixed schedule, but may declare a dividend at any time, sometimes called a special dividend to distinguish it from a regular one.
Cooperatives, on the other hand, allocate dividends according to members' activity, so their dividends are often considered to be a pre-tax expense.
Dividends are usually settled on a cash basis, as a payment from the company to the shareholder. They can take other forms, such as store credits (common among retail consumers' cooperatives) and shares in the company (either newly-created shares or existing shares bought in the market.) Further, many public companies offer dividend reinvestment plans which automatically use the cash dividend to purchase additional shares for the shareholder.
For a joint stock company, a dividend is allocated as a fixed amount per share. Therefore, a shareholder receives a dividend in proportion to their shareholding. For the joint stock company, paying dividends is not an expense rather; it is the division of an asset among shareholders. Public companies usually pay dividends on a fixed schedule, but may declare a dividend at any time, sometimes called a special dividend to distinguish it from a regular one.
Cooperatives, on the other hand, allocate dividends according to members' activity, so their dividends are often considered to be a pre-tax expense.
Dividends are usually settled on a cash basis, as a payment from the company to the shareholder. They can take other forms, such as store credits (common among retail consumers' cooperatives) and shares in the company (either newly-created shares or existing shares bought in the market.) Further, many public companies offer dividend reinvestment plans which automatically use the cash dividend to purchase additional shares for the shareholder.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Bafna Pharma to launch hypertension drug in Sri Lanka
Bafna Pharmaceuticals today said it has received approval from Sri Lankan authorities to launch its anti-hypertention product.
The company will market the brand by early 2010, the Chennai-based drug maker said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
Bafna Pharma also said it will sell its product directly through its own front end. This will increasingly supplement the company's revenue stream which has traditionally relied on the generics market.
"We will continue to expand our product range in the coming months by developing products where we are vertically integrated," Bafna Pharma Chairman and Managing Director Mahaveer Chand Bafna said.
Shares of Bafna Pharma today settled at Rs 31, up 2.31 per cent in on the BSE.
The company will market the brand by early 2010, the Chennai-based drug maker said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
Bafna Pharma also said it will sell its product directly through its own front end. This will increasingly supplement the company's revenue stream which has traditionally relied on the generics market.
"We will continue to expand our product range in the coming months by developing products where we are vertically integrated," Bafna Pharma Chairman and Managing Director Mahaveer Chand Bafna said.
Shares of Bafna Pharma today settled at Rs 31, up 2.31 per cent in on the BSE.
Friday, November 13, 2009
HomeShop18 raises Rs 109 cr for expansion
GS Home Shopping, post the investment, will hold a 15 per cent equity stake in HomeShop18. Network18 will remain the majority shareholder in HomeShop18 with a 51 per cent equity stake on a fully diluted basis.
The two companies have entered into a strategic co-operation agreement under which GS Home Shopping will lend its expertise in the areas of sourcing, merchandising, broadcasting and logistics to scale the HomeShop18 business in India. This will be facilitated by way of seconding key employees to HomeShop18 as well as training of HomeShop18 employees in Korea.
The two companies have entered into a strategic co-operation agreement under which GS Home Shopping will lend its expertise in the areas of sourcing, merchandising, broadcasting and logistics to scale the HomeShop18 business in India. This will be facilitated by way of seconding key employees to HomeShop18 as well as training of HomeShop18 employees in Korea.
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