The strategic planning process focuses on specifying the organization’s overall objectives and achieving the desired results through structured planning regarding achieving these. It’s about setting business priorities, consolidating operations, focusing resources, driving stakeholders towards achieving common goals, and establishing agreement for intended outcomes. What used to be planning done for ten years is now done for two to three years while some organizations plan for a period of a year only, given the rapidly evolving business world. Strategic planning is a step-wise process through which strategic planning consultants determine how to draw the route to the end goal. While there may not be any absolute rules as far as the right framework is concerned, most businesses follow a similar pattern because of some commonly prevailing attributes. Steps of the Strategic Planning Process: Therefore, a simple strategic plan can be broken down into five simple steps: 1. Determine where you are…
What is market penetration? Well, for starters, market penetration refers to selling a product or service in a certain market and is measured by the amount of the sales volume of an existing good or service equated against the total target market for the product or service. When there is a new market entrant, it is essential for that company to use effective market penetration strategy to efficiently use its product, enter the market smoothly, thereby capturing a significant market share in the process. Market penetration is also frequently used to determine whether that product or service is capable of gaining a fixed percentage of the market. What are market penetration strategies? 1. Price adjustment: Price adjustment is one of the most frequently used marketing strategies. For example, lowering prices is an effective way of increasing sales and gaining more customers in the process. Once the market and competitors…
What is a Marketing Function: Marketing function is defined as the role that helps a company source relevant products for the market and promote them through differentiation, thus being able to highlight their unique selling propositions. Typical marketing functions include: 1. Marketing research 2. Developing a marketing plan 3. Product development 4. Standardization and grading 5. Packaging and labeling 6. Pricing 7. Promotion 8. Distribution 9. Customer service and support Below is each marketing function described in detail: 1. Marketing Research: Marketing research is the most important marketing function which helps ascertain the wants and needs, and life roles of the target audience. In light of the market research carried out you can determine how and when to launch the product after having gathered and analyzed the market information. 2. Market Planning: Market planning includes laying down a course of action for achieving the objectives that you have set…
What is Cost based Pricing? Cost based pricing includes calculating the cost of a product and then adding a percentage markup to come up to a selling price. It further appears in two forms, such as, direct cost pricing and full cost pricing. Full Cost Pricing: This pricing method takes account of both fixed and variable costs and adds a percentage markup. Direct Cost Pricing: Under this pricing method, a percentage markup is added to variable costs but this could to a loss over the longer run and is therefore used during periods when competition is high. This particular method does not take demand into account and there is no way of ascertaining if potential customers will purchase the product at the price calculated by the company. Cost-plus pricing method is a way of companies determining the profit they will earn and is or in other words how much…
PESTLE analysis as we know is the acronym for political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, legal, and environmental. It is a tool used by marketers and business analysts to monitor the macro-environmental factors, characteristic of external marketing environment and the impact that they have on an organization. It was created by Harvard professor Francis Aguilar in 1967. The PEST analysis is also used in close contrast with other analytical tools, such as the SWOT analysis or Porter’s Five Forces. Upon analyzing these factors, businesses can better take investment decisions and efficiency can be enhanced. NIKE: In this section we will share the most relevant and practical examples of PEST analysis starting with Nike Corporation. When it comes to sportswear this is the first brand that comes to mind and is undoubtedly the most valuable brand among sports businesses. In the fiscal year 2017, Nike earned $34.4 dollars which was a 6%…
What is PESTLE Analysis? PESTLE analysis (acronym for political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, legal, and environmental, ) analysis is a tool used by marketers and business analysts to monitor the macro-environmental factors, characteristic of external marketing environment and the impact that they have on an organization. It was created by Harvard professor Francis Aguilar in 1967. The PEST analysis is also used in close contrast with other analytical tools, such as the SWOT analysis or Porter’s Five Forces. Upon analyzing these factors, businesses can better take investment decisions and efficiency can be enhanced. ‘P’ – Political: In PESTLE analysis, ‘P’ stands for the political environment that is prevailing in a country or region; this usually includes government regulations, tax policy or laws that directly impact the business and the industry. ‘E’ – Economic: ‘E’ refers to the economic environment by ascertaining the economic factors in the macro economy such…
A marketing concept is a strategy that firms effectively implement to remain competitive by increasing sales, maximizing profits, and aiming to satisfy customer needs etcetera. The 5 Marketing Concepts There are five marketing concepts that organizations make use of, these include: Production Concept Product Concept Selling Concept Marketing Concept Societal Marketing Concept Production Concept: This being a very orthodox concept implies that consumers will prefer goods that are available and inexpensive or whose demand is elastic. At times, firms that rely too heavily on this concept lose sight of the bigger pictures in terms of varying demand patterns and preferences and focus too narrowly on just their own operations; this leads to market myopia. The company ends up focusing on production and distribution and increasing output and decreasing costs. Companies that manufacture their goods overseas are an example of the production concept as this decreases costs…
Trying to wrap your head around what is a market demand curve? Understanding the concept is not difficult. It just requires a bit of focus. So pay attention to this quick read, and you’ll get over the learning curve in no time. A market demand curve is a synopsis or an aggregate outlook of all individual demand curves in a given market. It shows the number of goods demanded by all individuals at varying price points. Learn about Market Sizing, or How to Calculate Market Share? Market Demand Curve Example: Let’s illustrate this with an example. At $5/cappuccino, the quantity demanded by all individuals in the market is 100 cappuccinos per day. In other words, it shows a series of various quantities of a product or service that consumers in a given market are willing and able to purchase at each of the series of prices per unit of…