Personal selling is the most expensive form of advertising and to be effective one should use a step by step process to gain the most benefit. Personal selling can adjust the manner in which facts are communicated and can consider factors such as culture and behaviour in the approach. They can ask questions to discover the specific need of the customer and can get feedback and adjust the presentation as it progresses. The Personal Selling ProcessThe personal selling process is a consecutive series of activities conducted by the salesperson, the lead to a prospect taking the desired action of buying a product or service and finish with a follow-up contact to ensure purchase satisfaction. Step OneProspecting - the first step in the personal selling processThe process of looking for and checking leads is called prospecting or determining which firms or individuals could become customers.Up to 20% of a firm's customer base can be lost for reasons such as transfer, death, retirement, takeovers, dissatisfaction with the company and competition. A steadily growing list of qualified prospects is important for reaching the sales targets.Qualifying a prospect: A lead is a name on a list. It only becomes a prospect if it is determined that the person or company can benefit from the service or product offered. A qualified prospect has a need, can benefit from the product and has the authority to make the decision. Step TwoThe Pre-approachThis stage involves the collecting of as much relevant information as possible prior to the sales...

To understand why print advertising is so effective, we have to understand what is happening in a reader's brain as they read. Brain activity is, almost by definition, extremely complex. It is understandable that much advertising research has not traditionally focused on understanding how the brain consumes different forms of advertising messages. However 'how' the brain engages in a particular task and how hard or taxing that particular task is, does have a number of effects on behaviour - affecting, for instance, how easily or well something is remembered. Some activities make the brain work harder - such as reading. It forces the brain into problem-solving activity. When you read you have to think. What we 'see' for the time when we are reading is actually a perceptual construction of the brain. The brain reads in 'gulps' of information, picking up units of meaning from the page at an average rate of 4 times a second. During such a 'fixation', the eye only picks up useful information for an estimated 1/20 of a second. For the rest of the 'fixation' time, we are processing the information through the brain. The very act of reading, then, has positive implications in terms of how receptive a consumer will be to a print message. Memory requires effort; therefore any task that requires effort is likely to enhance memory.The heightened level of arousal/attention which is inherent in a reading activity has to have a profound effect on the efficacy of advertising in print. In terms...

Advertising in magazines is a very powerful tool for the marketer. The style of advertising is uniquely different to any other advertising medium... Magazines deliver a cost-effective return on monies invested. When advertising is created for magazines it becomes a powerful advocate for the brand. Frequency is the most important media planning consideration, ahead of reach and size. Frequency is interpreted as frequent exposures to the brand with many different creative treatments (artistic work) to position the brand. Magazines build brand equity and create awareness. At its first exposure, a magazine ad typically performs 40% better than a television commercial in terms of creating awareness. An advert works or it doesn't and if it works, it does the first time you see it. If it doesn't work, hammering at it over and over again isn't going to make any difference. No amount of repeated exposure will make it work. To avoid wear-out and over-exposure, magazine campaigns should be conceived in the form of several complementary creative treatments. With regard to print pre-testing, most print advertising declines in impact with repeat exposure, a magazine campaign needs to be made up of a family of advertisements. The effectiveness seems to support the fact that, as time is under the control of the reader, more than one creative treatment of the same brand positioning is powerfully more effective in building advertising and brand awareness than multiple exposures of the same ad. Highly successful companies have learned to harness the power of magazines, they have...

There are well over 1300 business to business publications published in South Africa. The choice narrows down significantly to what industry you are in and what your target audience is. Your advertising expenditure should be based on rand per reader and who receives the magazine. CEO's, managers and opinion leaders are normally targeted with the magazine circulated around the firm and staying at the reception for further reading by visitors. Some areas to consider on which magazine to advertise in:* What industry and market?* Is the magazine dedicated to your industry?* Who is it targeted?* What is the reach?* What is the circulation and is it verified?* Is it an official journal to the industry?* Does the publication come out timeously? * Is it a good quality magazine?* Does the magazine have a good format and look that enhances its credibility?* Is the editorial well written?* Are the articles practical and interesting?* Do they feature stories that benefit you and the industry?* Does it have local news or product updates so one keeps informed on the trends in the industry? Normally the advert only has 3 -5 seconds to attract the reader's attention therefore the campaign must work towards this time constraint.Some areas to consider when conceptualising an ad campaign. * The message should be clear and have an impact.* The creative work should not overshadow the message.* It must attract the audience attention within 3 seconds and gain an interest in the reader's mind.* Once interest is gained it should...

Innovation is different from an invention in that inventions fail to build markets and an invention is a completely new product. Customers do not want new products, they want solutions that offer new and superior benefits. For example, Total Quality Management (TQM) and corporate re-engineering have saved time, money and defects to be taken out of a firm's operational processes. The result is a boost in company profits and earnings potential through offering superior customer service and making competitors products obsolete. A successful innovation must meet four criteria: Important - it must offer benefits that will be perceived as important by customers. Unique - it must be perceived as unique since one that is not differentiated will inevitably fail. Sustainable - these attributes of uniqueness and importance can be quickly copied by competitors and must, therefore, be sustainable. Marketable - the company must have the capability to market a reliable and effective version of innovation, at a price the customer can afford and distribute it that it's easily available. Over 90% of all new products are simply improvements on the older version. They are seen as new marketing concepts. New old products - involve finding new uses for existing products New markets - new types of customers for an existing group of products or services. New ways of doing business - innovative approaches to delivering current products and services to customers and are one of the most successful sources of innovation today. The benefits of innovation would be to survive since...

To counteract new product failure, one needs to develop different and special organizational arrangements for innovation. There are six areas to focus on; 1. Vision and Objectives.Top management should provide a vision for innovation that is placed alongside the goals for the company. The vision should have top priority as any new product is the future growth for any company.The firm should compare its own innovation record to its competitors and other leading businesses and identify the obstacles to innovation. A course of action should be recommended with objectives set and quantified before pursuing a number of new product alternatives with urgency and vigour. 2. People SkillsInnovation is based on knowledge. Firms that stand out in their field are those that know;* more about their competitors* what their customers want* available technological solutions* making companies information easily available to all personnel* staff incentives to innovate 3. Customer Focus InnovationThe objective of any innovation is to delight the customer. Customer involvement and feedback should be a top priority throughout the project. Often they create markets that did not exist previously. 4. Autonomous Teams, Parallel ProcessingInnovation should take place outside the firm. The objectives and tasks of the operation are very different from those of running the organization itself. Ongoing operations are simply too slow and unfocused.This occurs because the organization works in series and not in parallel. Traditionally, products start in R&D or marketing departments. They are eventually handed over to the engineering for design. Manufacturing takes over to make the product...

The focus of this process is the stages through which an individual consumer passes to arrive at a decision to try, to continue or to discontinue using, a new product. On purchasing high capital goods consumers pursue an extensive information search. Adoption begins with awareness, leading to interest and evaluation. A more general decision-making model is: * Knowledge - consumers are exposed to the product* Persuasion - form favourable attitude* Decision - engage to adopt the product or reject their innovation* Implementation - put the product to use* Confirmation - consumers seek reinforcement for their decision. The rate of adoption is how long it takes for a new product to be adopted through the social system. The adopter categories are:* Innovators 2.5% - venturesome - very eager to try new ideas* Early adopters 13.5% - opinion leader, respect from their peers, person to check with before purchasing* Early majority 34% - Deliberate - adopt ideas later than average time* Late majority 34% - Sceptical, purchase because of economical necessity* Laggards 16% - traditional, last person to adopt an innovation The quickest and surest way to get your product adopted is to target the innovator/opinion leader.Innovators possess purchase and usage traits that set them apart. They are likely to be;Less brand loyalDeal-prone - take advantage of special promotional offersTend to be heavy users of the product category in which they are innovators.How to target Innovators* Innovators /opinion leaders have a greater than average exposure to magazines and watch less television than non-innovators...

Numerous decisions are made daily concerning every aspect of our lives. These decisions are often made without stopping to think about how we make them, or what is involved in the decision making itself. In the most general terms, a decision is the selection of an action from two or more alternative choices, i.e. there must be a choice of alternatives available. The four views refer to the general view or perspective of why individuals behave as they do. Four views of decision makingAn economic viewIn a world of perfect competition, the consumer is often portrayed as economic - the one who makes rational decisions. Consumers rarely have enough information, or sufficient information, or even an adequate degree of involvement or motivation, to make perfect decisions. Consumers operate in an imperfect world and often "settle" instead of maximising price-quantity, marginal utility or indifference curves. Passive viewThe opposite of the economic view is the view that consumers as passive, basically submissive to the self-serving and promotional efforts of marketers. eg. Verimark ads and infomercials. A cognitive viewThis view portrays the consumer as a thinking problem solver. Risk is the key component the problem solver tries to dispel the risk associated with many product choices. When 'enough' information is gathered, the consumer stops seeking information to make 'satisfactory decisions', eg. motor vehicle adverts or high capital expenditure ads. An emotional viewConsumers may associate deep feelings or emotions (fun, fear, love, prestige, hope, sexiness, fantasy or a bit of magic). Mr price store with...

The stages of decision making How consumers make decisions is to understand the process of the internal influences that affect the consumer. The act of making a consumer decision consists of three stages. 1. Need RecognitionThe recognition of a need is likely to occur when a consumer is faced with a problem.There are two different problem recognition styles:1. Actual state types - a consumer who perceives that they have a problem when the product fails to perform satisfactorily.2. Desired state types - the desire for something new may trigger the decision process. Also, need or problem recognition can be viewed as simple or complex.Simple - needs that occur frequently e.g.. printer ink cartridges.Complex - problem develops over time eg. new computer with faster speed and larger hard drive that will handle the new upgrade software. 2. Pre-purchase searchThe consumer senses a need for information upon which to base his choice. The consumer uses personal long-term memory first, family, friends and then impersonal such as newspapers, magazines, consumer reports, direct mail brochures and information from product advertising.It's important that your advert will be seen. One of the main reasons why a company is experiencing a reduction in market share is because there is no advertising. An ad not seen will not be in the short term memory of the buyer. 3. EvaluationWhen evaluating potential alternatives, consumers use two types of information:1. the 'list' of brands - the implication for marketers is that promotional techniques should be designed to impart a favourable and...

Communication is the unique tool that marketers use to persuade consumers to act in the desired way. It can be verbal, either written or spoken, it can be visual or a combination of the two. Communication is the bridge between marketers and consumers and between consumers and their sociological environments. Communication is defined as the transmission of a message from a sender to a receiver by means of a signal of some sort sent through a channel of some sort. How the communication message is receivedThe mass audience as individual receivers: A mass audience is simply a great number of individual receiver's, each with his or her own interest, experiences, needs, wants desires. Market segmentation strategies divide the total audience into smaller audiences, each of which is homogenous in relation to characteristics relevant to the product. Specific advertising messages can be designed for each segment, and run in the media that appeals to that segment. Each individual thus feels that the message is specifically addressed to his interest and needs. Multiple audiences: The ultimate success of an organization depends on its ability to persuade many different audiences as the nature of its products or services. Companies with diverse audiences develop an overall communication message to all of their audiences, from which they spin off a series of related messages targeted directly at the specific interest of each individual audience. i.e. The BP opposite advert - winter, summer - black, white - beyond petroleum, BP. Selling intermediaries: In addition to advertising to...