RESEARCH BACK UP

INTRODUCTION In contrast to advertising and publicity, which use impersonal methods of communication, personal selling makes use of direct personal communications to influence the target customers. Personal selling is a highly distinctive method of promotion, and makes use of oral presentation in conversation with existing and potential customers, for the purpose of making a sale. It is one of the oldest methods of business promotion. The contributions made by personal selling in making the promotion function more effective have earned it the distinction of being the most reliable promotion method. Though, it is the most expensive method of promotion, yet we see an increasing number of firms making use of it, and a good number of them realise that they cannot, perhaps, live without it. Increasing competition and the growing sophistication of the buyer and his/her buying process are...

1.0 INTRODUCTION As a manager, you are making decisions all the time. It is your responsibility to reduce the risk associated with the decisions which you make. The risk arises because of lack of complete information. Therefore, you are always seeking information to improve the quality of your decision-making. In many areas of management, such as production, finance and personnel, the information required for decision-making is primarily generated within the firm and is easy to collect and analyse. Moreover, in these areas formalised procedures have greatly improved decisions: statistical quality control in manufacturing, PERT in project scheduling, queuing theory in managing large machinery maintenance programmes, etc. This unit examines marketing research and its sub-elements as they affect marketing activities.  OBJECTIVES At the end of through this unit, you should be able to:...

INTRODUCTION The word ‘communication’ is based on the Latin word meaning ‘common’. Thus, the term communication has come to mean sharing something of common use. In marketing, communication has a very important place. It is that function of marketing which is charged with the task of informing the target customer about the nature and type of the firm’s products and services, their unique benefits, uses and features as well as the price and place at which those would be available in the market-place. Marketing communication is more commonly called ‘promotion’ and constitutes one of the Ps of the marketing mix. A study of marketing communication, therefore, is a study of the promotion function of marketing. Notwithstanding the continuing debate, whether promotion is the first element of the marketing mix or the last, the fact remains that sound management of the marketing funct...

 INTRODUCTION Research is ongoing on the development of new products and improvement on the existing ones. These products are sold across the world in different markets to various classes of consumers by different companies. These companies have to differentiate their products from other competitors’ products in the market. Companies differentiate their products by labelling differently. Label is one of the legal requirements in identifying one company’s product(s) from other companies’ products. Label is an important aspect of marketing. This is because it describes the product, its elements and other details about the product. This unit examines what a label is, its characteristics and various forms of labelling.  OBJECTIVES At the end of this unit, you should be able to: define/describe a label  discuss its role in marketing  explain various forms of label  explain its legal consider...

 INTRODUCTION In modern times advertising prevails in all walks of life. It has acquired the distinction of being the most visible and glamorous method of marketing communication. You would recall that advertising was defined as any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor. Some of the major marketing and communication functions performed by advertising today include informing, entertaining, persuading, influencing, reminding, reassuring and adding value to the product or service advertised. Before going to the role of advertising, let us acquaint ourselves with how advertising works and what are the various types of advertising. First, let us look at the objectives of this unit. OBJECTIVES At the end of this unit, you will be able to: list the roles and types of advertising  list different kinds of advertising objectives  explain how med...

 INTRODUCTION In developing a marketing strategy for individual products, the seller has to confront the branding decision. Branding is a major issue in product strategy. For instance, developing a branded product requires a great deal of long-term investment spending especially for advertising, promotion and packaging. Many brand oriented companies subcontract manufacturing to other companies. For example, Taiwanese Manufacturers make a great amount of the world’s clothing, consumer electronics, and computers, but not under Taiwanese brand names. Besides, some manufacturers observe that market power lies with the brand name companies. Even when these companies can no longer afford to manufacture their products in their homeland, the brand names continue to command customer loyalty. Powerful brand names have consumer franchise – they command strong consumer loyalty. A sufficient number of customers demand...