15 Up-and-Coming Trends About 銷售

[Shanon Lawver]

When given people are given the choice to buy a brand name product or a lower priced "no-name"/generic product, they often prefer brand name products. They are not very concerned about how much they spend for Nike sportswear, Poma Shoes and Oshkosh children's clothing. But when it comes to cheaper no-name products they look down upon them and consider them unusable. So many generic products end up on the clearance or reduction shelves. Why do people think brand names are so much better than generic? Are they really better? Perhaps we have been tricked into believing that generic or cheaper products are unworthy?

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More than a hundred years ago, businesses started the idea of branding products so that people would find it easier to know the difference between premium manufactured products and the products which are cheaper and less known.

Manufacturers of the late 1800's, created packaging, labels and advertising so that customers would easily recognize and find their favourite products on the store shelves. This identical branding method continues to be used to allow people all over the world to easily identify the superior quality products of America over less trustworthy products on the marketplace.

Traditionally, the USA is recognized for their high quality brand name products which enable them to have the power to charge higher prices. People worldwide know just what they are receiving when they buy from the US.

It is standard for product brands to be reliable and high in value. When a customer trusts a brand name product they will most likely purchase the product/service repeatedly. Therefore, repeat customers raise the profits of brand products much more than generic brands.

When a customer chooses a product, their memory is triggered and they remember a television commercial they saw, or a jingle they heard on the radio or the big sign they see while driving home from work every day. This makes them familiar with the product more than inexpensive products. Even if you are not in a store, some of the jingles you have heard get stuck in your head and you find yourself singing or humming them.

Does branding a product work with internet sales? Branding a web site is more essential than the branding of separate products. Studies reveal that online buyers look more for sites that they can trust and sell what they want at lower prices than the actual brands that are for sale. Therefore, web sites which sell products need to take extra time to advertise their website more than the product itself.

The purpose of most advertising methods is to learn about what customers are searching for and make it available to them. In conventional retail stores, superior qualities branded products are very important. At the same time, people who buy products on the internet are looking for better than ever quality web sites.

By: Kathryn Ali

Copyright 2007

There seems Copywriting to be a never ending argument among marketing and

sales professionals as to what really is the difference between

marketing and sales functions. More often than not, both

business activity terms are used to describe any business

activity that is involved in increasing revenues. For small

businesses, with limited resources, there often is no practical

difference in marketing and sales functions, all revenue

generating activities are typically implemented by the same

personnel.

As a company grows in revenues and number of personnel, it

typically follows a logical business function progression of

"specialization", a process where the lines between more

generic, departmental descriptions and functions became much

more definitive and associated functional responsibilities

become much more focused. Marketing and sales functions are no

exception.

Marketing and sales functions are diverse yet very

interdependent. Typically "sales" cannot exceed revenue

objectives without an effective marketing planning and support,

and "marketing" directives ultimately becomes useless without

sales to implement the plan.

Like many complex business issues, it is sometimes easier to

define something by what it's NOT as it is to define it by what

it is. Let's take a closer look at marketing to better define

what sales is not.

Simply defining "marketing" as the "Four P's", product, price,

place and promotion, based on your Marketing 101 class in

college is not practical in today's global markets. In a

general sense, marketing is more theoretic than sales, focused

on purchase causality and is more prescriptive in purpose than

descriptive. Marketing involves micro and macro market analysis

focused on strategic intentions where sales is driven more by

tactical challenges and customer relations. Let's take a closer

look at how marketing is truly different from sales:

Marketing responsibilities are distinct from sales in that

marketing:

* Establishes and justifies the company's best competitive

position within a market

* Initially creates, helps sustain, and rigorously interprets

customer relationships

* Locates and profiles potential markets and key participants

within

* Generates quality sales leads

* Develops effective selling tools

* Formally analyzes and tracks competitor's business strategies

and tactics

* Defines, prioritizes and justifies new product or service

improvements and developments

* Promotes an explicit company product or service image

* Facilitates information transfer from customers to the rest of

the company

* Simplifies the customer's product or service procurement

process

A full time Marketing Manager would be responsible for the

following tasks:

New Product Rollouts:

Strategy development, program incentives, timing and media

coverage

Agency Evaluation:

Selection and evaluation of outside marketing contractors

Customer Database Management:

Software selection, training, maintenance of customer contact

Information

Market Research:

Market definition, prioritization, project management, data

gathering

Pricing Analysis:

Pricing as a marketing tool...initiate and analyze competitor's

pricing practices

Product Audits:

Establishment of a formal means to evaluate competitive

offerings

Public Relations:

Establishment, guidance and coordination of all areas of public

Relations

Trade Shows:

Definition, participation, prioritization and audit for

effectiveness of all trade shows

Product Promotions:

Strategy formulation, program composition, premium definition,

all media coverage

Marketing Communications:

All printed / electronic communication: brochures, catalogs,

price lists, case histories

Media Selection:

Assist in selection and prioritization of all media options:

print, broadcast, multimedia

Internal Communications:

Establish and maintain all inter-company corporate communication

means

International Marketing:

Establish company presence in targeted international markets,

audit for effectiveness

Strategic Planning:

Offer strategic information and alternative insights to

corporate management strategies

Board Meeting Participation:

Communicate and reinforce the company marketing priorities,

strategies and tactics

Corporate Vision Statement:

Proliferate and reinforce the corporate vision throughout the

Organization

Corporate Identity and Image:

Create, maintain, improve and "manage" all corporate images and

symbols

To a "pure" marketer, the marketing role in a company is not

just a business function, but a business philosophy. An

effective marketer truly believes "dominating" their target

market is "owning" their market. The more a marketer can do to

maintain market leadership the more effective they are

perceived within the organization and within the industry.

As customer retention has become more of a business priority in

our intensifying competitive markets, the marketing function

has evolved from influencing potential customers to involving

them the company's business planning and advancement. Effective

marketing also has blurred the distinction between product and

service and continues to apply more influence on the company's

sales representation priorities.

In conclusion, marketing and sales functions are deeply rooted

in each other's purpose and revenue growth intentions. There

are few functional areas in business that relate more to each

other. So the next time you hear someone say the word "sales",

when the appropriate description would have been "marketing",

or vise versa, think of this article and choose from any one of

these documented business functions to make your point of

distinction!