channel Management,Yet another sales and marketing phrase that is thrown around like everyone knows what it means. But so few companies really comprehend channel management in a way that really helps them. It’s really no wonder. Sales channels (being the conduits by which we distribute our products to the end-user) come in many shapes—from direct, to the web, to the traditional retail environment. And, we’re just doing whatever we can to get any business from any of them! But is that the most efficient and effective approach?
That’s where Channel Management comes in. Channel management, as a process by which a company creates formalized programs for selling and servicing customers within a specific channel, can really impact your business—and in a positive way! To get started, first segment your channels by like characteristics (their needs, buying patterns, success factors, etc.) and then customize a channel management program that includes:
1. Goals. Define the specific goals you have for each channel segment. Consider your goals for the channel as a whole as well as individual accounts. And, remember to consider your goals for both acquisition and retention.
2. Policies. Construct well-defined polices for administering the accounts within this channel. Be sure to keep the unique characteristics of each segment in mind when defining policies for account set up, order management, product fulfillment, etc.
3. Products. Identify which products in your offering are most suited for each segment and create appropriate messaging. Also, determine where your upsell opportunities lie.
4. Sales/Marketing Programs. Design support programs for your channel that meet THEIR needs, not what your idea of their needs are. To do this, you should start by asking your customers within this segment, “how can we best support you in the selling and marketing of our products?” That being said, the standard considerations are product training, co-op advertising, seasonal promotions, and merchandising. Again, this is not a one-size fits all, so be diligent about addressing this segment’s SPECIFIC needs in these areas.
Defining a channel management strategy for each segment allows you to be more effective within each segment, while gaining efficiency at the same time. Still, maintaining brand consistency across all channel segments is critical to your long-term success. So find a good balance between customization and brand consistency and you’ll be on your way to successful channel management.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Marketing Plan
The information for this article was derived from many sources, including Michael Porter's book Competitive Advantage and the works of Philip Kotler. Concepts addressed include 'generic' strategies and strategies for pricing, distribution, promotion, advertising and market segmentation. Factors such as market penetration, market share, profit margins, budgets, financial analysis, capital investment, government actions, demographic changes, emerging technology and cultural trends are also addressed.
There are two major components to your marketing strategy:
* how your enterprise will address the competitive marketplace
* how you will implement and support your day to day operations.
In today's very competitive marketplace a strategy that insures a consistent approach to offering your product or service in a way that will outsell the competition is critical. However, in concert with defining the marketing strategy you must also have a well defined methodology for the day to day process of implementing it. It is of little value to have a strategy if you lack either the resources or the expertise to implement it.
In the process of creating a marketing strategy you must consider many factors. Of those many factors, some are more important than others. Because each strategy must address some unique considerations, it is not reasonable to identify 'every' important factor at a generic level. However, many are common to all marketing strategies. Some of the more critical are described below.
You begin the creation of your strategy by deciding what the overall objective of your enterprise should be. In general this falls into one of four categories:
* If the market is very attractive and your enterprise is one of the strongest in the industry you will want to invest your best resources in support of your offering.
* If the market is very attractive but your enterprise is one of the weaker ones in the industry you must concentrate on strengthening the enterprise, using your offering as a stepping stone toward this objective.
* If the market is not especially attractive, but your enterprise is one of the strongest in the industry then an effective marketing and sales effort for your offering will be good for generating near term profits.
* If the market is not especially attractive and your enterprise is one of the weaker ones in the industry you should promote this offering only if it supports a more profitable part of your business (for instance, if this segment completes a product line range) or if it absorbs some of the overhead costs of a more profitable segment. Otherwise, you should determine the most cost effective way to divest your enterprise of this offering.
Having selected the direction most beneficial for the overall interests of the enterprise, the next step is to choose a strategy for the offering that will be most effective in the market. This means choosing one of the following 'generic' strategies (first described by Michael Porter in his work, Competitive Advantage).
* A COST LEADERSHIP STRATEGY is based on the concept that you can produce and market a good quality product or service at a lower cost than your competitors. These low costs should translate to profit margins that are higher than the industry average. Some of the conditions that should exist to support a cost leadership strategy include an on-going availability of operating capital, good process engineering skills, close management of labor, products designed for ease of manufacturing and low cost distribution.
* A DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY is one of creating a product or service that is perceived as being unique "throughout the industry". The emphasis can be on brand image, proprietary technology, special features, superior service, a strong distributor network or other aspects that might be specific to your industry. This uniqueness should also translate to profit margins that are higher than the industry average. In addition, some of the conditions that should exist to support a differentiation strategy include strong marketing abilities, effective product engineering, creative personnel, the ability to perform basic research and a good reputation.
* A FOCUS STRATEGY may be the most sophisticated of the generic strategies, in that it is a more 'intense' form of either the cost leadership or differentiation strategy. It is designed to address a "focused" segment of the marketplace, product form or cost management process and is usually employed when it isn't appropriate to attempt an 'across the board' application of cost leadership or differentiation. It is based on the concept of serving a particular target in such an exceptional manner, that others cannot compete. Usually this means addressing a substantially smaller market segment than others in the industry, but because of minimal competition, profit margins can be very high.
Pricing
Having defined the overall offering objective and selecting the generic strategy you must then decide on a variety of closely related operational strategies. One of these is how you will price the offering. A pricing strategy is mostly influenced by your requirement for net income and your objectives for long term market control. There are three basic strategies you can consider.
* A SKIMMING STRATEGY
If your offering has enough differentiation to justify a high price and you desire quick cash and have minimal desires for significant market penetration and control, then you set your prices very high.
* A MARKET PENETRATION STRATEGY
If near term income is not so critical and rapid market penetration for eventual market control is desired, then you set your prices very low.
* A COMPARABLE PRICING STRATEGY
If you are not the market leader in your industry then the leaders will most likely have created a 'price expectation' in the minds of the marketplace. In this case you can price your offering comparably to those of your competitors.
Promotion
To sell an offering you must effectively promote and advertise it. There are two basic promotion strategies, PUSH and PULL.
* The PUSH STRATEGY maximizes the use of all available channels of distribution to "push" the offering into the marketplace. This usually requires generous discounts to achieve the objective of giving the channels incentive to promote the offering, thus minimizing your need for advertising.
* The PULL STRATEGY requires direct interface with the end user of the offering. Use of channels of distribution is minimized during the first stages of promotion and a major commitment to advertising is required. The objective is to "pull" the prospects into the various channel outlets creating a demand the channels cannot ignore.
There are many strategies for advertising an offering. Some of these include:
* Product Comparison advertising
In a market where your offering is one of several providing similar capabilities, if your offering stacks up well when comparing features then a product comparison ad can be beneficial.
* Product Benefits advertising
When you want to promote your offering without comparison to competitors, the product benefits ad is the correct approach. This is especially beneficial when you have introduced a new approach to solving a user need and comparison to the old approaches is inappropriate.
* Product Family advertising
If your offering is part of a group or family of offerings that can be of benefit to the customer as a set, then the product family ad can be of benefit.
* Corporate advertising
When you have a variety of offerings and your audience is fairly broad, it is often beneficial to promote your enterprise identity rather than a specific offering.
Distribution
You must also select the distribution method(s) you will use to get the offering into the hands of the customer. These include:
* On-premise Sales involves the sale of your offering using a field sales organization that visits the prospect's facilities to make the sale.
* Direct Sales involves the sale of your offering using a direct, in-house sales organization that does all selling through the Internet, telephone or mail order contact.
* Wholesale Sales involves the sale of your offering using intermediaries or "middle-men" to distribute your product or service to the retailers.
* Self-service Retail Sales involves the sale of your offering using self service retail methods of distribution.
* Full-service Retail Sales involves the sale of your offering through a full service retail distribution channel.
Of course, making a decision about pricing, promotion and distribution is heavily influenced by some key factors in the industry and marketplace. These factors should be analyzed initially to create the strategy and then regularly monitored for changes. If any of them change substantially the strategy should be reevaluated.
The Environment
Environmental factors positively or negatively impact the industry and the market growth potential of your product/service. Factors to consider include:
* Government actions - Government actions (current or under consideration) can support or detract from your strategy. Consider subsidies, safety, efficacy and operational regulations, licensing requirements, materials access restrictions and price controls.
* Demographic changes - Anticipated demographic changes may support or negatively impact the growth potential of your industry and market. This includes factors such as education, age, income and geographic location.
* Emerging technology - Technological changes that are occurring may or may not favor the actions of your enterprise.
* Cultural trends - Cultural changes such as fashion trends and life style trends may or may not support your offering's penetration of the market
The Prospect
It is essential to understand the market segment(s) as defined by the prospect characteristics you have selected as the target for your offering. Factors to consider include:
* The potential for market penetration involves whether you are selling to past customers or a new prospect, how aware the prospects are of what you are offering, competition, growth rate of the industry and demographics.
* The prospect's willingness to pay higher price because your offering provides a better solution to their problem.
* The amount of time it will take the prospect to make a purchase decision is affected by the prospects confidence in your offering, the number and quality of competitive offerings, the number of people involved in the decision, the urgency of the need for your offering and the risk involved in making the purchase decision.
* The prospect's willingness to pay for product value is determined by their knowledge of competitive pricing, their ability to pay and their need for characteristics such as quality, durability, reliability, ease of use, uniformity and dependability.
* Likelihood of adoption by the prospect is based on the criticality of the prospect's need, their attitude about change, the significance of the benefits, barriers that exist to incorporating the offering into daily usage and the credibility of the offering.
The Product/Service
You should be thoroughly familiar with the factors that establish products/services as strong contenders in the marketplace. Factors to consider include:
* Whether some or all of the technology for the offering is proprietary to the enterprise.
* The benefits the prospect will derive from use of the offering.
* The extent to which the offering is differentiated from the competition.
* The extent to which common introduction problems can be avoided such as lack of adherence to industry standards, unavailability of materials, poor quality control, regulatory problems and the inability to explain the benefits of the offering to the prospect.
* The potential for product obsolescence as affected by the enterprise's commitment to product development, the product's proximity to physical limits, the ongoing potential for product improvements, the ability of the enterprise to react to technological change and the likelihood of substitute solutions to the prospect's needs.
* Impact on customer's business as measured by costs of trying out your offering, how quickly the customer can realize a return from their investment in your offering, how disruptive the introduction of your offering is to the customer's operations and the costs to switch to your offering.
* The complexity of your offering as measured by the existence of standard interfaces, difficulty of installation, number of options, requirement for support devices, training and technical support and the requirement for complementary product interface.
The Competition
It is essential to know who the competition is and to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Factors to consider include:
* Each of your competitor's experience, staying power, market position, strength, predictability and freedom to abandon the market must be evaluated.
Your Enterprise
An honest appraisal of the strength of your enterprise is a critical factor in the development of your strategy. Factors to consider include:
* Enterprise capacity to be leader in low-cost production considering cost control infrastructure, cost of materials, economies of scale, management skills, availability of personnel and compatibility of manufacturing resources with offering requirements.
* The enterprise's ability to construct entry barriers to competition such as the creation of high switching costs, gaining substantial benefit from economies of scale, exclusive access to or clogging of distribution channels and the ability to clearly differentiate your offering from the competition.
* The enterprise's ability to sustain its market position is determined by the potential for competitive imitation, resistance to inflation, ability to maintain high prices, the potential for product obsolescence and the 'learning curve' faced by the prospect.
* The prominence of the enterprise.
* The competence of the management team.
* The adequacy of the enterprise's infrastructure in terms of organization, recruiting capabilities, employee benefit programs, customer support facilities and logistical capabilities.
* The freedom of the enterprise to make critical business decisions without undue influence from distributors, suppliers, unions, creditors, investors and other outside influences.
* Freedom from having to deal with legal problems.
Development
A review of the strength and viability of the product/service development program will heavily influence the direction of your strategy. Factors to consider include:
* The strength of the development manager including experience with personnel management, current and new technologies, complex projects and the equipment and tools used by the development personnel.
* Personnel who understand the relevant technologies and are able to perform the tasks necessary to meet the development objectives.
* Adequacy and appropriateness of the development tools and equipment.
* The necessary funding to achieve the development objectives.
* Design specifications that are manageable.
Production
You should review your enterprise's production organization with respect to their ability to cost effectively produce products/services. The following factors are considered:
* The strength of production manager including experience with personnel management, current and new technologies, complex projects and the equipment and tools used by the manufacturing personnel.
* Economies of scale allowing the sharing of operations, sharing of production and the potential for vertical integration.
* Technology and production experience
* The necessary production personnel skill level and/or the enterprise's ability to hire or train qualified personnel.
* The ability of the enterprise to limit suppliers bargaining power.
* The ability of the enterprise to control the quality of raw materials and production.
* Adequate access to raw materials and sub-assembly production.
Marketing/Sales
The marketing and sales organization is analyzed for its strengths and current activities. Factors to consider include:
* Experience of Marketing/Sales manager including contacts in the industry (prospects, distribution channels, media), familiarity with advertising and promotion, personal selling capabilities, general management skills and a history of profit and loss responsibilities.
* The ability to generate good publicity as measured by past successes, contacts in the press, quality of promotional literature and market education capabilities.
* Sales promotion techniques such as trade allowances, special pricing and contests.
* The effectiveness of your distribution channels as measured by history of relations, the extent of channel utilization, financial stability, reputation, access to prospects and familiarity with your offering.
* Advertising capabilities including media relationships, advertising budget, past experience, how easily the offering can be advertised and commitment to advertising.
* Sales capabilities including availability of personnel, quality of personnel, location of sales outlets, ability to generate sales leads, relationship with distributors, ability to demonstrate the benefits of the offering and necessary sales support capabilities.
* The appropriateness of the pricing of your offering as it relates to competition, price sensitivity of the prospect, prospect's familiarity with the offering and the current market life cycle stage.
Customer Services
The strength of the customer service function has a strong influence on long term market success. Factors to consider include:
* Experience of the Customer Service manager in the areas of similar offerings and customers, quality control, technical support, product documentation, sales and marketing.
* The availability of technical support to service your offering after it is purchased.
* One or more factors that causes your customer support to stand out as unique in the eyes of the customer.
* Accessibility of service outlets for the customer.
* The reputation of the enterprise for customer service.
Conclusion
After defining your strategy you must use the information you have gathered to determine whether this strategy will achieve the objective of making your enterprise competitive in the marketplace. Two of the most important assessments are described below.
Cost To Enter Market
This is an analysis of the factors that will influence your costs to achieve significant market penetration. Factors to consider include:
* Your marketing strength.
* Access to low cost materials and effective production.
* The experience of your enterprise.
* The complexity of introduction problems such as lack of adherence to industry standards, unavailability of materials, poor quality control, regulatory problems and the inability to explain the benefits of the offering to the prospect.
* The effectiveness of the enterprise infrastructure in terms of organization, recruiting capabilities, employee benefit programs, customer support facilities and logistical capabilities.
* Distribution effectiveness as measured by history of relations, the extent of channel utilization, financial stability, reputation, access to prospects and familiarity with your offering.
* Technological efforts likely to be successful as measured by the strength of the development organization.
* The availability of adequate operating capital.
Profit Potential
This is an analysis of the factors that could influence the potential for generating and maintaining profits over an extended period. Factors to consider include:
* Potential for competitive retaliation is based on the competitors resources, commitment to the industry, cash position and predictability as well as the status of the market.
* The enterprise's ability to construct entry barriers to competition such as the creation of high switching costs, gaining substantial benefit from economies of scale, exclusive access to or clogging of distribution channels and the ability to clearly differentiate your offering from the competition.
* The intensity of competitive rivalry as measured by the size and number of competitors, limitations on exiting the market, differentiation between offerings and the rapidity of market growth.
* The ability of the enterprise to limit suppliers bargaining power.
* The enterprise's ability to sustain its market position is determined by the potential for competitive imitation, resistance to inflation, ability to maintain high prices, the potential for product obsolescence and the 'learning curve' faced by the prospect.
* The availability of substitute solutions to the prospect's need.
* The prospect's bargaining power as measured by the ease of switching to an alternative, the cost to look at alternatives, the cost of the offering, the differentiation between your offering and the competition and the degree of the prospect's need.
* Market potential for new products considering market growth, prospect's need for your offering, the benefits of the offering, the number of barriers to immediate use, the credibility of the offering and the impact on the customer's daily operations.
* The freedom of the enterprise to make critical business decisions without undue influence from distributors, suppliers, unions, investors and other outside influences.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Advertising & Marketing of Jewelry
Jewelry is the temptation that no woman can resist in the world. Every woman is crazy about the ornaments. Jewelry can be defined as the ornaments that are worn by men and women to accessorize or for personal adornment. Basically jewelry is used to intensify the beauty; jewelry items basically include bracelets, necklaces, rings, anklets, earrings etc. When it comes to running jewelry business, it needs thorough planning at every step. Jewelry business seems very profitable but to reach at that stage you should establish itself in the jewelry business sector as a brand. There is so much variety and so much competition in this business that marketing of the business has becomes very crucial. When you are starting a new jewelry business, at the initial stage you have to make marketing plans to promote the business.
Strategies for marketing and advertising jewelry business
In jewelry business presentation matters a lot and it is a critical aspect for attracting more and more customers. Marketing is that area where you can use your own creative abilities to derive new and innovative ways to capture target customers. Skipping this step can lead to wastage of time, money and efforts. Marketing is basically a collection of tools to search for potential customers and to persuade them to turn into actual buyers and advertising is a part of marketing and other parts are sale promotion, publicity, personal selling and public relations which can be used as a way to increase sales either collectively or individually depends on the company's needs and financial strength.
But firstly in the starting you have to do market research to know about your potential consumers and gain all the information regarding them. You should try to get data about their age, sex, profession they are in, lifestyle, tastes and preferences. Only then you can decide about the marketing strategy that is best suited to your target consumers. Once you are done with market research, then the planning department will be able to make marketing plans to achieve the desired results. Planning department can derive many kinds of strategies at the same time to boost the sales. There are some strategies that are used to market and advertise jewelry business to get the desired sales. Strategies can be online and it can be offline also depending upon the target customers and the area you want to capture, online marketing is affordable and easy to do whereas offline marketing is quite expensive. Strategies can be divided in two broad areas.
Online marketing
• Website creation: Create a website for your company and display all your products and their price range. You can take help of some web design company to do it for you. You can also implement an e-cart application for customers to place an order online with the help of the web design company.
• Online advertising: You can publish banner advertisements, pop-up advertisements showing the name of your company and current products on social networking and other sites related to jewelry business.
• Newsletters you should start your company's newsletter in which potential consumers can sign up and get updates of new products and news about latest jewelry collections, special offers and discounts.
• Auction: Put your jewelry on auction on eBay. E Bay provides you with a secure platform to sell you jewelry products online.
• Email your friends and family the online link of your websites and other shopping sites non which you have put the products for sale. They can also be the potential customers.
• Talking on message boards and building links with other jewelry owners can also help in marketing.
Offline marketing
• Hold an inauguration party: Holding an inauguration party for your new business enterprise is the effective way to make the people aware about your company. You should also place a notice in the newspaper inviting all.
• Offering discounts and promotion offers: Giving promotional offers and promotional products as gifts and discounts is also a good way of promoting your brand. Some of the promotional products you can use for this are engraved pen, office flap bags, coffee mugs, mouse pads, T-shirts, office accessories, calendars, travel pouches etc
• Organizing promotional event: Hold a special event for your company’s brand promotion. Put a notice in the newspaper inviting all. Offer discounts to selected customers or you organize a lucky draw. Give a trendy name to the event.
• Press release: Place an advertisement in the newspapers; you can also publish your company’s website with it so people can check your products and services online. You can also give a advertisement in classified column of the newspaper for local customers or if you want to cater the customers all over India it should be on the page that is most read by the newspaper readers.
• Business cards: Have your business cards printed, by the help of some printing company, that should have your company’s name along with the contact number and website address. In addition it should also have your company’s logo. Hand it out to people you met at social events, parties to give a word out about your business.
• Yellow pages: Placing advertisements in the yellow pages whether online or offline gives your company an exposure, so that an interested customer can find out about your company and can avail your services.
• TV commercials: Giving advertisements on TV can make your brand popular through out the country.
Strategies for marketing and advertising jewelry business
In jewelry business presentation matters a lot and it is a critical aspect for attracting more and more customers. Marketing is that area where you can use your own creative abilities to derive new and innovative ways to capture target customers. Skipping this step can lead to wastage of time, money and efforts. Marketing is basically a collection of tools to search for potential customers and to persuade them to turn into actual buyers and advertising is a part of marketing and other parts are sale promotion, publicity, personal selling and public relations which can be used as a way to increase sales either collectively or individually depends on the company's needs and financial strength.
But firstly in the starting you have to do market research to know about your potential consumers and gain all the information regarding them. You should try to get data about their age, sex, profession they are in, lifestyle, tastes and preferences. Only then you can decide about the marketing strategy that is best suited to your target consumers. Once you are done with market research, then the planning department will be able to make marketing plans to achieve the desired results. Planning department can derive many kinds of strategies at the same time to boost the sales. There are some strategies that are used to market and advertise jewelry business to get the desired sales. Strategies can be online and it can be offline also depending upon the target customers and the area you want to capture, online marketing is affordable and easy to do whereas offline marketing is quite expensive. Strategies can be divided in two broad areas.
Online marketing
• Website creation: Create a website for your company and display all your products and their price range. You can take help of some web design company to do it for you. You can also implement an e-cart application for customers to place an order online with the help of the web design company.
• Online advertising: You can publish banner advertisements, pop-up advertisements showing the name of your company and current products on social networking and other sites related to jewelry business.
• Newsletters you should start your company's newsletter in which potential consumers can sign up and get updates of new products and news about latest jewelry collections, special offers and discounts.
• Auction: Put your jewelry on auction on eBay. E Bay provides you with a secure platform to sell you jewelry products online.
• Email your friends and family the online link of your websites and other shopping sites non which you have put the products for sale. They can also be the potential customers.
• Talking on message boards and building links with other jewelry owners can also help in marketing.
Offline marketing
• Hold an inauguration party: Holding an inauguration party for your new business enterprise is the effective way to make the people aware about your company. You should also place a notice in the newspaper inviting all.
• Offering discounts and promotion offers: Giving promotional offers and promotional products as gifts and discounts is also a good way of promoting your brand. Some of the promotional products you can use for this are engraved pen, office flap bags, coffee mugs, mouse pads, T-shirts, office accessories, calendars, travel pouches etc
• Organizing promotional event: Hold a special event for your company’s brand promotion. Put a notice in the newspaper inviting all. Offer discounts to selected customers or you organize a lucky draw. Give a trendy name to the event.
• Press release: Place an advertisement in the newspapers; you can also publish your company’s website with it so people can check your products and services online. You can also give a advertisement in classified column of the newspaper for local customers or if you want to cater the customers all over India it should be on the page that is most read by the newspaper readers.
• Business cards: Have your business cards printed, by the help of some printing company, that should have your company’s name along with the contact number and website address. In addition it should also have your company’s logo. Hand it out to people you met at social events, parties to give a word out about your business.
• Yellow pages: Placing advertisements in the yellow pages whether online or offline gives your company an exposure, so that an interested customer can find out about your company and can avail your services.
• TV commercials: Giving advertisements on TV can make your brand popular through out the country.
Scope of Jewellery Market
Jewelery is something that always rules the hearts of women around the world. From economic point of view also it holds a major significance and is considered as the best source of investment. Women have always had an inclination towards jewelery and especially Indian women are crazy about it whether it is gold jewelery, diamond or platinum. You can guess it from the fact that India is the largest consumer of the gold with 25% share in total consumption of gold.
Jewelery as a business
From economic point of view, jewelery business is considered a business which has lots of profit yielding potential on account of its great demand. That business is having least risk quotient because the price of the metal used in making jewellery has the tendency of getting increased only. So even if there is no demand still business can earn huge profits by selling the metal only.
Scope of jewelery business
There is so much scope in jewelery business to earn fortunes. Jewelery business is divided in various sectors. You should have to make a decision on the basis of your likings and interest that what area of jewelery business suits you more. Following are the areas in which you can enter and earn huge amounts of profits.
* Processing gems and metals
* Jewelery designing
* Manufacturing jewelery
* Retailing of finished jewelery
* Jewelery supply chain
Extraction of jewelery material
Jewelery material can be categorized in two areas
Gemstone mining: gemstone mining is further categorized in diamond and non diamond mining.
Non diamond mining: the vast majority of non diamond material is mined at low cost. So it is a great source of income of developing countries people who does mining at small scale. Countries which are majorly included in non-diamond extraction are India, Brazil Tanzania, Mali, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Thailand and Mali. That is basically popular in rural areas.
Whereas diamond mining includes huge costs so it can’t be done at small level. You need to have a large investment if you want to enter in those areas.
Metal mining: in metal mining we take gold, silver, platinum, titanium, stainless steel, tungsten, rhodium mining. These all metals are used in jewelery manufacturing. They all vary greatly in price, strength and other attributes.
Processing gems and metals: jewelery industry is very complex and involves many businesses at every stage. So processing and manufacturing has been divided. In processing stage there are basically two areas.
Cutting and polishing of gems
Finishing metals
It is advisable for companies to focus on one core area and achieve specialization in that area to earn huge profits.
Jewelery designing:
After the processing of gems and metal the next stage comes in which design of the final layout of the jewelery is made. The companies involved in this area hire services of professional jewelery designers to make the exclusive designs because the jewelery sells on its design only.
Jewelery manufacturing:
Jewelery manufacturing is giving real shape to the blueprint prepared in the jewelery designing phase. It is the stage where final product of the jewellery business is prepared.
Jewelery retail and consumer markets:
After the preparation of final product the next question arises to make them reach to the target consumers. So we need proper distribution channels for this. At the distribution end basically small and unbranded retailers dominate. There are branded retailers also but they are very few in numbers.
Supply chain:
In between there are many small traders whose trading relations are confidential and hardly visible too general public basically to hide the information of supply source and destination source from competitors as well as general public. So these are the basic areas in which one can enter anyone wants to enter in jewelery business depending on the personal interests and skills required for the particular field.
Limitations of jewelery business:
Despite seeming an easy source of making huge money there are some limitations also in this business that one has to consider while making entry in to this business.
The high risk quotient:
Only the persons who are daring enough to bear larger risks should enter this business. The jewelery business is not considered a good idea for conscious natured persons.
Strict licensing:
The large companies who tends to be in mining industry in jewelery business require a ‘license to operate‘. And they have to abide by stringent international standards.
Limitations of perfect completion:
Retail sale of jewelery is close to the perfect competition. In perfect completion as you know there is large number of buyers and sellers leading to huge competition resulting in uniform pricing and low margins.
The small scale mining impacts:
The small scale mining despite having positive impacts like providing employment in rural areas having many social and environmental drawbacks like child labour, poor health safety hazards. And large scale mining also leads to many negative impacts like waste management, groundwater-contamination, acid rock drainage, and pollution, low labor cost.
Jewelery as a business
From economic point of view, jewelery business is considered a business which has lots of profit yielding potential on account of its great demand. That business is having least risk quotient because the price of the metal used in making jewellery has the tendency of getting increased only. So even if there is no demand still business can earn huge profits by selling the metal only.
Scope of jewelery business
There is so much scope in jewelery business to earn fortunes. Jewelery business is divided in various sectors. You should have to make a decision on the basis of your likings and interest that what area of jewelery business suits you more. Following are the areas in which you can enter and earn huge amounts of profits.
* Processing gems and metals
* Jewelery designing
* Manufacturing jewelery
* Retailing of finished jewelery
* Jewelery supply chain
Extraction of jewelery material
Jewelery material can be categorized in two areas
Gemstone mining: gemstone mining is further categorized in diamond and non diamond mining.
Non diamond mining: the vast majority of non diamond material is mined at low cost. So it is a great source of income of developing countries people who does mining at small scale. Countries which are majorly included in non-diamond extraction are India, Brazil Tanzania, Mali, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Thailand and Mali. That is basically popular in rural areas.
Whereas diamond mining includes huge costs so it can’t be done at small level. You need to have a large investment if you want to enter in those areas.
Metal mining: in metal mining we take gold, silver, platinum, titanium, stainless steel, tungsten, rhodium mining. These all metals are used in jewelery manufacturing. They all vary greatly in price, strength and other attributes.
Processing gems and metals: jewelery industry is very complex and involves many businesses at every stage. So processing and manufacturing has been divided. In processing stage there are basically two areas.
Cutting and polishing of gems
Finishing metals
It is advisable for companies to focus on one core area and achieve specialization in that area to earn huge profits.
Jewelery designing:
After the processing of gems and metal the next stage comes in which design of the final layout of the jewelery is made. The companies involved in this area hire services of professional jewelery designers to make the exclusive designs because the jewelery sells on its design only.
Jewelery manufacturing:
Jewelery manufacturing is giving real shape to the blueprint prepared in the jewelery designing phase. It is the stage where final product of the jewellery business is prepared.
Jewelery retail and consumer markets:
After the preparation of final product the next question arises to make them reach to the target consumers. So we need proper distribution channels for this. At the distribution end basically small and unbranded retailers dominate. There are branded retailers also but they are very few in numbers.
Supply chain:
In between there are many small traders whose trading relations are confidential and hardly visible too general public basically to hide the information of supply source and destination source from competitors as well as general public. So these are the basic areas in which one can enter anyone wants to enter in jewelery business depending on the personal interests and skills required for the particular field.
Limitations of jewelery business:
Despite seeming an easy source of making huge money there are some limitations also in this business that one has to consider while making entry in to this business.
The high risk quotient:
Only the persons who are daring enough to bear larger risks should enter this business. The jewelery business is not considered a good idea for conscious natured persons.
Strict licensing:
The large companies who tends to be in mining industry in jewelery business require a ‘license to operate‘. And they have to abide by stringent international standards.
Limitations of perfect completion:
Retail sale of jewelery is close to the perfect competition. In perfect completion as you know there is large number of buyers and sellers leading to huge competition resulting in uniform pricing and low margins.
The small scale mining impacts:
The small scale mining despite having positive impacts like providing employment in rural areas having many social and environmental drawbacks like child labour, poor health safety hazards. And large scale mining also leads to many negative impacts like waste management, groundwater-contamination, acid rock drainage, and pollution, low labor cost.
How to run a Jewelry Business
Jewelry has been an integral part of human civilization. Some people wear jewelry because they adore it and some wear it as a necessity, you won’t find any woman who is not wearing any sort of jewelry. Jewelry is also used at auspicious occasions like marriages, engagements, etc. Jewelry is a symbols power and prestige. Jewelry is also worn to deliver style statement and be fashionable. Jewelry retail stores are one of the most profitable businesses now days. These stores are primarily engaged in the retail sale of jewelry, such as diamonds and other precious stones mounted in precious metals and sold as rings, earrings, necklaces, nose pins, bracelets, sterling, plated silverware, watches, etc. Running a jewelry business is quite simple if you are an expert jeweler. Jewelry is something which attracts both men and women. For some of the people jewelry is a fashionable entity at the same some of them considered jewelry as an asset. Jewelry is something which is always in demand. Your Jewelry business will never run short of customers. However if you are new at jewelry business it may be a little bit difficult task in the starting but after some time you will find unlimited opportunities in front of you. It’s a highly profitable business. A retail jewelry business buys and sells old and new jewelry item to or from public. In jewelry retail industry, good merchandising and effective marketing are the only sources of profitability. If you think that the big jewelry store can affect your profitability then you are wrong, smaller retailers can flourish and have prosperous future. The main thing which will decide the success of your retail jewelry store is the retailer's strategy.
You will have to take care of few things while running a jewelry retail store:
Location for jewelry retail store:
The place where your jewelry store is situated matters a lot for the success of your business. Look for an easily approachable location. A store needs traffic passing by it every time. So you must open your jewelry retail store at malls or at city shopping centers. It is easy to attract customers at a crowded market.
Staff for jewelry retail store:
Jewelry retail stores should hire staff having knowledge about jewelry. Experienced and dedicated staff is a major factor behind the success of any business. A jewelry retail store may require staff like salesmen, jewelry designer, goldsmith, gemologist, etc. You need to have skilled marketers for your jewelry retail store, who are capable enough of converting the leads into the sales. Your staff must possess great convincing skills. Main task of sales person is to showcase jewelry items in their stores and sell them to customers. Make sure staff you chose is reliable. On the other hand you can hire a designer to create unique jewelry items for your jewelry retail store. A jewelry designer should be an experienced goldsmith who can design jewelry items using various precious metals and gems like gold, silver, platinum, diamonds etc.
Offer various payment methods:
Your retail store should provide all the available payment methods to their customers, like you can accept payment through credit cards, debit cards etc. It will increase the goodwill of your retail store and can increase customer’s satisfaction for you.
Specializing in specific types of jewelry items:
You can make your retail jewelry store unique from other by specializing in specific types of jewelry products such as weeding rings or diamond jewelry etc. You can go for any of the specialized field it will help your retail store to get success easily.
Consider customer’s needs and demands:
You should take care of customer’s choice and requirement, what exactly they want to buy. You should offer right jewelry to them. Design the jewelry with fresh outlook for them; offer something different to your customers.
Observe competitor for your jewelry retail store:
Learn from other jewelry business as they are mostly run by experienced persons. Figure out at their market strategy and what types of jewelry do they specialize in. Look for the jewelry line which is not available by your competitors. Make an identity for your retail jewelry store by displaying unique jewelry line which is not available by any other retail jewelry business.
Promotion of jewelry retail store:
Every business nowadays requires networking to survive and find prospective clients. A jewelry retail store is no different from others. A jewelry retail store would always require some sort of promotion to stay in the business and compete in the market. A jewelry retail store needs to promote its jewelry collection in a right manner to find potential clients. Word to mouth is the best type a promotion a jewelry business can get, it always has a positive impact on a person as it is done by a third party and is a non paid source of promotion. It adds to the goodwill and reputation of a jewelry business. A jewelry retail store can also chose paid method of promotions such as Radio, News Paper, and T.V. A properly marketed jewelry retail store never has shortage of business and clients.
You will have to take care of few things while running a jewelry retail store:
Location for jewelry retail store:
The place where your jewelry store is situated matters a lot for the success of your business. Look for an easily approachable location. A store needs traffic passing by it every time. So you must open your jewelry retail store at malls or at city shopping centers. It is easy to attract customers at a crowded market.
Staff for jewelry retail store:
Jewelry retail stores should hire staff having knowledge about jewelry. Experienced and dedicated staff is a major factor behind the success of any business. A jewelry retail store may require staff like salesmen, jewelry designer, goldsmith, gemologist, etc. You need to have skilled marketers for your jewelry retail store, who are capable enough of converting the leads into the sales. Your staff must possess great convincing skills. Main task of sales person is to showcase jewelry items in their stores and sell them to customers. Make sure staff you chose is reliable. On the other hand you can hire a designer to create unique jewelry items for your jewelry retail store. A jewelry designer should be an experienced goldsmith who can design jewelry items using various precious metals and gems like gold, silver, platinum, diamonds etc.
Offer various payment methods:
Your retail store should provide all the available payment methods to their customers, like you can accept payment through credit cards, debit cards etc. It will increase the goodwill of your retail store and can increase customer’s satisfaction for you.
Specializing in specific types of jewelry items:
You can make your retail jewelry store unique from other by specializing in specific types of jewelry products such as weeding rings or diamond jewelry etc. You can go for any of the specialized field it will help your retail store to get success easily.
Consider customer’s needs and demands:
You should take care of customer’s choice and requirement, what exactly they want to buy. You should offer right jewelry to them. Design the jewelry with fresh outlook for them; offer something different to your customers.
Observe competitor for your jewelry retail store:
Learn from other jewelry business as they are mostly run by experienced persons. Figure out at their market strategy and what types of jewelry do they specialize in. Look for the jewelry line which is not available by your competitors. Make an identity for your retail jewelry store by displaying unique jewelry line which is not available by any other retail jewelry business.
Promotion of jewelry retail store:
Every business nowadays requires networking to survive and find prospective clients. A jewelry retail store is no different from others. A jewelry retail store would always require some sort of promotion to stay in the business and compete in the market. A jewelry retail store needs to promote its jewelry collection in a right manner to find potential clients. Word to mouth is the best type a promotion a jewelry business can get, it always has a positive impact on a person as it is done by a third party and is a non paid source of promotion. It adds to the goodwill and reputation of a jewelry business. A jewelry retail store can also chose paid method of promotions such as Radio, News Paper, and T.V. A properly marketed jewelry retail store never has shortage of business and clients.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Business Planning
Strategic Business Planning
The ability to set and implement a strategic business plan is a key skill of good leadership. A strategic business plan determines EVERYTHING that happens to and in a business. To a large extent it determines the level of excellence that can be reached.
Operating Strategies
To be successful, written operating strategies are a must for any business, from start-up to large, from a tiny one-person business to large corporations with hundreds of employees.
Marketing & Sales Strategies
Consumer Reports show that the average person is exposed to anywhere from 247 to 3000 sales messages a day. That’s a lot! In the face of that, you may be thinking, "How do I get my message seen, read and converted to money in the bank?"
SWOT Analysis
The SWOT analysis is the foundation for developing your strategies and tactics that then become the road map for writing your business operating plan.
Funding Strategies
Start ups and growing businesses always need money, sometimes even when they don’t think they do. The questions are: How does my business get money? When, where and how do I start looking for it?
The ability to set and implement a strategic business plan is a key skill of good leadership. A strategic business plan determines EVERYTHING that happens to and in a business. To a large extent it determines the level of excellence that can be reached.
Operating Strategies
To be successful, written operating strategies are a must for any business, from start-up to large, from a tiny one-person business to large corporations with hundreds of employees.
Marketing & Sales Strategies
Consumer Reports show that the average person is exposed to anywhere from 247 to 3000 sales messages a day. That’s a lot! In the face of that, you may be thinking, "How do I get my message seen, read and converted to money in the bank?"
SWOT Analysis
The SWOT analysis is the foundation for developing your strategies and tactics that then become the road map for writing your business operating plan.
Funding Strategies
Start ups and growing businesses always need money, sometimes even when they don’t think they do. The questions are: How does my business get money? When, where and how do I start looking for it?
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Corruption & Marketing
You are corrupted. I am corrupted. Everybody is corrupted.
The moment you born you become corrupted.
That’s may be sad but it’s the truth.
Demosthenes was a great politician of ancient Greece. He said it already around the IV century BC in Athens.
You could say it all comes from the power, money, hypocrisy.
But anthropology believes it comes from the language.
The moment the primitives began to talk, they began to be corrupted.
How?
If we would all agree, we would not need to talk.
We would walk on the streets with a big smile. Maybe because we would be trying to bite the flies for lunch.
Evolution went into another direction.
We use the language to achieve an agreement.
This means that we first are corrupted and we talk to try to set a shared knowledge.
Marketing is way full of corruption because every brand says that its product is the best one on the planet.
We don’t agree, usually.
Marketing has to create a shared knowledge between the brand and the clients.
In order to achieve it, you need to create a common language through a clear brand identity.
To avoid corruption, you need to be able to talk to your clients.
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