Marketing That Sells

As small business owners you need to know the difference between marketing and selling for you to be able to reach consumers. Here are a few pointers

Many business owners and practitioners mistakenly think of selling and marketing as interchangeable concepts. This is particularly true in the case of small businesses, which often equates marketing with selling due to organizational and resource limitations. But even if sales and marketing are intrinsically linked, the fact is that they are two very different business activities.

Selling begins when a product or service becomes available for consumption or use. This function covers placement of products in appropriate distribution/selling channels, building the retailers’ awareness and confidence on the product and cultivating customer advocacy for the maker of the product or service.

Marketing, on the other hand, is much broader in scope and starts long before the selling process takes place. It covers everything about the market, the consumer, and the brand.

Marketing is about creating consumer-relevant brand values that satisfy specific market needs. It is about building product and brand awareness, influencing consumers’ preferences and purchase considerations, and making the consumers repeatedly avail / purchase the marketer’s offering.

Marketing and sales are complementary functions, any one of which can’t achieve its goals without the other. And they need two key elements to make them successfully do this: (1) an extensive understanding of their customers, and (2) the ability to adapt to the changing needs, attitudes, and behaviors of the market.

To ensure continuing sales success, a marketing strategy needs to achieve four specific goals for a particular product or service: strong consumer focus, meaningful segmentation, clear and compelling brand positioning, and a relevant marketing mix.

Strong consumer focus:
Nobody buys anything for what it is. Consumers purchase a product or service for what they think it does to them (benefit). Thus, it is a must for companies to be grounded on solid understanding of the consumer or customer. They should find out as much information about their target through relevant consumer researches or studies. They should be aware of what makes their customers/ consumers want to buy a specific item or service.

Marketers have the tendency to want to develop products that carry superior functional claims. Though this is a good thing, it is not always possible to achieve such demonstrable product superiority such as technical or cost limitations. Moreover, such superiority may not always be sustainable as competitors often try to outperform, if not match, benefits or propositions being offered by competition.

This is why it is important for companies to come up with offerings that more than demonstrate functional superiority, satisfy specific needs or desires of consumers. This can come in various forms—packaging, sizing innovation, distribution, advertising—and dimensions that are functional, sensual and emotional.

Meaningful segmentation:
To really know their target market, marketers need to identify the group of consumers that has the strongest need for or affinity to the brand. Every consumer is, of course, unique. Each has needs that are different from others, so it would be unwise to custom-fit a product or service offering to a single individual. For the same reason, it would be impractical to expect the needs of all consumers to be satisfied by a single product or service offering. Thus, the most cost-effective, practical way to market a product is to target a specific group of customers and consumers with largely similar needs.

This is where market segmentation comes in—identifying and targeting a group of consumers that are in some demonstrable way similar to one another but different from the rest of the market. Determining the most apt group of consumers for its product or service can, of course, be done through an appropriate market segmentation study.

Clear and compelling brand positioning:
Creating an image for your product and clearly positioning it in the minds of the target market—these are musts for establishing a long-term relationship with the consumers. Brand positioning, which sustains the brand image and explains the product’s unique selling proposition (USP), is ultimately what makes the consumers choose a product over its competitors and patronize it over the long term. It is what makes a brand uniquely meaningful to its target markets and what clearly distinguishes it from the other players in the same product category.

Solid marketing mix:
A strong marketing mix that is consistent with the brand positioning is a must for ensuring that a brand will continue to sell. The marketing mix is simply the totality of the activities done by the company that affects the marketing and selling of the brand. Each element of the mix—product, packaging, pricing, distribution, promotions, advertising—has its own characteristics, but each must be carefully considered in its relationship with the other elements and with the overall marketing strategy to ensure that the delivery of the brand promise is maximized.

This marketing mix should be balanced and made consistent with the brand’s desired position and image in the market. To have it any other way would just confuse consumers and weaken the standing of the brand in their minds.


By Ampy Rio

INVESTMENT LAWS

Executive Order 226 - The Omnibus Investments Code of 1987

Executive Order No. 226, otherwise known as the Omnibus Investments Code, was enacted in 1987 to develop the country's industries, establish a competitive investment environment and discourage monopolies. The law provides a host of incentives to registered investments and sets into place systematic procedures by which local or foreign companies or business projects can easily register.

An important aspect of the law is the provision of incentives, fiscal and non-fiscal, to preferred areas of investments, pioneer or non-pioneer, export production as well as rehabilitation or expansion of existing operations. Pioneer enterprises are registered enterprises engaged in the manufacture and processing of products or raw materials that are not yet produced in the Philippines in large volume. It also involves the design, formula or system applied as well as agricultural, forestry and mining activities, the services and energy sectors. Non-pioneer enterprises refer to all registered producer enterprises not included in the pioneer enterprise list.

Qualified projects, depending on their category, are granted a host of incentives, including income tax holidays, tax credits, tax and duty exemption for imported raw materials and equipment, hiring of foreign labor, exemption from contractors tax, simplified customs procedure, and other tax incentives. Investors are assured the right to repatriate of profits and earnings, payment of foreign loans and interests, and freedom from expropriation.

Condotel Investment Financing in the Philippines

Non Resident Foreign Nationals and Overseas Filipinos can now avail of mortgage loans for Lancaster Suites Tower I Condotel Suite Investments in the Philippines.
Oct 14, 2008 – This is “really good news” for all existing unit owners and prospective buyers of Lancaster Suites Tower 1 Condotel Suites in the Philippines enthuses Beth Collingz, Director of PLC International, lead marketing partners of Pacific Concord Properties Lancaster Suites Condotel developments in Metro Manila, Philippines.

Banco De Oro (BDO) a commercial Bank in Metro Manila has just approved a buyer’s financing or mortgage scheme for the said project. Collingz stated that “The new financing scheme, a first providing Philippine Mortgages to Foreign Nationals residing overseas for the purchase of Condo units in the Philippines, is now available to unit owners (i.e., Filipinos, Filipino-Americans and Foreign Nationals alike) whom are looking to purchase a Condotel Suite or refinance their investments through BDO’s Home Loan” open to both residential and commercial unit owners and existing buyers of Lancaster Suites Tower I units whom have paid at least 30% of the total contract price of their units can loan up to 70% of the current unit market value.

Existing unit owners who are availing of Pacific Concord Properties in-house financing have the option to pay off their units in 144 months. With BDO’s Home Loan, unit owners can now opt to pay off the balance for up to 15 years [180 months] at only 10.5% per annum. By converting the existing in-house loan to BDO’s Home Loan, buyers will have more flexibility in paying off their loans at a much lower interest rate. What’s more, with BDO’s Home Loan, buyers can loan the full amount equivalent to 70% of the current value of their units regardless if they have already paid more than 30% of the units’ TCP. After paying the balance of the unit price to PCPI, the net amount will then be released directly to them. Buyers can take advantage of this offer to free up some cash as well as to finance the fit-out of their units in the condotel pool or their business set up requirements in their commercial units.

“Many of my previous clients whom have purchased units in Lancaster Suites Tower I are now set to cash in on their equity by availing of the new 15 year financing option to be able to reinvest in new units at Lancaster Atrium which is currently on preconstruction selling” said Collingz.

Collingz continued, “Not only will buyers of units in Tower I have rental income from their units from the middle part of 2008 that will partially offset mortgage payments, they can now free up their equity and take advantage of the current low prices for Condotel Suites in the new Lancaster Atrium and stand to make another 70-80% in property appreciation by the time the building is fully completed. This is really a fantastic offer from BDO and is initially available only to unit owners of Lancaster Suites Tower I Condotel units”

Pacific Concord Properties, Inc. is offering the perfect mix of both the right opportunity and the right timing. In recognizing the financial and emotional value of their investment, PCPI designed a program for all unit owners of Lancaster Suites and Lancaster Cebu that will help them maintain and generate income from their investment. More popularly known as the Condotel Advantage, this program will enable unit owners to gain access to PCPI’s experienced world-class property managers who will make sure of the complete and hotel-quality maintenance of the units enrolled in the condotel pool.

As part of the condotel pool, unit owners can relax knowing that their properties will be managed like hotel rooms. Finding tenants will not be a concern also as the property managers will be tasked in finding tenants for them to make sure that their units will earn a competitive rental income. By joining the condotel pool, unit owners will get to enjoy total hassle-free property management while earning rental income whether they are staying in the Philippines or residing in another country anywhere in the world