Creative Marketing Program

Motivate your audience to do something; Marketing is not creative unless it sells. You can pretty much ensure that you’ll end up with creative marketing if you start out by devising a creative strategy. Such a strategy is similar to a marketing plan, but limited to advertising only, and defined solely at the content of ads and/or commercials. If you think there’s a simple formula for establishing such a strategy, you’re absolutely right.

Follow following steps:

• Find the inherent drama within your offering;
• Translate that inherent drama into a meaningful benefit;
• State your benefits as believably as possible;
• Get people’s attention;
• Be sure you’re communicating clearly;
• Measure your finished advertisement, commercial, letter or brochure against your creative strategy.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures

Kinds of Advertising

Different kinds of advertising are used by various organizations to reach different market targets. Some major categories include:

• Retail Advertising: advertising to consumers by various retail stores such as supermarkets and shoe stores.
• Trade Advertising: advertising to wholesalers and retailers by manufacturers to encourage them to carry their products.
• Industrial Advertising: advertising from manufacturers to other manufacturers. A firm selling motors to automobile companies would use industrial advertising.
• Institutional Advertising: advertising designed to create an attractive image for an organization rather than for a product.
• Product Advertising: advertising for a good or service to create interest among consumer, commercial, and industrial buyers.
• Advocacy Advertising: advertising that supports a particular view of an issue
• Comparison Advertising: advertising that compares competitive products.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Global Sourcing & Operating Guidelines

Levi Strauss & Company developed the following policy to guide the firm through the maze of international business and maintain its high standard of ethical integrity. Levi Strauss & Co., has a heritage of conducting business in a manner that reflects its values. Because the company sources in many countries with diverse cultures, it must take special care in selecting business partners and countries whose practices are not incompatible with its values. Otherwise, its sourcing decisions have the potential of undermining this heritage, damaging the image of its brands and threatening its commercial success.

Business Partner Terms of Engagement

Terms of Engagement address issues that are substantially controllable by our individual business partners.

We have defined business partners as contractors and subcontractors who manufacture or finish our products and suppliers who provide material (including fabric, sundries, chemicals and/or stones) utilized in the manufacturing and finishing of our products.

i.            Environmental Requirements: We will only do business with partners who share our commitment to the environment and who conduct their business in a way that is consistent with Levi Strauss & Co.’s Environmental Philosophy and Guiding Principles.

ii.            Ethical Standards: We will seek to identify and utilize business partners who aspire as individuals and in the conduct of all their businesses to a set of ethical standards not incompatible with our own.

iii.            Legal Requirements: we expect our business partners to be law abiding as individuals and to comply with legal requirements relevant to the conduct of all their businesses.

iv.            Employment Practices: We will only do business partners whose workers are in all cases present voluntarily, not put at risk of physical harm, fairly compensated, allowed the right of free association and not exploited in any way. In addition . . . . specific guidelines [are provided in the areas of]: wages and benefits, . . . . working hours, . . . . . child labor, . . . . prison labor/forced labor, . . . . health and safety, . . . . discrimination, [and] . . . . disciplinary practices.

v.            Community Involvement: We will favor business partners who share our commitment to contribute to the betterment of community conditions.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Organizational Planning to Compete

Many businesses have no long-term aspiration; they quite simply want to achieve something and then move on. This applies at times to both task-oriented commercial and non-commercial organizations.

Many individuals tasked with running an organization have little or no social interest in the long-term failure of it and limit their interest to the time that they will be responsible for (and indeed benefit from) the organization’s success. This can happen regardless of the aspirations of the organization’s stakeholders.

Some markets are so changeable that any detailed investment and planning for the future proves largely futile.

There are times when too great a concern for the future will detract attention from short-term priorities and damage an organization’s current prospects, which will in turn damage long-term prospects as well.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Foreign Exchange

An international marketer needs to transact financial transfers across nation lines in order to close deals. The financial transfers from one country to another are made through the medium of foreign exchange.

Foreign exchange is the monetary mechanism by which transactions involving two or more currencies take place. Transacting foreign exchange deals presents two problems. First, each country has its own methods and procedures for effecting foreign exchanges—usually developed by its central bank. The transactions themselves take place through the banking system. Thus, both the methods and procedures of the central bank and commercial banking constraints must be thoroughly understood and followed to compete a foreign exchange transaction.

The second problem involves the fluctuation of  the rates of exchange. Fluctuations in exchange rates are based on the supply and demand of different currencies. The rate of exchange between two countries can fluctuate from day to day. This produces a great deal of uncertainty since a business person cannot know the exact value of foreign obligations and claims.

To appreciate fully the complexities of foreign exchange, a few terms must be understood. Their understanding also will provide a historical perspective on the making of payments across national boundaries. The terms are gold standard, gold exchange standard, gold bullion standard, inconvertible currencies, and hard and soft currencies.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Objective of a Supply Chain

The objective of every supply chain is to maximize the overall value generated. The value a supply chain generates is the difference between what the final product is worth to the customer and the effort the supply chain expands in filling the customer’s request, for most commercial supply chains, value will be strongly correlated with supply chain profitability, the difference between the revenue generated from the customer and the overall cost across the supply chain. Supply chain profitability  is the total profit to be shared across all supply chain stages. The higher the supply chain profitability, the more successful the supply chain. Supply chain success should be measured in terms of supply chain profitability and not in terms of the profits at an individual stage.

Having defined the success of a supply chain in terms of supply chain profitability, the next logical step is to look for sources of revenue and cost. For any supply chain, there is only one source of revenue: the customer. All flows of information, product, or funds generate cash within the supply chain. Thus, the appropriate management of these flows is a key to supply chain success. Supply chain management involves the management of  flows between and among stages in a supply chain to maximize total supply chain profitability.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

Losers’ Description of Capabilities

Corporate losers describe their capabilities in terms of the physical and financial resources they own and control and the individuals whom they employ and can manage. Their markets are places. Their people are more comfortable with tangible assets that can be seen, smelt and touched, and easily counted, measured and valued.

Because their activities depend on the availability of physical resources some losers can operate only in certain geographical areas. It may be difficult for people living elsewhere to access them and work with them. Buildings become prisons and those excluded from participation become outsiders.

In general, losers prefer more rather than less. Some consider the accumulation of resources as an end in itself. Recruiting more staff and moving to a larger property is viewed as evidence of progress. Losers focus upon the individual items of capital rather than their relevance use, and the flow of benefits that they provide. The more losers succeed in accumulating fixed overheads, the more vulnerable they become to economic forces, commercial constraints and financial pressures.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

Constitution of Service Sector

Service sector comprises following services:

Lodging Services

Hotels, rooming houses, and other lodging places

Sporting and recreation camps

Trailering parks and camp sites for transients

Personal Services

Laundries

Childcare

Linen supply

Shoe repair

Diaper service

Funeral homes

Carpet cleaning

Tax preparation

Photographic studios

Beauty shops

Health clubs

Business Services

Accounting

Exterminating

Agencies

Employment agencies

Collection agencies

Computer programming

Commercial photography

R&D labs

Commercial art

Secretarial services

Management services

Window cleaning

Public relations

Consulting

Detective agencies

Equipment rental

Interior design

Automotive Repair Services and Garages

Auto rental

Tire retreading

Truck rental

Exhaust system shops

Parking lots

Car washes

Paint shops

Transmission repair

Motion Picture Industry

Production

Theaters

Distribution

Drive-ins

Amusement and Recreation Services

Dance halls

Race tracks

Orchestras

Golf courses

Pool halls

Amusement parks

Carnivals

Fairs

Ice-skating rinks

Botanical gardens

Circuses

Swimming pools

Health Services

Physicians

Nursery care

Dentists

Medical labs

Chiropractors

Dental labs

Legal Services

Educational Services

Libraries

Correspondence schools

Schools

Data processing schools

Social Services

Child care

Family services

Job training

Non-commercial Museums, Art Galleries, and Botanical & Zoological Gardens

Selected Membership Organizations

Business associations

Civic associations

Financial Services

Banking

Investment firms

Insurance

Real estate agencies

Miscellaneous Repair Services

Radio and television

Welding

Watch

Sharpening

Reuphoistery

Septic tank cleaning

Architectural

Surveying

Engineering

Utilities

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Production Management

Production is the use of people and machines to convert materials into finished products and supply these products to customers. Production includes three key stages: product development, purchasing, and manufacturing.

The development of a new product involves six steps: idea generation, screening, business analysis, product development, test marketing, and commercialization. Roughly, one in 58 new product ideas becomes a commercial success.

When the product development department designs a new product, a make-buy decision determines which components will be bought from outside suppliers and which will be made by the firm itself.

The six steps in purchasing raw materials and semi-finished and finished parts are 1) recognizing what is needed, 2) developing specifications, 3) requesting bids and selecting a vendor, 4) following up with the vendor, 5) receiving the order, and 6) evaluating the vendor.

Mass production and automation have revolutionized manufacturing methods and have made higher quality, standardized products available at lower prices.

The three classifications of manufacturing operations are standard versus custom manufacture, continuous versus batch process, and analytic versus synthetic process.

Once final products are assembled, the transportation section must ship them to customers on time and in good condition. The managers here use one of the five modes of transportation: highway, rail, air, water, and pipeline. Developments such as piggyback service and containerization allow a business to use two or more transportation modes to move shipment over long distances.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Direct Marketing

Direct market refers to direct mail, mail order, or coupon advertising, telephone marketing, or any method of marketing that attempts to make a sale right then and there. It does not require a middleman. It does not require a store. It only requires a seller and a buyer. And because of that, much unnecessary game playing is removed from the marketing process, leaving only accountable results. When you run a TV commercial or newspaper ad, you do all in your power to make sure that it works, but you don’t really know if it does. But when you engage in direct-mail advertising, the firm of direct marketing you will know clearly whether or not your mailing worked. Either it did or didn’t. If it worked, you’ll know how well it worked. And if it failed, you’ll know how dismally it failed.

Direct mail is the least expensive method of marketing on a per sale basis. The overall cost may be high, but if it works for you, it is inexpensive marketing. Direct marketing is more science than art. This is not to downplay the art of creating a successful direct mail package.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.