Life and Business Improvement

The product life cycle (PLC) is tied closely to the concept of Diffusion of Innovation, which explains how information and acceptance of new products spread through a market. Innovation is anything new that solves needs by offering a significant advantage over existing methods customers use. Innovation can encompass both highly advanced technology products, such as new computer chips, and non-technological products, such as a new soft drink. For marketers, a key concept to emerge from research on new product diffusion is the identification of adopter categories into which members of a market are likely to fall. These categories include: Innovators – Represent a small percentage of the market that is at the forefront of adopting new products. These people are often viewed as enthusiasts and are eager to try new things, often without regard to price. While a good test ground for new products, marketers find that Innovators often do not remain loyal as they continually seek new prod...

The key to successful business is a steady customer base. After all, successful businesses typically see 80 percent of their business come from 20 percent of their customers. Too many businesses neglect this loyal customer base in pursuit of new customers. However, since the cost of attracting new customers is significantly more than what is required to maintain your relationship with existing ones, your efforts toward building customer loyalty will certainly payoff. The following are ten success tips on how to build and sustain customer loyalty: #1. Communicate Whether it is an email newsletter, monthly flier, a reminder card for a tune up, or a holiday greeting card, reach out to your steady customers. When you are constantly in touch with your customers, it creates an ambience of camaraderie and a sense of appreciation, the situation that can always guarantee you such a customer’s loyalty. #2. Customer service Go the extra mile and meet your customers’ needs...

Marketing the world over has undergone series of changes just like any other sector of our socio-economic life. From a primitive trade by barter to an organise technology driven system, the latest in marketing being viral marketing, driven by high broadband internet connectivity. Marketers from many of the largest corporations are increasingly using the internet for viral marketing. When Procter & Gamble, GM, Pepsi and most of the world’s largest brands use the internet, it opens the door and reduces the perceived risk. The term “viral marketing” was originally invented to describe hotmail.com’s email practice of including advertising for itself in outgoing mail from its users. The idea is that if an advertisement reaches a susceptible user, that person will become “infected” (i.e. become a customer or advocate) and can then go on to infect other susceptible users. As long as each infected user contacts more than one susceptible user on average, then the number of infected users ...

Business-to-business (b2b) marketing is a situation where an organisation market its products or services to other businesses, to use either in the production of their final products or to support their operations. By differentiating this from consumer marketing, you can better understand the unique demands of business-to-business marketing and increase the likelihood of success. Business marketing may appear to be a small niche within the larger field of advertising. However, it is an area of surprising significance. This is because, more money is spent daily by companies in this area to support their operations. Arguably, the potentials of business marketing exceeds that of consumer marketing – the purchase made by businesses, government agencies and institutions account for more than half of the economic activities in industrialised countries. As a discipline, business marketing has seen an impressive growth in popularity, with more than half of marketing majors now choosing to be...