  It is not too difficult to notice how hard it has become to survive in the business world nowadays. Too much competition from too many directions. Too many varieties and too many substitutes. With the result that people no longer seem to know what to buy and what to sell, when, where and how. VERY FRUSTRATING, RIGHT? On top of this, it is also clear there are many businesspersons who are never too sure what is best for them; what products or services, where to market them, when and how. It almost feels like they are directionless and need cohesive focus. DOESN'T SOUND TOO GOOD? Yes. So I thought, why not? Lets give them some simple ideas, and guide them through a good marketing mix, so that they will have a clearer idea about what to sell, how to sell it, where, when and why. This information is completely free for you and you can use it anyway you like it, anytime. As long as you make good use of it. So take your time and read it. MARKETING MIX is the use and specification of the four Ps describing the position of a product in the market. Although some marketers have added other Ps, such as personnel and packaging, the fundamental four Ps of the marketing mix refer to: 1. PRODUCT - An object or a service that is mass produced or manufactured on a large scale. 2. PRICE – Price is the amount a customer pays for the product. It is determined by a number of factors including market share, competition, material costs, product identity and the customer’s perceived value of the product. 3. PLACE – Place represents the location where a product can be purchased. It is often referred to as the distribution channel. It can include any physical store as well as virtual stores on the Internet. 4. PROMOTION – Promotion represents all of the communications that a marketer may use in the market. Promotion has four distinct elements - advertising, public relations, word of mouth and point of sale. Advertising covers any communication that is paid for, from television and cinema commercials, radio and Internet ads through print media and billboards. Public relations are where the communication is not directly paid for and includes press releases, sponsorship deals, exhibitions, conferences, seminars or trade fairs and events. Word of mouth is any apparently informal communication about the product by ordinary individuals, satisfied customers or people specifically engaged to create word of mouth momentum. Sales staff often plays an important role in word of mouth and Public Relations.  Incidentally, one of the most notable means of promotion today is the PROMOTIONAL PRODUCT, as in useful items distributed to targeted audiences with no obligation attached. This category has grown each year for the past decade while most other forms have suffered. It is the only form of advertising that targets all five senses and has the recipient thanking the giver. Broadly defined, optimizing the marketing mix is the primary responsibility of marketing. By offering the product with the right combination of the four Ps marketers can improve their results and marketing effectiveness. Now let me give you a WARNING!!! Many business ventures are known to have crumbled because they failed in providing adequate working capital, in professionalizing the human element, and in not paying the taxes in time. So take heed and be on your guard. You understood so much? BRILLIANT !! Now having said that, lets analyze our business improvement goals with specific reference to marketing, in our own simple language. Marketing and selling products and services and providing after sales services has been a regular business since ages. The  Whatever may be the products or services offered in the market, they create a demand and stay on in the market, as long as they serve their purpose and continue to offer quality satisfaction to the end customer at competitive prices. It is therefore an inherent need of the manufacturers and promoters of these products and services to bring their qualitative and quantitative details to the notice of, with full details, and also within the physical reach of the targeted end users and consumers, at the right places and at the right times, at affordable prices. Advertising and marketing play a very useful role in serving this need. The purpose of advertising is to inform the public about these products and services and how to access and use them. Advertising is also targeted towards generating increased consumption of these products and services through promotion of brand images and brand loyalty. Advertisements are also designed to contain both factual information and persuasive and suggestive messages. You got that? GOOD. THE CONCEPTS AND PRACTICES OF LOCAL MARKETS AND GLOBAL MARKETS. LOCAL MARKET The manufacturers of these products and services, their agents deploy various marketing tactics to popularize their products and services. Some products are only sold in the local market, in the immediate neighborhood. These products or services need to be advertised only to the targeted niche local market.  Incentives, discounts and rebates offered for achieving targets, as well as qualitative after sales services and maintenances usually fill in the vacuum in aggressive marketing. People friendly, go-getter attitude of the personnel concerned and a qualitative and courteous service offered to the customers by tracking and catering to their interests and preferences and meeting their demands promptly to their satisfaction, make the marketing exercise more or less complete. You happy with that? VERY GOOD. Now lets take a hard look at the GLOBAL MARKET.  There are those products and services that are targeted at consumers situated on off shore locations, thousands of miles away from the point of production. Life styles and fashion keep changing seasonally, giving rise to greater region-specific and culture-specific demands around the world. Products and services to meet these demands have to be brought within the reach of the end users, at the right places and at the right times, too, and at affordable prices, in spite of the physical distances. While skilled logistical tactics are used for the distribution of these products/services, more expansive advertising strategies are usually deployed to reach out to all those potential end users located at various locations around the world. This needs some additional attention, in view of the competition thrown up by manufacturers of similar products/services or their substitutes. Marketing directed at global consumers calls for more aggressive and penetrative advertising. Messages carried across borders and long distances through radio and television channels and the Internet play a decisive role in meeting this demand. While TV channels at present have limited reaches in the target markets, e-mails facilitate immediate contacts, correspondence, feed backs and closing of deals. But e-mails are more personal in nature, and therefore generate limited results. You see it now? I am glad. Shall we take a look at INTERNET MARKETING now? INTERNET MARKETING. Internet marketing, also referred to as online marketing or Internet advertising, is the marketing of products or services over the Net. The Internet has introduced many special benefits to marketing like low costs in disseminating information to a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing, both in terms of immediate response and in eliciting response, are unique features of this interface.  lInternet marketing methods and strategies include a wide range of services such as search engine optimization (SEO), display advertising, text-based advertising, e-mail marketing, affiliate marketing, online market research, and also Social Media Marketing Methods such as blog marketing. Internet marketing is the process of promoting an organization using online media, typically with the goals of increasing sales and boosting profits. Internet marketing does not simply mean building or promoting a website nor does it mean simply putting a banner ad up on another website. Effective Internet marketing requires a comprehensive strategy that synergizes a given company’s business model and brand image and sales goals with their website function and appearance, focusing on their target market through proper choice of advertising type, media, and design.When compared to the ratio of cost against the reach of the target audience, Internet marketing is relatively inexpensive. Companies can reach a wide audience for a small fraction of traditional advertising budgets. The nature of the medium allows consumers to research and purchase products and services at their own convenience. Therefore, businesses have the advantage of appealing to consumers in a medium that can bring quick results. There are a few important characteristics that differentiate Internet marketing from “off-line marketing.” One of these is the One-to-one approach: The targeted user is typically browsing the Internet alone, so the marketing messages can reach them personally. Another large difference is an emphasis on marketing that appeals to a specific behavior or interest. Online marketers have the luxury of targeting by activity. For example, a textile company can post advertisements on textiles and garments websites and market them with the full knowledge that the audience has some sort of related interest.  However, while a web site with these features makes it an attractive option, it is still not complete in itself. This is because a web site on the Net, on its own is a stand-alone entity, likely or unlikely to be noticed by the target markets anywhere. SEO, page ranking and other modern page ranking promotion strategies help to ease this constraint, but within a limit. But a standalone web site is yet an isolated identity. If the web site were a part of a much more expansive, global identity like an online Supermarket, the web site takes up a completely larger and more meaningful identity. An ONLINE SUPERMARKET would be the final answer. An online Supermarket offers Virtual Shops in the form of web pages, on annual and other convenient rental basis, and usually has many thousands of complete, fully functional websites, pages and templates for this purpose. Renting out virtual shops in an online Supermarket to members of the business fraternity is a relatively new concept and has not been tried out anywhere so far.  But what, as a simple businessperson, do you gain out of this online supermarket? Lets go on and read some more. An entrepreneur renting a virtual shop in an online Supermarket like www.orionhub.com stands to gain many distinct advantages. 1. He gets satisfaction in being part of a Mega Supermarket, without paying much for it. The web pages rented by him in the online Supermarket would represent a yearlong E-Showroom, in a global E-fair, in addition to the regular physical showroom he owns down town. 2. The virtual shop would contain all details of the products and/or services being offered for sale, the background, present status and future growth programs of the entrepreneur, his photographs, images and slide shows, videos, contact details etc. What with the visual images and slide shows, this E-Showroom provides an effective substitute for his physical showroom down town, so that his customers can view his products or services and order for them online, while languishing in their living rooms. 3. This offers the entrepreneur two showrooms instead of one, one in his city and the other online, accessible from all over the world, and also makes his transactions that much easier to conclude. 4. While a physical showroom in the city center would cost massive funds for setup, operations and maintenance, the virtual Showroom in the online Supermarket would only cost a very negligible sum. 5. While popular advertising media like the newspapers, magazines, television and radio advertisements cost the entrepreneur a massive amount for a single advertisement, the online Supermarket contains elaborate details all about the entrepreneur and his products and services, with images and photos to support the details, so that the rentals charged for the virtual shops – which are very low in absolute terms - are virtually nothing when compared to the services offered. 6. Other advertising media like the Yellow Pages provide only the most basic and sketchy details with no provisions to update during the year, whereas the online Supermarket like www.orionhub.com provides elaborate details for a comparable price and the details could be edited or added with absolute ease. 7. If the entrepreneur chose to have his own web site uploaded separately, he would be paying for a domain name, server space, designing and uploading the site, all separately to different agencies, the prices spiraling out of manageable proportions.  9. Besides if the entrepreneur procured a web site exclusively for his products or services, such a web site would be maintained for just short periods at the initial stages by the developers. The online Supermarket would be maintained by the Management throughout the year, at no extra cost to the entrepreneur. In view of the comprehensive nature of the online Supermarket, it would be lodged in a very stable and reliable Server with multiple mirror Servers to ensure zero downtime throughout the year, while the same cannot be said of small scale and small sized web sites. 10. The Entrepreneur is encouraged to do a bit of marketing for the online Supermarket himself by introducing other potential businesspersons to the Management, so that he earns some attractive incentives. These details all point in one direction – the entrepreneur would be highly benefited by renting virtual shops in an online Supermarket like www.orionhub.com rather than seeking other more expensive and less comprehensive alternative means. Now lets see what Orion Hub Model is all about. ORION HUB MODEL  Orion Hub has launched this global online Supermarket to members of the business fraternity and offers 5 distinct services in it, i.e., Virtual Shops, Classifieds, Ad Banners and Affiliate services. The target of Orion Hub is to build this into a throbbing, mega online Supermarket, involving as many cities around the world as possible, and displaying as many categories of commercial enterprises and activities as possible, while maintaining simplicity of access and interaction. VIRTUAL SHOPS Orion Hub is a Mega Supermarket, just like the HARRODs of London, or KARSTADT of Berlin, but much, much larger, and online, with enough space to accommodate all mega cities of the World. This is just like renting a stall in a Mall down town. Only, Orion Hub does it on the Net for global business. This Super Market has numerous virtual floors, layers and tiers and thousands and thousands of virtual shops in it. And Orion Hub is very glad to associate with you, and offers you a virtual shop, too. This Supermarket offers virtual shops in the form of web pages. Orion Hub has many thousands of complete, fully functional websites, pages and templates for this purpose. You simply select the layout, structure and style of the page that you love most; you can have 3 or more pages for each of your own personal virtual shops; and Orion Hub does the rest. Orion Hub collects all your products/services and contact details, your images and photographs, and all other particulars, and uploads them all on your selected cluster of pages, under the banner of Orion Hub itself. Walla, you are online with Orion Hub, in your City, for as long as you like, 1 year, 2 or 5 years. Of course, the larger number of pages you decide to rent out, and for longer periods, you end up paying less per page. These virtual shops are offered to you at highly subsidized rates, with online trading and online payment features, so that you can display, source or sell your products and/or services with the least amount of effort. Whatever be your business, manufacturing, Trading, IT, Financial, Telecom, Retail, Wholesale, Education, Health care, Housing, Rentals or anything else, you have your place with Orion Hub. You save big time with Orion Hub. You save on rentals for your downtown show room prime space, labor, handling, gas, hassle, your time and energy. Orion Hub is the first of its kind to launch this unique service all around the world, offering virtual shops in an online Super Market on a rental basis. Orion Hub also continuously updates SEO techniques, coding, scripting and networking, to keep you on the edge of competition, at the beginning of a new trend and also at the top of all popular search engines. Be seen by millions around the world. Beat all competition. With Orion Hub, you immediately secure a sense of belonging, with something mega-large, with something GLOBAL, with SUCCESS!! Not a small-time, stand-alone business, or web site. Orion Hub just might change your life for you, for the BETTER, FOREVER.  CLASSIFIEDS Orion Hub has also activated a segment called the Classifieds, where you can display brief textual details of any products, wares, services or trinkets you would like to buy or sell. You could be looking to sell/source a single expensive item or a bunch of many small items. It could be a cell phone, a house, building, plot, household effects, car, rentals, machinery, jobs, matrimony, even personal messages, or even things that they would want to sell in a garage sale, could be anything, or all of them together. Orion Hub displays this text and your contact details for 15 days including two clear weekends, at a time so that the widest publicity is provided to the ads on the Net. For a very small fees. Imagine the cost of selling your apartment, Pent House or Limousine is only 25 dollars!!! AD BANNERS Orion Hub invites you to be one of the exclusive few to use the ad spaces in this online Supermarket. This gives you that enviable last extra mile in your advertisement and promotional efforts. Let your business enterprise be viewed all around the World. And thrive, without compare!! OUR AFFILIATES Orion Hub invites entrepreneurs with innovative marketing skills and an unquenchable thirst for challenges and a lucrative income, to be our Affiliates around the world. Our Affiliate would be someone with people-friendly marketing skills and initiatives to represent Orion Hub in your city, state or country, to help us market our virtual shops, classifieds, ad banners and web solutions services. An Affiliate is easy to set up and is designed to offer you a sense of belonging with a Global E-Fair. As our Affiliate, you end up making a fortune for yourself, through direct and referral marketing, with a decent regular income, with residual income for the rest of your life. You could work at your own timings, too.  Imagine renting out 1500 pages in your designated marketing area and through your referral contacts, and making more than 30,000 US dollars in the first year and a decent residual income during the subsequent years. This involves direct marketing for you in your designated city/country and also referral marketing anywhere you like, with any one you like. All you need is a regular Internet connection, maybe some stationery, and need to move around, talking to interested ones. We groom you with the rest of it and give you access to a number of blank sample web pages available with us online. You could also engage sub affiliates in your city and/or other cities to market these pages under you on income sharing basis. All you would be doing in such a case is to guide them when they tend to slow down a bit, or simply monitor their progress. You are invited to be a part of this global virtual supermarket and to maximize your earnings. Here you are invited to find your niche over competition and to meet your customers, suppliers and environmental groups. Advertise in our classifieds, become our affiliates in direct and referral marketing. Our policy is you grow and we grow with you, not otherwise. Orion Hub already enjoys a very good page ranking for many countries and is also represented in other web sites like http://hubpages.com/hub/orionhub and http://sites.google.com/site/theglobalmall/orion-hub Orion Hub has also networked with numerous other popular web sites around the world. You got all that? EXCELLENT !!!  I think there is only one thing for it now. Lets write to Orion Hub and be one of the first to join the bandwagon, and look forward to a symbiotic, mutually enriching business relationship. Contact Orion Hub at orion@orionhub.com or contact@orionhub.com OTHER ONLINE MARKETING STRATEGIES There are other online strategies that could be deployed for effective networking with popular commercial and advertising web sites. Association with these web sites, either through signing up with them or through posting your ad banners and texts in them expands your Net exposure and page ranking explosively, inviting more and more traffic to your business. Many of these top end websites are free to join, while others require some commitments from you. Wish you good fishing. Similarly, you could accommodate their ad banners and business references in your own websites, and through giving them exposure to their potential customers through your web sites, you could earn a sizeable supplementary income too. The trick is to accommodate a sufficient number of banners in your website to elicit income worth your effort. One unique advantage with this arrangement is that while your advertise your business through your website, you also advertise others’ businesses through accommodating their business references and ad banners in it. As long as the  Isn’t that a wonderful idea? I am sure it is. So I have posted the urls of many such websites, which can offer you extensive publicity around the world and also earn you a decent supplementary income on a regular basis. Google Adsense and Adwords www.bidvertiser.com www.craigslist.com http://tinyurl.com www.eBay.com www.alibaba.com www.orionhub.com www.indiamart.com www.tradekey.com www.eurobiz.com www.yuwie.com www.myspace.com www.facebook.com www.youtube.com www.zenzuu.com www.usfreeads.com http://hubpages.com www.addme.com www.ning.com www.qyao.com  www.salespider.com www.tubely.com www.tagged.com www.ecademy.com www.bizster.com.ph Free Advertising Sites There are also many free advertising websites that you could sign up in, to draw more traffic and a better page ranking to your site. This helps secure a wider Net exposure for your business, too. You could look them up in popular search engines. A few are mentioned here. http://sites.google.com/site/theglobalmall/ http://www.t2000ultra.com http://www.runurl.com Networking with friendly Sites You could also post your business details either in text form or as ad banners in friendly sites, with a view to networking around the world. All you need would be a small banner or text describing your business and you get them posted in your friends’ sites. A few such sample friendly sites are noted below: www.orionhub.com www.ourgov.com/homebiz4u www.bdecker.wordpress.com This page has been created for FREE by www.orionhub.com to help their friends promote, advertise, market and sell their businesses, products and services on this networking web site. Orion Hub also guides friends and wellwishers in promoting and enhancing their professionalism in business, through related pages in this site. www.orionhub.com is a global online mall, in which you can secure virtual shopping space to advertise and market your products and services, place your ad banners and classifieds and become marketing affiliates for lucrative annual and regular residual income. |
Business Promotion |