Daily Archives2018 October 03

[ad_1]

Kotler and Armstrong define marketing as “the process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customer in return.” This definition alone can explain why marketing is important, but let’s outline several reasons why marketing should be one of the small business owner’s main priorities.

1. Marketing builds value in your products and services for your customers.

Most salespeople want to know as little as possible to make the sale. Some sales staff needs technical specifications and things of that nature, but ultimately, the less they have to learn the better. This makes sense, because their goal is to make sales. Therefore, marketing has to step in and create value for your customer. If you can not create value for your customers, why will they buy from you? Sometimes they will buy from you once, but will they come back if there is no value?

Many times, business owners don’t capitalize on all the ways they can give value to their customers. They get lost in the production or product concept of marketing and end up with marketing myopia. Marketing myopia happens when a company pays more attention to the product/service than the value or benefits it offers to the customer. You can not let this happen to you. Pay attention to your customers and why they buy your products. People buy a Toyota Prius not only because it saves on gas, but because it makes them fell more eco-friendly.

2. Marketing helps build customer relationships.

Everyone put emphasis on the sales staff when it comes to sales. “If the sales team doesn’t work harder, we won’t increase sales,” but this is not necessarily true. It costs three times as much to obtain a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. This means you need to maintain the relationship with your current customers in order to lower marketing and sales costs and increase sales.

Properly planned and implemented marketing activities are the only real way to build customer relationships. These activities can include a lot of things: loyalty programs, thank-you cards, customer appreciation events, free gifts, and so on. Each company must find a unique way to set themselves apart from the competition while building a loyal and long-lasting relationship.

3. Marketing establishes a brand image.

When you use FedEx for shipping, you know what you are getting: fast delivery, flexible shipping options, and better service than other shippers. Are all of these things true? They may be, but their marketing activities established all of these. FedEx will have to live up to these expectations of their brand, but their marketing department set the customer up with this image.

You must use marketing to establish your brand. Customers need to know what to expect from your company based on your brand image. What kind of products and what types of service will you provide the customer? Let your marketing tell the story and establish your brand.

[ad_2]

Source by Nate Stockard

[ad_1]

In today’s competitive world shorter product life cycles, customers rapid demands and quickly changing business environment is putting lot of pressures on manufacturers for quicker response and shorter cycle times. Now the manufacturers put pressures on their suppliers. One way to ensure quick turnaround is by holding inventory, but inventory costs can easily become prohibitive. A wiser approach is to make your production agile, able to adapt to changing customer demands. This can only be done by JUST IN TIME (JIT) philosophy.

Taiichi Ohno, a former shop manager and eventually vice president of Toyota Motor Company, is the individual credited most for the with the development of just-in-time. It is a term used to describe the Toyota production system, is widely recognized today as the one of the most efficient manufacturing system in the world. In simple words we can explain JIT only required necessary units be provided in necessary quantities at necessary times. Producing one unit extra is as bad is being one unit short. Completing one day early is as bad as finishing one day late. Items are supplied “just-in-time”. Ohno describes the development of JIT as

*By actually trying, various problems become known. As much problems become gradually clear, they taught me the direction of the next move. I think that we can only understand how all of these pieces fit together in hindsight.

The concept is very simple, if you produce only what you need when you need it, then there is no room of error. JIT has truly changed the face of manufacturing and transformed the global economy. JIT is both a philosophy and collection of management methods and techniques used to eliminate waste (particularly inventory). In JIT workers are multifunctional and are required to perform different tasks. Machines are also multifunction and are arranged in small U-shaped work cells that enable parts to processed in a continuous flow through the cell. Workers produce pars one at a time within cells and transport those parts between cells in small lots. Environment is kept clean and free of waste so that any unusual occurrence are visible. Schedules are prepared only for the final assembly line, in which several different models are assembled at the same line. Requirements for the component parts and subassemblies are then pulled through the system. The “PULL” element of JIT will not work unless production is uniform and lot sizes are low. Pull system is also used to order material from suppliers (fewer in numbers usually). They make be requested to make multiple deliveries of the same item in the same day, so the manufacturing system must be flexible.

Just-in-time inventory is viewed as the waste of resources and considered as obstacle in improvement. As there is little buffer inventory between the workstations, so the quality must be high and efforts are made to prevent machine breakdowns. When all these things are taken into consideration, system produces high-quality goods, quickly and at low cost. This system is also being able to respond to changes in customer demands. These elements of JIT can also be applied to the almost any operation, including service operations.*K.Suzuki, The Manufacturing Challenge(New York: Free Press, 1985), p250

[ad_2]

Source by Ali Abbas