PROJECT Of

PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING

Submitted To:
Prof. ZIA-UR-REHMAN
Project On:
MINERAL WATER

Submitted By:
SALMA BASHIR 126
SANA KHALID 127
NASIBA WARIS 139
SABA KHURSHED 1541
SAMEERA 1542
SOBIA AKHLAQ 1548
KIRAN ZAHRA 1550

Section: C (Morning)
Semester 6
th






ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We are grateful to Allah almighty, for enabling us to fulfill this tiring, but
interesting job for the completion of our project. We would not be going
to do justice in presenting our work without mentioning the people
around us who have been inextricably related with the completion of
this task.
We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to our course instructor Prof.
Zia-ur-Rehman for his support and guidance, which he rendered through out
the study. It could not have been possible to accomplish this without his
thoughtful guidance and expertise.

Finally, for any all too fallible errors, omissions and shortcomings in the
writing of the report only we are responsible for which we hope that all
concerning regards of this report will forgive us.







































































































































































NILE, Its Nature
Safe drinking water is critical - Whether you are canoeing on your
favorite lake, trekking through South East Asia or in an area that has been
hard hit by flooding or water treatment failure... Don't take chances with
water as that is what we are made of & is what sustains us.
NILE ,its Nature: The leader in Mineral water"
Katadyn Water Filters are dependable, reliable, and durable. For the First
time in Pakistan Specifically in Punjab LAHORE, NILE , its Nature water
filters that rely on by militaries, missionaries, hikers, explorers, disaster
relief organizations and professionals worldwide for safe and dependable
drinking water.







Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of
all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form
or state, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state,
water vapor. About 1.460 petatonnes (Pt) of water covers 71% of the



























































































































































Earth's surface, mostly in oceans and other large water bodies, with 1.6% of
water below ground in aquifers and 0.001% in the air as vapor, clouds
(formed of solid and liquid water particles suspended in air), and
precipitation.[1] Saltwater oceans hold 97% of surface water, glaciers and
polar ice caps 2.4%, and other land surface water such as rivers, lakes and
ponds 0.6%. IN ANOTHER WORDS "WATER IS LIFE"
The name of our product relates itself with nature as NILE is the name of a
famous and beautiful river. And as the word NILE comes in mind, everybody
feels the sense of purity and care. Something desirable and comes under the
basic need of everyones life.

























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MARKET RESEARCH
arket Research is a most valuable tool for all businesses. Its the
process of gathering information to help in making informed decisions
about the marketing of business. Statistics and other market research data
help us in understand potential customers and their needs, as well as what
competitors are doing.
Market research is the process of systematically gathering, recording and
analyzing data and information about customers, competitors and the
market. Market research can be used to determine which portion of the
population will purchase a product/service, based on variables like age,
gender, location and income level.
A list of questions that can be answered through market research:
What is happening in the market? What are the trends? Who are the
competitors?
How do consumers talk about the products in the market?
Which needs are important? Are the needs being met by current
products?
Market research for business planning
We have to carry out market research for discovering what people want,
need, or believe. It also involves discovering how they act. Once that
research is complete it can be used to determine how to market our specific
product, NILE, its nature.
Market Research - The Process

Market research, like other components of marketing such as advertising,
can be quite simple or very complex. We might conduct simple market
research such as including a questionnaire in our customer bills to gather
demographic information about our customers. On the more complex side, we
M

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might engage a professional market research firm to conduct primary
research to aid in developing a marketing strategy to launch a new product.
We'll benefit by reviewing the following seven steps in the market research
process.

Step One: Define Marketing Problems and
Opportunities

The market research process begins with identifying
and defining the problems and opportunities that exist
for our business, such as:

Launching a new product or service

Low awareness of company and its products or services

Low utilization of company's products or services. A poor company
image and reputation

Step Two: Set Objectives, Budget, and Timetables
Objective

With a marketing problem or opportunity defined, the next step is to set
objectives for market research operations. Objective might be to explore
the nature of a problem so may further define it, or perhaps it is to
determine how many people will buy product packaged in a certain way and
offered at a certain price. Objective might even be to test possible cause
and effect relationships. For example, if we lower our price by 10 percent,
what increased sales volume should we expect? What impact will this
strategy have on our profit?

Budget

How much money are we willing to invest in our market research? How much
can we afford? Market research budget is a portion of overall marketing
budget. A method popular with small business owners to establish a


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marketing budget is to allocate a small percentage of gross sales for the
most recent year.

This usually amounts to about two percent for an existing business. However,
if we are planning on launching a new product or business, we may want to
increase our budget figure to as much as 10 percent of our expected gross
sales. Other methods used by small businesses include analyzing and
estimating the competition's budget and calculating our cost of marketing
per sale.

Time tables

We prepare a detailed, realistic time frame to complete all steps of the
market research process. If business operates in cycles, establish target
dates that will allow the best accessibility to our market. For example, a
holiday greeting card business may want to conduct research before or
around the holiday season buying period, when their customers are most
likely to be thinking about their purchases.

Step Three: Select Research Types, Methods, and
Techniques

There are two types of research: primary research or
original information gathered for a specific purpose
and secondary research or information that already
exists somewhere. Both types of research have a
number of activities and methods of conducting
associated with them. Secondary research is usually
faster and less expensive to obtain that primary
research. Gathering secondary research may be as simple as making a trip to
local library or business information center or browsing the Internet.






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Step Four: Design Research Instruments

The most common research instrument is the questionnaire. Keep these tips
in mind when designing market research questionnaire.

Keep it simple. Include instructions for answering all questions
included on the survey.

Begin the survey with general questions and move towards more
specific questions. Keep each question brief.

If the questionnaire is completed by the respondent and not by an
interviewer or survey staff member, remember to design a
questionnaire that is graphically pleasing and easy to read.

Remember to pre-test the questionnaire. Before taking the survey to
the printer, ask a few people such as regular customers, colleagues,
friends, or employees to complete the survey. Ask them for feedback
on the survey's style, simplicity and their perception of its purpose.

Mix the form of the questions. Use scales, rankings, open-ended
questions, and closed-ended questions for different sections of the
questionnaire. The form or way a question is asked may influence the
answer given. Basically, there are two question forms: closed-end
questions and open-end questions.
Close-end questions
- Respondents choose from possible answers included
on the questionnaire.
Open-end questions
- Respondents answer questions in their own words.
Completely unstructured questions allow respondents to answer any way
they choose.

Step Five: Collect Data

To help to obtain clear, unbiased and reliable results, collect the data under
the direction of experienced researchers. Before beginning the collection of
data, it is important to train, educate, and supervise research staff. An
untrained staff person conducting primary research will lead to interviewer
bias.

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Step Six: Organize and Analyze the Data

Once our data has been collected, it needs to be cleaned. Cleaning research
data involves editing, coding, and tabulating results. To make this step
easier, start with a simply designed research instrument or questionnaire.

Step Seven: Present and Use Market Research
Findings

Once marketing information about target market, competition and
environment is collected and analyzed, present it in an organized manner to
the decision makers of the business. Assess Available Information assess
the information that is immediately available. It may be that current
knowledge supports one or more hypotheses, and solutions to the problem
may become obvious through the process of defining it. Weigh the cost of
gathering more information against its potential usefulness.
As for our new staple convenient consumer good, NILE, its nature is
concerned; the mineral water market is far more complex than is often
recognized, though the product itself is simple. It is seen that there is a
difference in quality and purpose between the most popular and other
brands. Yet the market is divided into a number of segments.The key to
successful marketing is a solid understanding of the environment in which
business operates: position in the market place, products and services,
competition, and customers. Here's where market research comes in.
In order to begin market research, we have examined three main questions:
Who are our potential customers?
Who are our competitors?
What is the state of our industry?
Planning for Marketing Research
It consists of several steps that should be carried out in order. Each step is
discussed in detail:

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Step 1: Determine the Research Purpose
The first step in conducting research is to examine the reasons why
research is being undertaken. Determining the research purpose sets the
stage for the rest of the research plan because it lets everyone (e.g.,
researcher, client, outside firms) with a stake in the outcome of the
research know the general philosophy of the project and also establishes the
urgency of the research.
Marketers use research to support decisions in five important ways:
explanation, prediction, monitoring, discovery and hypothesis testing. Thus,
the purpose for research falls into one of these categories.
Explanation

Possibly the most cited reason for conducting research is to use it to explain
why something is occurring. Most often this means identifying and
explaining a problem facing the marketing organization. For example,
marketers may seek to know why sales in a certain geographic region are
declining when it was forecasted to rise.

Prediction

Research is used to help assess a situation and predict what may happen in
the future. This type of information is critical in many marketing decisions
such as forecasting demand for a new product. It is also used to predict
what may happen if something is changed such as a key marketing variable
decision (e.g., effect on sales if price is changed).

Monitoring

Many decisions made by marketers must be monitored to insure that goals
are being attained. A sales manger, for instance, will look to monitoring
research in order to track the performance of the sales force in meeting
sales targets.


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Discovery

Most marketers are continually on the look out for ways to improve their
marketing efforts. Improvements may include such things as new product
options, ways to increase sales or decrease costs, promotional approaches
that improve the companys image and many more. Finding new opportunities
is sometimes the result of luck but more often the marketer engages in
research to locate these.

Hypothesis Testing

Finally, marketers use research to help test theories or gut feelings about
some issues. For instance, a marketer may suspect there is a difference
between the purchasing habits of one type of customer as compared to
another type. Hypothesis testing, which is at the heart of scientific
research, relies on statistical analysis to help evaluate a hypothesis.

It should be noted that each of the previously described purposes for doing
research can also be undertaken as a hypothesis test. For example, a
marketer looking to explain why sales are declining in a certain region may
have a gut feeling for why this is occurring and thus can combine
explanation with hypothesis testing.












So, for our consumer good, NILE, its nature we are carrying this research
to gain knowledge about the new geographical markets. The basic purpose

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behind this is to know well about our competitors strategies, so that we can
win in our price war competition and can promote sales within the new
geographical boundaries.

Our research in this regard is then used to assess a marketing situation and
predict what may happen in the future. This type of information is critical
in many marketing decisions such as forecasting demand for a new product.
It could also be used to predict what may happen if something is changed
such as a key marketing variable decision (e.g., effect on sales if price is
changed).

Step 2: Identify What is to be Learned

Once the general purpose of research is determined, the researchers next
job is to decide what specific information he or she wants to obtain. Many in
the market research field believe this is the most critical step in the
research process since it provides guidance on what must be accomplished.
While the purpose identified in Step 1 may be determined relatively quickly
(e.g., sale reports shows an obvious problem that needs to be explained), in
Step 2 the researcher may spend a considerable amount of time deciding
what to study. For instance, the researcher may engage in numerous
conversations with company personal to insure that she/he understands the
circumstances facing those requesting the research.
Identifying what needs to be learned is not always easy. For example, saying
a drop in sales in a region is the problem does not tell the researcher much
since declining sales is a symptom with the real problem resting in some
other area.
In situations where the party needing the research has trouble articulating
what is needed the researcher must probe the client for more details until
they can uncover what information is really needed. Doing this helps the
researcher decide what to study and, more specifically, what concepts to
include in the research (i.e., what questions to ask, what variables to study).
Determining what is to be learned is also important in helping market
researchers envision the scope and demands of what must be done. The

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scope of a research project refers to the amount of information needed. If
the scope is too large the researcher may find that it is not worth carrying
out the research since they lack the resources to accomplish the goal.
Alternatively, knowing in advance what is needed may give the researcher
the opportunity to break a larger project into smaller, more manageable
parts.
Step 3: Research Design - Methods

To get answers to the issues raised in Step 2 the researcher lays out a
design for obtaining the information. Of course many marketers do not
produce a formal design plan when conducting research. For example, a small
retailer who asks a returning customer how she liked the product she
purchased the previous week is engaged in research and doing so without the
need to produce a formal plan. But for marketers looking to undertake
formal research, a written research design plan is important.
The first part of the research design is to decide on the type of research
that will work best for the purpose (i.e., explain, predict, monitor, discover,
hypothesis test) and information that is sought. Research method choices
can be broadly categorized as:
Descriptive Research
Exploratory Research
Causal Research
As we will see, these methods differ in terms what each hopes to learn and
how information is acquired
Descriptive Research

The focus of descriptive research is to provide an accurate description for
something that is occurring. For example, what age group is buying a
particular brand, a products market share within a certain industry, how
many competitors a company faces, etc. This type of research is by far the
most popular form of market research. It is used extensively when the

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research purpose is to explain, monitor and test hypotheses, and can also be
used to a lesser extent to help make predictions and for discovery.
Marketers routinely conduct basic descriptive research using informal
means. For instance, the head of marketing for a clothing company may
email a retailer to see how the products are selling. But informal descriptive
research, while widely undertaken, often fails to meet the tests of research
validity and reliability and, consequently, the information should not be used
as an important component in marketing decisions. Rather, to be useful,
descriptive research must be conducted in a way that adheres to a strict set
of research requirements to capture relevant results. This often means
that care must be taken to develop a structured research plan. Under most
circumstances this requires researchers have a good grasp of research
methods including knowledge of data analysis.
Exploratory Research

The exploratory approach attempts to discover general information about a
topic that is not well understood by the marketer. For instance, a marketer
has heard news reports about a new Internet technology that is helping
competitors but the marketer is not familiar with the technology and needs
to do research to learn more. When gaining insight (i.e., discovery) on an
issue is the primary goal, exploratory research is used.
The basic difference between exploratory and descriptive research is the
research design. Exploratory research follows a format that is less
structured and more flexible than descriptive research. This approach
works well when the marketer doesnt have an understanding of the topic or
the topic is new and it is hard to pinpoint the research direction. The
downside, however, is that results may not be as useful in aiding a marketing
decision. So why use this method?

In addition to offering the marketer basic information on a topic,
exploratory research may also provide direction for a more formal research
effort. For instance, exploratory research may indicate who the key
decision makers are in a particular market thus enabling a more structured
descriptive study targeted to this group.


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Causal Research

In this form of research the marketer tries to determine if the
manipulation of one variable, called the independent variable, affects
another variable, called the dependent variable. In essence, the marketer is
conducting an experiment. To be effective the design of causal research is
highly structured and controlled so that other factors do not affect those
being studied.
Marketers use this approach primarily for purposes of prediction and to test
hypotheses, though it can also be used to a lesser extent for discovery and
explanatory purposes. In marketing, causal research is used for many types
of research including testing marketing scenarios, such as what might
happen to product sales if changes are made to a products design or if
advertising is changed. If causal research is performed well marketers may
be able to use results for forecasting what might happen if the changes are
made.
Step 4: Research Design - Data Collection

The second part of research design involves laying out a plan to collect the
information within the research method selected. To gather research
marketers have three choices:

Acquire pre-existing research
Undertake new research themselves
Out-source the task of new research to a
third-party, such as a market research
company

The first option is associated with secondary research, which involves
accessing information that was previously collected. The last two options
are associated with conducting primary research, which involves the
collection of original data generally for ones own use.


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As we will see, the data collection approach used depends on what the
researcher determined in the Steps 1-3 of the research plan. That is, the
optimal data collection technique is selected only after the researcher has
determined the purpose, the information sought and the basic research
design method. In many instances the researcher uses both secondary and
primary data collection as part of the same research project.
In most cases this means finding information from third-party sources such
as marketing research reports, company websites, magazine articles, and
other sources. But in actuality any information previously gathered, whether
from sources external to the marketer or from internal sources, such as
accessing material from previous market research carried out by the
marketers organization, old sales reports, accounting records and many
others, falls under the heading of secondary research. Market research is
generally either primary or secondary ,there are two types of market
research:
Primary Research
When marketers conduct research to collect original data for their own
needs it is called primary research. This process has the marketer or
someone working for the marketer designing and then carrying out a
research plan. As we noted earlier, primary research is often undertaken
after the researcher has gained some insight into the issue by collecting
secondary data. While not as frequently used as secondary research,
primary research still represents a significant part of overall marketing
research. For many organizations, especially large consumer products firms,
spending on primary research far exceeds spending on secondary research.
The primary research market consists of marketers carrying out their own
research and an extensive group of companies offering their services to
marketers. These companies include:
Full-Service Market Research Firms These companies develop
and carryout the full research plan for their clients.



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Partial-Service Market Research Firms These companies offer
expertise that address a specific part of the research plan, such as
developing methods to collect data (e.g., design surveys), locating
research participants or undertaking data analysis.

Research Tools Suppliers These firms provide tools used by
researchers and include data collection tools (e.g., online surveys), data
analysis software and report presentation products.

Primary research is collected in a research instrument designed to record
information for later analysis. Marketing researchers use many types of
instruments from basic methods that record participant responses to highly
advanced electronic measurement where research participants are
connected to sophisticated equipment.

Primary data collection offers advantages and disadvantages that include:

Advantages

Addresses Specific Research Issues
Carrying out their own research allows the marketing organization to
address issues specific to their own situation. Primary research is
designed to collect the information the marketer wants to know (Step 2)
and report it in ways that benefit the marketer. For example, while
information reported with secondary research may not fit the
marketers needs (e.g., different age groupings) no such problem exists
with primary research since the marketer controls the research design.

Greater Control
Not only does primary research enable the marketer to focus on specific
issues, it also enables the marketer to have a higher level of control over
how the information is collected. In this way the marketer can decide
on such issues as size of project (e.g., how many responses), location of
research (e.g., geographic area) and time frame for completing the
project.


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Efficient Spending for Information
Unlike secondary research where the marketer may spend for
information that is not needed, primary data collections focus on issues
specific to the researcher improves the chances that research funds will
be spent efficiently.

Information collected by the marketer using primary research is their
own and is generally not shared with others. Thus, information can be
kept hidden from competitors and potentially offer an information
advantage to the company that undertook the primary research.
Disadvantages

Cost
Compared to secondary research, primary data may be very expensive
since there is a great deal of marketer involvement and the expense in
preparing and carrying out research can be high.

Time Consuming
To be done correctly primary data collection requires the development
and execution of a research plan. Going from the start-point of deciding
to undertake a research project to the end-point to having results is
often much longer than the time it takes to acquire secondary data.

Not Always Feasible
Some research projects, while potentially offering information that
could prove quite valuable, are not within the reach of a marketer. Many
are just too large to be carried out by all but the largest companies and
some are not feasible at all.
For instance, it would not be practical for McDonalds to attempt to
interview every customer who visits their stores on a certain day since
doing so would require hiring a huge number of researchers, an
unrealistic expense. Fortunately, as we will see in a later tutorial there
are ways for McDonalds to use other methods (e.g., sampling) to meet
their needs without the need to talk with all customers.

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Types of Primary Research
In general there are two basic types of primary research quantitative data
collection and qualitative data collection.
Quantitative Data Collection
Quantitative data collection involves the use of numbers to assess
information. This information can then be evaluated using statistical
analysis which offers researchers the opportunity to dig deeper into the
data and look for greater meaning (see Step 6: Analyze Data below).
Certain information is by nature numerical. For example, asking a person
their actual age or yearly income will result in a number. But under the right
circumstances numbers can also be used to represent certain characteristics
which are not on the surface considered numerical. This most often occurs
with data collected within a structured and well-controlled scientific
research design. For instance, research of customers attitude toward a
companys products may include the following:
Place an "X" on the line that best indicates impression of the overall quality
of our companys products:
Poor _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Excellent
In this example each line, which represents a potential customer response,
could be assigned a number. For example, checking the left-most line could
result in the researcher entering a 1, the next line a 2, the next line a 3
and so on. Once research is completed this question can undergo statistical
analysis.
While quantitative analysis is potentially used for all types of research
purposes (Step 1) it is most critical for hypothesis testing. As discussed
below in Step 6: Analyze Data, such analysis may prove very relevant by
allowing the researcher to draw conclusions.


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Types of Quantitative Data Collection
Quantitative data collection comes in many forms but the most popular
forms are surveys, tracking and experiments.
Surveys - This method captures information through the input of
responses to a research instrument containing questions (i.e., such as a
questionnaire).. Information can be input either by the respondents
themselves (e.g., complete online survey) or the researcher can input the
data (e.g. phone survey, mall intercept). The main methods for
distributing surveys are via postal mail, phone, website or in person.
However, newer technologies are creating additional delivery options
including through wireless devices, such as smart phones.

Tracking - With tracking research marketers are able to monitor
the behavior of customers as they engage in regular purchase or
information gathering activities. Possibly the most well-known example
of tracking research is used by websites as they track customer visits.
But tracking research also has offline applications, especially when
point-of-purchase scanners are employed, such as tracking product
purchases at grocery stores and automated collections on toll roads.

This method of research is expected to grow significantly as more
devices are introduced that provide means for tracking. However, as we
discussed in the Marketing Research Tutorial, some customers may see
tracking devices as intrusive and many privacy advocates have raised
concerns about certain tracking methods especially if these are not
disclosed to customers.

Experiments - Marketers often undertake experiments to gauge
how the manipulation of one marketing variable affects another (i.e.,
causal research). The use of experiments has applications for many
marketing decision areas including product testing, advertising design,
setting price points and creating packaging. For example, a market
researcher for a retail chain may want to study the effect on sales if a

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product display is moved to different locations in a store.
Unfortunately, performing highly controlled experiments can be quite
costly. Some researchers have found the use of computer simulations
can work nearly as well as experiments and may be less expensive,
though the number of simulation applications for marketing decisions is
still fairly limited.
Qualitative Data Collection
Sometimes referred to as touchy-feely research, qualitative data
collection requires researchers to interpret the information gathered, most
often without the benefit of statistical support. If the researcher is well
trained in interpreting respondents comments and activities, this form of
research can offer very good information. However, it may not hold the
same level of relevancy as quantitative research due to the lack of scientific
controls with this data collection method. For example, a researcher may
want to know more about how customers make purchase decisions. One way
to do this is to sit and talk with customers using one-on-one interviews.
However, if the interview process allows the researcher to vary what
questions are asked (i.e., not all respondents are asked the same questions),
then this type of research may lack controls needed to follow a scientific
approach.
An additional drawback of qualitative research is that it can be time
consuming and expensive and, consequently, only a very small portion of the
marketers desired market can participate in qualitative research. Due to
the lack of strong controls in the research design (i.e., not as well
structured, fewer participants), using results to estimate characteristics of
a larger group is more difficult. Thus, qualitative data collection is generally
not used for hypothesis testing. This is not to say qualitative research is
not useful, it is very useful if its limitations are understood. It is widely
employed for marketing research especially for research for the purpose of
discovery, and to a lesser extent, explanation.



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Types of Qualitative Data Collection
Qualitative data collection options include personal interviews, focus groups
and observational research.
Personal Interviews - Talking to someone one-on-one allows a
researcher to cover more ground than may be covered if a respondent
was completing a survey. The reason lies with the researchers ability to
dig deeper into a respondents comments to find out additional details
that might not emerge from initial responses. Unfortunately, individual
interviewing can be quite expensive and may be intimidating to some who
are not comfortable sharing details with a researcher.

Focus Groups - To overcome the drawbacks associated with personal
interviews, marketers can turn to focus groups. Under this research
format, a group of respondents (generally numbering 8-12) are guided
through discussion by a moderator. The power of focus groups as a
research tool rests with the environment created by the interaction of
the participants. In well-run sessions, members of the group are
stimulated to respond by the comments and the support of others in the
group. In this way, the depth of information offered by a respondent
may be much greater than that obtained through individual interviews.

However, focus groups can be costly to conduct especially if participants
must be paid. To help reduce costs, online options for focus groups have
emerged. While there are many positive aspects to online focus groups,
the fact that respondents are not physically present diminishes the
benefits gained by group dynamics. However, as technology improves, in
particular video conferencing, the online focus group could become a
major research option.

Observational Research - Watching customers as they perform
activities can be a very useful research method, especially when
customers are observed in a natural setting (e.g., shopping in a retail
store, using products at home). In fact, an emerging research technique

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called ethnographic research has researchers following customers as
they shop, work, and relax at home in order to see how they make
decisions, use products and more.
Secondary Research
By far the most widely used method for collecting data is through secondary
data collection, commonly called secondary research. This process involves
collecting data from either the originator or a distributor of primary
research (see Primary Research discussion below). In other words, accessing
information already gathered.
Secondary research offers advantages and disadvantages that include
Advantages:
Ease of Access - In years past accessing good secondary data required
marketers to visit libraries or wait until a report was shipped by mail. When
online access initially became an option marketers needed training to learn
different rules and procedures for each data source. However, the Internet
has changed how secondary research is accessed by offering convenience
(e.g., online access from many locations) and generally standardized usage
methods for all data sources.
Low Cost to Acquire - Researchers are often attracted to secondary
data because getting this information is much less expensive than if the
researchers had to carry out the research themselves.
May Help Clarify Research Question Secondary research is often
used prior to larger scale primary research to help clarify what is to be
learned (Step 2). For instance, a researcher doing competitor analysis, but
who is not familiar with competitors in a market, could access secondary
sources to locate a list of potential competitors.
May Answer Research Question - As noted, secondary data collection is
often used to help set the stage for primary research. In the course of
doing so researchers may find that the exact information they were looking

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for is available via secondary sources thus eliminating the need and expense
to carrying out their own primary research.
May Show Difficulties in Conducting Primary Research The originators of
secondary research often provide details on how the information was
collected. This may include discussion of difficulties encountered. For
instance, the secondary research may be a research report written by a
large market research company. These types of reports often include a
section discussing the procedures used to collect the data and within this
may disclose problems in obtaining the data, such as a high percentage of
people declining to take part in the research. After reading this the
marketer may decide the potential information that may be obtained is not
worth the potential difficulties in conducting the research.
Disadvantages
Quality of Researcher As we will discuss, research conducted using
primary methods are largely controlled by the marketer. However, this is
not the case when it comes to data collected by others. Consequently, the
quality of secondary research should be scrutinized closely since the origins
of the information may be questionable. Organizations relying on secondary
data as an important component in their decision-making (e.g., market
research studies) must take extra steps to evaluate the validity and
reliability of the information by critically evaluating how the information was
gathered, analyzed and presented.
Not Specific to Researchers Needs Secondary data is often not
presented in a form that exactly meets the marketers needs. For example,
a marketer obtains an expensive research report that looks at how different
age groups feel about certain products within the marketers industry.
Unfortunately, the marketer may be disappointed to discover that the way
the research divides age groups (e.g., under 13, 14-18, 19-25, etc.) does not
match how the marketers company designates its age groups (e.g., under 16,
17-21, 22-30, etc). Because of this difference the results may not be
useful.

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Inefficient Spending for Information Since the research received
may not be specific to the marketers needs, an argument can be made that
research spending is inefficient. That is, the marketer may not receive a
satisfactory amount of information for what is spent.
Incomplete Information Many times a researcher finds that research
that appears promising is in fact a teaser released by the research
supplier. This often occurs when a small portion of a study is disclosed,
often for free, but the full report, which is often expensive, is needed to
gain the full value of the study.
Not Timely Caution must be exercised in relying on secondary data that
may have been collected well in the past. Out-of-date information may offer
little value especially for companies competing in fast changing markets.
Not Proprietary Information In most cases secondary research is not
undertaken specifically for one company. Instead it is made available to
many either for free or for a fee. Consequently, there is rarely an
information advantage gained by those who obtain the research.
Sources for Secondary Research
There are literally hundreds of thousands of potential sources for locating
secondary information. For marketers, the most commonly utilized options
for locating third-party (i.e., external) data include:
Trade Associations
Government Sources
Company-Provided Information
News and Media Sources
Market Research Companies
Financial Services Companies
Consulting Firms
Research Distributors

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Step 5: Evaluate Data
The researchers next task is to make sense of the collected data. Before
the researcher can gain understanding from the collected data, he/she must
first examine the raw information (i.e., what was actually collected) to make
sure the information exists as required. There are many reasons why data
may not be presented in the form needed for further analysis. Some of
reasons include:
Incomplete Responses This most likely occurs when the method
of data collection (e.g., survey) is not fully completed, such as when the
person taking part in the research fails to provide all information (e.g.,
skips questions).

Data Entry Error This exists when the information is not
recorded properly which can occur due to the wrong entry being made
(e.g., entry should be choice B but is entered as choice C) or failure
of data entry technology (e.g., online connection is disrupted before full
completion of survey).

Questionable Entry This occurs when there are apparent
inconsistencies in responses such as when a respondent does not appear
to be answering honestly.
To address these issues the researcher will take steps to cleanse the data
which may include dropping problematic data either in part (e.g., exclude a
single question) or in full (e.g., drop an entire survey). Alternatively, the
research may be able to salvage some problem data with certain coding
methods, though a discussion of these is beyond the scope of this tutorial.
Step 6: Analyze Data
With the data in a form that is now useful, the researcher can begin the
process of analyzing the data to determine what has been learned. The
method used to analyze data depends on the approach used to collect the
information (secondary research, primary quantitative research or primary
qualitative research). For primary research the selection of method of

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analysis also depends on the type of research instrument used to collect the
information.
Essentially there are two types of methods of analysis descriptive and
inferential.





Descriptive Data Analysis
Not to be confused with descriptive research, descriptive analysis, as the
name implies, is used to describe the results obtained. In most cases the
results are merely used to provide a summary of what has been gathered
(e.g., how many liked or dislike a product) without making a statement of
whether the results hold up to statistical evaluation. For quantitative data
collection the most common methods used for this basic level of analysis are
visual representations, such as charts and tables, and measures of central
tendency including averages (i.e., mean value). For qualitative data collection,
where analysis may consist of the researchers own interpretation of what
was learned, the information may be coded or summarized into grouping
categories.
Inferential Data Analysis
While descriptive data analysis can present a picture of the results, to really
be useful the results of research should allow the researcher to accomplish
other goals such as:


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Using information obtained from a small group (i.e., sample of
customers) to make judgments about a larger group (i.e., all customers)
Comparing groups to see if there is a difference in how they respond
to an issue
Forecasting what may happen based on collected information
To move beyond simply describing results requires the use of inferential
data analysis where advanced statistical techniques are used to make
judgments (i.e., inferences) about some issue (e.g., is one type of customer
different from another type of customer). Using inferential data analysis
requires a well-structured research plan that follows the scientific method.
Also, most (but not all) inferential data analysis techniques require the use
of quantitative data collection.
As an example of the use of inferential data analysis, a marketer may wish
to know if North American, European and Asian customers differ in how they
rate certain issues. The marketer uses a survey that includes a number of
questions asking customers from all three regions to rate issues on a scale
of 1 to 5. If a survey is constructed properly the marketer can compare
each group using statistical software that tests whether differences
exists. This analysis offers much more insight than simply showing how many
customers from each region responded to each question.
Step 7: Communicate Results
The final stage in the marketing research process is to report the findings.
For marketers doing small-scale research for their own purposes,
communication may be quite informal. The marketer may simply draw
conclusions from what he or she gleans from the data analysis.
For more serious marketing research projects, those conducting the
research will prepare a written report outlining what was researched and
offer results. Additionally, an oral presentation may be required in which
the research is explained within a slide presentation.


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Market Trends
The upward or downward movements of a market, during a period of time.
The market size is more difficult to estimate if we are starting with
something completely new. In this case, we will have to derive the figures
from the number of potential customers or customer segments.
But besides information about the target market we also need information
about our competitor, like Aqua Fina, Atlantis, Nestle, our customers, like
wholesalers, retailers, products etc. A few techniques are:
Customer analysis
Choice Modeling
Competitor analysis
Risk analysis
A competitive price analysis compared to NILE,its nature is shown in table

Name of Brands 0.5 liter 1.5 liter 6 liter
Nestle, pure life
Atlantis
Aqua Fina, purity guaranteed
Nile, its nature 10 20 100













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TARGET MARKET
Target markets are a set of buyers sharing common needs or characteristics
that the company decides to serve.

Target Marketing involves breaking a market into segments and then
concentrating your marketing efforts on one or a few key segments.
Target marketing can be the key to a small businesss success.
The beauty of target marketing is that it makes the promotion, pricing and
distribution of your products and/or services easier and more cost-
effective. Target marketing provides a focus to all of your marketing
activities.

So if, for instance, I open a catering business offering catering services in
the clients home, instead of advertising with a newspaper insert that goes
out to everyone, I could target my market with a direct mail campaign that
went only to particular residents.
While market segmentation can be done in many ways, depending on how you
want to slice up the pie, three of the most common types are:

Geographic segmentation based on location such as home
addresses;
Demographic segmentation based on measurable statistics,
such as age or income;
Psychographic segmentation based on lifestyle preferences,
such as being urban dwellers or pet lovers.


Market Segmentation For Customer Retention

Market segmentation is when you divide your potential market into separate
categories or segments according to their individual needs. When you target
the correct market segmentation, you will find more customers that need
your product. As long as these customers are happy with your customer
service, and your prices, they will stay with you. This will help you with
customer retention. Though these concepts may seem simplistic, if you do

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not target your business, you may find that your potential customer base is
too large. A large potential customer base means that it is too hard to please
all your customers.

When you focus on market segmentation and your target market selection,
you will be better able to handle any potential problems with customer
service. In some cases, you may need to hire consultants to help you with
your target market selection. However, when customer retention is your
priority, you will find that the expense of hiring a consultant for this
selection process is well worth the help that you receive. Market
segmentation is a valued advertising and sales strategy. Though it may seem
that you are limiting your potential client base, you will find that focusing on
the potential client base that is left leads to more sales and more repeat
customers.

Determining Target Market

It is best to determine your target market when you first start your
business. When you put together a business plan, you will state your target
market. Though you may only have a general idea of your target market when
you first start your business proposal or business plan, you will either want
to research your target market on your own, or you will want to speak to a
number of target market selection consultants to get an idea of the
different types of target markets for your business.

In many cases, you will use market segmentation to determine your target
market. You can hire a group of target market selection consultants to help
you research what you should choose as your target market. Other times,
you may be able to determine your target market without hiring an outside
group of specialists. At times, it may take a great deal of research, as you
will want to ensure that you determine all possibilities for this target
market.

Market segmentation is different than choosing your target market. With
market segmentation, you may find a niche for your business. However, once
you have your business niche, you will want to determine who will be your
customer base. This customer base is your target market


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How to Identify a Target Market and Prepare a
Customer Profile?

Get your message to the people who need and want what you have to offer!
This guide takes you through a step-by-step process that helps you identify
specific target markets within your industry and provides you with the know-
how to create customer profiles to better channel your marketing efforts.

What Should Know Before Getting Started

Identifying Your Market

Step One: Identifying Why a Customer Would Want to Buy Your
Product/Service
Step Two: Segment Your Overall Market
Step Three: Research Your Market

What to Expect?

This Business Builder will take you through a step-by-step process that will
help you identify specific target markets within your industry and provide
you with the know-how to create a customer profile.

What You Should Know before Getting Started?

In order to market your product or service, it is imperative that you tailor
your marketing and sales efforts to specifically reach the segment of
population that will most likely buy your product or service. It is critical that
you first determine or clearly identify your primary market. Your energies
and funds then can be spent more efficiently.

If you don't know who your customers are, how will you be able to assess
whether you are meeting their needs? Since success depends on your being
able to meet customers' needs and desires, you must know who your
customers are, what they want, where they live and what they can afford.

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We've all heard a business owner say, "My product is terrific! It appeals to
everyone." Many of us have also seen small businesses that try to be all
things to all people. This is a difficult, if not impossible, bridge to cross.
Targeting your market is simply defining who your primary customer will be.
The market should be measurable, sufficiently large and reachable.
For Example, a printer's target of mid-sized firms with mid-size projects is
not a measurable definition. However, a target market of firms within a
radius of 20 miles, with annual revenues of $10 to $25 million and a need for
four-color printing runs of approximately 5,000 pieces is a clear definition.

Once your target market is defined through your knowledge of product
appeals and market analysis, and can be measured, you should determine
whether that target market is large enough to sustain your business on an
ongoing basis. In addition, your target market needs to be reachable. There
must be ways of talking to your target audience.

Types of Markets

A market is simply any group of actual or potential buyers of a product.
There are three major types of markets.

1. The consumer market. Individuals and households who buy goods for
their own use or benefit are part of the consumer market. Drug and
grocery items are the most common types of consumer products.
2. The industrial market. Individuals, groups or organizations that
purchase your product or service for direct use in producing other
products or for use in their day-to-day operations.
3. The reseller market. Middlemen or intermediaries, such as
wholesalers and retailers, who buy finished goods and resell them for
a profit.

Identifying Your Market

Here are three steps to follow when identifying your market:
Identify Why A Customer Would Want To Buy Your Product/Service

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Segment Your Overall Market
Research Your Market

Step One

Identify Why A Customer Would Want To Buy Your
Product/service

The first step in identifying your target market understands what your
products/services have to offer to a group of people or businesses. To do
this, identify your product or service's features and benefits. A feature is a
characteristic of a product/service that automatically comes with it.

For example, if toothpaste has a stain-removing formula, that's a feature.
The benefit to the customer, however, is whiter teeth.
While features are valuable and can certainly enhance your product, benefits
motivate people to buy.

An Example is anti-lock brakes; they are features on a car, but the benefit
to the consumer is safety.
By knowing what your product/service has to offer and what will make
customers buy, you can begin to identify common characteristics of your
potential market.

For example, there are many different consumers who desire safety as a
benefit when purchasing a car. Rather than targeting everyone in their
promotional strategy, a car manufacturer may target a specific group of
consumers.

Step Two

Segment Your Overall Market:

It is a natural instinct to want to target as many people and groups as
possible. However, by doing this your promotional strategy will never talk
specifically to any one group, and you will most likely turn many potential

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customers off. Your promotional budget will be much more cost effective if
you promote to one type of customer and speak directly to them. This allows
you to create a highly focused campaign that will directly meet the needs
and desires of a specific group. Again, this is called market segmentation.

Geographic. Potential customers are in a local, state, regional or
national marketplace segment. If you are selling a product such as
farm equipment, geographic location will remain a major factor in
segmenting your target markets since your customers are located in
particular rural areas. Or, if you own retail store, geographic location
of the store is one of the most important considerations.

Climate is a commonly used geographic segmentation variable that
affects industries such as heating and air conditioning, sporting
equipment, lawn equipment and building materials.
Decide if your business is going to do business on a local, regional,
national or international level. Identify the geographic region where
your market is located. Identify specific boundaries within which you
will do business.

Demographic. Potential customers are identified by criteria such as
age, race, religion, gender, income level, family size, occupation,
education level and marital status. Choose those characteristics of
your demographic target market that relates to the interest, need
and ability of the customer to purchase your product or service.
Identify the following demographic characteristics of your market.

Consumer Market
Age
Income
Gender
Profession
Education
Family Size

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Homeowner
Marital Status
Business Market
Geographic location
Size of Company
Annual revenue
Number of Branches
Number of Employees
Industry
Age of Company
Psychographic

Many businesses offer products based on the attitudes, beliefs and
emotions of their target market. The desire for status, enhanced
appearance and more money are examples of psychographic variables. They
are the factors that influence your customers' purchasing decision. A seller
of luxury items would appeal to an individual's desire for status symbols.

Business customers, as well as consumers, can be described in psychographic
terms. Some companies view themselves as cutting edge or high tech, while
others consider themselves socially responsible, stable and strong. Still
others see themselves as innovative and creative. These distinctions help in
determining how your company is positioned and how you can use the
company's position as a marketing tactic.

For Example: Southwest Airlines has positioned itself as an innovative and
fun airline that takes passengers on short, inexpensive excursions, whereas
Delta chooses to promote reliability and safety.
The following are psychographic variables. Identify the characteristics of
your target market.



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Consumer market
Lifestyle
Fun-Seeking
Family Stage
Trendy
Hobbies
Status Seeking
Sports Enthusiasts
Conservative
Forms of Entertainment
Socially Responsible

Publication
Environmentally Conscious
Influencer
Subscriptions
Family Oriented
Technical
Workforce Type
Management Style
Other

Business Market
Business Style
Industry Leader
Business Stage
Innovative

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Employee Relations
Conservative
Trade Associations
Socially Responsible
Business Products/Stable
Services Used
Employee Friendly
Publication Subscriptions
Workforce Type
Management Style
Behaviorist

Products and services are purchased for a variety of reasons. Business
owners must determine what those reasons are, such as: brand, loyalty, cost,
how frequently and at what time of year customers in a segment use and
consume products. It's important to understand the buying habits and
patterns of your customers. Consumers do not rush and buy the first car
they see, or the first sofa they sit on. A Fortune 500 company doesn't
typically make quick purchasing decisions.

Answer the following questions regarding your market.

Reason/occasion for purchase?
Number of times they'll purchase?
Timetable of purchase, every week, month, quarter, etc
Amount of product/service purchased?
How long to make a decision to purchase?
Where customer purchases and/or uses product/service?

Most businesses use a combination of the above to segment their markets.
Demographic and geographic criteria will usually qualify your target markets
so you can establish if segment members have enough money to purchase
your offering or if they're in a location that's accessible to the product.

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Most businesses then use the psychographic and behaviorist factors to
construct a promotional campaign that will appeal to the target market.

For example, Career Options is limited to the geographic region where their
office is situated because their target customers want to work in that area.
In their advertising they will appeal to psychographic factors such as the
desire for stability and income. Take a moment to decide which segmentation
criteria will be most helpful to you in segmenting your target market:

Geographic _____Yes _____No
demographic _____Yes _____No
psychographic _____Yes _____No
behaviorist _____Yes _____No

Next, identify what is important to your customers and rank these on a scale
of high, medium, low or not at all. Are they price sensitive? Are they looking
for the highest quality? Is great customer service important? Or, is location
a deciding factor?

Sample of a Customer Profile and Analysis


Career Option's Sample Customer Profile:
Professionals in Transition Segment

Gender:
30% Female 70% Male
Age:
10% 26-30 30% 31-40 30% 41-55 30% 56-64
Income:


25% 30-40K 25% 40-50K 50% 50-75K

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Marital Status:

80% Married 20% Single
Level Of Education:
60% Bachelor's degree 40% Master's degree
Occupations:
10% Health Care 20% Financial
30% Marketing/Advertising 40% Hi-Tech Fields
Job Sought:
70% Same Field 30% New Field
Most Important Benefits:
1. Assistance in finding work quickly.
2. Want a better job.
3. Want equal salary or increase.
4. Stability.
Psychographic Summary: This segment closely associates work with self-esteem. They feel
pressure because most have families and comfortable lifestyles to maintain. They are not
interested in forging new careers but want stability.


Having completed the customer profile, Career Options will have a good idea
of how to attract and serve customers in this target market. Their
advertising will emphasize that Career Options specializes in helping
professionals find good paying jobs quickly.

They will also discover that most of their potential customers in this
segment are seeking employment in technical industries. Advertising in
various local industry publications would therefore be a good way to reach
this market segment. They can also develop an expertise for counseling and
placing hi-tech career professionals.


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Constructing a similar profile will assist you in developing the proper
marketing strategies to be successful in your target market. Remember, no
two customer profiles will be the same. You'll have to decide how much
emphasis to place on a potential user's lifestyle, loyalty, and spending habits.
If you're going to advertise heavily, you'll want to know the media habits of
potential customers as well. Whatever information will help you better
promote and sell your product should be included in your customer profile.

Choose the Segmented Target Market(s) You
Will Sell To:

After identifying and defining the possible segments within your target
market, you must face the critical question of whether it would be
profitable and feasible for you to pursue each identified segment, or choose
one or two. To make this decision, you must answer the following questions:

What is the financial condition of my firm? If you have limited
resources at this time, you may want to direct your marketing efforts
to only one segment. A concentrated advertising campaign to reach
one market segment is likely to be more effective than a diffuse
campaign attempting to reach two.

What segments are my competitors covering? Are they ignoring
smaller segments that I can possibly exploit? The printing company
previously mentioned may decide to pursue small magazine publishers
because there are many competitors currently serving the needs of
larger publishers. Or, Career Options may discover that since in their
geographic location there are several firms that specialize in helping
professionals in transition, they should specialize in the recent college
graduate market.

Is the market new to your firm? If so, it may be better for you to
concentrate on one segment for now, and expand to others when your
initial segment has been successfully penetrated. Developing new
markets takes a greater commitment of time, money and energy.


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Important Considerations:

If you pursue one segment of your target market and the demand for
your product decreases, so will your financial strength. In essence,
you are putting all your eggs in one basket.

When your firm becomes well established in a particular market
segment, it may be difficult for you to move to another segment. This
may occur due to your market reputation or popularity.
For example, if Career Options becomes known for helping college
graduates find jobs, unemployed professionals may perceive them as
only having the expertise to serve that market.

After you have mastered one particular segment, you can then begin
to develop another. Directing your firm's marketing efforts at more
than one market segment by developing a marketing mix for each
specific segment is known as multi-segment strategy. An example of a
product that was traditionally targeted at women and is now being
targeted with variations in strategy at men is hair coloring.

The marketing mixes for multi-segment strategy may vary by product
feature, price, promotional material and distribution methods. If product
variations requires additional work, you may incur higher production costs.
Additionally, different promotional plans and distribution efforts will result
in higher marketing costs. Plan carefully, to make sure the costs don't
outweigh the benefits.

Nile ( its Nature)
Nile (its Nature) is pure, safe and healthy drinking water for you and your
family every bottle of Nile( its Nature) is produced with Nile( its Nature)
safety system and is carefully sealed with a proprietary seal. Purity of the
highest standards is matched by an optimal balance of essential minerals,
enhancing the health and wellbeing of your family.

Undoubtedly it is the most liked and favorite water of people of Pakistan

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who believe in standards in terms of their health. it may be classified in five
different categories of size they are as follows


SIZE Litre
1 6
2 1.5
3 500 ml


Why a customer would want to buy our product?
Pure Water is essential to life

Water is the source of life. We cannot go without water for 2 to 5 days.
Even light dehydration has dramatic effects on your physical and mental
performances. Consequently, it is essential to drink regularly throughout the
day, without waiting until you feel thirsty. Indeed when you start feeling
thirsty, you are already dehydrated!

The only drink that is essential to life is water.
Water is the main component of all the vital organs (brain, heart, lungs,
kidneys, etc.) so it is necessary to drink water to provide your body with the
water it needs to function properly.
Drinking water regularly throughout the day therefore constitutes an easy
reflex that is key for maintaining your vitality and health.

Drink before you feel thirsty
Travel, hot weather and exercise increase the whole familys needs to
drink more water
Proper hydration helps keep mental functions at good levels
Proper hydration helps keep mental & physical performances sharp
At tea-time when your children ask for a drink, start by giving them a
glass of water

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Drink water frequently when you are with your children, and tell them
how good and thirst quenching it is
Get your children used to drinking water regularly from a very early
age
Don't wait for them to ask you for a drink before giving them water
Always carry a small bottle of water, wherever you go
Slip a small bottle of water into your child's school or sports bag, or
take one with you when you pick them up from school.

Feature Benefit Analysis

Features: Benefits:
1.Light Weight 1.Digestable
2.Calcium
2.Meet the deficiency of Calcium in the
Body
3.Pure 3.Freshness
4.Ingredients 4. Quench Thirst
5.Technology 5. Taste never change

Marketing:

Primarily we are focusing our drive/lunch of marketing NILE (symbol of
purify) in Punjab due to the fact that the people in this province are move
venerable to such sort of inventions. It is because of their taste, habits and
standard of living.



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Never the less it will not be out of placing to mentioned that with expansion
of system. It shall also be introduced in other parts of country as well.
Geographic Segmentation (Punjab)







S. No. City Province Population S. No. City Province Population
1 Sargodha Punjab 573,541 7 Jhang Punjab 357,826
2 Lahore Punjab 6,747,238 8 Bahawalpur Punjab 516,882
3 Faisalabad Punjab 2,708,944 9 Sialkot Punjab 494,591
4 Rawalpindi Punjab 1,877,580 10
Rahim Yar Khan
Punjab 328,903
5 Multan Punjab 1,528,075 11 Gujarat Punjab 320,440
6 Shekhupura Punjab 397,186 12 Gujranwala Punjab 1,484,172

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Marketing in Lahore:

As stated above that we are focusing in the province of Punjab at the
movement. Again in this province we are mainly concentrating on big cities
but more specifically the city of Lahore firstly to begin with. In this way in
view of the total population of Lahore which is approximately 8 millions.
Again Lahore is divided in to further posh areas with the regard of market
segment. These are follows model town, garden town .Fasial town, Gulberg,
Defence Cantt, Iqbal town, and Johar town




Model Town

The total population of the Model town is about 100,000. Model Town
Society is a unique housing area in its design and is considered posh locality
of the town. Each block has its own market, play ground, mosque, triangular
parks etc., which is a rare phenomenon as compared to other housing
schemes.



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Garden

The total population of the garden town is about 80,000. Garden Town is one
of the most developed neighborhoods in Lahore, home to the wealthy middle
class. The majority of its residents comprise mainly of businessmen as well
as students who attend the various colleges and universities in the area,
namely Punjab University and Allama Iqbal Medical College. It is also home to
some celebrities, politicians and overseas Pakistanis. The community in
recent years has developed a vibrant social life and literate elite. Property
value has increased significantly in the passed 5 years due to location of
Garden Town and the development of Barkat market into a major Lahore
market.

Gulberg

The total population of the gulberg is about 90,000. Gulberg (Urdu: )
is a residential and commercial area of Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. It is known
for its upscale shopping centers, restaurants, posh residential areas and the
Hafeez Center (perhaps the largest computer and mobile market in Asia). It
also includes Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium Sports Complex, the home of
Pakistani cricket. It is also known as the hub of the fashion industry in
Pakistan.

Cantt

The total population of the cantt is about 60,000. Cantt is a unique housing
area in its design and is considered posh locality of the town. Each block has
its own market, play ground, mosque, triangular parks etc., which is a rare
phenomenon as compared to other housing schemes.

Defence

The total population of the defence is about 3, 00000. The Defence Housing
Authority, Lahore is a housing authority located in north Lahore, Pakistan. It
was originally built for army officers but is now a popular destination for
potential residents and businessmen.


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Johar Town:

The total population of the johar town about 65,000. Johar Town in Pakistan
is a residential area located in the north of Lahore on the map, neighboring
the motorway M-2. It is the largest residential society of Lahore developed
by Lahore Development Authority- LDA. The population in this newly
established suburban area is sprawling as the property rates offered here
are lesser than other very expensive suburbs of Lahore city like DHA. But
the prices are on the rise. The area is providing a very good housing
opportunity for the upper middle class people.

Faisal Town

The total population of the faisal town is about 70,000. Faisal Town is one of
the major residential areas of Lahore, close to Model Town. It lies at
Latitude 31 28' 40N Longitude 74 18' 30E and has an altitude of 201
meters. In the last few years this area has undergone major changes and
developments, with the value of property increasing quite considerably. It is
divided into four residential blocks named A to D.

Each Block consists of about 1000 Houses. It houses the Lahore campus of
National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences built by Foundation
for Advancement of Science and Technology in its Block-B. Faisal town was
located in the newly developed area of Lahore city. In its North lies Model
Town, in East lies Township, in South lies Johar Town and in its West lie
Punjab University, Allama Iqbal Medical College and Jinnah Hospital.
.
Iqbal Town

The total population of the iqbal town is about 75,000. Iqbal Town (also
known as Allama Iqbal Town; is a commercial and residential locality in the
south-western Lahore. It is named after Allama Iqbal, the national poet of
Pakistan. Development was started in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was
previously famed for its name in Urdu, 'Sola Soo Acre' (meaning 1600
acres), due to its area. Its extent is marked by Multan Road to the west and
north, and by Wahdet Road to the population


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As we have estimated the total population of posh areas as above at
,0840 million, It may be safely concluded that in view of high, middle, and
average income groups of people resident in these locators are to be
approved and make them realize the purity of Nile (its Nature). Thus in this
way we have to target the marketing of Nile between 15 to 20% of the
residents of these areas of all groups to use this pure drinking water. This
will further provide us to accelerate our marketing plans for profit
orientation in future to the manufacturing of the product i-e Nile (its
Nature)

Exclusive Target Market Locations
Air ports
Railvay Stations
Bus Station
Hospitals
Tourism Places
Universities and College
Demographic Segmentation
Consumer Market

Age 15 55
Income 10,000 +/month
Gender Both
Profession Any
Education Matriculation Higher
Family Size 2 5
Marital Status Both







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PRODUCT
Marketing starts with the product and when we talk about our product that
brings with it the feel of purity, care for health, feel of satisfaction etc all
comes through one and only NILE ,its Nature.














Organizations attempt to provide solutions to a target markets offer its
target market. Our problems. These solutions include tangible or intangible
(or both) product offerings marketed by an organization.

In addition to satisfying the target markets needs, the product is important
because it is how organizations generate revenue. It is the thing that for-
profit companies sell in order to realize profits and satisfy stakeholders and
what non-profit organizations use to generate funds needed to sustain itself.
Without a well-developed product strategy that includes input from the
target market, a marketing organization will not have long-term success.







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What is a Product?














In marketing, the term product is often used as a catch-all word to
identify solutions a marketer provides to its target market. We will follow
this approach and permit the term product to cover offerings that fall into
one of the following categories:

Goods Something is considered a good if it is a tangible item. That
is, it is something that is felt, tasted, heard, smelled or seen. For
example, bicycles, cellphones, and donuts are all examples of tangible
goods. In some cases there is a fine line between items that affect
the senses and whether these are considered tangible or intangible.
We often see this with digital goods accessed via the Internet, such
as listening to music online or visiting an information website.
In these cases there does not appear to be anything that is tangible
or real since it is essentially computer code that is proving the
solution. However, for our purposes, we distinguish these as goods
since these products are built (albeit using computer code), are stored
(e.g., on a computer hard drive), and generally offer the same benefits
each time (e.g., quality of the download song is always the same).

Services Something is considered a service if it is an offering a
customer obtains through the work or labor of someone else. Services

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can result in the creation of tangible goods (e.g., a publisher of
business magazines hires a freelance writer to write an article) but
the main solution being purchased is the service. Unlike goods,
services are not stored, they are only available at the time of use
(e.g., hair salon) and the consistency of the benefit offered can vary
from one purchaser to another (e.g., not exactly the same hair styling
each time).

Ideas Something falls into the category of an idea if the marketer
attempts to convince the customer to alter their behavior or their
perception in some way. Marketing ideas is often a solution put forth
by non-profit groups or governments in order to get targeted groups
to avoid or change certain behavior. This is seen with public service
announcements directed toward such activity as youth smoking,
automobile safety, and illegal drug use.

While in some cases a marketer offers solutions that provide both tangible
and intangible attributes, for most organizations their primary offering --
the thing that is the main focus of the marketing effort -- is concentrated
in one area. So while a manufacturer may offer intangible services or a
service firm provides certain tangible equipment, these are often used as
add-ons that augment the organizations main product.

When I talked about my Product that is NILE, its Nature which is a
tangible product use by people every day of life so its a daily buying product
will taste the purity in every sip. Everything about NILE, its Nature
contributes to this NATURE brand experience- from its name, packaging,
and label to the places that will sell it, to the celebrities that will dink and
endorse it. The name was a natural NILE, its Nature that evokes visions
of unspoiled natural beauty and purity.

Categories of Consumer Products:

In addition to categorizing by type of offering, most products intended for
consumer use can be further categorized by how frequently and where they
are purchased.

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Convenience Products These are products that appeal to a very
large market segment. They are generally consumed regularly and
purchased frequently. Examples include most household items such as
food, cleaning products, and personal care products. Because of the
high purchase volume, pricing per item tends to be relatively low and
consumers often see little value in shopping around since additional
effort yields minimal savings. From the marketers perspective the low
price of convenience products means that profit per unit sold is very
low. In order to make high profits marketers must sell in large volume.
Consequently, marketers attempt to distribute these products in mass
through as many retail outlets as possible.

Shopping Products These are products consumers purchase and
consume on a less frequent schedule compared to convenience
products. Consumers are willing to spend more time locating these
products since they are relatively more expensive than convenience
products and because these may possess additional psychological
benefits for the purchaser, such as raising their perceived status
level within their social group.
Examples include many clothing products, personal services, electronic
products, and household furnishings. Because consumers are
purchasing less frequently and are willing to shop to locate these
products, the target market is much smaller than that of convenience
goods. Consequently, marketers often are more selective when
choosing distribution outlets to sell their products.

Specialty Products These are products that tend to carry a high
price tag relative to convenience and shopping products. Consumption
may occur at about the same rate as shopping products but consumers
are much more selective. In fact, in many cases consumers know in
advance which product they prefer and will not shop to compare
products. But they may shop at retailers that provide the best value.
Examples include high-end luxury automobiles, expensive champagne,
and celebrity hair care experts. The target markets are generally
very small and outlets selling the products are very limited to the
point of being exclusive.

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In addition to the three main categories above, products are classified in at
least two additional ways:

Emergency Products These are products a customer seeks due
to sudden events and for which pre-purchase planning is not
considered. Often the decision is one of convenience (e.g., whatever
works to fix a problem) or personal fulfillment (e.g., perceived to
improve purchasers image).

Unsought Products These are products whose purchase is
unplanned by the consumer but occur as a result of marketers actions.
Such purchase decisions are made when the customer is exposed to
promotional activity, such as a salespersons persuasion or purchase
incentives like special discounts offered to certain online shoppers.
These promotional activities often lead customers to engage in
Impulse Purchasing.

The categories of consumer products mineral Water and our Product NILE,
its Nature comes under the category of Convenience Product that it is
bought on daily basis. It will be used by ever class because of its cheap rate,
its pure taste and excellent quality. So we try our best to let the consumers
to buy it with warranty of its purity and taste.

We are going to launch our product in the holy MONTH OF RAMADAN with
the name of ALLAH the most merciful. We will offer NILE on suitable rate
to our customers. As it is a daily product not only used for drinking purposes.







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Categories of Business Products
The amount spent on business purchasing far exceeds consumer purchasing.
Products sold within the b-to-b market fall into one of the following
categories:

Raw Materials These are products obtained through mining,
harvesting, fishing, etc., that are key ingredients in the production of
higher-order products.

Processed Materials These are products created through the
processing of basic raw materials. In some cases the processing
refines original raw materials while in other cases the process
combines different raw materials to create something new. For
instance, several crops including corn and sugar cane can be processed
to create ethanol which has many uses including as a fuel to power car
and truck engines.

Equipment These are products used to help with production or
operations activities. Examples range from conveyor belts used on an
assembly line to large buildings used to house the headquarters staff
of a multi-national company.

Basic Components These are products used within more
advanced components. These are often built with raw material or
processed material. Electrical wire is an example.

Advanced Components These are products that use basic
components to produce products that offer a significant function
needed within a larger product. Yet by itself an advanced component
does not stand alone as a final product. In computers the
motherboard would be an example since it contains many basic
components but without the inclusion of other products (e.g., memory
chips, microprocessor, etc.) would have little value.

Product Component These are products used in the assembly of a

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final product though these could also function as stand alone products.
Dice included as part of a childrens board game would be an example.

MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Operating) Products
These are products used to assist with the operation of the
organization but are not directly used in producing goods or services.
Office supplies, parts for a truck fleet and natural gas to heat a
factory would fall into this category




















Our product NILE, its Nature comes under the category of processed
material. That is extracted and then purified with the modern equipments
without the use of any harsh chemical that can be dangerous to our
custemerhealth.above is shown the modern n latest equipment we use that is
the basic part of our plant





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Components of a Product

On the surface it seems a product is simply a marketing offering, whether
tangible or intangible, that someone wants to purchase and consume. In
which case one might believe product decisions are focused exclusively on
designing and building the consumable elements of goods, services or ideas.
For instance, one might think the key product decision for a manufacturer of
floor cleaners is to focus on creating a formula that cleans more effectively.
In actuality, while decisions related to the consumable parts of the product
are extremely important, the Total Product consists of more than what is
consumed. The total product offering and the decisions facing the marketer
can be broken down into three key parts:

Core Benefits
Actual Product
Augmented Product

1. Core Benefits

People make buying decisions that satisfy their needs. While many needs are
addressed by the consumption of a product or service, some needs are not.
For instance, customers may need to be perceived highly by other members
of their group or need a product that is easy to use or need a risk-free
purchase. In each of these cases, and many more, the core product itself is
the benefit the customer receives from using the product. In some cases
these core benefits are offered by the product itself (e.g., floor cleaner)
while in other cases the benefit is offered by other aspects of the product
(e.g., the can containing the floor cleaner that makes it easier to spread the
product). Consequently, at the very heart of all product decisions is
determining the key or core benefits a product will provide. From this
decision, the rest of the product offering can be developed.

2. Actual Product

The core benefits are offered through the components that make up the
actual product the customer purchases. For instance, when a consumer

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returns home from shopping at the grocery store and takes a purchased
item out of her shopping bag, the actual product is the item she holds in her
hand. Within the actual product is the consumable product, which can be
viewed as the main good, service or idea the customer is buying. For
instance, while toothpaste may come in a package that makes dispensing it
easy, the Consumable Product is the paste that is placed on a toothbrush.
But marketers must understand that while the consumable product is, in
most cases, the most critical of all product decisions, the actual product
includes many separate product decisions including product features,
branding, packaging, labeling, and more. Full coverage of several of these
important areas is provided later in this tutorial.

3. Augmented Product

Marketers often surround their actual products with goods and services
that provide additional value to the customers purchase. While these
factors may not be key reasons leading customers to purchase (i.e., not core
benefits), for some the inclusion of these items strengthens the purchase
decision while for others failure to include these may cause the customer
not to buy. Items considered part of the augmented product include:

Guarantee This provides a level of assurance that the product
will perform up to expectations and if not the company marketing
the product will support the customers decision to replace, have it
repaired or return for a refund.

Warranty This offers customers a level of protection that
often extends past the guarantee period to cover repair or
replacement of certain product components.

Customer Service This consists of additional services that
support the customers needs including offering training and
assistance via telephone or online.

Complementary Products The value of some product
purchases can be enhanced with add-on products, such as items

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that make the main product easier to use (e.g., laptop carry bag),
enhance styling (e.g., cell phone face plates) or extend
functionality (e.g., portable keyboard for PDAs).

Accessibility How customers obtain the product can affect its
perceived value depending on such considerations as how easy it is
to obtain (e.g., stocked at nearby store, delivered directly to
office), the speed at which it can be obtained, and the likelihood it
will be available when needed.

We have tried our best to make our customers avail the core benefits of our
Actual Product that is NILE, its Nature. Its attractive bottle, its aqua
color and its pure taste will definitely fulfill the need of our customer. We
keep our objective in our mind that is to satisfy our customer in every
aspect of our products nature. we are sure about our product that it will not
only compete with other mineral waters successfully but also will let the
people to buy it in future with satisfaction and warranty
taste,quality,affordable rate.The customers would also b happy with the
RAMADAN SCHEME of getting two bottles at the cost of one.

Key Product Decisions

The actual product is designed to provide the core benefits sought by the
target market. The marketer offers these benefits through a combination
of factors that make up the actual product.
Below we discuss in detail four key factors that together help shape the
actual product. These factors include:
Consumable Product Features
Branding
Packaging
Labeling

Consumable Product Features

Features are characteristics of a product that offer benefits to the
customer. In most cases, the most important features are those associated

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with the consumable product since they are the main reason a customer
makes a purchase. We separate the benefits of consumable product
features into two groups: functional and psychological.

Functional Benefits
Are benefits derived from features that are part the consumable product.
For instance, a plasma television includes such features and benefits as:

Feature Functional Benefit
screen size

screen resolution

surround sound

remote control
offers greater detail and allows for more distant viewing

viewing provides clear, more realistic picture

immerses all senses in the viewing experience

allows for greater comfort while viewing

These features are called functional because they result in a benefit the
user directly associates with the consumable product. For marketers
functional benefits are often the result of materials, design and production
decisions. How the product is built can lead to benefits such as
effectiveness, durability, speed, ease-of-use, and cost savings to name just
few.

Psychological Benefits

Are benefits the customer perceives to receive when using the product
though these may be difficult to measure and may vary by customer. These
benefits address needs such as status within a group, risk reduction, sense
of independence, and happiness. Such benefits are developed through
promotional efforts that target customers internal makeup (see discussion
in Part 4: Consumer Buying Behavior).
In addition to determining the type of features to include in a product, the
marketer faces several other decisions related to features:

Quantity & Quality vs. Cost - For the marketers an important

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decision focuses on the quantity and quality of features to include in a
product. In most cases the more features included or the higher the
quality level for a particular feature, the more expensive the product
is to produce and market.

Is More Better? Even if added cost is not a major concern, the
marketer must determine if more features help or hurt the target
markets perception of the product. A product with too many features
could be viewed as too difficult to use. This was often the case when
video cassette recorders (VCR) were the principle device for taping
television programs and watching rented movies. Many of the higher-
level features introduced in the 1990s as the product matured, such
as advanced television recording, proved too difficult for the average
consumer to master.






Who Should Choose the Features? Historically marketers
determined what features to include in a product. Technology, and
especially the Internet, offer customers the opportunity to choose their
own features to custom build a product. For instance, companies offering
website hosting services allow website owners to choose from a list of
service options that best suits their needs. Also, for traditional products,
such as clothing, companies allow customers to stylize their purchases
with logos and other personalized options.
While launching NILE, its Nature we keep in our mind to fulfill the
Functional n Psychological need of our customers. As it is important to
open a network at large scale and customers also prefer such products

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among the Competitors that is NESTLE and AQUAFINA.

NILE, its Nature can get a good place in the market. Offseason launch
would make sense as Nestle n even other small competitors wud not be
expect any new entered. So a good entry. Sleeveless T -shirts wood work, as
focus of the audience wood b more on models rather then ad temperature in
the adv. beside the carbonated that are the Black drinks-Craze of the Young
Community while mineral water drinkers are those who are extremely health
conscious and are more of indoor kind of people.

Branding

Branding involves decisions that establish an identity for a product with the
goal of distinguishing it from competitors offerings. In markets where
competition is fierce and where customers may select from among many
competitive products, creating an identity through branding is essential. It
is particularly important in helping position the product (see discussion of
product position) in the minds of the products target market.
While consumer products companies have long recognized the value of
branding, it has only been within the last 10-15 years that organizations
selling component products in the business-to-business market have begun to
focus on brand building strategies. The most well-known company to brand
components is Intel with its now famous Intel Inside slogan. Intels success
has led many other b-to-b companies and even non-profits to incorporate
branding within their overall marketing strategy.

Brand Names and Brand Marks

At a very basic level branding is achieved through the use of unique brand
names and brand marks. The brand name, which may be either the individual
product name or a name applied to a group or family of products, is
important for many reasons including suggesting what the product is or does
(e.g., Mop-and-Glow). The name is also what we utter when we discuss the
product (i.e., word-of-mouth marketing). The brand mark is a design element,
such as a symbol (e.g., Nike swoosh), logo (e.g., Yahoo! graphic), a character
(e.g., Feebler elves) or even a sound (e.g., Intel inside sound), that provides

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visual or auditory recognition for the product.

Advantages of Brands

A strong brand offers many advantages for marketers including:
Brands provide multiple sensory stimuli to enhance customer
recognition. For example, a brand can be visually recognizable from its
packaging, logo, shape, etc. It can also be recognizable via sound, such
as hearing the name on a radio advertisement or talking with someone
who mentions the product.
Customers who are frequent and enthusiastic purchasers of a
particular brand are likely to become Brand Loyal. Cultivating brand
loyalty among customers is the ultimate reward for successful
marketers since these customers are far less likely to be enticed to
switch to other brands compared to non-loyal customers.
Well-developed and promoted brands make product positioning
efforts more effective. The result is that upon exposure to a brand
(e.g., hearing it, seeing it) customers conjure up mental images or
feelings of the benefits they receive from using that brand. The
reverse is even better. When customers associate benefits with a
particular brand, the brand may have attained a significant
competitive advantage. In these situations the customer who
recognizes he needs a solution to a problem (e.g., needs to bleach
clothes) may automatically think of one brand that offers the solution
to the problem (e.g., Clorox). This benefit = brand association
provides a significant advantage for the brand that the customer
associates with the benefit sought.
Firms that establish a successful brand can extend the brand by
adding new products under the same family brand. Such branding
may allow companies to introduce new products more easily since the
brand is already recognized within the market.

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Strong brands can lead to financial advantages through the concept of
Brand Equity in which the brand itself becomes valuable. Such gains
can be realized through the out-right sale of a brand or through
licensing arrangements. For example, Company A may have a well-
recognized brand (Brand X) within a market but for some reason they
are looking to concentrate their efforts in other markets. Company B
is looking to enter the same market as Brand X. If circumstances are
right Company A could sell to Company B the rights to use the Brand X
name without selling any other part of the company. That is, Company
A simply sells the legal rights to the Brand X name but retains all
other parts of Brand X, such as the production facilities and
employees. In cases of well developed brands such a transaction may
carry a very large price tag. Thus, through strong branding efforts
Company A achieves a large financial gain by simply signing over the
rights to the name. But why would Company B seek to purchase a
brand for such a high price tag? Because by buying the brand Company
B has already achieved an important marketing goal building
awareness within the target market. The fact the market is already
be familiar with the brand allows the Company B to concentrate on
other marketing decisions.
While finalizing our project we basically focus on the branding of our
product. We select the best brand name related to nature without any
ambiguity. The brand name reflect the taste of NILE, its Nature. We
have shown a waterfall at its background and the colorful aqua label at once
clicks the idea about the product.

We basically emphasize on the brand name and used a logical logo attract
the customers. To make the square shape of the bottle more trust worthy,
the company came up with its own distinctive idea of silver serving sleeve,
custom-made to fit NILE, its Nature. It will tell everyone in its vicinity
in competition with other companies that the customer who will order
appreciate the best and can afford it.

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Packaging:

Nearly all tangible products (i.e., goods) are sold to customers within a
container or package that, as we will discuss, serves many purposes including
protecting the product during shipment. In a few cases, such as with certain
produce items, the final customer may purchase the product without a
package but the produce marketer still faces packaging decisions when it
comes to shipping to the store. Thus, for many products there are two
packaging decisions final customer and distribution.

Final Customer Packaging

This relates to the package the final customer receives in exchange for
their payment. When the final customer makes a purchase he or she is
initially exposed to the Primary Package the outermost container that is
seen and touched by the final customer. This primary package can be
further divided into the following:

First-Level Package - This is packaging that holds the actual
product (e.g., Tylenol Bottle). In some cases this packaging is minimal
since it only serves to protect the product. For instance, certain
frozen food products are sold to consumers in a cardboard box with
the product itself contained in a plastic bag found inside the box. This
plastic bag represents the first-level package. In other cases frozen
food products are sold in the plastic bag that contains the product. In
these cases the plastic bag is both first-level package and the primary
package for convey product information.

Second-Level Package In some cases the first-level package is
surrounded by one or more outer packages (e.g., box holding the
Tylenol Bottle). This second-level package may act as the primary
package for the product.

Package Inserts - Marketers use a variety of other methods to
communicate with customers after they open the product package.

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These methods are often inserted within, or sometimes on, the

products package. Insertions include information such as instruction
manuals and warranty cards, promotional incentives such as coupons,
and items that add value such as recipes and software.

Distribution Packaging

This packaging is used to transport the customer package through the supply
chain. It generally holds multiple customer packages and also offers a higher
level of damage protection than that of customer packaging.

Factors to Consider When Making Packaging Decision
Packaging decisions are important for several reasons including:

Protection Packaging is used to protect the product from damage
during shipping and handling, and to lessen spoilage if the protect is
exposed to air or other elements.

Visibility Packaging design is used to capture customers attention
as they are shopping or glancing through a catalog or website. This is
particularly important for customers who are not familiar with the
product and in situations, such as those found in grocery stores,
where a product must stand out among thousands of other products.
Packaging designs that standout are more likely to be remembered on
future shopping trips.

Added Value Packaging design and structure can add value to a
product. For instance, benefits can be obtained from package
structures that make the product easier to use while stylistic designs
can make the product more attractive to display in the customers
home.

Distributor Acceptance Packaging decisions must not only be
accepted by the final customer, they may also have to be accepted by
distributors who sell the product for the supplier. For instance, a
retailer may not accept packages unless they conform to requirements

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they have for storing products on their shelves.

Cost Packaging can represent a significant portion of a products
selling price. For example, it is estimated that in the cosmetics
industry the packaging cost of some products may be as high as 40%
of a products selling price. Smart packaging decisions can help reduce
costs and possibly lead to higher profits.

Expensive to Create - Developing new packaging can be
extremely expensive. The costs involved in creating new packaging
include: graphic and structural design, production, customer testing,
possible destruction of leftover old packaging, and possible
advertising to inform customer of the new packaging.

Long Term Decision When companies create a new package it is
most often with the intention of having the design on the market for
an extended period of time. In fact, changing a products packaging
too frequently can have negative effects since customers become
conditioned to locate the product based on its package and may be
confused if the design is altered.

Environmental or Legal Issues Packaging decisions must also include
an assessment of its environmental impact especially for products with
packages that are frequently discarded. Packages that are not easily bio-
degradable could draw customer and possibly governmental concern. Also,
caution must be exercised in order to create packages that do not infringe
on intellectual property, such as copyrights, trademarks or patents, held by
others.

Labeling

Most packages, whether final customer packaging or distribution packaging,
are imprinted with information intended to assist the customer. For
consumer products, labeling decisions are extremely important for the
following reasons.
Labels serve to capture the attention of shoppers. The use of catchy

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words may cause strolling customers to stop and evaluate the product.

The label is likely to be the first thing a new customer sees and thus
offers their first impression of the product.

The label provides customers with product information to aid their
purchase decision or help improve the customers experience when
using the product (e.g., recipes).

Labels generally include a universal product codes (UPC) and, in some
cases, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, that make it easy
for resellers, such as retailers, to checkout customers and manage
inventory.

For companies serving international markets or diverse cultures within
a single country, bilingual or multilingual labels may be needed.

In some countries many products, including food and pharmaceuticals,
are required by law to contain certain labels such as listing
ingredients, providing nutritional information or including usage
warning information.

Marketers are confronted with many issues when building the product
component of their marketing strategy. While product decisions represent
just one aspect of marketers overall activities, these decisions are often
the most important because they lead directly to the reasons (i.e., benefits
offered, solutions to problems) for why the customer decides to choose the
organizations goods, services or ideas.

The unique bottle of NILE and colorful labeling also sets the brand
apart.yhe clear plastic front label presents the NILE name with the
waterfall at its background. In combination with the front and back label
creates a striking 3-D picture that emphasizes NILEs clarity and Purity.




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It will not b wrong to say that
The Bottle Appears to Have a MAGIC in it



Product Management Responsibilities

Touching the basic concepts and strategies applicable to a large percentage
of marketing situations, the reader should understand that no two marketing
situations are the same. Yet while some concepts and strategies important
to one marketer may not hold the same weight with another, in general, the
basic principles of marketing (e.g., satisfying target markets, support
decisions using research, etc.) hold no matter the type of industry, type of
company or type of product being sold.

What is often different between two marketing situations is the level of
complication and challenge that arises as a marketers scope of responsibility
increases. For our purposes a marketers level of responsibility is measured
in terms of:
the number and variety of tasks that must be performed (i.e., what
has to be done)
the value these tasks represent to the organization (i.e., how

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important marketing is perceived within the company)
the overall financial stake the marketing position holds (i.e., total
sales volume and profit generation).
As responsibilities change so to do the marketers tasks. For instance, with
regard to product decisions, as a marketers responsibilities become greater
her or his day-to-day job shifts from being involved in specific product
issues (e.g., finding a graphics design company to create a new label) to
decisions concerning many products and focusing on setting the future
marketing direction of the company (e.g., developing marketing plans for
numerous products). We can see this in greater detail by examining the
responsibilities associated with four different marketing management levels:

Product Item Level At this level responsibilities are associated with
marketing a single product or brand. By single we are limiting the
marketers responsibility to one item. For instance, a startup software
development company may initially market just one product. In some
organizations the person in charge has the title Product Manager,
though in smaller companies this person may simply be the Marketing
Manager.

Brand Product Line Level At this level responsibilities are associated
with managing two or more similar product items. By similar we are
referring to products carrying the same brand name that fit within
the same product category and offer similar solutions to customers
needs. Procter & Gamble, one of the largest consumer products
companies in the world, markets Tide laundry detergent in several
different packaging sizes (e.g., 50oz., 100oz., 200oz.), in different
forms (e.g., powder, liquid) and with different added features (e.g.,
softener, bleach). Tides product line consists of over 100 different
versions of the product.

Differences in the product offerings indicate these are targeted to
different segments within the larger market (e.g., those preferring
liquid vs. those preferring powder), however, it may also represent a
choice for the same target market who may seek variety. A product

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line is often measured by its depth, relative to competitors, with deep
product lines offering extensive product items. Brand product lines
are often managed by a Brand or Product Line Manager.

Category Product Line Level At this level responsibilities are
associated with managing two or more brand product lines within the
same product category. In this situation the marketer may manage
products that offer similar basic benefits (e.g., clean clothes) but
target their offerings to slightly different needs (e.g., product for
tough to clean clothing vs. product to clean delicate clothing). Multiple
brand product lines allow the marketer to cover the needs of more
segments and, consequently, increase their chance to generate sales.
Often in larger companies category product lines are the
responsibility of the Product Category or Divisional Marketing
Manager who may have Brand Product Managers reporting to him/her.

Product Mix Level At this level responsibilities include two or more
category product lines that are directed to different product
categories. In some cases the category product lines may yield similar
general solutions (e.g., cleaning) but are aimed at entirely different
target markets (e.g., cleaning dishes vs. cleaning automobiles). In large
companies, the product lines are very diverse and offer different
solutions.

For example, BIC sells writing instruments, shaving products, and
lighters. This diversification strategy cushions against an all-eggs-in-
one-basket risk that may come if a company directs all resources to
one product category. A product mix can be classified based on its
width (how many different category product lines) and its depth (how
many different brand product lines within a category product line).
Generally responsibility for this level belongs to a companys Vice
President for Marketing.





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Being product manager, I keep my objective in my mind to sell my single
product and to emphasize on its selling. Our major product today is to launch
a Safe and secure mineral water that is NILE, its Nature. With the
passage of time we will obviously like to introduce new products of our
brand.e.g juices, ketchup with the name of our company.etc.








Branding Strategy

Branding is an important decision designed to enhance the identity of the
product through the use of unique brand names, symbols and other
distinctive measures. With competition growing more intense in almost all
industries, establishing a strong brand allows an organizations products to
stand out and avoid potential pitfalls, such as price wars, that have befallen
many products. Therefore, a clear understanding of branding strategy is
essential in order to build solid products and product lines. In particular,
marketers should be aware of various branding approaches that can be
pursued.
By branding approach we are referring to different product identification
strategies that can be deployed to establish a product within the market. As
we will see, the purpose of these approaches is to build a brand that will
exist for the long term. Making smart decisions up front is crucial since a
company may have to live with the decision for a long time. Branding
approaches include the following:

Individual Product Branding Under this branding approach new
products are assigned new names with no obvious connection to

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existing brands offered by the company. Under individual product
branding the marketing organization must work hard to establish the
brand in the market since it cannot ride the coattails of previously
introduced brands. The chief advantage of this approach is it allows
brands to stand on their own thus lessening threats that may occur to
other brands marketed by the company. For instance, if another
company brand receives negative publicity this news is less likely to
rub off on the companys other brands that carry their own unique
names. Brands can create financial gains through the concept known as
brand equity. Under an individual branding approach, each brand builds
its own separate equity which allows the company, if they choose, to
sell off individual brands without impacting other brands owned by the
company. The most famous marketing organization to follow this
strategy is Procter and Gamble, which has historically introduced new
brands without any link to other brands or even to the company name.

Family Branding Under this branding approach new products are
placed under the umbrella of an existing brand. The principle
advantage of this approach is that it enables the organization to
rapidly build market awareness and acceptance since the brand is
already established and known to the market. But the potential
disadvantage is that the market has already established certain
perceptions of the brand. For instance, a company that sells low-end,
lower priced products may have a brand that is viewed as an economy
brand. This brand image may create customer confusion and hinder
the company if they attempt to introduce higher-end, higher priced
products using the same brand name. Additionally, with family
branding any negative publicity that may occur for one product within
a brand could spread to all other products that share the same name.

Co-Branding This approach takes the idea of individual and family
branding a step further. With co-branding a marketer seeks to

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partner with another firm, which has an established brand, in hopes
synergy of two brands on a product is even more powerful than a
single brand. The partnership often has both firms sharing costs but
also sharing the gains. For instance, major credit card companies, such
as Visa and MasterCard, offer co-branding options to companies and
organizations. The cards carry the name of a co-branded organization
(e.g., University name) along with the name of the issuing bank (e.g.,
Citibank) and the name of the credit card company. Besides tapping
into awareness for multiple brands, the co-branding strategy is also
designed to appeal to a larger target market, especially if each brand,
when viewed separately, does not have extensive overlapping target
markets with the other brand. Thus, co-branding allows both firms to
tap into market segments where they did not previously have a strong
position.

Private or Store Branding Some suppliers are in the business
of producing products for other companies including placing another
companys brand name on the product. This is most often seen in the
retail industry where stores or online sellers contract with suppliers
to manufacture the retailers own branded products. In some cases
the supplier not only produces product for the retailers brand but
also markets their own brand so that store shelves will contain both
brands.

No-Name or Generic Branding Certain suppliers supply
products that are intentionally brand less. These products are
mostly basic commodity-type products that consumer or business
customers purchase as low price alternatives to branded products.
Basic household products such as paper products, over-the-counter
medicines such as ibuprofen, and even dog food are available in a
generic form.


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Brand Licensing Under brand licensing a contractual arrangement
is created in which a company owning a brand name allows others to
produce and supply products carrying the brand name. This is often
seen when a brand is not directly connected with a product category.
For instance, several famous childrens characters, such as Sesame
Streets Elmo, have been licensed to toy and food manufacturers who
market products using the branded characters name and image.

Currently we are at the initial stage of our launch, we have a very planed
future for our launching NILE, its Nature in other cities of Pakistan not
only with an individual brand but we establish our network at international
level also. We are looking forward for co- brands in future.
We have taken the brand license legally under the supervision of Government
of Pk.

Developing New Products

By its nature marketing requires new ideas. Unlike some organizational
functions, where basic processes follow a fairly consistent routine (e.g.,
accounting), successful marketers are constantly making adjustments to
their marketing efforts. New ideas are essential for responding to changing
demand by the target market and by pressure exerted by competitors.
These changes are manifested in decisions in all marketing areas including
the development of new products.
In addition to being responsive to changing customer tastes and competitive
forces, there are many other reasons why new product development is vital.
These include:

Many new products earn higher profits than older products. This is
often the case for products considered innovative or unique which, for
a period of time, may enjoy success and initially face little or no
competition.

New products can help reposition the company in customers minds.
For instance, a company that traditionally sold low priced products
with few features may shift customers perceptions about the

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company by introducing products with more features and slightly
higher pricing.

Fierce global competition and technological developments make it
much easier for competitors to learn about products and replicate
them. To stay ahead of competitors marketers must innovate and
often create and introduce new products on a consistent schedule.

Companies with limited depth in a product line may miss out on more
sales unless they can add new products to fill out the line.

Some firms market seasonal products that garner their highest sales
during a certain time of the year or sell cyclical products whose sales
fluctuate depending on economic or market factors. Expanding the
firms product mix into new areas may help offset these fluctuations.
For manufacturing firms an additional benefit is realized as new
products utilize existing production capacity that is under-used when
seasonal or cyclical products are not being produced.
Categories of New Products

New products can fall into one of several categories. These categories are
defined by the type of market the product is entering (i.e., newly created,
existing but not previously targeted, existing and targeted ) and the level of
product innovation (i.e., radically new, new, upgrade).

Creates New Market with Radically New Product or Product Line
This category is represented by new breakthrough products that are
so revolutionary they create an entirely new market. Recent examples
include digital music players, such as Apples iPod, that have spawned
new delivery methods (downloadable music) and new media
(podcasting). Highly innovative products are rare so very few new
products fall into this category.

Enters Existing But Not Previously Targeted Market with New-
Product or Product Line In this category a marketer introduces a
new product item or product line to an existing market which they did

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not previously target. Often these products are similar to
competitors products already available in the market but with some
level of difference (e.g., different features, lower price, etc.).
Microsofts entry into the video gaming system market with their
Xbox is an example.
Stays in Existing and Previously Targeted Market by Enhancing
Existing Product or Product Line Under this development category
the marketer attempts to improve its current position in the market
by either improving or upgrading existing products or by extending a
product line by adding new products. This type of new product is seen
in our earlier example of Procter and Gambles Tide product line which
contains many product variations of the basic Tide product.

How New Products Are Obtained
Marketers have several options for obtaining new products. First, products
can be developed within an organizations own research operations. For some
companies, such as service firms, this may simply mean the marketer designs
new service options to sell to target markets. For instance, a marketer for a
mortgage company may design new mortgage packages that offer borrowers
different rates or payment options. At the other extreme companies may
support an extensive research and development effort where engineers,
scientists or others are engaged in new product discovery.
A second way to obtain products is to acquire them from external sources.
This can occur in several ways including:

Purchase the Product - With this option a marketer purchases the
product outright from another firm that currently owns the product.
The advantage is that the product is already developed, which reduces
the purchasing companys time and cost of trying to develop it
themselves. On the negative side the purchase cost may be high.

License the Product Under this option the marketer negotiates with
the owner of the product for the rights to market the product. This


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may be a particularly attractive option for companies who have to fill a
product need quickly (e.g., give a product line more depth) or it may be
used as a temporary source of products while the marketers company
is developing its own product. On the negative side the arrangement
may have a limited time frame at which point the licensor may decide
to end the relationship leaving the marketer without a source for the
product.

Purchase Another Firm - Instead of purchasing another companys
products marketers may find it easier to just purchase the whole
company selling the products. One key advantage to this is that the
acquisition often includes the people and resources that developed the
product which may be a key consideration if the acquiring company
wants to continue to develop the acquired products.

New Product Development Process

Because introducing new products on a consistent basis is important to the
future success of many organizations, marketers in charge of product
decisions often follow set procedures for bringing products to market. In
the scientific area that may mean the establishment of ongoing laboratory
research programs for discovering new products (e.g., medicines) while less
scientific companies may pull together resources for product development on
a less structured timetable.

In this section we present a 7-step process comprising the key elements of
new product development. While some companies may not follow a deliberate
step-by-step approach, the steps are useful in showing the information input
and decision making that must be done in order to successfully develop new
products. The process also shows the importance market research plays in
developing products. We should note that while the 7-step process works for
most industries, it is less effective in developing radically new products. The
main reason lies in the inability of the target market to provide sufficient
feedback on advanced product concepts since they often find it difficult to
understand radically different ideas. So while many of these steps are used
to research breakthrough ideas, the marketer should exercise caution when
interpreting the results.

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Step 1. IDEA GENERATION

The first step of new product development requires gathering ideas to be
evaluated as potential product options. For many companies idea generation
is an ongoing process with contributions from inside and outside the
organization. Many market research techniques are used to encourage ideas
including: running focus groups with consumers, channel members, and the
companys sales force; encouraging customer comments and suggestions via
toll-free telephone numbers and website forms; and gaining insight on
competitive product developments through secondary data sources. One
important research technique used to generate ideas is brainstorming where
open-minded, creative thinkers from inside and outside the company gather
and share ideas. The dynamic nature of group members floating ideas, where
one idea often sparks another idea, can yield a wide range of possible
products that can be further pursued.

Step 2. SCREENING

In Step 2 the ideas generated in Step 1 are critically evaluated by company
personnel to isolate the most attractive options. Depending on the number of
ideas, screening may be done in rounds with the first round involving
company executives judging the feasibility of ideas while successive rounds
may utilize more advanced research techniques. As the ideas are whittled
down to a few attractive options, rough estimates are made of an ideas
potential in terms of sales, production costs, profit potential, and
competitors response if the product is introduced. Acceptable ideas move
on to the next step.

Step 3. CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING

With a few ideas in hand the marketer now attempts to obtain initial
feedback from customers, distributors and its own employees. Generally,
focus groups are convened where the ideas are presented to a group, often
in the form of concept board presentations (i.e., storyboards) and not in
actual working form. For instance, customers may be shown a concept board
displaying drawings of a product idea or even an advertisement featuring the

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product. In some cases focus groups are exposed to a mock-up of the ideas,
which is a physical but generally non-functional version of product idea.
During focus groups with customers the marketer seeks information that
may include: likes and dislike of the concept; level of interest in purchasing
the product; frequency of purchase (used to help forecast demand); and
price points to determine how much customers are willing to spend to acquire
the product.

Step 4. BUSINESS ANALYSIS

At this point in the new product development process the marketer has
reduced a potentially large number of ideas down to one or two options. Now
in Step 4 the process becomes very dependent on market research as
efforts are made to analyze the viability of the product ideas. (Note, in
many cases the product has not been produced and still remains only an
idea.) The key objective at this stage is to obtain useful forecasts of market
size (e.g., overall demand), operational costs (e.g., production costs) and
financial projections (e.g., sales and profits). Additionally, the organization
must determine if the product will fit within the companys overall mission
and strategy. Much effort is directed at both internal research, such as
discussions with production and purchasing personnel, and external
marketing research, such as customer and distributor surveys, secondary
research, and competitor analysis.

Step 5. PRODUCT AND MARKETING MIX DEVELOPMENT

Ideas passing through business analysis are given serious consideration for
development. Companies direct their research and development teams to
construct an initial design or prototype of the idea. Marketers also begin to
construct a marketing plan for the product. Once the prototype is ready the
marketer seeks customer input. However, unlike the concept testing stage
where customers were only exposed to the idea, in this step the customer
gets to experience the real product as well as other aspects of the
marketing mix, such as advertising, pricing, and distribution options (e.g.,
retail store, direct from company, etc.).



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Favorable customer reaction helps solidify the marketers decision to
introduce the product and also provides other valuable information such as
estimated purchase rates and understanding how the product will be used by
the customer. Reaction that is less favorable may suggest the need for
adjustments to elements of the marketing mix. Once these are made the
marketer may again have the customer test the product. In addition to
gaining customer feedback, this step is used to gauge the feasibility of
large-scale, cost effective production for manufactured products.

Step 6. MARKET TESTING

Products surviving to Step 6 are ready to be tested as real products. In
some cases the marketer accepts what was learned from concept testing and
skips over market testing to launch the idea as a fully marketed product. But
other companies may seek more input from a larger group before moving to
commercialization. The most common type of market testing makes the
product available to a selective small segment of the target market (e.g., one
city), which is exposed to the full marketing effort as they would be to any
product they could purchase. In some cases, especially with consumer
products sold at retail stores, the marketer must work hard to get the
product into the test market by convincing distributors to agree to purchase
and place the product on their store shelves. In more controlled test
markets distributors may be paid a fee if they agree to place the product on
their shelves to allow for testing. Another form of market testing found
with consumer products is even more controlled with customers recruited to
a laboratory store where they are given shopping instructions. Product
interest can then be measured based on customers shopping response.

Finally, there are several high-tech approaches to market testing including
virtual reality and computer simulations. With virtual reality testing
customers are exposed to a computer-projected environment, such as a
store, and are asked to locate and select products. With computer
simulations customers may not be directly involved at all. Instead certain
variables are entered into a sophisticated computer program and estimates
of a target markets response are calculated.



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Step 7. COMMERCIALIZATION

If market testing displays promising results the product is ready to be
introduced to a wider market. Some firms introduce or roll-out the product
in waves with parts of the market receiving the product on different
schedules. This allows the company to ramp up production in a more
controlled way and to fine tune the marketing mix as the product is
distributed to new areas.

Managing Existing Products

Marketing strategies developed for initial product introduction almost
certainly need to be revised as the product settles into the market. While
commercialization may be the last step in the new product development
process it is just the beginning of managing the product. Adjusting the
products marketing strategy is required for many reasons including:

Changing customer tastes
Domestic and foreign competitors
Economic conditions
Technological advances

To stay on top of all possible threats the marketer must monitor all aspects
of the marketing mix and make changes as needed. Such efforts require the
marketer to develop and refine the products marketing plan on a regular
basis. In fact, as we will discuss in a later section of this tutorial, marketing
strategies change as a product moves through time leading to the concept
called the Product Life Cycle (PLC). We will see that marketers make
numerous revisions to their strategy as product move through different
stage of the PLC.

We have followed every necessary step for introducing our Brand in this
revolutionize and modern market. We are well aware of the peoples taste so
we are not going to bore them with a single product but hope they would
believe in our quality and taste and will give us opportunity to bring more
products after this launch.

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NILE, its Nature can compete easily with the other developed largest
distribution network in the country...so in accordance with the current
product positioning and sales network the any issue can be resolved
effectively.
The main issue for NILE, its Nature is to compete with Nestls brand
power...Pure life has really proved to be an active brand over the last three
years or so...the positing is good as well.

But the main problem with NILE, its Nature is that not many are aware of
the new Launch of NILE. But our promotion department has tried its best to
create awareness among people. This product for all season....NILE (its
Nature) is not a CSD or some summer drink.






















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PRICE

rice is second most component of the four Ps of the market mix. Price is
defined as The amount of money charged for a product or service or
the sum of the values that consumers exchange for the benefits of having or
using the product or service. Simply price is the amount of money with
utility needed to acquire a product and utility is an attribute with the
potential to satisfy wants.

Price is what you pay for what you get.

Price is the only element of the mix that provides revenue, the other
elements are costs (there is cost in building product or service, promoting it,
and placing or distributing it). It is extremely important for marketers to
remember that individuals in a market are highly receptive not only to the
price of an item, but also to the value offered by the product.
Successful companies take special consideration at the different parts
involved in setting its prices. For this they take into account that the prices
they offer for their products and services must strike a balance between
gaining acceptance with the target customers and making the profit for the
organization. Item such as list price, discounts, allowances, payment periods
and credit terms are items that work together to set the price of the
product.

The prices of NILE, its nature is based on the value based pricing which
means that we use several standards to define the price like product design ,
product cost, delivery etc. Our prices are not too high but they fall between
high and low that is they are sufficient to create demand and to produce a
profit.

When setting price we have considered:
Whether to discount or not.
The price that the competition charges.
The cost of providing the product.
The companys market position.
P

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The type or nature of demand e.g. If an increase or decrease of price
will effect amounts purchased.
The market segment we are seeking to attract.

Price is also the marketing variable that can be changed most quickly,
perhaps in response to a competitor price change. Price is the amount of
money charged for a product or service or the value exchanged for the
benefits of the product or service.

For a new product, we must understand our positioning before set a price.
We must make sure it is not too low, or the product will not be taken
seriously. If it is too high, the potential customer will not take the risk.Put
simply, price is the amount of money or goods for which a thing is bought or
sold. The price of a product may be seen as a financial expression of the
value of that product.

For a consumer, price is the monetary expression of the value to be
enjoyed/benefits of purchasing a product, as compared with other available
items.

The concept of value can therefore be expressed as:

(perceived) VALUE = (perceived) BENEFITS (perceived) COSTS

A customers motivation to purchase a product comes firstly from a need and
a want: e.g.

Need: "I need to eat
Want: I would like to go out for a meal tonight"

The second motivation comes from a perception of the value of a product in
satisfying that need/want (e.g. "I really fancy a McDonalds").The perception
of the value of a product varies from customer to customer, because
perceptions of benefits and costs vary.

Perceived benefits are often largely dependent on personal taste (e.g. spicy
versus sweet, or green versus blue). In order to obtain the maximum possible

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value from the available market, businesses try to segment the market
that is to divide up the market into groups of consumers whose preferences
are broadly similar and to adapt their products to attract these customers.
In general, a products perceived value may be increased in one of two ways
either by:

Increasing the benefits that the product will deliver, or,
Reducing the cost.

For consumers, the PRICE of a product is the most obvious indicator of cost
hence the need to get product pricing right.

Importance of Pricing

When we talk about what they do as
part of their responsibilities for
marketing products, the tasks
associated with setting price are often
not at the top of the list. We are much
more likely to discuss their activities
related to promotion, product
development, market research and other
tasks that are viewed as the more
interesting and exciting parts of the job. Yet pricing decisions can have
important consequences for the marketing organization and the attention
given by the marketer to pricing is just as important as the attention given
to more recognizable marketing activities. Some reasons pricing is
important include:

Most Flexible Marketing Mix Variable

For us price is the most adjustable of all marketing decisions. Unlike
product and distribution decisions, which can take months or years to
change, or some forms of promotion which can be time consuming to alter
(e.g., television advertisement), price can be changed very rapidly. The
flexibility of pricing decisions is particularly important in times when the

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marketer seeks to quickly stimulate demand or respond to competitor price
actions.
For instance, a marketer can agree to a field salespersons request to lower
price for a potential prospect during a phone conversation. Likewise a
marketer in charge of online operations can raise prices on hot selling
products with the click of a few website buttons.

Setting the Right Price

Pricing decisions made hastily without sufficient research, analysis, and
strategic evaluation can lead to the marketing organization losing revenue.
Prices set too low may mean the company is missing out on additional profits
that could be earned if the target market is willing to spend more to acquire
the product.
Additionally, attempts to raise an initially low priced product to a higher
price may be met by customer resistance as they may feel the marketer is
attempting to take advantage of their customers. Prices set too high can
also impact revenue as it prevents interested customers from purchasing the
product. Setting the right price level often takes considerable market
knowledge and, especially with new products, testing of different pricing
options.

Trigger of First Impressions

Often times customers perception of a product is formed as soon as they
learn the price, such as when a product is first seen when walking down the
aisle of a store. While the final decision to make a purchase may be based
on the value offered by the entire marketing offering (i.e., entire product),
it is possible the customer will not evaluate a marketers product at all based
on price alone.
It is important for marketers to know if customers are more likely to
dismiss a product when all they know is its price. If so, pricing may become
the most important of all marketing decisions if it can be shown that
customers are avoiding learning more about the product because of the
price.


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Important Part of Sales Promotion

Many times price adjustments is part of sales promotions that lower price
for a short term to stimulate interest in the product. However, as we noted
in our discussion of promotional pricing in the Sales Promotion Tutorial,
marketers must guard against the temptation to adjust prices too
frequently since continually increasing and decreasing price can lead
customers to be conditioned to anticipate price reductions and,
consequently, withhold purchase until the price reduction occurs again.

Objectives of Pricing

Pricing objectives or goals give direction to the whole pricing process.
Determining what our objectives are is the first step in pricing. When
deciding on pricing objectives we must consider: 1) the overall financial,
marketing, and strategic objectives of the company; 2) the objectives of our
product or brand; 3) consumer price elasticity and price points; and 4) the
resources we have available.

Some of the more common pricing objectives are:

Maximize long-run profit
Maximize short-run profit
Increase sales volume (quantity)
Increase dollar sales
Increase market share
Obtain a target rate of return on investment (ROI)
Obtain a target rate of return on sales
Stabilize market or stabilize market price: an objective to stabilize
price means that the marketing manager attempts to keep prices
stable in the marketplace and to compete on non-price considerations.
Stabilization of margin is basically a cost-plus approach in which the


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manager attempts to maintain the same margin regardless of changes
in cost.
Company growth
Maintain price leadership
Desensitize customers to price
Discourage new entrants into the industry
Match competitors prices
Encourage the exit of marginal firms from the industry
Survival
Avoid government investigation or intervention
Obtain or maintain the loyalty and enthusiasm of distributors and
other sales personnel
Enhance the image of the firm, brand, or product
Be perceived as fair by customers and potential customers
Create interest and excitement about a product
Discourage competitors from cutting prices
Use price to make the product visible"
Build store traffic
Help prepare for the sale of the business (harvesting)
Social, ethical, or ideological objectives
Get competitive advantage

Some other objectives are..

Achieve a Target Return

A firm may price its product to achieve a target return-a specified
percentage return on its sales or on its investment. Many retailers and
wholesalers use a target return on sales as a pricing objective for short
periods such as a year or a fashion season. They add amount to the cost of

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the product, called a markup, to cover anticipated operating expense and
provide a desired profit for a period.

Achieving a target return on investment is measured in relation to a firms
net worth (its assets minus its liabilities). This pricing goal is often used by
the leading firm in an industry. The leaders price so that they earn profit on
the net worth.

Current Revenue Maximization

It seeks to maximize the current revenues with no regards to profit margin.
The underlying objective often is to maximize long-term profits by increase
market share and lowering cost.

In both economic theory and business practice there is nothing wrong with
the profit maximization. Theoretically if the profits become high in an
industry because supply is short with respect to demand, new capital will be
attracted to increase production capacity. This will increase supply and
eventually reduce the profits. A profit maximization goal is likely to be far
more beneficial to the company if it is pursued over the long term. To do
this, however, firms may have to accept the modest profits or even loses
over the short term.

Maximize Quantity

It seeks to maximize the number of units sold or the number of customers
served in order to decrease long-term costs as predicted by the experience
curve. In growing fields the companies want large shares in order to gain
added clout with the vendors, drive down the production cost, or project a
dominance appearance to consumers.

Maximize Profit Margin

Older products that appeal to a market that is no longer growing may have a
company objective requiring the price be set at a level that optimizes
profits. This is often the case when the marketer has little incentive to

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introduce improvements to the product (e.g., demand for product is
declining) and will continue to sell the same product at a price premium for
as long as some in the market is willing to buy.

Quality Leadership

It use price to signal high quality in an attempt to position the product as
the quality leader.

Partial Recovery of Costs

An organization that has other revenue source may seek only partial cost
recovery.

Cash Flow

Firms may seek to set prices at a level that will insure that sales revenue will
at least cover product production and marketing costs. This is most likely to
occur with new products where the organizational objectives allow a new
product to simply meet its expenses while efforts are made to establish the
product in the market. This objective allows the marketer to worry less
about product profitability and instead directs energies to building a market
for the product.

Survival

In situation as market decline and overcapacity the goal may be to select a
price that will cover cost and permit the firm to remain in the market. In
this case survival may take priority over profits, so this objective is
considered temporarily.

Status Quo

In this two closely related goals are stabilizing prices and meeting
competition. They are intended simply to maintain the firms current


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situation that is, the status quo. With either of these goals the firm seeks
to avoid price competition.

Price stabilization is often the goal in the industry where they product is
highly standardized such as steel or bulk chemicals and where one large firm
act as the leader in setting price. The smaller firms follow the leader in
setting price. Firms that adopt status quo pricing goals to avoid price
competition may not necessarily be passive in their marketing. Typically
these companies compete aggressively by using other marketing mix
elements- product, promotion, and distribution. This approach is called the
non-price competition.

Pricing and Estimated Demand

In pricing a company, must estimates the total demands of the product.
Demand is the quantity of goods which can be bought at a given price.
Successful businesses are those who can satisfy the consumer demand and
can get

The right goods to the right place, at the right time and at the right
price

The steps in estimating demand are:

Determine whether there is a price the market expects.
Estimates what the sales volume might be at different prices.
The expected price of the product is the price at which customers
consciously or unconsciously value it-what they think the product is worth.
Expected prices usually are the range of prices rather than as a specific
amount.

Factors Affecting Demand
Some factors affecting the demand for a product are

Within the control of a business and
Outside the control of a business

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Factors within a businesses control include:
Price (assuming an imperfect market i.e. not perfect competition)
Product research and development
Advertising & sales promotion
Training and organization of the sales force
Effectiveness of distribution (e.g. access to retail outlets; trained
distributor agents)
Quality of after-sales service (e.g. which affects demand from
repeat-business)
Factors outside the control of business include:
price of substitute goods and services
The price of complementary goods and services
Consumers disposable income
Consumer tastes and fashions
Pricing in Different types of Markets

The sellers pricing freedom varies with different types of markets.
Economists recognize four types of markets, each presenting a different
pricing challenge.







Under Pure Competition

This market consists of many buyers and sellers trading in a uniform
commodity such as wheat copper or financial security. No single buyer
or seller has much effect on the going market price.

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A seller cannot charge more than the going price, because buyer can
obtain as much as they need at the going price. Nor would sellers sell
charge less than the market price because they can sell all, they want
at this price.

Under Monopolistic Competition

The market consists of many buyers and sellers who trade over a
range of prices rather than a single price. A range of prices occurs
because sellers can differentiate their offers to buyers.

Under Oligopolistic Competition

The market consists of few sellers who are highly sensitive to each
others pricing and marketing strategies. The product can be uniform
(steel, aluminum) or non uniform (cars, computers). There are few
sellers because it is difficult for new sellers to enter the market.
Each seller is alert to competitors strategies and moves.

In Pure Monopoly

The market consists of one seller. The seller may be a government
monopoly (the U.S postal service), a private regulated monopoly (a
power company), or a private no regulated monopoly.

Analyzing the Price-Demand Relationship

Each price the company might charge will lead to a different level of
demand. The relationship between the price charged and the resulting
demand level is shown in the demand curve. The demand curve shows the
number of units the market will buy in a given time period, at different
prices that might be charged. In the normal case, demand and price are
inversely related: that is, that is the higher the price, the lower the demand.
In short, consumers with limited budgets probably will buy less of some
thing if its price is too high. In the case of prestige goods, the demand


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curve sometimes slopes upward. Consumers think that higher prices mean
more quality.

Most companies try to measure their demand curves by estimating demand
at different prices. The type of market makes a difference. In a monopoly,
the demand curve shows the total market demand resulting from different
prices. If the company faces competitions, its demand at different prices
will depend on whether competitors prices stay constant or change with the
companys own prices.

Price Elasticity Demand

A measure of the sensitivity of demand to change in price. The price
elasticity of demand is given by the following formula:

Price elasticity of Demand = %Change in Quantity Demanded
% Change in Demand

Finally, buyers are price sensitive when the total expenditure for a product
is low relative to their income or when another party shares the cost. Price
is, therefore, a critically important element of the choices available to
businesses in trying to attract demand for their products.

Elasticity of Demand

Marketers should never rest on their marketing decisions. They must
continually use market research and their own judgment to determine
whether marketing decisions need to be adjusted. When it comes to
adjusting price, the marketer must understand what effect a change in price
is likely to have on target market demand for a product.

Understanding how price changes impact the market requires the marketer
have a firm understanding of the concept economists call elasticity of
demand, which relates to how purchase quantity changes as prices change.
Elasticity is evaluated under the assumption that no other changes are being
made (i.e., all things being equal) and only price is adjusted. The logic is to
see how price by itself will affect overall demand. Obviously, the chance of

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nothing else changing in the market but the price of one product is often
unrealistic. For example, competitors may react to the marketers price
change by changing the price on their product. Despite this, elasticity
analysis does serve as a useful tool for estimating market reaction.
Elasticity deals with three types of demand scenarios:

Elastic Demand

Products are considered to exist in a market that exhibits elastic
demand when a certain percentage change in price results in a larger and
opposite percentage change in demand. For example, if the price of a
product increases (decreases) by 10%, the demand for the product is
likely to decline (rise) by greater than 10%.

Inelastic Demand

Products are considered to exist in an inelastic market when a certain
percentage change in price results in a smaller and opposite percentage
change in demand. For example, if the price of a product increases
(decreases) by 10%, the demand for the product is likely to decline
(rise) by less than 10%.

Unitary Demand

This demand occurs when a percentage change in price results in an equal
and opposite percentage change in demand. For example, if the price of
a product increases (decreases) by 10%, the demand for the product is
likely to decline (rise) by 10%.

For us the important issue with elasticity of demand is to understand
how it impacts company revenue. In general the following scenarios
apply to making price changes for a given type of market demand:
For elastic markets increasing price lowers total revenue while
decreasing price
Increases total revenue.


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For inelastic markets increasing price raises total revenue while
decreasing price lowers total revenue.
For unitary markets there is no change in revenue when price is
changed.
Customer and Channel Partner Expectation

Possibly the most obvious external factors that influence price setting are
the expectations of customers and channel partners. As we discussed, when
it comes to making a purchase decision customers assess the overall value
of a product much more than they assess the price. When deciding on a
price marketers need to conduct customer research to determine what
price points are acceptable. Pricing beyond these price points could
discourage customers from purchasing.

Firms within the marketers channels of distribution also must be considered
when determining price. Distribution partners expect to receive financial
compensation for their efforts, which usually means they will receive a
percentage of the final selling price. This percentage or margin between
what they pay the marketer to acquire the product and the price they
charge their customers must be sufficient for the distributor to cover their
costs and also earn a desired profit.

Competitive and Related Products

Marketers will undoubtedly look to market competitors for indications of
how price should be set. For many marketers of consumer products
researching competitive pricing is relatively easy, particularly when Internet
search tools are used. Price analysis can be somewhat more complicated for
products sold to the business market since final price may be affected by a
number of factors including if competitors allow customers to negotiate
their final price. Analysis of competition will include pricing by direct
competitors, related products and primary products.




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Direct Competitor Pricing
Almost all marketing decisions, including pricing, will include an evaluation of
competitors offerings. The impact of this information on the actual setting
of price will depend on the competitive nature of the market. For instance,
products that dominate markets and are viewed as market leaders may not
be heavily influenced by competitor pricing since they are in a commanding
position to set prices as they see fit. On the other hand in markets where a
clear leader does not exist, the pricing of competitive products will be
carefully considered.

Marketers must not only research competitive prices but must also pay close
attention to how these companies will respond to the marketers pricing
decisions. For instance, in highly competitive industries, such as gasoline or
airline travel, competitors may respond quickly to competitors price
adjustments thus reducing the effect of such changes.

Related Product Pricing

Products that offer new ways for solving customer needs may look to pricing
of products that customers are currently using even though these other
products may not appear to be direct competitors. For example, a marketer
of a new online golf instruction service that allows customers to access golf
instruction via their computer may look at prices charged by local golf
professionals for in-person instruction to gauge where to set their price.
While on the surface online golf instruction may not be a direct competitor
to a golf instructor, marketers for the online service can use the cost of in-
person instruction as a reference point for setting price.

Primary Product Pricing

As we discussed in the Product Decisions Tutorial, marketers may sell
products viewed as complementary to a primary product. For example,
Bluetooth headsets are considered complementary to the primary product
cell phones. The pricing of complementary products may be affected by
pricing changes made to the primary product since customers may compare
the price for complementary products based on the primary product price.


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Government Regulation

Marketers must be aware of regulations that impact how price is set in the
markets in which their products are sold. These regulations are primarily
government enacted meaning that there may be legal ramifications if the
rules are not followed. Price regulations can come from any level of
government and vary widely in their requirements. For instance, in some
industries, government regulation may set price ceilings (how high price may
be set) while in other industries there may be price floors (how low price
may be set). Additional areas of potential regulation include: deceptive
pricing, price discrimination, predatory pricing and price fixing.

Finally, when selling beyond their home market, marketers must recognize
that local regulations may make pricing decisions different for each market.
This is particularly a concern when selling to international markets where
failure to consider regulations can lead to severe penalties. Consequently
marketers must have a clear understanding of regulations in each market
they serve.

Pricing as Part of the Mix

In marketing terms, pricing is viewed as part of the marketing mix, along
with Promotion, Place (distribution), Product (i.e. the product/service you are
offering) and (for services) People and Process. There usually is a tradeoff
between product quality and price so price is an important variable in
positioning. Because of inherent tradeoffs between marketing mix elements,
pricing is depend on the other product, distribution and promotion decisions.
Product.

As discussed above a products price is affected by whether it is a new one
or established product. Over the life cycle of a product the price changes is
necessary in order to make it competitive one. A products price is also
influenced by whether
It may be leased or as well as purchase outright
A trade-in is involved.

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It may be returned by the customer to a seller for a refund or an
exchange e.g. a firm that has the liberal return policy may compensate
by having higher initial prices.
The end use of the product must also be considered .for instance there is a
little price competition among the manufacturers of packaging materials so
their prices are relatively stable. These business products are only an
incidental part of the final article, so customers will buy the least expensive
product consistent with the required quality.

Distribution Channels

The channels and type of middle man selected will influence the producers
pricing. A firm selling through both wholesalers and directly to retailers
often sets a different factory price for these classes of customers. The
prices to wholesalers is lower because they perform services that the
producer would have to perform, such as providing storage, granting credits
to retailers and selling to small retailers.

Promotion

The extent to which the product is promoted by the producer or middleman
and the methods used are added in consideration in pricing. If major
promotional responsibility is placed on retailers, they ordinarily will be
charged a lower price for a product than if the producer advertises it
heavily. Even when a producer promotes heavily, it may want retailers to use
local advertising to tie in with national advertising. Such a decision must be
reflected in the products price to retailers.

Philip Kotler, a marketing guru who has written extensively about marketing
of services and marketing in non-profit organizations, has redefined the
'P's' of the Marketing Mix as 'C's'. In this new system, 'Price' becomes
'Cost to the user'. This is a useful reminder that a user will look at all the
time, money and energy they have expended in order to use the service, not
just the part we charge for. Therefore, users might be willing to pay extra
for a service that delivered information directly to their door, because the
overall cost to them is lower, rather than paying less and having to collect
the information themselves.

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If we are starting out, or feel that a change in strategy is needed, it is
important to get feedback from users and potential users, rather than
jumping to conclusions. However, when drawing up questionnaires or handling
focus groups, the question of price has to be approached carefully.
On the one hand, a number of information brokers have commented that
what people say they are prepared to pay in theory (i.e. when answering a
pre-service questionnaire), does not tally with what they are prepared to pay
in practice. In addition, users may prefer to say 'I didn't use the service
again because it was too expensive' rather than giving the real reason (e.g.
'I didn't use it again because the person doing my search used a lot of
jargon and didn't explain why she didn't find much') because the 'price'
answer is less likely to be probed and challenged.

Therefore, we may not want to ask directly how much people are willing to
pay for a service: it may be more useful to find out which services are valued
most, and to analyze user needs and usage patterns, in order to identify
what people would be willing to pay most for.

Knowing Costs

In order to be able to price something, need to know how much it costs. This
means having Management Information Systems (MIS) which provide
information on the separate services .If you work as part of an organisation,
it is important to know what they mean by cost recovery: does this mean
direct costs only, or all costs including overheads such as accommodation,
heating and superannuation? Different organizations allocate overheads in
different ways. A bluffer's knowledge of accounting terms and MIS jargon
will be very useful.

Types of costs

A common way of distinguishing costs is to look at whether they are fixed or
variable costs, and whether they are direct costs or overheads.

Fixed costs -In an industry fixed costs like rent, executive
salaries or property tax remains constant regardless of the fact that
how many units are produced.

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Such a cost continues even if the production stops completely. It is
called a fixed cost because it is difficult to change in the short run
(but not in the long run). In an organization it is that which is the
same whatever the usage (e.g. a journal subscription, photocopier
rental): they may also involve an up-front commitment.

Variable costs-In a manufacturing company variable costs are
those which vary according to usage (e.g. online searches, photocopy
paper costs). Variable cost can be controlled in the short run simply
by changing the level of production. When production stops, for
example, all variable production costs become zero .In organizations
which are worried about cash flow, there may be a preference for
incurring variable costs (less risk of paying for something you do not
use).

Direct costs-Direct costs are those which can be associated
directly with the service (eg a journal or piece of equipment bought
specifically for use in one service). Overheads are costs which benefit
a range of services (eg the cost of heating and lighting university
buildings). A salaried employee employed on a specific service might
be seen as a fixed, direct cost. An online search carried out for the
same service would be a variable direct cost.

A number of fee-based services have found that they need to keep
more detailed records than their organizations MIS is able to
provide. If you work in the sort of organization where objectives may
be changed without warning, then it is useful to have costing data to
hand which will enable you to work out quickly, for example, the effect
of having to include accommodation costs for the first time, or split
costs differently between internal clients.

Total fixed cost: is the sum of all fixed costs.
Average fixed cost: is the total fixed cost divided by the number
of units produced.


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Total variable cost: is the sum of all variable costs. The more
units produced the higher the cost is.
Average variable cost: is the total variable costs divided by the
number of units produced. Average variable cost is usually higher for
the first few units produced. And it decrease as production increase
because of such things as quantity discounts on the materials and
more efficient use of labor. Beyond some optimum output it increases
because of such factors as crowding of production facilities and
overtime pays
Total Cost: is the sum of total fixed cost and total variable cost for
a specific quantity produced.
Average Total Cost: is total cost divided by the number of units
produced.
Marginal Cost: is the cost of producing and selling one more unit.
Usually the marginal cost of the last unit is the same as that units
variable cost.

Factors Affecting Pricing Decision

The final price for a product may be influenced by many factors which can
be categorized into two main groups:

Internal Factors

When setting price, marketers must take into consideration several factors
which are the result of company decisions and actions. To a large extent
these factors are controllable by the company and, if necessary, can be
altered. However, while the organization may have control over these
factors making a quick change is not always realistic. For instance, product
pricing may depend heavily on the productivity of a manufacturing facility
(e.g., how much can be produced within a certain period of time).



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The marketer knows that increasing productivity can reduce the cost of
producing each product and thus allow the marketer to potentially lower the
products price. But increasing productivity may require major changes at
the manufacturing facility that will take time (not to mention be costly) and
will not translate into lower price products for a considerable period of time.

External Factors

There are a number of influencing factors which are not controlled by the
company but will impact pricing decisions. Understanding these factors
requires the marketer conduct research to monitor what is happening in
each market the company serves since the effect of these factors can vary
by market.

Factors

There are many factors which will have an influence on pricing and the
better our understanding of these factors, the more likely we are to be able
to set the optimum prices. No business can survive without generating
enough profit, so setting the right price for our product or service is
essential to the success of our enterprise. There are a number of
established techniques for setting prices and the one we use will depend
upon; our market, our customers, our competitors and so on.

Mark-up and margin pricing

This is where our profit is either determined as a percentage of the cost
price or of the sell price. Where the profit percentage is based on the cost
price, it is referred to as mark-up. Where it is based on the sell price it is
known as margin.

Pricing by competition

This type of pricing is common where the products for sale are available
from a large number of suppliers, the margins are narrow and the customers


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are especially price-sensitive. Going rate pricing effectively means that we
match the prices that are being offered by our competitors.

Breakeven pricing

Breakeven pricing is where we calculate the breakeven point of our business
- the point at which our sales income and our fixed and variable costs are
equal - and set our prices by adding our profit margin onto our unit price.

Perception pricing

This type of pricing technique may require a significant amount of market
research. It is often suitable where a brand new type of product is being
introduced into the marketplace and the price is determined by what our
target market perceives to be its value, i.e how much they would pay for it.

Rule of thumb pricing

The rule of thumb technique is simple and lends itself better to certain
types of businesses such as construction or repair services. An example of a
rule of thumb formula would be where a building contractor would charge
twice the cost of the raw materials plus labour or twice the cost of the
labour plus the raw material costs, whichever is the greater.

Contract pricing

Vying with our competitors for a contract can be a risky business if we are
not sure of our market. our pricing will depend on what our profit objectives
are and a general understanding of what our competitors are likely to be
offering. Bear in mind that if we tender for a lot of business and our success
rate is very high, we might be offering our service or product too cheaply.
Many businesses use their own tailored pricing techniques and these vary
greatly. They all have a number of factors in common, however. They take
into consideration factors such as; competition, products, the state of the
market, the value of your stock, demand and supply, and are calculated to
cover costs and provide an adequate profit in the long term.

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We use perception pricing for our new lunching Nile, its nature product
because this type of pricing technique may require a significant amount of
market research. It is often suitable where a brand new type of product is
being introduced into the marketplace.

Common Mistakes with Pricing

These include:

Not being varied enough

Commercial operators adapt pricing strategy to different market segments
and also provide different 'packages' (with product variations, and promoted
and priced in different ways). Price negotiation is part of business life.
Those running a service from within a public-sector organisation may
unfortunately find that their managers view differential pricing as
suspicious (or illegal).

Being set unrealistically

for example, too low to cover costs. Not being the result of a marketing
decision. This can happen when someone further up in our organization takes
a policy decision on pricing (often without thinking-through the implications).

Not providing tangible packages

Intangibility is a problem common to services - clients cannot view the
product in advance to confirm its appropriateness and value. Some
information brokers approach this problem by creating packages which can
at least be understood by the potential client, even if they cannot be
previewed. Examples are: providing a certain number of news stories for a
fixed fee; having a fixed charge for a company profile. Document supply is in
fact the most obvious example.

Being too cost-orientated

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Being incomprehensible to the client

This can easily happen if we try and reflect costs too exactly. Online search
charges are difficult enough for information professionals to understand.
Clients will generally respond better to a pricing structure that charges
more if more information is supplied. Some brokers do this informally, but it
can be a better idea to fit this in as a formal part of our pricing strategy. It
may mean that (for example)we make relatively little profit on searches
which did not find much information, and considerably more on searches
which were 'successful'. There are some types of search in which the client
will be happiest if little or no information is found (for example patent
searches), and if we have significant numbers of this type of search we
obviously would not want to adopt a find-less/charge-less approach.

To say that guesswork is never an element of pricing would be unrealistic.
However, it should be used with caution. The fact that there have been
numerous examples of information brokers struggling for survival (and in
some cases going under) because they are not sufficiently profitable,
indicates that their pricing strategy (but almost certainly not only their
pricing strategy) was flawed.

The services which are surviving today are the ones which have tackled
pricing as part of their overall marketing strategy and are managing their
strategy in response to their market. What do the following words have in
common? Fare, dues, tuition, interest, rent, and fee. The answer is that
each of these is a term used to describe what one must pay to acquire
benefits from another party. More commonly, most people simply use the
word price to indicate what it costs to acquire a product.
The pricing decision is a critical one for most marketers, yet the amount of
attention given to this key area is often much less than is given to other
marketing decisions.

One reason for the lack of attention is that many believe price setting is a
mechanical process requiring the marketer to utilize financial tools, such as
spreadsheets, to build their case for setting price levels. While financial
tools are widely used to assist in setting price, marketers must consider
many other factors when arriving at the price for which their

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Tips for successful pricing


Good product prices are important to any
successful business. Pricing takes
creativity, time, research, good
recordkeeping and flexibility. We need to
balance the costs of producing a product
with competition and the perceptions of our
target customer to select the right product
price. Follow these tips to ensure greater
pricing success.

Be creative
Think of new ways to sell more to existing customers or to attract
new customer groups.
Listen to our customer
Make a point of noting customer comments in a journal or file. Review
them periodically to glean new ideas.
Do our homework
Keep good notes of how we arrived at a price so we can make similar
assumptions in the future.
Boost our records
Good record keeping will help we to set a price and to track the
performance of our pricing.
Cover the basics
The three basics of pricing involve product price, competition and
customers. Blend pricing methods to ensure the three basics are in
balance.
Be flexible
Constantly review both internal and external factors and calculate
how a price change would affect the new situation.

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Launching Nile , its nature these are the most effective tips which ensure
the greater pricing success of our product.

Pricing is an important business decisions

Pricing our product or service is one of the most important business
decisions we will make. We must offer our products for a price our target
market is willing to pay - and one that produces a profit for our company - or
we won't be in business for long. There are many approaches to pricing, some
scientific, some not. Here is one framework for making pricing decisions that
takes into account our costs, the effects of competition and the customer's
perception of value.

Six Steps to Price Product

Pricing is a balancing process. We want to create a price that is low enough
to be accepted by our market, but high enough to make us the greatest
amount of profit. To do this, follow these 6 steps:

The first step in defining a price is to determine our costs. We will
keep it simple and concentrate on the cost per product. We will not
take into consideration the fixed cost of our business such as rent,
phone, etc., because these costs will change in accordance to both
sales per period and the number of products we offer. So begin by
accounting for the our initial cost plus the cost to get the product to
the consumers, such as marketing, shipping, handling, and credit cards
or bank fees.

Now that we know our cost per product, do some research and find
out the competitions' price range. Analyze products that are in direct
competition with ours. Only make a comparison of items that closely
resemble our product.
If we know the characteristics of our audience, it will be easier to
create a price that will be acceptable to them. Without this


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information, our business will be more apt to fail. For example, try
selling an in-depth marketing course complete with audiotapes, videos,
a hands-on workbook, and 12 months of unlimited phone support for
$2000.00 to someone who does not even know how he will pay his bills
this week. Then try selling this same course for $19.95 to a well-
established businessperson seeking ways to improve his business.

Decide on our desired position in the marketplace with regard to
price. A high price coupled with a quality product conveys the message
that our product is superior to that of the competition. Low prices
convey the message that we are focusing on discount selling. So what
does a middle price convey? In-between pricing doesn't say much,
does it? If we decide on the high price category, be sure to add value
to our product. We can do this by bundling multiple products, giving a
guarantee that is unheard of in the industry, etc.

Most people under price, or "lowball" their product, because they
think that
People won't pay the higher price,
Their product is not worth it
They will make more sales with a lower price.

Your products won't sell themselves. You must take the time and
effort to create a marketing strategy. This is one of the most
important parts of your business. It will take the same amount of
effort to create a marketing strategy whether your product is priced
high or low. The steps involved are identical.

Selling for less may result in more sales, but it will also mean less
profit, which translates into marketing that won't allow for mistakes,
or limited support for customers. Also, it will be difficult to improve
upon your product because low profits won't allow for the added
expense and customer service will suffer. You will end up working too
hard for the profits.

Selling for more allows you to increase your marketing and improve
quality, customer service, and support. Also, when you're making a

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good profit in your business, you tend to stay motivated and expand
your business as opposed to just getting by.

The above steps are a good beginning, but fine-tuning the process
means taking the market into consideration. It is the market that will
set the ultimate price. We suggest that we start off with a low price,
test the market and record the results, then raise the price and test
again. Keep doing this until we notice that sales are starting to drop
off. When we get to the highest point before sales drop off, we have
found the ultimate market price for our product. Be sure
circumstances are similar for each of our tests to ensure that it was
the price that caused a change in sales and not some other factor.

By now we should have determined the optimal price for our product
based on our market. The final step is to make sure that this price will
be profitable for us. If we find that it won't be, we will then have to
find a way to cut costs without sacrificing our product's perceived
value.

Take the time to fine-tune our pricing and we will reap the benefits
from increased sales and profits, or, at the very least, be reassured
that our price has been right all along.

Launching Nile, its nature we have concentrate on these sixes steps to price
our product and acceptable by our market and high enough to make the
greatest amount of profit.

Stating the Problem

Let us first say that our goal is to find the
price at which profit is maximized. If we say
that a price is "too high" or "too low," we are
saying that our profit could have been greater
if we had set the price either lower or higher.
Obviously, revenue is the simple multiplication
of quantity by price:

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Revenue = Quantity * Price

Where "Quantity" is the total number of units we sell, and "Price" is the
amount we charged for each unit. The only variable we can control is the
price. But the price we choose will influence the quantity sold. In a simplified
view of the world, we would draw a graph with price on the x axis and
revenue on the y axis. The curve would look like a parabola. The price we
want is the value of x at the point at which the curve peaks. However, in real
life, pricing is far more complicated than this.

It Starts with Posiotioning

Pricing and positioning are inseparable. Don't bother trying to figure out our
price point until we first figure out what position our product will have in the
market.
Ask our self these four questions:
Who are our competitors? Either there is a huge success or a huge
failure.
How is our product different from our competitors? We should have a
very short answer to this question, and we should be able to deliver it
quickly. One important caveat: If we think our primary differentiator
is price, think again. Differentiation is absolutely critical, but using
low prices as our primary differentiator is a well-worn path to failure.
How do we want to be known in our market? We need to be able to
describe what position you want to have in terms of the way we want
our target market to perceive us.

Think About Expenses
In more traditional industries, a classic approach to the pricing problem is
called "cost plus." Basically, "cost plus" means that we determine our product
price by taking all our costs and adding the amount of profit we want. We
don't really want to price things this way. The software industry is maturing,
but our markets are a long way from the day when they behave like actual

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commodities. Our pricing should not be primarily based on our expenses. We
want to charge the maximum amount that our customers are willing to pay.
However, that doesn't mean we should completely ignore our expenses when
we make our pricing decisions. Whatever price we choose, we do have to
convince ourselves that we can in fact make a profit. We need to identify all
our costs, being careful not to overlook any of them that might be hiding.
The total of all of those expenses will help us define the floorthe minimum
price we can consider.

Cost of goods

The price paid for the bike is called "cost of goods." The difference
between cost of goods and the product price is usually called "markup." In
traditional businesses, the amount of markup varies widely. Clothing at the
mall may be sold at 100% markup. A clothing business may buy a shirt for
$15 and sell it for $30. The markup on a gallon of milkor a small sedanis
much lower.

Tech support

This cost is sometimes difficult to quantify. Customers need help. They get
themselves into strange messes and expect you to get them out. We have to
be ready to provide assistance to our customers. There are two common
ways of dealing with this:

Hire tech support people who help customers full-time.
Have our developers use a slice of their time to help customers.

There are costs associated with each of these two approaches.

Cost of selling

How are we going to sell our product?
If we have a sales guy (or gal), you have to pay his (or her) expenses
and commission. This can be an enormous amount of money.

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If we use resellers, they will expect a discount of at least 20 percent.
If we pay someone to host a Web storefront, that person will take a
percentage.
If we want your product on the shelf at a major retailer, the retailer
might take 50%.
If we accept corporate purchase orders, some percentage of them will
not be paid.
Regardless of how we do it, the act of selling costs money. We have to
include these costs somewhere in the price of our product.

Overhead

All of the costs in our business have to get paid somehow, including rent,
utilities, insurance, taxes and your T-1 line. When we calculate our costs,
don't overlook anything. Make sure our understanding of our company's
expenses is complete.

How Much Is Your Product Worth to the Customer?

One of the most important issues in our pricing decision is the matter of how
much value our product generates for our customer. This value is the
justification for the price of our product. As much as possible, it is
important to understand our customer's perspective on this. Some products
generate value that is much easier to quantify than others. Let us suppose
for a moment that we invented a molecular transporter that can instantly
"beam" an individual to any place in the world.

High-Volume-Low-Price or High-Price-Low-Volume

With apologies for grossly oversimplifying, we assert that we are facing an
important strategic decision that offers us two alternatives: Do we want to
sell our product to a few customers, each of whom will pay us a very high
price? Or would we rather sell our product to many customers, each of whom
will pay us a lower price? This matter is highly tied to the questions about

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our positioning. It is important to realize that we have these two
alternatives. In fact, there are probably a number of other opportunities
available between these two extremes.

Conventional wisdom says that if all else is equal, if we can get the same
revenue with fewer customers, we should do so. There is a certain cost
associated with having every customer. Having fewer customers reduces
those costs and simplifies things.

Is Price Too Low?

Low prices can cause all kinds of problems. Most people are naturally afraid
of setting a high price point, worrying that the customer simply won't buy
the product if it is too expensive. To balance that fear, here are two
reasons we might want to be afraid of setting a price point that is too low.

Price alone is a lousy differentiator

Referring back to the issue of positioning, it is hard to overstate the
importance of being different. Our product doesn't need to be better in
every wayit needs to be better in just one way. But as we mention above,
we don't want lower price to be our primary differentiator. It's okay to be
competitive on price, but we need something else to say as well. If our only
message is about price, a certain portion of our market will perceive our
product to be "cheap" or "low quality." If we want to be aggressive on price,
fine, but focus our message on something else. Even worse, if price is our
only message, what happens if our competitors lower their price to match?
Now we have nothing at all to say.

Add-ons
If our product is an add-on for another product, the price of the base
product will be a barrier for our own price. The market will usually
expect our product to be significantly less expensive than the base
product. For example, suppose we are selling plug-ins for Adobe
Photoshop. It is only natural that customers will raise an eyebrow if
our plug-in costs more than Photoshop itself.

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Policies
In corporate environments, our customer has spending limits. At each
rung of the corporate ladder, the organization has policies that
specify how much that person is allowed to spend without getting
higher approval. It's worth trying to make sure that our price point is
within the amount that our customer is allowed to spend. Exactly who
is making the purchasing decision for our product? Find out how much
she is allowed to spend, and price our product slightly less.

Price Is Not Just a Number

Up to this point, we have been assuming that price is simply one constant
number. It doesn't have to be.

Perfect pricing

In an ideal world, the price would be different for every customer. The
"perfect" pricing scheme would charge every customer a different amount,
extracting from each one the maximum amount they are willing to pay.
our pricing is more than just a number. A complete pricing policy contains
lots of details that we have to consider.
How will we handle volume discounts?
From what companies will we accept a purchase order?
What is our policy on refunds?
How much will we charge for shipping?
We can never make your pricing "perfect," but we can do much better than
simply setting one constant price for all situations. By carefully tuning all
these details, we can find ways to charge more money from the people who
are willing to pay more.

Tiers

The most common way to approach perfect pricing is to have a product with
multiple tiers. Each tier has a feature set and price point that is carefully

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chosen. For example:The lowest tier might be our "Standard Edition,"
supporting a very basic feature set at a very low price. The middle tier
might be our "Professional Edition," designed for the largest segment of our
market. The top tier might be our "Enterprise Edition," including every
feature and priced much higher.

Three tiers is a good number to have:
Our middle tier is our main product. Most people buy this one.
The lower tier gets our product into the hands of those who could not
otherwise afford it.
The top tier allows us to charge top dollar to the folks who are willing
to pay for the comfort of knowing they didn't miss out on a feature.
The wise use of multiple tiers can offer a very rough way of approximating
"perfect pricing."

Loss Leaders
The basic idea of a "loss leader" is to price a product very low in an effort to
gain the attention of a large number of people to whom we plan to sell
something else. Many traditional businesses do this all the time. Our grocery
store sells milk at a loss, placing it in the very back of the store so we have
to walk by a bunch of higher-profit items in order to buy it.

How to Price our Product

As you know, there are many ways to price a product. Different policies and
strategies work in various situations.

Premium Pricing:
Use a high price where there is uniqueness about the product or service.
This approach is used where a substantial competitive advantage exists.
Such high prices are charge for luxuries.
Economy Pricing
This is a no-frills low price. The cost of marketing and manufacturing are


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kept at a minimum. Supermarkets often have economy brands for soups,
spaghetti, etc.

Product Line Pricing
Where there is a range of product or services the pricing reflect the
benefits of parts of the range. For example car washes. Basic wash could
be $2, wash and wax $4 and the whole package $6.

Optional Product Pricing
Companies will attempt to increase the amount customer spend once they
start to buy. Optional 'extras' increase the overall price of the product
or service. For example, airlines will charge for optional extras such as
guaranteeing a window seat or reserving a row of seats next to each
other.

Captive Product Pricing
Where products have complements, companies will charge a premium
price where the consumer is captured. For example, a razor manufacturer
will charge a low price and recoup its margin (and more) from the sale of
the only design of blades which fit the razor.

Product Bundle Pricing
Here sellers combine several products in the same package. This also
serves to move old stock. Videos and CDs are often sold using the bundle
approach.

Tips on how we price our product or service .

It is important to make sure to have the perfect price for our product or
service. The goal with every company is to make profit. we may be wondering
how much to price our products or service. Here are ten tips on how to price
our product or service.

1. Always mark up the price at least 100% more than what you paid for
it. Your company needs to make a profit so always make sure mark up
the price at a minimum of 100% more than what we paid for it. We can

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even mark up the price to 300% more than what we paid for it
sometimes.

2. See what our other competitors prices are for each product or
service that is similar to our company. We can see how much they
charge to get a general idea of what price customers are usually
paying for each product. We want to have our price range for each
product or service somewhere in between the price range of other
competitors unless our product or service is much better than others.

3. Is our company product or service better than the other competitors?
If the products are better than the others then make sure to mark up
the price. We need to be able to back up our prices with reasons as to
why our products are better. We need to give them reasons how our
products or service will benefit them more than the competitor.

4. Is there any additional products or services that our company can
offer? We have an advantage over other competitors if they don't
currently offer an additional product or service. There is another way
that we can make more profit for our company by having even more
products or service.

5. Make sure to check out which weekends that our competitor has sales
or special deals. We need to make sure that our company offers the
same type of sales or special deals in regards to products and services
that are similar. We want the customers to buy a service or product
from our company instead of our competitor.

6. We want to become better than our competitor in regards to being
able to provide excellent customer service along with services and
products offered. It will help us get more profits if we become the
best company in the local area no matter what the product or service
may be.

7. Don't be worried about our prices being too high for certain product
or service. Customers are willing to pay a higher price for a better
product or service with the best company in town than they would with

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our competitors. Customers want to know that they are going to
receive the best service or product by going with our company instead
of the competitor. It is a situation where everyone wins since our
company will make more of a profit long term and the customer is
happy.

8. It is important that our customers are happy. If our customers are
happy with our company then they won't mind paying a little higher
price since them already like our company. We will often get repeat
customers and even more future customers from word of mouth.
When our customers are happy with our company products or service
including customer service then in return we will get repeat customers
and even more future customers.

Always make sure to be aware of any new companies that may open up in the
local area of town. Some companies send their employees over to the
competitors store to look at the prices and any other offers that a certain
company may have. Be alert about any new competitors and watch out for any
of their employees. Sometimes they pretend to be a customer. This is
important to remember when dealing with prices.

The number one top thing to remember in prices along with products and
service is to always be better than our competitor in every way possible. We
want to provide the best customer service, the best products, and the best
service available in town. We want our company to always have happy
customers and have an excellent reputation.When we're in business, one of
the most difficult--and important--decisions we make is how to price our
product or service. Too high, and we lose some of our buyers; too low, and we
don't make a profit.

Here are seven tips to get our price point just right:

1. Cover our costs: Obviously this is the critical factor--we need to make
more selling the product or service than it cost us to produce it.
2. Test tries offering it at different price points. We may sell more at a
lower price--but not necessarily enough to make a bigger profit.

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3. Offer the item at different prices to different markets. Some markets
actually prefer to pay more for the same item, because they attach more
value to the item if it's priced higher. (Some people won't.)
4. Create urgency. Offer the item at a limited-time discounted price, which
will encourage bargain shoppers to hurry and buy the item before the
price goes up.
5. Create "pretend" urgency. Mail or e-mail a coupon with the words
"redeem immediately" or "redeem within 30 days." Most people will
forget when they received the coupon. Some people will redeem it
immediately; those who redeem it much later still get the discountand
we still make the sale.
6. Offer different payment options. Give those who pay in full a discount.
7. Include a guarantee. This removes all risk; people are more likely to buy
if they know they can get their money back. Most people won't ask for a
refund, and those who do, we can learn something from as to how to
improve our product or service.

Pricing Methods

There is no "one right way" to calculate pricing. The way in which the prices
are derived depends on the companys pricing policy. A pricing policy is the
guiding philosophy or course of action designed to influence and determine
pricing decisions. Once the company has decided on a pricing policy, it must
then choose a pricing method. A pricing method is a mechanical procedure
for setting prices on a regular basis.

Cost Pricing

Under cost pricing the marketer primarily looks at production costs as the
key factor in determining the initial price. This method offers the
advantage of being easy to implement as long as costs are known. But one
major disadvantage is that it does not take into consideration the target
markets demand for the product. This could present major problems if the
product is operating in a highly competitive market where competitors

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frequently alter their prices. With cost based Pricing Methods no account is
taken of market requirements but a set amount is added to the costs. The
disadvantage is that if costs increase, the price of the product must also
increase. The following are examples of cost based pricing methods:

Absorption cost pricing-Used mainly in large department stores. The price
of each product is dependant on how many costs it creates.

Target pricing: A target price is made and then costs are adjusted so that
that price can be achieved. Each of the three cost based pricing methods
described begin with a product cost subtotal. To calculate product cost we
need to include the costs of production.

Promotion and distribution: Add the profit level we want from the business
to the product cost subtotal to determine our product price. The amount of
profit we add to the product cost subtotal can be set according to three
different methods.

All types of cost based pricing will be more accurate if we use a complete
product cost subtotal. The key to accuracy is to ensure all cash and non-cash
costs are included in the product cost subtotal. We need to set a value for
your management expertise and labor. Using our land or capital equipment
also must be valued along with depreciation on our machinery and buildings.
These values are included in the product cost subtotal. Include a profit
percentage with product cost. Marketers call this method mark-up pricing.
Mark-up pricing is favored by businesses with many products because its
simple to calculate. The profit level we want for the business is expressed in
a percentage. This percentage is added to the per unit cost to set product
price. Mark-up pricing is common in retail business because it offers so many
types of products and purchases goods from many vendors.

Example:
Wild Blue Preserves makes 15 different jams and jellies. They set up a small
shop in a local mall to sell their products along side other prepared foods. A
jar of wild blueberry jelly costs $1.50 per 250 ml jar to produce. The mark-


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up pricing percentage Wild Blue Preserves plans to use is 100 per cent. The
jar of jam will cost $3.00 in the shop.

Add a percentage to an unknown product cost:

This type of pricing is often called cost-plus pricing. Cost-plus pricing works
well if we dont know our production costs. This method is very similar to
mark-up pricing. The big difference between mark-up pricing and cost-plus
pricing is that both buyer and seller settle on the profit figure or
percentage, accepting that the cost of production is an unknown. If we
produce custom order products for other firms or individuals, a cost-plus
pricing method could reduce our risk. Rather than take a risk on input costs
increasing during the project, we could use a cost-plus pricing agreement.

Disadvantages of cost based pricing

Before we select a cost based pricing option, we should consider the
disadvantages. There are two important reasons why cost based pricing
doesnt work for some businesses. Cost based pricing doesnt consider how
customer demand affects price. Demand for a product will directly affect
how much people will pay. If the customer believes a product may be in short
supply, due to heavy demand, they may be willing to pay more. On the other
hand, if demand is very low the customer will look for a discount on the
price. Competition is not included in cost-based pricing methods. Competition
should affect how we price our product.
The idea of simply adding a profit level or percentage to a product price will
only work in industries with limited competition. In a competitive market,
cost based pricing may encourage competitors to enter the market with a
lower price.
There are several types of cost pricing including

Markup Pricing

This pricing method, often utilized by resellers who acquire products from
suppliers, uses a percentage increase on top of product cost to arrive at an
initial price. A major general retailer, such as Walmart, may apply a set


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percentage for each product category (e.g., womens clothing, automotive,
garden supplies, etc.) making the pricing consistent for all like-products.
Alternatively, the predetermined percentage may be a number that is
identified with the marketing objectives (e.g., required 20% ROI).

For resellers that purchase thousands of products (e.g., retailers) the
simplicity inherent in markup pricing makes it a more attractive pricing
option than more time-consuming methods. However, the advantage of ease
of use is sometimes offset by the disadvantage that products may not
always be optimally priced resulting in products that are priced too high or
too low given the demand for the product. Resellers differ in how they use
markup pricing with some using the Markup-on-Cost method and others using
the Markup-on-Selling-Price method.

Markup-on-Cost

Using this method, markup is reflected as a percentage by which initial price
is set above product cost as reflected in this formula:

Markup Amount = Markup Percentage
Item Cost

Markup-on-Selling-Price

Many resellers, and in particular retailers, discuss their markup not in terms
of Markup-on-Cost but as a reflection of price. That is, the markup is viewed
as a percentage of the selling price and not as a percentage of cost as it is
with the Markup-on-Cost method. For example, using the same information
as was used in the Markup-on-Cost, the Markup-on-Selling-Price is reflected
in this formula:
Markup Amount = Markup Percentage
Selling Price

Cost-Plus Pricing

In the same way markup pricing arrives at price by adding a certain
percentage to the products cost, cost-plus pricing also adds to the cost by

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using a fixed monetary amount rather than percentage. For instance, a
contractor hired to renovate a homeowners bathroom will estimate the cost
of doing the job by adding their total labor cost to the cost of the materials
used in the renovation. The homeowners selection of ceramic tile to be used
in the bathroom is likely to have little effect on the labor needed to install
it whether it is a low-end, low priced tile or a high-end, premium priced tile.
Assuming most material in the project are standard sizes and configuration,
any change in the total price for the renovation is a result of changes in
material costs while labor costs are constant. It means adding a standard
markup to the cost of the product. This is the simplest pricing method.
Lawyers, accountants, and other professionals typically price by adding a
standard markup to their cost.

Mark up pricing remains popular for many reasons. Sellers are more certain
about cost than about demand. Second, when all firms in the industry use
this pricing method, prices tend to be similar and price competitions are
thus minimized. Third, many people feel that cost-plus pricing is fairer to
both buyers and sellers. Sellers earn a fair return on their investment but
dont take advantage of buyers when buyers demand becomes great. To
illustrate mark up pricing , suppose a manufacturing firm had the following
costs and expected sales:

Variable cost $10
Fixed cost $300,000
Expected unit sales 50,000
Thus the manufacturing cost per unit is as:

Unit cost = Variable Cost + Fixed Cost
Unit Sales

= $10 + $300,000/50,000 = $16
Now suppose the manufacturer wants to earn a 20 percent mark up on sales.
Thus mark up price is as:

Mark up price = Unit Cost
(1-desired return on sales)
= $16/1-.2 = $20

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Breakeven Pricing
Breakeven pricing is associated with breakeven analysis, which is a
forecasting tool used by marketers to determine how many products must be
sold before the company starts realizing a profit. Like the markup method,
breakeven pricing does not directly consider market demand when
determining price, however it does indicate the minimum level of demand
that is needed before a product will show a profit. From this the marketer
can then assess whether the product can realistically achieve these levels.

The idea is to set the price of a unit of product or service at a level where it
will cover all of its own variable costs (material, labor, marketing etc.) plus
its portion of the fixed costs of the company (overhead). At the point where
enough units have been sold to cover all fixed and variable costs, breakeven
is achieved. After that point, the sales price of a unit sold minus the variable
(direct) cost to produce it equals pure profit.
Breakeven point can be determined by using the following formulas:

Sales Price Variable Costs = Contribution Margin

Contribution Margin per Unit = Contribution Margin Ratio
Sales Price per Unit


Breakeven Sales Volume= Fixed Costs
Contribution Margin Ratio

Market Pricing

Under the market pricing method cost is not the main factor driving price
decisions; rather initial price is based on analysis of market research in
which customer expectations are measured. The main goal is to learn what
customers in an organizations target market are likely to perceive as an
acceptable price. Of course this price should also help the organization
meet its marketing objectives.

Market pricing is one of the most common methods for setting price, and
the one that seems most logical given marketings focus on satisfying

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customers. So if this is the most logical approach why dont all companies
follow it? The main reason is that using the market pricing approach
requires a strong market research effort to measure customer reaction.
For many marketers it is not feasible to spend the time and money it takes
to do this right. Additionally for some products, especially new high-tech
products, customers are not always knowledgeable about the product to
know what an acceptable price level should be. Consequently, some
marketers may forego market pricing in favor of other approaches.

Market based Pricing Methods

Depend on accurate analysis of the market and consumer requirements. The
following are examples of market based pricing methods:

Market-Skimming Pricing
Market-Penetration Pricing

Market-Skimming Pricing

Price skimming is also known as market skimming; it is a strategy that needs
to be considered as part of the sales planning process and as part of
marketing planning process. The strategy of price or market skimming has a
negative connotation but it is actually a viable and positive pricing strategy.

Price or market skimming raises the price above the real market price to be
able to cover costs quickly and earn a quick profit. The price is gradually
lowered over time to the market price as the product becomes more widely
distributed, and as more competition enters the market.

In this product pricing strategy firm charges the highest initial price that
customers will pay. As the demand of the first customers is satisfied, the
firm lowers the price to attract another, more price-sensitive segment.
Therefore, the skimming strategy gets its name from skimming successive
layers of "cream," or customer segments, as prices are lowered over time.
Notes:
Firms often use this technique to recover the cost of development.


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Skimming is a useful strategy when:

There are enough prospective customers willing to buy the product at
the high price.

The high price does not attract competitors.
Lowering the price would have only a minor effect on increasing
sales volume and reducing unit costs.
The high price is interpreted as a sign of high quality.

A pricing technique designed to allow a business to charge each
potential client the most that he or she would be willing pay, in an
effort to minimize consumer surplus.

A pricing technique designed to allow a business to charge each
potential customer the most that he or she would be willing pay for a
given product or service. The product or service is first offered at
the highest price that customers will pay, and the price is
incrementally dropped until it Price skimming is a pricing strategy in
which a marketer sets a relatively high price for a product or service
at first, then lowers the price over time.

It is a temporal version of price discrimination/yield management. It
allows the firm to recover its sunk costs quickly before competition
steps in and lowers the market price.

Price skimming is sometimes referred to as riding down the demand
curve.The objective of a price skimming strategy is to capture the consumer
surplus If this is done successfully, then theoretically no customer will pay
less for the product than the maximum they are willing to pay. In practice it
is impossible for a firm to capture all of this surplus.

Limitations of Price Skimming

There are several potential problems with this strategy.



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It is effective only when the firm is facing an inelastic demand curve.
If the long run demand schedule is elastic (as in the diagram to the
left), market equilibrium will be achieved by quantity changes rather

than price changes. Penetration pricing is a more suitable strategy in
this case. Price changes by any one firm will be matched by other
firms resulting in a rapid growth in industry volume. Dominant market
share will typically be obtained by a low cost producer that pursues a
penetration strategy.

A price skimmer must be careful with the law. Price discrimination is
illegal in many jurisdictions, but yield management is not. Price
skimming can be considered either a form of price discrimination or a
form of yield management. Price discrimination uses market
characteristics (such as price elasticity) to adjust prices, whereas
yield management uses product characteristics. Marketers see this
legal distinction as quaint since in almost all cases market
characteristics correlate highly with product characteristics. If using
a skimming strategy, a marketer must speak and think in terms of
product characteristics in order to stay on the right side of the law.

The inventory turn rate can be very low for skimmed products. This
could cause problems for the manufacturer's distribution chain. It
may be necessary to give retailers higher margins to convince them to
enthusiastically handle the product.

Skimming encourages the entry of competitors. When other firms see
the high margins available in the industry, they will quickly enter.

Skimming results in a slow rate of stuff diffusion and adaptation. This
results in a high level of untapped demand. This gives competitors
time to either imitate the product or leap frog it with a new
innovation. If competitors do this, the window of opportunity will have
been lost.




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High margins may make the firm inefficient. There will be no incentive
to keep costs under control. Inefficient practices will become
established making it difficult to compete on value or price.

An example of price or market skimming can be seen in the computer
industry, where technology sets up the environment for this price strategy.
A computer manufacturer comes out with a new laptop every 8 to 10 months.
The older, unsold models move down in price (they are in their mature or
declining stage of their very short life-cycle), while the new model laptop
(with newer features and benefits) is in the introductory phase and is able
to command a higher price. The computer manufacturer is skimming price at
various life cycle levels (introduction, growth, maturity and decline) and
gaining the maximum profit through the maximum price that each level will
support.

Marketing Penetration Pricing

Market penetration pricing is a quick-entry price strategy that assumes low
price will gain high sales volume which, in turn, will result in lowering cost.
A strategy often used when introducing new products to the market or
when trying to gain significant market share. The concept is that the new
low, 'introductory' price will entice customers to buy. Prices are low to
attract attention and buyers.
This should be used only if a company feels that

It needs a low price to stimulate attention from the market
If want to hold off or stall competitors from entering the market
(they might be scared off at the low margins).
Most successful when used for products that are mass produced and
therefore have some economies of scale: and a company will be
ramping production up to launch the new product and therefore costs
per unit should be lower.
Prof. Allen says
"A penetration pricing policy involves setting prices of products relatively
low compared to those of similar products in the hope that they will secure

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wide market acceptance that will allow the company to later raise its prices.
Such a policy is often used when the firm expects competition from similar
products within a short time and when large-scale production and marketing
will produce substantial reductions in overall costs. The low price must help
keep out the competition, and the company must maintain its low price
position."

A variation of Penetration Pricing is Predatory Pricing Prof. Allen explains
Predatory pricing is the illegal practice of setting unreasonably low prices to
force competitors out of business. Many countries have rules and regulations
trying to catch people doing this and there can be stiff penalties if the
company is caught.
This strategy is used in price sensitive markets. For example, consider the
market for DVD players; it is a high volume market, it has a high number of
competitors, the costs to produce DVD players have fallen, and new and/or
changing technology allow businesses to rapidly introduce new features and
benefits on new models. The businesses that introduce DVD players quickly,
sell high volume at low or reasonable prices, are following a market
penetration strategy.
In case of mineral water market the market is highly price sensitive
manufacturing and distribution costs is low. So, market penetration pricing
strategy is suitable for Nile, its nature. The customer response has been
seemed to be highly elastic. The concept behind is that the new low price
would entice the customers to buy. Our low price and high quality
penetration strategy would help us to carter our competitors.










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Loss leader pricing
Charging below cost price to try and attract customers to other products
(normally in supermarkets).

Psychological pricing
Hitting price points that are significant e.g. 99.99 sounds better than
100.00

Price discrimination
Charging different people different prices for effectively the same product.
Normally time based (charging different prices at different times of the
day / week / year).

Discount pricing
Offering lower prices for a set time period to try and boost sales and sell
off unwanted stock.
For those marketers who use market pricing, options include:

Backward Pricing
Psychological Pricing
Price Lining

Backward Pricing

In some marketing organizations the price the market is willing to pay for a
product is an important determinant of many other marketing decisions.
This is likely to occur when the market has a clear perception of what it
believes is an acceptable level of pricing.

For example, customers may question a product that carries a price tag that
is double that of a competitors offerings but is perceived to offer only
minor improvements compared to other products. In these markets it is
important to undertake research to learn whether customers have mentally
established a price range or reference price for products in a certain
product category. The marketer can learn this by surveying customers with


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such questions as: How much do you think these types of products should
cost you?

In situations where a price range is ingrained in the market, the marketer
may need to use this price as the starting point for many decisions and work
backwards to develop product, promotion and distribution plans. For
instance, assume a company sells products through retailers.

If the market is willing to pay (US)$199 for a product but is resistant to
pricing that is higher, the marketer will work backwards factoring out the
profit margin retailers are likely to want (e.g., $40) and as well as removing
the marketers profit (e.g., $70). From this, the product cost will remain
($199 -$40-$70= $89). The marketer must then decide whether they can
create a product with sufficient features and benefits to satisfy customers
needs at this cost level.

Psychological Pricing

Psychological pricing or price ending is a marketing practice based on the
theory that certain prices have a psychological impact. The retail prices are
often expressed as "odd prices": a little less than a round number, e.g.
$19.99 or 6.95 (but not necessarily mathematically odd, it could also be
2.98). The theory is this drives demand greater than would be expected if
consumers were perfectly rational. Psychological pricing is one cause of price
points








Price has a psychological value. Buyers will buy a high priced product because
they believe that the high price is a good indicator of value. Their
perception is not reality based, it is psychologically based therefore buyer
behavior is affected by more than the product and price tangibles. Many

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businesses use a psychological pricing strategy because most of the buyers
use price as a measurement of quality: to them high price equals high quality
or value and low price equals low value. When buyers have much more
information on which to make a decision on perceived value or quality, price
moves down the ranking scale as a determiner of value.

One use of psychological pricing is in price-ending numbers. Buyers believe
that prices ending in uneven, rather than even numbers, (such as, Rs.9.99,
Rs.199,999, etc.) are a better deal or a better price than even numbers (e.g.
$10 or $200,000). If the products to be priced are to be in a price 'band'
(such as on-line auctions, or cars or other sales listings), if the listing price
is in the odd range, say $199,000, it will appear in a lower price band than
the $200,000 listing and will be viewed as better value. The challenge with
this strategy is that products ending in an odd number are also often
perceived as being lower in value. Ensure that you chose the right price and
the right strategy for your specific product or service.

Another use of psychological pricing is Reference Price. Reference pricing is
when the buyers carry prices in their mind and refer to when looking at a
given product. The reference price might be formed by nothing current
priced, remembering past prices or assessing the buying situation. A
business could capitalize on reference pricing and position their product
amongst high value or luxury items to imply that its product belongs in the
same category.For psychological pricing to be an effective price strategy,
the product needs to have some characteristics that would appeal to an ego-
sensitive buyer. For example, luxury goods are attractive to ego-sensitive
buyers. Premium recreational goods, such as boats, are attractive to ego-
sensitive buyers.

For many years researchers have investigated customers response to
product pricing. Some of the results point to several interesting
psychological effects price may have on customers buying behavior and on
their perception of individual products. We stress that certain pricing
tactics may have a psychological effect since the results of some studies
have suggested otherwise.



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Odd-Even Pricing
One effect dubbed odd-even pricing relates to whole number pricing
where customers may perceive a significant difference in product
price when pricing is slightly below a whole number value. For
example, a product priced at (US) $299.95 may be perceived as
offering more value than a product priced at $300.00. This effect
can also be used to influence potential customers who receive product
information from others.

Many times a buyer will pass along the price as being lower than it is
either because they recall it being lower than the even number or
they want to impress others with their success in obtaining a good
value. For instance, in our example a buyer who pays $299.95 may tell
a friend they paid a little more than $200 for the product when in
fact it was much closer to $300.

Prestige Pricing
Another psychological effect, called prestige pricing, points to a
strong correlation between perceived product quality and price. The
higher the price the more likely customers are to perceive it has being
higher quality compared to a lower priced product. (Although there is
point at which customers will begin to question the value of the
product if the price is too high.)

In fact, the less a customer knows about a product the more likely
they are to judge the product as being of higher quality based on only
knowing the price. Prestige pricing can also work with odd-even
pricing as marketers, looking to present an image of high quality, may
choose to price products at even levels (e.g., $10 rather than $9.99).

Price Lining

The difference in the needs-set between customers often leads marketers
to realization that the overall market is really made up of a collection
smaller market segments. These segments may seek similar products but
with different sets of product features, which are presented in the form of


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different models (e.g., different quality of basketball sneakers) or service
options (e.g., different hotel room options).

Price lining or product line pricing is a method that primarily uses price to
create the separation between the different models. With this approach,
even if customers possess little knowledge about a set of products,
customers may perceive they are different based on price alone. The key is
whether the prices for all products in the group are perceived as
representing distinct price points (i.e., enough separation between each).
For instance, a marketer may sell a base model, an upgraded model and a
deluxe model each at a different price. If the differences in features for
each model is not readily apparent to a customer, such as differences that
are inside the product and not easily viewed (e.g., difference between laptop
computers), then price lining will help the customer recognize that
differences do exist as long as the prices are noticeably different.

Price lining can also be effective as a method for increasing profitability. In
many cases the cost to the marketer for adding different features to
create different models or service options does not alone justify a big price
difference. For instance, an upgraded model may cost 10% more to produce
than a base model but using the price lining method the upgraded product
price may be 20% higher and thus more profitable than the base model. The
increase in profitability offered by price lining is one reason marketers
introduce multiple models, since it allows the company to not only satisfy the
needs of different segments but also presents an option for a customer to
buy up to a higher priced and more profitable model.

Competitive Pricing

Clearly when setting price it makes sense to look at the price of competitive
offerings. For some, competitors price serves as an important reference
point from which they set their price. In some industries, particularly those
in which there are a few dominant competitors and many small companies,
the top companies are in the position of holding price leadership roles where
they are often the first in the industry to change price. Smaller companies


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must then assume a price follower role and react once the big companies
adjust their price.

The firm fixes the prices of the product or services in relation to the
competitors prices. This involves offering the product or services at a lower
price than that of the competitors products and services. This has the
advantage of giving the firm the opportunity to increase sales and market
share.

In determining a "competitive" price marketer should answer the following
questions:

Who will you are competing against?
What are their strengths and weaknesses?
Are any direct competitors vulnerable to your products?
Are any competitive products priced too high or not providing product
"value" for the price?

Companies offer many discounts and other incentives to build existing
customer loyalty or for competitive reasons. Some are

Augmentation to Boost Sales
Discounting To Gain Market Share
Pricing to Kill small Competitors

The big advantage of competition based pricing is that we are focused on our
industry and therefore our competition. Its often used by u-pick businesses
and at farmers markets. An industry focus looks closely at the types of
existing and emerging competition. Once we know what our competitors are
doing, we can better decide how we will manage our business. Understanding
our competition will take some research.

We need to understand what we are selling, the types of companies we
compete with, the amount and types of substitutes and how companies

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operate in our industry. Check with Statistics Canada, the business section
of the local library, the local Chamber of Commerce, the yellow pages or the
Internet to help find this information.

Three competition based pricing methods are detailed below:

Price our product the same as the competition.
This market pricing method aims to make our product comparable to
competitors. Scout out competitors and find out what they charge for
similar products. This type of pricing works well if we make standard
products. If we make unique products, we need to decide how
specialized our product is. Products can be plotted on a scale
according to how unique they are. Homogeneous products are on one
end of the scale. Highly differentiated products are on the other end.
The term highly differentiated is used to describe products which are
unique and cant be compared to other products on the market.
Examples of homogeneous products include eggs, butter and bread.
Highly differentiated products may begin as homogeneous products
but they have one or more layers of special features like packaging,
trademarks, design, flavor, freshness, appearance, etc.

Example:
An established producer of beef jerky decides to use market penetration
pricing at a local convenience store. A study of other convenience stores
show a price range for jerky of $2.00 to $3.00 per 100 gram package. The
seller decides to sell their jerky at $1.50 per 100 gram package to sell larger
volumes. Seek larger market share through price.

This type of pricing is often called market share pricing. You need to select
a price that will attract and hold as many customers as possible. Most
businesses would adopt market share pricing after market penetration is
achieved. Market share happens when you sell large volumes of product into
a market. Companies who seek market share describe the amount of market
they supply as a percentage. Market share is calculated by dividing the
amount each company in an industry sells of the total market number.
Marketers rely heavily on market share to evaluate their success in
promotion, pricing, distribution and product strategies. This pricing method

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is used mainly by larger, established businesses. The typical user of market
share has many economies of scale and wants to measure the success of a
marketing campaign.

Disadvantages of competition based pricing

While competition based pricing offers advantages, we need to consider the
following disadvantages. We may ignore our own production costs if we focus
too closely on the prices set by competitors. . More time is needed to
conduct and update market research. Competitors can easily mimic whatever
price we select.

Most business owners want to know .at what price do my customers think my
product offers good value? Knowing our customer ensures we take a market
focus with our business. We need to find out how our customer feels about
various product prices and what they would do if the price changed.
Customers change their buying habits according to product price. As a seller
we need to find out how your target customers view our product. We also
need to find out customer attitudes towards various prices or a Price
change.

When basing pricing decisions on how competitors are setting their price,
firms may follow one of the following approaches:

Pricing below Competition:
It is done by discount retailers. The risk in pricing below competition is
that consumers begin to view the product as an undifferentiated
commodity. If it happens then consumer choose the good with the lowest
price. In turn the competing firms likely to wind up in a price war that
diminishes or eliminates profit.

Pricing above Competition:
Sometimes producers or retailers set their prices above the prevailing
market level. Usually pricing above competition works only when the
product is highly differentiated or distinct and when the seller has
acquired prestige in this field.

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Parity Pricing
A simple method for setting the initial price is to price the product at
the same level competitors price their product.

Methods of Competition based pricing
There are two types of competition based pricing methods:

Going rate or market pricing:
Charging the same as competitors or the market leader.

Destroyer or destructor pricing:
Charging a price below average to drive out competition.

Customer-based pricing methods

Use price to support product image. The key to pricing is to be consistent.
We want our price to say exactly the same thing as the product image.
Prestige oriented consumers believe a higher price means higher quality,
while bargain seekers will only be happy with lower prices. Does our price
reflect our product image?

Disadvantages of customer based pricing

Before we implement a customer based pricing method, note the following
disadvantages. If we are too focused on the customer, we may ignore
production costs forget about the competition .There are other factors
which may affect your pricing strategy. You need to decide how to set both
wholesale and retail prices for our product. Volume discounts and rebates
much be considered. For more information we should refer to the Market
Guide for Food Processors.

After the discussion of all the methods above we thought the most suitable
method for our product from all the methods above is customer base
method because in this method we use price to support product Nile, its


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nature image, set price to increase product sale ,design a price rang to
attract many consumers. As mineral water market is very competitive so in
order to build existing customer loyalty, for quantity savings and for
competitive reasons, we priced our consumer good, Nile, its nature, slightly
lower than our competitors. Our major competitors are Aqua Fina, purity
guaranteed, Nestle, pure life, and Atlantis so, for this discounting can be a
strong marketing tool.

Name of Brands 0.5 liter 1.5 liter 6 liter
Nestle, pure life 15 24 60
Atlantis 15 23 57
Aqua Fina, purity guaranteed 15 24 60
Nile, its nature 13 22 55

Bid Pricing

Not all selling situations allow the marketer to have advanced knowledge of
the prices offered by competitors. While the Internet has made
researching competitor pricing a relatively routine exercise, this is not the
case in markets where bid pricing occurs. Bid pricing typically requires a
marketer to submit a price to a potential buyer that is sealed or unseen by
competitors. It is not until all bids are obtained and unsealed that the
marketer is informed of the price listed by competitors.

Bid pricing occurs in several industries though it is a standard requirement
when selling to local, national and international governments. In these
situations the marketers pricing strategy depends on the projected winning
bid price, which is generally the lowest price. However, price alone is only
the deciding factor if the bidder meets certain qualifications. The fact that
marketers often operate in the dark in terms of available competitor
research, makes this type pricing one of the most challenging of all pricing
setting methods.



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Sales Promotion Strategies

There are three types of sales promotion strategies: Push, Pull, or a
combination of the two

Push Strategy

A push strategy involves convincing trade intermediary channel members to
"push" the product through the distribution channels to the ultimate
consumer via promotions and personal selling efforts. The company promotes
the product through a reseller who in turn promotes it to yet another
reseller or the final consumer.

Trade-promotion objectives are to persuade retailers or wholesalers to
carry a brand, give a brand shelf space, promote a brand in advertising,
and/or push a brand to final consumers. Typical tactics employed in push
strategy are: allowances, buy-back guarantees, free trials, contests,
specialty advertising items, discounts, displays, and premiums.



Pull strategy

A pull strategy attempts to get consumers to "pull" the product from the
manufacturer through the marketing channel. The company focuses its
marketing communications efforts on consumers in the hope that it
stimulates interest and demand for the product at the end-user level. This
strategy is often employed if distributors are reluctant to carry a product


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because it gets as many consumers as possible to go to retail outlets and
request the product, thus pulling it through the channel.

Consumer-promotion objectives are to entice consumers to try a new
product, lure customers away from competitors products, get consumers to
"load up" on a mature product, hold & reward loyal customers, and build
consumer relationships. Typical tactics employed in pull strategy are:
samples, coupons, cash refunds and rebates, premiums, advertising
specialties, loyalty programs/patronage rewards, contests, sweepstakes,
games, and point-of-purchase (POP) displays.

NILEs its nature, Pricing Method

For our quality product NILE, its nature we have taken special consideration
at different parts involved in setting price. Total Fixed cost and Total
Variable Cost are allocated precisely. Our total units of output are 100,000
out of which 99,000 units are expected to be sold with a markup of 30% on
total cost of RS. 1300,000. The marketing costs are:

Niles its nature

Number of bottles
produced and sold
NILEs Costs, Selling Price and Profits Units produced=100,000
Packaging Cost Rs. 75,000
Promotion Cost Rs. 80,000
Distribution Cost Rs. 60,000
Total Fixed Cost Rs. 215,000
Total sales @ Rs.22 per bottle
(99000 total sales)
Rs. 2178,000

Profit Per Bottle Rs. 4
Mark up 25%



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Product Mix Pricing Strategy

The strategy for setting products price often change when it is a part of
the product mix. In this case firm looks for a set of prices that maximizes
the profits on the total product mix. Pricing is difficult because the various
products have related demand and cost and face different degrees of
competition.

The five product mix pricing situations are the:

Product line Pricing
Optional-product Pricing
Captive-product Pricing
By-product Pricing
Product bundle Pricing

Product line Pricing

With a line of products to price, a special consideration is always given by
the whole product mix and the product life cycle within the mix. Within the
product mix or line, there are typically price points that reflect the price
level: high, medium or low. For example, most computer manufacturers have
basic models, business models and premium high graphic models. Each of
those model levels has its own price point.

It is the pricing a number of products within one product line. For example,
charging of a base price for a basic model, the next product up might have
more features or be a better quality - it would be a higher price, and so on
throughout the line (think of televisions with size and the number of pixels
as a differentiation in the product line).
This strategy is used only if a company has

More than two products in the line and
If the firm has cleared enough differentiation of features and
benefit

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Successful companies uses this strategy through the growth, maturity
and declining stages of the product's life-cycle; if used in the
introduction phase, there might not be enough early recognized value
between the products in the product line.

One way of looking at pricing for a product line is to consider pricing and
profitability of the whole line, not only individual products of the line. In this
type of price analysis, there might be some products that lose money but
they help pull in buyers for those products that make money (preferably
that make a lot of money). Other products in the line might just break-even
but they contribute to the fullness of the line and help support the money-
making products.

With this particular pricing strategy it is important to build strong product
differentiation within the line so that buyers can understand what they're
paying for and why.

Optional-Product Pricing

Companies use optional-product pricing--------offering to sell optional or
accessory products along with the main product. Manufacturers of products
such as razors or dvd players or tape dispensers will price those products
low and then charge higher prices on the companions (razor blades, dvds,
tape, etc.).

It is used if:

If a company has products that have companions in the product line
However try to be first in the market or try to have some unique
features and benefits that are not easily duplicated because your
competitors will quickly follow your strategy.




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Captive-Product Pricing

Setting a price for products that must be used along with a main product
such as blades of the razor and film for a camera. Producers of the main
product often price them low and set high markups on the supplies. In the
case of services this strategy is called the two-part pricing. The price of the
service is broken into the fixed fee plus a variable usage rate. The service
firm must decide how much to charge for the basic service and how much
for the variable usage. The fixed amount should be low enough to induce
usage of the service; profit can be made on the variable fees.

By-Product Pricing

It is the setting of a price for by-products in order to make the main
products price competitive. In producing processed meats, petroleum and
agricultural products, chemicals and other products they are often by-
products. If the by-products have no value and if getting rid of them is
costly, it will affect the pricing of the main product. Using by-products the
manufacturer will seek a market of it and should accept any price that
covers more of the price of storing and delivering them.
By-products can even turn out to be profitable.

Product Bundle Pricing

Using product bundle pricing seller often combines several of its products
and offers the bundle at a reduced price. For example fast food restaurants
bundle a burger, fries or a softy drink at a combo price. Resorts sell
specially priced vacation packages that include airfare, accommodations,
meals and entertainments. Price bundling can promote the sales of the
products consumers might not otherwise buy, but the combined price must
be low enough to get them to buy the bundle.

Keeping in view the customers need our product line is highly differentiable
due to its different size availability. For this, Nile, its nature is available
in three sizes 0.5 liter, 1 liter and 6 liter. These price points or price levels


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for different size of bottles has been set by complete understanding of the
economies of scale and product environment. The different price lines are:

0.5 liter--- Rs.8
1.5 liter--- Rs.17
6 liter--- Rs. 100

Price Adjustment Strategies

Companies usually adjust their basic prices to account for various customers
differences and changing situations. The different price adjustment
strategies are:

Discount and Allowance Pricing
Psychological Pricing
Promotional Pricing
Geographical Pricing

Discounts and Allowance Pricing:

Discounts or allowances result in the deduction from the list price. The
deduction may be in the form of a reduced price or some other concession,
such as free merchandise or advertising allowances. It is common in business
dealings. Some types of the discounts and allowance are:








Quantity Discount:
Quantity discounts are the deductions from the sellers list price
intended to encourage customers to buy in larger amounts or to buy
most of what they need from the seller offering the deduction.

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Discounts are based on the size of purchase, either in dollars or in
units.

A Noncumultative Discounts are based on the size of an
individual order of one or more products. A retailer may sell
golf balls at Rs.15 each or at three for Rs.20. a manufacturer or
whole seller may set up a quantity dismount schedule.

Non-Cumultative Quantity discounts are intended to encourage
large orders. Consequently selling expenses as a percentage of
sales decrease as order grow in size.

A Cumultative Discount is based on the total volume purchased
over a specified period of time. This type of discount is
advantage to a seller because it ties customers closely to that
firm. The more total business a buyer gives a seller, the greater
the discount. To qualify for the discount the farmers had to
agree to purchase the drug for at least six month. These
discounts encourage customers to buy fresh supplies frequently
so that the buyers merchandise will not become stale.

To achieve real economies in production as well as in selling, we have
programmed to offer all discounts and allowances to our wholesalers and
retailers. Our pricing strategy is highly based to attain the market share
and customers loyalty so that it automatically would generate revenues in
remaining products life cycle.
The Quantity Discount schedule for the wholesalers would be

For Wholesalers:
Boxes purchased in a single order % Discount from list price

Up to 1000 (6 liter bottle) none
1000-1500 (1.5 liter bottle) 10%
1600-2500 (1.5 liter bottle) 15%
2500-3500 (0.5 liter bottle) 20%



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For Retailers:
Boxes purchased in a single order % Discount from list
price

Up to 300 (0.5 liter or 1.5 liter bottle) none
400-500 (6liter bottle) 15%
600-1000 (1.5 liter bottle) 25%

In order to gain more sales from our customers we have structured our
pricing to offer cumulative discounts to wholesalers and retailers. This
structure is on monthly basis. Different packages for our customers would
be:

For Wholesalers

Qualifying Volume purchased %Discount from List
Price and Period of time
Incentives

4 months 10,000 (1.5L bottle) 15% discount for next one
month
5 months 15,000 (1.5L bottle) 20% discount for next two
months
12 months 35,000 (6 liter) Free visit of INDIA with
family

On the one hand large orders (motivated by the noncumulative discounts) can
result in lower production and transportation costs. On the other hand,
frequent orders from a single customer motivated by the cumulative
discount can enable the producer to make much more effective use of
production capacity. Thus we may be benefited even though individual orders
are small and do not generate savings in marketing costs.

Trade Discounts:
Sometimes called functional discounts are reduction from the list
price offered to buyers in payment for marketing functions the buyer


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will perform. Storing, promoting and selling the product are the
examples of function.

A manufacturer may quote the retail price of Rs.400 with trade
discount of 40% and 10%. The retailer pays the wholesaler Rs.240
(400 less 40%) and the wholesaler pays the manufacturer Rs. 216
(240 less 10%). The wholesaler is given the 40% and 10% discounts.
The wholesaler is expected to keep the 10% to cover costs of
wholesaling functions and pass on the 40% discounts to retailers.

Sometimes the wholesalers keep more than the 10% and its not illegal
for them to do so. Note that the 40% and 10%discounts do not
constitute a total discount of 50% off list price. They are not additive
because the second discount (in this case, 10%) is computed on the
amount remaining after the preceding discount (40%) has been
deducted.

Cash Discounts:
Cash Discounts is the deduction granted to buyers for paying their
bills within a specified time. The discount is computed on the net
amount due after first deducting trade and quantity discounts from
the base price. Every cash discount include the three elements:
The percentage discount
The period during which the discount may be taken.
The time when the bill becomes overdue.
There are almost as many different cash discounts as there are
industries. For example, in womens fashions, large discounts and short
payments period is common. Thus a cash discount of 5/5, n/15 would
not be surprising. Most buyers are eager to pay bills in time to earn
cash discounts

Promotional Pricing

Promotional pricing is typically used when new products are being introduced
to the market. With promotional pricing, companies will temporarily price

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their products below list price and sometimes even below cost to create
buying excitement.

Some examples of promotional pricing are:

Special Event Pricing.
Pricing that is 'special' (or lowered) for special events such as
Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Super Bowl, Thanks
giving and Back to School.

Cash Rebates.
Manufacturers sometimes offer cash rebate to consumers who buy
the product from dealers within a specified time; the manufacturer
send the rebate directly to customers.

Rebate Allowance.
Such as a rebate or allowance when buying a home and the seller
offers a move-in allowance, or a carpet replacement or renovation
allowance or a rebate for all cash, no financing, and purchases of big
ticket items like cars.

Low or no-interest financing.
A number of furniture stores will advertise no-interest financing loans
for furniture purchases. Car dealerships also offer these pricing
programs - often for last year's models.

Buy One, Get One free or Two for the Price of One.
If product costs are low, and price includes a healthy profit margin,
this may be a good strategy to use if a firm has an overabundance of
inventory. Even better if competitive pricing comparisons result in
product offer being the better deal.

Extended payment terms.
This can also be viewed as a hold and pay, or lay-away, pricing model.
Customers typically pay a deposit and pay over time and they do not
get the product until paid up. The renovation and construction

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industry do a variation on this strategy. They usually are required to
pay one third of the projected cost for the project up-front - this is
to help pay for the materials; one third about half way through the
project and the balance on completion.

For the business-to-business market, the extended payment terms
might be pays in net 30 days, or net 60 days or a discount if you pay in
net 15 days. There are many variations to this pricing strategy.

No charge or low-cost warranties.
If a business has a good warranty or return program (good in the
sense that there are no, or few, product failures and no, or few,
product returns), then it is not a high cost investment for them to
offer low cost or no cost warranties. Buyers view these types of
promotional prices very positively because they believe it shows that
the business has high confidence in the product's performance.

Promotional pricing, however, can have adverse effects. Used to frequently
and copied by competitors, price promotion can create deal prone
customers who wait until brands go on sales before buying them. Or,
constantly reduced price can erode a brands value in the eyes of customers.
The frequent use of promotional price can also lead to industry price wars.

As we are launching our product in Ramadan, so in order to generate sales we
would introduce many cash rebates to our customers, wholesalers and
retailers, who buy our specified packages of NILE, its nature within the
first week of Ramadan. The rebates would be send directly to customers
through our suppliers. In most companies it is used to stimulate demand for
products or services with lagging demand.

Geographical Pricing

Setting prices for customers located in different parts of the country or
world.



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FOB-Origin Pricing
A geographical pricing strategy in which goods are placed free on
board a carrier; the customer pays the freight from the factory to
the destination.

Uniform-Delivered Pricing
A geographical pricing strategy in which the company charges the
same price plus freight to all customers, regardless of their location.
This strategy is some time referred to as postage stamp pricing
because of its similarity to the pricing of first class mail service.

Zone Pricing
A geographical pricing strategy in which the company sets up to or
more zones. All customers within a zone pay the same total price; the
more distant the zone the higher the price. When using this strategy,
a seller must be careful to avoid charges of illegal price
discrimination.

Basing-Point Pricing
A geographical pricing strategy in which the seller designate some city
as a basing point and charges all customers the freight cost from that
city to the customer.

Freight-Absorption Pricing.
A geographical pricing strategy in which the seller absorbs all or part
of the freight charges in order to get the desired charges. A freight
absorption strategy is used to offset competitive disadvantage of
FOB factory pricing.

Dynamic Pricing

Adjusting prices continually to meet the characteristics and needs of
individual customers and situations. Dynamic pricing offers many advantages
for market. For example, Internet sellers such as Amazon.com can mine
their database to gauge a specific shoppers desire, measure his or her


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means, instantaneously tailor product to fit that shoppers behavior, and
price products accordingly.

International Pricing

Companies that market their products internationally must decide what price
to charge in different countries in which they operate, in some cases, a
company can set a uniform world wide price. The price the company should
charge in specific country depends on many factors, including economic
conditions, competitive situations, laws and regulations, and development of
wholesaling and retailing system.
































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DISTRIBUTION
Introduction

Distribution (or "Place") is the fourth traditional element of the marketing
mix. The other three are Product, Price and Promotion.

Distribution channel: a set of interdependent organizations involved in the
process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by
the consumer or business user

Objective of distribution: To create place utility, the value of having
the product or service where the customer wants them, when they want
them.
Distribution has two aspects:

Logistics: physical movement of goods
Strategy : who participates and what they do

Distribution Decisions
Its indicate product decisions may be the most important of all marketing
decisions









Since these lead directly to the reasons (i.e., offer benefits that satisfy
needs) why customers decide to make a purchase. But having a strong

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product does little good if customer is not able to easily and conveniently
obtain it.

Distribution decisions focus on establishing a system that, at its basic level,
allows customers to gain access and purchase a marketers product..
Distribution decisions are relevant for nearly all types of products. While it
is easy to see how distribution decisions impact physical goods. In order to
facilitate an effective and efficient distribution system many decisions must
be made including (but certainly not limited to)
Assessing the best distribution channel for getting products to
consumer
Determining whether the reseller network is needed to assist in the
distribution process
Arranging a reliable ordering system that allows the customers to
place orders
Creating a delivery system for transporting the product to the
customers
For tangible and digital goods, establishing facilities to product
storage

TARGET MARKET

We selected Lahore city in Pakistan for the distribution of our product
NILE ,its nature. So Lahore is our target market. As you can see in the map



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Market Segmentation
Segmenting Consumer Markets may be























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We segmented our target
market into eight different areas which are as follows:
1. Model town
2. Faisal town
3. Garden town
4. Joher town
5. Allama iqbal town
6. Defence
7. Gulberg
8. Cantt
Distributed Bottles Sizes

We distributed NILE in three different convenient
sizes which are as follows:
o.5 liter
1.5 liter
6 liter





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Distribution Channels

Every industry sets up distribution channels of its own. A variety of
businesses and organizations make up these channels, organizing the
marketing and trade of products to consumers. It is important to
understand the systems of distribution in the apparel industry and evaluate
the options Frequently there may be a chain of intermediaries, each passing
the product down the chain to the next organization, before it finally
reaches the consumer or end-user. This process is known as the 'distribution
chain' or the 'channel.' Each of the elements in these chains will have their
own specific needs, which the producer must take into account, along with
those of the all-important end-user.

The Nature of Distribution Channels:

Most businesses use third parties or intermediaries to bring their products
to market. They try to forge a "distribution channel" which can be defined
as "all the organizations through which a product must pass between its
point of production and consumption"

Why does a business give the job of selling its products to intermediaries?
After all, using intermediaries' means giving up some control over how
products are sold and who they are sold to. The answer lies in efficiency of
distribution costs. Intermediaries are specialists in selling. They have the

















































































































































































































































































































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contacts, experience and scale of operation which means that greater sales
can be achieved than if the producing business tried run a sales operation
itself. Channels of Distribution are known as "Place" in the "4 P's" model of
Marketing. Distribution Channels provide the utility of place, of having
products where the customer wants when the customer wants them.

In these days of customer focus and emphasis on competition, the 4 P's
model is considered very simplistic, and I've always thought that was
probably why Marketers began referring to Place as Channels, to move us
away from "The "4 P's" as a description of all of what Marketing is about;
nevertheless, "place" is a convenient way to think of the term Channels of
Distribution.

Functions of a Distribution Channel

The main function of a distribution channel is to provide a link between
production and consumption. Organisations that form any particular
distribution channel perform many key functions:

Distribution Channel Functions:
Information




Promotion



Contact



Matching
(including such things as
manufacturing, grading,
assembling, and packaging)





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Negotiation



Physical Distribution
(transporting and storing)


Financing

Risk Taking


All of the above functions need to be undertaken in any market. The
question is - who performs them and how many levels there need to be in the
distribution channel in order to make it cost effective.

Numbers of Distribution Channel Levels

Each layer of marketing intermediaries that performs some work in bringing
the product to its final buyer is a "channel level". The figure below shows
some examples of channel levels for consumer marketing channels:

Number of Channel Levels:




Direct

Manufacturer

Indirect

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Consumer




There are two main categories of channels levels Direct and Indirect as
shown in the above



.

In the figure above, Channel 1 is called a "direct-marketing" channel, since
it has no intermediary levels. In this case the manufacturer sells directly to
customers. An example of a direct marketing channel would be a factory
outlet store. Many holiday companies also market direct to consumers,
bypassing a traditional retail intermediary - the travel agent.
The remaining channels are "indirect-marketing channels".


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Channel 2 contains one intermediary. In consumer markets, this is typically a
retailer where producer sell their goods directly to large retailers which
then sell the goods to the final consumers.
Channel 3 contains two intermediary levels - a wholesaler and a retailer. A
wholesaler typically buys and stores large quantities of several producers'
goods and then breaks into the bulk deliveries to supply retailers with
smaller quantities. For small retailers with limited order quantities, the use
of wholesalers makes economic sense. This arrangement tends to work best
where the retail channel is fragmented.
Channel 4 contains three intermediary levels-a wholesaller,retailer and
jobber/agent.

Within each channel of distribution there are a differing number of channel
intermediaries, namely wholesalers and retailers, which stand between the
producer and the consumer. The number of intermediaries in any particular
channel is referred to as the length of the channel.

We select all of above channels so that our customer can buy easily our
product "NILE"

TYPES OF DELIVERIRING SERVICES:

Free Home Delivering:

We also provide free home delivery services to our customers so they can
use easily our product "NILE" mineral water with out any difficulty. Our
vans go to the house of required customer and deliver the cane of "NILE"



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Choice of distribution channel:

The choice of a distribution channel will be influenced by a number of
factors:
The type of product. Perishable, fragile or extremely large products
that are difficult to transport are more likely to be distributed direct
to avoid incurring additional costs.
The structure and geography of the Market Scattered or difficult to
reach markets usually require the services of established wholesalers
who will have the facilities and expertise to deal effectively and
efficiently with these types of market.
The complexity of the product. Technically complex products which
require expert advice and after sales service, are more efficiently
distributed either directly from the producer to consumer, or through

expert retailers. The same will apply to individually tailored products
or services, which require a high level of communication between the
producer and consumer prior to production
The quantity and price of a product Producers, who rely on selling
large quantities of a product at low prices, may look to reduce their
overheads in terms of storage, and distribution of the product into
the market, by selling to wholesales
Distribution Strategies
Refers to how an organization will distribute the product or service they are
offering to the end user. The organization must distribute the product to
the user at the right place at the right time. Efficient and effective
distribution is important if the organization is to meet its overall marketing
goals.



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Depending on the type of product being distributed there are three common
distribution strategies available:
Intensive distribution
Used commonly to distribute low priced or impulse purchase products eg
chocolates, soft drinks.

Exclusive distribution
Involves limiting distribution to a single outlet. The product is usually highly
priced, and requires the intermediary to place much detail in its sell. An
example of would be the sale of vehicles through exclusive dealers.


Selective Distribution:
A small number of retail outlets are chosen to distribute the product.
Selective distribution is common with products such as computers,
televisions household appliances, where consumers are willing to shop around
and where manufacturers want a large geographical spread.
If a manufacturer decides to adopt an exclusive or selective strategy they
should select a intermediary which has experience of handling similar
products, credible and is known by the target audience.
So we select intensive distribution strategy to distribute our product
"NILE" mineral water that our product reaches more and more people.

Channel Management Decisions:

Wholesaling

Wholesaling is an important part in distribution system.wholesellers is the
people bought things in bulk and sell it to retailers, agent or customers.
Wholesalers are generally used when they are better at performing one or
more of the Distribution Channel Functions

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Functions of Wholesalers:

Distribution Function Example for Wholesaling
Information Telling retailers about the competition
Product Building assortments needed by retailers
Price Reaching many small retailers at low cost
Place
Providing quick delivery by being
located closer to retailer than the
producers are
Promotion Having contacts with the buyer
Ownership Holding inventories, absorbing risk

Types of Wholesalers

These are three main types of wholesalers






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Merchant Wholesalers:
Account for approximately 83% of wholesalers, 50% of wholesale sales.
Employ 4.5 million people.
Two types:
Full Service Wholesalers-offer widest possible range of functions.
Categorized as:
General Merchandise-wide mix (unrelated), limited depth.
Limited Line-only few products but an extensive assortment.
Specialty Line-narrowest range of products.
Rack Jobbers-are specialty line that own and maintain display racks,
take back unsold products.
Limited Service Merchant Wholesalers-only provide some marketing
functions.
Cash and Carry wholesaler-customers pay and furnish their own
transportation, No credit.
Truck Wholesalers-Operate rolling warehouses and sell a
limited line of products directly from their trucks to their
customers. Follow regular routes, primarily perishable products.
Drop Shippers (desk jobbers)-take title, negotiate sales but do
not take possession.
Mail Order Wholesalers-use catalogues instead of sales force
to sell.
Agents and Brokers:.

Agents represent buyers and sellers on a permanent basis. Brokers
represent buyers and sellers on a temporary basis. 10.4% of wholesalers
total sales volume.

Manufacturers Agent-over half of all agents. Represent two or more
sellers and offer customers complete lines. Handle non- competing
(complementary) products. Written agreements.

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Selling Agent-market either all specified line or manufacturers entire
output. Perform every wholesaling activity except taking title of the
product. Used in place of a marketing department. Represent non-
competing product lines.
Commission Merchant-focus primarily on the selling task. Receive
goods on consignment from local sellers and negotiate sales in large
central markets.
Auction Companies-provide storage for inspection. Sales made to the
highest bidder.
Brokers-negotiate exchanges-perform the fewest intermediary
functions. Assume no risk.
We distribute our product through all these kinds of wholesellers so that
our product "NILE, its nature" mineral water must easily reach to more
customers.

Wholesaler Marketing Decisions

Wholesalers make pretty much the same decisions that retailers do, where
their assortment of products and services they offers. As well as decisions
with the 4 P's:




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Manufacturer's Sales branches and offices:
Resemble merchant wholesalers operations, 9% of wholesale establishments
and generate 31% of wholesale sales. Manufacturer owned.
Sales Branches-sell product and provide support services to
manufacturers sales forces.
Sales Office-serves normally associated with agents; like sales
branches located away from a manufacturing plant-carry no inventory.
Benefits of wholesaling

Wholesaling provides an expanded consumer market potential in terms of
geographical locations and consumer purchasing power while at the same time
providing a cash flow for the manufacturer. There are several major reasons
for the importance of wholesaling. First, all goods and necessary supplies for
their production pass through some form of middle agent and wholesaling
system. For this reason, the effective functioning of wholesale linkages
contributes directly to the economic well-being of a society.
Secondly, for most small producers, an immediate geographic location is
typically insufficient to provide and maintain an on-going customer base for
their operations. As a means to sell their goods, smaller producers must have
avenues to develop market segments of potential customers and must make
sure their goods are of the quality customers want at prices they are willing
to pay.
The role of wholesalers is to provide links to an expanded market base, i.e.,
to discover where customers are located and how best to reach them. In
this sense, wholesaling uses time and place as it relates to information and
availability. Wholesalers create utility through holding goods that can be
drawn upon by buyers at a cost lower than direct exchange.
Finally, wholesalers act as distribution channels and interface with markets
and producers within markets. Whereas wholesaling and retailing provide
similar functions in that they receive, store, and distribute goods, the
importance of wholesaling is in its ability to moderate supply and demand
fluctuations and cope with larger transactions with less emphasis on selling

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techniques and services and product promotion. Wholesaling has the
capability to adjust the distribution of goods from surplus to deficit areas.
Wholesalers are successful only if they are able to serve the needs of their
customers, who may be retailers or other wholesalers. Some of the
marketing functions provided by wholesalers to their buyers are:
providing producer's goods in an appropriate quantity for resale by
buyers
providing wider geographical access and diversity in obtaining goods
ensuring and maintaining a quality dimension with the goods that are
being obtained and resold
providing cost-effectiveness by reducing the number of producer
contacts needed
providing ready access to a supply of goods
assembling and arranging goods of a compatible nature from a number
of producers for resale
minimizing buyer transportation costs by buying goods in larger
quantities and distributing them in smaller amounts for resale
working with producers to understand and appreciate consumerism in
their production process
Retailing

Retailing is another best way to distribute a product. Retailer is the person
who buys products from wholesalers, agent or distributors and sells it to
customers on different retail stores.

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Functions of Retailers:
Distribution Function Example for Retailing
Information Collecting information about customers in store
Product Advise manufacturer on product design changes
Price
Offer smaller volume of goods for consumer to
buy
Place
Offer variety of products in one location for
consumer
Promotion
Run own ads or team up with manufacturer in
joint ads
Ownership
Absorb risk by taking title and bearing cost of
theft, damage, etc.





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Types of Retailers
Retailers are classified by













Types of store retailers and surveys
Statistics Canada divides store retailers into categories according to the
nature of their operations:

A chain operates four or more of the same type of store under a
common ownership.
A franchise is part of a group of stores that sell the same products
and operate similarly, but each franchise is independently owned.
An independent store generally operates less than four locations.

Each category includes the whole range of different retail sectors listed in
the North American Industry Classification System. Thus, every type of
store, (a flower shop, a gas station, a grocery store, etc.) is either an
independent, a franchise or part of a in a chain.

Retailer Marketing Decisions


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Retailers make different decisions according to the price, promotion and
places. And select those which they consider best for matching the demand
of the customers and best suited for the distribution of product. Magor
retailers marketing decisions are shown in the figure.


As shown in the figure retailer
decisions may be in three field
Price
Promotion
place


And retailers take decision about product assortment and services decisions
according to the steps shown in the figure given bellow.
Above mention marketing decisions are taken by different retailers to which
our wholesalers distribute our product "NILE" mineral water bottles.

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Retail Store Location Important Factors
Tips for Choosing a Location
We select our retail store location for the distribution of "NILE"


Population and Your Customer

If you are choosing a city or state to locate your retail store, research the
area thoroughly before making a final decision. Read local papers and speak
to other small businesses in the area. Obtain location demographics from the
local library, chamber of commerce or the Census Bureau. Any of these

sources should have information on the area's population, income and age.
You know who your customers are, so make sure you find a location where
your customers live, work and shop.

Accessibility, Visibility and Traffic
Don't confuse a lot of traffic for a lot of customers. Retailers want to be
located where there are many shoppers but only if that shopper meets the
definition of their target market. Small retail stores may benefit from the
traffic of nearby larger stores.
How many people walk or drive past the location.
Is the area served by public transportation?
Can customers and delivery trucks easily get in and out of the parking
lot?
Is there adequate parking?

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Depending on the type of business, it would be wise to have somewhere
between 5 to 8 parking spaces per 1,000 square feet of retail advertising
needed. A specialty retail store located six miles out of town in a free
standing building will need more marketing than a shopping store located in a
mall.
Signage, Zoning and Planning:
Before signing a lease, be sure you understand all the rules, policies and
procedures related to your retail store location. Contact the local city hall
and zoning commission for information on regulations regarding signage. Ask
about any restrictions that may affect your retail operation and any future
planning that could change traffic, such as highway construction.
Competition and Neighbors
Other area businesses in your prospective location can actually help or hurt
your retail shop. Determine if the types of businesses nearby are compatible
you're your store. For example, a high-end fashion boutique may not be
successful next door to a discount variety store. Place it next to a nail or
hair salon and it may do much more business.


Location Costs

Besides the base rent, consider all costs involved when choosing a retail
store location.

Who pays for lawn care, building maintenance, utilities and security?
Who pays for the upkeep and repair of the heating/air units?
If the location is remote, how much additional marketing will it take
for customers to find you?
How much is the average utility bill?
Will you need to make any repairs, do any painting or remodeling to
have the location fit your needs?
Will the retailer be responsible for property taxes?

The location you can afford now and what you can afford in the future
should vary. It is difficult to create sales projects on a new business, but

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one way to get help in determining how much rent you can pay is to find out
what sales similar retail businesses are making and how much rent they're
paying.

Personal Factors

If you plan to work in your store, think about your personality, the distance
from the shop to home and other personal considerations. If you spend much
of your time traveling to and from work, the commute may overshadow the
exhilaration of being your own boss. Also, many restrictions placed on a
tenant by a landlord, management company or community can hamper a
retailer's independence.
Special Considerations
Your retail shop may require special considerations. Make a list of any unique
characteristic of your business that may need to be addressed.

Will the store require special lighting, fixtures or other hardware
installed?
Are restrooms for staff and customers available?
Is there adequate fire and police protection for the area?
Is there sanitation service available?
Does the parking lot and building exterior have adequate lighting?
Does the building have a canopy that provides shelter if raining?
What is the crime rate in the area?
Are there (blue laws) restrictions on Sunday sales?
Don't feel rushed into making a decision on where to put your retail store.
Take your time, research the area and have patience. If you have to change
your schedule and push back the date of the store's opening, than do so.
Waiting to find the perfect store.

Channel Design Decisions


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To design our distribution channels we take different decisions and do
bellow mention surveys.


Fisrt of all we analyze our customers needs then setting our channel of
distribution objectives & constraints and then identified major alternatives
and evaluating them and then design "NILE" distribution channels.
Types of Intermediaries:
Marketing Intermediaries link producers to other intermediaries or to the
ultimate users of the product. Operate between the producer and the final
buyer.

Company Sales Force - having your own in-house sales force provides the most
control over selling activities, but entails high fixed costs and supervision
Manufacturer's Agency - using independent companies who sell non-competing,
complementary products to a group of customers, paid a commission based on the
amount sold, can provide quick access to new markets, but loyalty and selling effort
must be shared with other product lines
Wholesale Distributors - these are independent companies that specialize in the
selling, storage, and servicing of other business customers for a wide variety of product
lines. They may provide market coverage over a large geographic area, but may carry
product lines of your competitors

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Process of selecting and maintaining channel
members
The process of selecting and maintaining channel members given below is
followed by us to distribute our product "NILE" mineral water.

Selecting: How many
channel members you
choose is partly a matter of
determining what level of
customer service you want
to provide.
Motivating: Think of your
channel members as people
with whom you will build a
relationship for everyone's
mutual benefit
Evaluating: Continual
performance reviews,
pruning dead wood
Delivery Mode and Terms:
Delivery has been transformed by overnight delivery services that offer
speedy delivery for a premium price. Yet faster is not always good business
practice.

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There are three modes of transportation which are
1) By air
2) By road
3) By water
We distribute our product by road through our own vans and trucks which
goes to diff erent retail stores in selected areas.







Importance of Distribution Channels

As noted, distribution channels often require the assistance of others in
order for the marketer to reach its target market. But why exactly does a
company need others to help with the distribution of their product?
Wouldnt a company that handles its own distribution functions be in a
better position to exercise control over product sales and potentially earn
higher profits? Also, doesnt the Internet make it much easier to distribute
products thus lessening the need for others to be involved in selling a
company product.
Costs of Utilizing Channel Members

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Loss of Revenue Resellers are not likely to offer services to a marketer
unless they see financial gain in doing so. They obtain payment for their
services as either direct payment (e.g., marketer pays for shipping costs)
or, in the case of resellers, by charging their customers more than what
they paid the marketer for acquiring the product (termed markup).

For the latter, marketers have a good idea of what the final customer
will pay for their product which means the marketer must charge less
when selling the product to resellers. In these situations marketers are
not reaping the full sale price by using resellers, which they may be able
to do if they sold directly to the customer.

Loss of Communication Control Marketers not only give up
revenue when using resellers, they may also give up control of the
message being conveyed to customers. If the reseller engages in
communication activities, such as personal selling in order to get
customers to purchase the product, the marketer is no longer
controlling what is being said about the product.

This can lead to miscommunication problems with customers, especially
if the reseller embellishes the benefits the product provides to the
customer. While marketers can influence what is being said by

training resellers salespeople, they lack ultimate control of the
message.

Loss of Product Importance Once a product is out of the marketers
hands the importance of that product is left up to channel members. If
there are pressing issues in the channel, such as transportation problems,
or if a competitor is using promotional incentives in an effort to push
their product through resellers, the marketers product may not get the
attention the marketer feels it should receive.


Factors in Creating Distribution Channels

Like most marketing decisions, a great deal of research and thought must go
into determining how to carry out distribution activities in a way that meets

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a marketers objectives. The marketer must consider many factors when
establishing a distribution system. Some factors are directly related to
marketing decisions while others are affected by relationships that exist
with members of the channel.



















Next we examine the key factors to consider when designing a distribution
strategy. We group these into two main categories: marketing decision
issues and channel relationship issues. In turn, each of these categories
contains several topics of concern to marketers.
.
Establishing Channel Relationships

Since channel members must be convinced to handle a marketers product it
makes sense to consider channel partners needs in the same way the
marketer considers the final users needs. However, the needs of channel
members are much different than those of the final customer. Resellers
seek products of interest to the resellers customers but are also concerned
with many other issues such as:

Delivery

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Resellers want the product delivered on-time and in good condition in
order to meet customer demand and avoid inventory out-of-stocks.

Profit Margin
Resellers are in business to make money so a key factor in their
decision to handle a product is how much money they will make on each
product sold. They expect that the difference (i.e., margin) between
their cost for acquiring the product from a supplier and the price
they charge to sell the product to their customers will be sufficient
to meet their profit objectives.

Other Incentives
Besides profit margin, resellers may want other incentives to entice
them especially if they are required to give extra effort selling the
product. These incentives may be in the form of additional free
products or even bonuses (e.g., bonus, free trips) for achieving sales
goals.

Packaging
Resellers want to handle products as easily as possible and want their
suppliers to ship and sell products in packages that fit within their

system. For example, products may need to be a certain size or
design in order to fit on a stores shelf, or the shipping package must
fit within the resellers warehouse or receiving dock space. Also, many
resellers are now requiring marketers to consider adding
identification tags to products (e.g., RFID tags) to allow for easier
inventory tracking when the product is received and also when it is
sold.

Training
Some products require the reseller to have strong knowledge of the
product including demonstrating the product to customers.
Marketers must consider offering training to resellers to insure the
reseller has the knowledge to present the product accurately.


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Promotional Help Resellers often seek additional help from the
product supplier to promote the product to customers. Such help may
come in the form of funding for advertisements, point-of-purchase
product materials, or in-store demonstrations

Location is better than just settling for the first place that comes along.
The wrong location choice could be devastating to your retail business. The
Retail Trade sector comprises establishments engaged in retailing
merchandise, generally without transformation, and rendering services
incidental to the sale of merchandise.

The retailing process is the final step in the distribution of merchandise;
retailers are, therefore, organized to sell merchandise in small quantities to
the general public. This sector comprises two main types of retailers: store
and nonstore retailers.

Store retailers operate fixed point-of-sale locations, located and
designed to attract a high volume of walk-in customers. In general, retail
stores have extensive displays of merchandise and use mass-media
advertising to attract customers. They typically sell merchandise to the
general public for personal or household consumption, but some also serve
business and institutional clients. These include establishments, such as

office supply stores, computer and software stores, building materials
dealers, plumbing supply stores, and electrical supply stores. Catalog
showrooms, gasoline services stations, automotive dealers, and mobile
home dealers are treated as store retailers.

In addition to retailing merchandise, some types of store retailers are also
engaged in the provision of after-sales services, such as repair and
installation. For example, new automobile dealers, electronic and appliance
stores, and musical instrument and supply stores often provide repair
services. As a general rule, establishments engaged in retailing merchandise
and providing after-sales services are classified in this sector.

The first eleven sub sectors of retail trade are store retailers. The
establishments are grouped into industries and industry groups typically
based on one or more of the following criteria:

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The merchandise line or lines carried by the store; for example,
specialty stores are distinguished from general-line stores.

The usual trade designation of the establishments. This criterion
applies in cases where a store type is well recognized by the
industry and the public, but difficult to define strictly in terms of
commodity lines carried; for example, pharmacies, hardware stores,
and department stores.

Capital requirements in terms of display equipment; for example,
food stores have equipment requirements not found in other retail
industries.

Human resource requirements in terms of expertise; for example,
the staff of an automobile dealer requires knowledge in financing,
registering, and licensing issues that are not necessary in other
retail industries.

Nonstore retailers, like store retailers, are organized to serve the
general public, but their retailing methods differ. The establishments of
this sub sector reach customers and market merchandise with methods,

such as the broadcasting of "infomercials," the broadcasting and
publishing of direct-response advertising, the publishing of paper and
electronic catalogs, door-to-door solicitation, in-home demonstration,
selling from portable stalls (street vendors, except food), and
distribution through vending













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The Communication Process
In general, communication is how people exchange meaningful information.
Too often, marketing communications focus on overcoming immediate
awareness, image, or preference problems in the target market. Today,
marketers are moving toward viewing communications as the management of
the customer buying process over time, during the preselling, selling,
consuming, and post consumption stages. To communicate effectively,
marketers need to understand how communication works.
Models that reflect how communication occurs often include the elements
shown below:



Keys to Effective Communication
For marketers understanding how communication works can improve the
delivery of their message. From the information just discussed, marketers
should focus on the following to improve communication with their targeted
audience:

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Carefully Encode Marketers should make sure the message they
send is crafted in a way that will be interpreted by message receivers as
intended.

Allow Feedback Encouraging the message receiver to provide
feedback can greatly improve communication and help determine if a
marketers message was decoded and interpreted properly. Feedback
can be improved by providing easy-to-use options for responding, such as
phone numbers, Internet chat, and email.

Reduce Noise In many promotional situations the marketer has
little control over interference with their message. However, there are
a few instances where the marketer can proactively lower the noise
level. Additionally, advertising can be developed in ways that separates
the marketers ad from others, including the use of whitespace in
magazine ads.

Choose Right Audience Targeting the right message receiver
will go a long way to improving a marketers ability to promote their
products. Messages are much more likely to be received and
appropriately decoded by those who have an interest in the content of
the message.

IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION

Marketing is one of the most dynamic functions in business. Nearly every
day, changes occur in the marketing environment; in consumer and
organizational behavior; in product development; in pricing; in channel
relationships; in marketing communications; and in technology. Therefore, in
order to be successful, marketers should cope up with these changes
particularly in marketing communication, because without effective
communication a product cant excel in the market. Weather a product is
good or bad, if marketer has communicated well about the product, it can
easily dominate the market. Because customer differs, communication

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programs needs to be developed for the specific segments, niches, and even
individuals.



In addition to coordinating general promotion decisions with other business
areas, individual promotions must also work together. Under the concept of
Integrated Marketing Communication marketers attempt to develop a
unified promotional strategy involving the coordination of many different
types of promotional techniques. The key idea for the marketer who
employs several promotional options to reach objectives for the product is
to employ a consistent message across all options. For instance, salespeople
will discuss the same benefits of a product as mentioned in television
advertisements. In this way no matter how customers are exposed to a
marketers promotional efforts they all receive the same information.
Thus, the communication process should start with an audit of the potential
interactions target customers may have with the product and company. For
example, someone purchasing a new computer may talk to others, see
television ads, read articles and ads in newspapers and magazines, and try
out computers in the store. The marketer needs to assess the influence that
each of these communications experiences will have at different stages of
the buying process. This understanding will help marketers allocate the
communication dollars more efficiently and effectively.














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PROMOTION

Promotion is a form of corporate communication that uses various methods
to reach a targeted audience with a certain message in order to achieve
specific organizational objectives. Nearly all organizations, whether for-
profit or not-for-profit, in all types of
industries, must engage in some form
of promotion. Such efforts may range
from multinational firms spending large
sums on securing high-profile
celebrities to serve as corporate
spokespersons to the owner of a one-
person enterprise passing out business
cards at a local businesspersons
meeting.
Nile, its nature is a new Product that is going to be launched in the month
of Ramadan. The promotion campaign for NILE, its nature would last for
two months starting from the Holy month of Ramadan. So we have designed
our promotion campaign that helps us to cater the market besides creating
the brand identity.
Like most marketing decisions, an effective promotional strategy requires
the marketer understand how promotion fits with other pieces of the
marketing puzzle (e.g., product, distribution, pricing, target markets).
Consequently, our promotion decisions should be made with an appreciation
for how it affects other areas of the company.
For instance, running a major advertising campaign for a new product without
first assuring there will be enough inventory to meet potential demand

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generated by the advertising would certainly not go over well with the
companys production department (not to mention other key company
executives). Thus, we dont want to work in a vacuum when making promotion
decisions. Rather, the overall success of our promotional strategy requires
input from others in impacted functional areas.
Targets of Marketing Promotions
The audience for an organizations marketing communication efforts is not
limited to just the marketers target market. While the bulk of a
marketers promotional budget may be directed at the target market, there
are many other groups that could also serve as useful target of a marketing
message.
Targets of a marketing message generally fall into one of the following
categories:
Members of the Organizations Target Market This category
would include current customers, previous customers and potential
customers, and as noted, may receive the most promotional attention.

Influencers of the Organizations Target Market There exists a
large group of people and organizations that can affect how a companys
target market is exposed to and perceives a companys products. These
influencing groups have their own communication mechanisms that reach
the target market and the marketer may be able utilize these
influencers to its benefit. Influencers include the news media (e.g.,
offer company stories), special interest groups, opinion leaders (e.g.,
doctors directing patients), and industry trade associations.

Participants in the Distribution
Process The distribution channel
provides services to help gain access
to final customers and are also
target markets since they must
recognize a products benefits and

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agree to handle the product in the same way as final customers who
must agree to purchase products.

Aiming promotions at distribution partners (e.g., retailers, wholesalers,
distributors) and other channel members is extremely important and, in
some industries, represents a higher portion of a marketers promotional
budget than promotional spending directed at the final customer.

Other Companies Reaching out to other companies, including
companies who may be competitors for other products, could help create
interest in discussing such a relationship.
Other Organizational Stakeholders Marketers may also be involved
with communication activities directed at other stakeholders. This
group consists of those who provide services, support or, in other ways,
impact the company. Communicating with this group is important to
insure the marketers views of any changes in standards are known.

Incase of Nile, its nature, we would cater the current customers,
previous customers and potential customers of the competitors. But our
focus will not be limited to urban areas or developed areas only; we also
want to create awareness to the consumers in rural and remote areas
giving them the benefit of Pure and Clear water.

In the distribution process the following promotion would be done

Distributor
Each distributor would be given a Target on Monthly basis on each
bottle segment. On achievement of the Target, the distributor would
be given an extra Margin of 2% as Cash Incentive over and above his
margin. (Generic but logically would be different for each segment)

Wholesaler
Each wholesaler would be given a Target on Monthly basis. On
achievement of the Target on each segment (Based on the area), the

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wholesalers would be given a FREE Trip to Thailand with his family.
(All expenses paid)

Retailer
Just like distributor and wholesaler, Retailers would also be given a
Target on Monthly basis. On achievement of the Target, there would
be a Lucky Draw of free items such as refrigerators, air
conditioners, mobile phones, television, DVD players, and a bumper
prize of motor bike. The retailer would also be given a higher % than
its competitors on Nile product.
Objectives of Marketing Promotions
Customers often move through several stages before a purchase decision is
made. Additionally before turning into a repeat customer, purchasers
analyze their initial purchase to see whether they received a good value, and
then often repeat the purchase process again before deciding to make the
same choice.
The type of customer the marketer is attempting to attract and which stage
of the purchase process a customer is in will affect the objectives of a
particular marketing communication effort.
Types of Promotion Objectives
The possible objectives for marketing promotions may include the following:

Build Awareness As new products and are
often unknown to a market, therefore our initial
promotional efforts are focused on establishing
an identity. In this situation we have focused our
promotion to:
1) Effectively reach customers, and
2) Tell the market who we are and what we have to
offer.


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Create Interest Moving a customer from awareness of a product
to making a purchase can present a significant

challenge. Customers must first recognize they have a need before they
actively start to consider a purchase. The focus on creating messages
that convince customers that a need exists has been the hallmark of
marketing for a long time.

Provide Information In situations, where the product competes in
an existing market, informational promotion may be used to help with
a product positioning strategy

Stimulate Demand The right promotion can drive customers to
make a purchase. In the case of products that a customer has not
previously purchased or has not purchased in a long time, the
promotional efforts may be directed at getting the customer to try
the product.

Complete Campaign Details.
The campaign would be done through:
Print Media (Press Ads etc)
Electronic Media (TV, Radio etc)
Mass Media (Printings, Photography)
Since a marketer often has multiple simultaneous promotional campaigns, the
objective of each could be different.
The most obvious objective we have for our promotional activities is to
convince customers to make a decision that benefits our product (of course
we believe the decision will also benefit the customer).
However, we understand that getting customers to commit to a decision,
such as a purchase decision, is only achievable when a customer is ready to
make the decision. So we have made benefits for the customers in order to
make the purchase decision easy for the customers.

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In order to provide information about NILE, its nature, we may use
promotional means, including direct comparisons with competitors products,

in an effort to get customers to mentally distinguish the marketers product
from those of competitors.
The challenge of NILE, its nature is to catch and convince buyers to
make a purchase decision by creating the interest in the product. The focus
is to get customers to try a product. In case of NILE, its nature; this has
been done by putting the following benefits in the product for the buyer:

Product Wise Interest
We have placed the following benefits in our products:
500ml (600ml in price of 500ml)
1.5liter (Free TANG sachet)
6 liter (Lucky draw for HAJJ/ UMRAH)
Characteristics of Different Promotions
Some characteristics that are widely understood as being important in
evaluating the effectiveness of each type of promotion, they are by no
means the only criteria used for evaluation. In fact, as new promotional
methods emerge the criteria for evaluating promotional methods will likely
change.
For our product we will look at the following characteristics of a promotional
method:

1. Intended Audience: Mass vs. Targeted
2. Payment Model: Paid vs. Non-Paid
3. Interaction Type: Personal vs. Non-Personal
4. Message Flow: One-Way vs. Two-Way
5. Demand Creation: Quick vs. Lagging
6. Message control
7. Message credibility
8. Effective Cost of Promotion

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1. Intended Audience: Mass Promotion vs. Targeted Promotion
Promotions can be categorized based on the intended coverage of a single
promotional message. For instance, a single
television advertisement for a major sporting
event could be seen by millions of viewers at
the same time. Such mass promotion, intended
to reach as many people as possible, has been a
mainstay of marketers promotional efforts for
a long time. Unfortunately, while mass
promotions are delivered to a large number of
people, the actual number that fall within the
marketers target market may be small. Because
of this, many who use mass promotion techniques
find it to be an inefficient way to reach desired
customers.
Advertisers are much more likely to have their ads displayed to customers
within their target market and, thus, receive a higher return on their
promotional investment. The movement to highly targeted promotions has
gained tremendous traction in recent years and, as new and improved
targeting methods are introduced, its importance will continue to grow.
2. Payment Model: Paid Promotion vs. Non-Paid Promotion
Most efforts to promote products require marketers to make direct
payment to the medium that delivers the message. For instance, a company
must pay a magazine publisher to advertise in the magazine. However, there
are several forms of promotion that do not involve direct payment in order
to distribute a promotional message. While not necessarily free since
there may be indirect costs involved, the ability to have a product promoted
without making direct payment to the medium can be a viable alternative to
expensive promotion options.


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3. Interaction Type: Personal vs. Non-Personal

A promotion that involves real people communicating with other people is
considered as personal promotion. While salespeople are a common and
well understood type of personal promotion, another type of promotion,
called controlled word-of-mouth promotion (a.k.a., buzz marketing), is
emerging as a form of personal promotion. Unlike salespeople who attempt
to obtain an order from customers, controlled word-of-mouth promotion
uses real people to help spread information about a product but is not
designed to directly elicit orders. Many non-personal forms of promotion,
such as a radio advertisement, are inflexible, at least in the short-term, and
cannot be easily adjusted to address questions that arise by the audience
experiencing the ad.
4. Message Flow: One-Way vs. Two-Way Communication
Most efforts at mass promotion, such as television advertising, offer only a
one-way information flow that does not allow for easy response by the
message receiver. However, many targeted promotions, such as using a sales
force to promote products, allow message recipients to respond immediately
to information from the message sender.
5. Demand Creation: Quick vs. Lagging
When a marketer is looking to increase demand, certain promotional
activities offer advantages in turning exposure to promotion into a quick
increase in demand. In general, these activities are most effective when
customers are offered an incentive to make the purchase either in a
monetary way (e.g., save money) or in psychological way (e.g., improves
customers perceived group role or status level).
6. Message Control
No marketer can totally control how the news media, customers or others
talk about a company or its products. Reporters for magazines, newspaper
and websites, as well as posters to Internet forums may discuss a companys
products in ways that can benefit or hinder a companys marketing efforts.

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7. Message Credibility

The perceived control of the message can influence the target markets
perception of message credibility. For example, many customers viewing a
comparative advertisement in which a product is shown to be superior to a
competitors product may be skeptical about the claims since the company
with the superior product is paying for the advertisement. Yet, if the same
comparison is mentioned in a newspaper article it may be more favorably
viewed since readers may perceive the author of the story has possessing an
unbiased point-of-view.

8. Cost Effectiveness

Promotional cost is measured in several different ways though the most
useful are measured in terms of cost-per-impression (CPI), cost-per-
targeted impression (CPTI), and cost-per-action (CPA). The CPI metric (also
measured in terms of cost-per-thousand impressions or CPM) relates to how
many people are exposed to a promotion in relation to the cost of the
promotion.

A national or international television advertisement, while expensive to
create and broadcast, actually produces a very low CPI given how many
people are exposed to the ad. Yet, a low CPI can be misleading if a large
percentage of the promotions audience is not within the marketers target
market, in which case the CPTI may be a better metric for gauging
promotion effectiveness. The CPTI approach looks at what percentage of an
audience is within the marketers customer group and, thus, legitimate
targets for the promotion. Clearly, CPTI is higher than CPI, but it offers a
better indication of how much promotion is reaching targeted customers.
An even more effective way to evaluate promotional costs is through the
cost-per-action metric. With CPA the marketer evaluates how many people
actually respond to a promotion. Unfortunately, measuring CPA is not always
easy and tying it directly to a specific promotion can also be difficult
because taking several weeks to make the purchase does not mean the
advertisement was not effective in generating sales, though if the CPA was

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measured within a day or two after the ad was broadcast this persons action
would not have been counted..
Because we are launching a new product in the market, so in order to
stimulate demand we will first go for Mass promotion and after creating
identity of NILE, its nature, well direct our promotion activities
towards target market. Cricket Medium would be used as one of the sources
for promotion. For this purpose Nile, its nature, would be heavy
advertised during the Champions Trophy held in Pakistan and the event
would be sponsored. Moreover, NILE, its nature, will be used during the
entire event at subsidized rates.





Types of Promotion Promotion Mix
A companys total marketing mix_ also called its promotion mix_ consists of
specific blend of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and public
relations tools that the company uses to pursue its advertising and
marketing objectives. Marketers have at their disposal four major methods
of promotion. Taken together these comprise the promotion mix. The four
major promotion tools are as follows:
Advertising Involves non-personal mostly paid promotions often
using mass media outlets to deliver the marketers message. While
historically advertising has involved one-way communication with little
feedback opportunity for the customer experiencing the

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advertisement, the advent of computer technology and, in particular,
the Internet has increased the options that allow customers to
provide quick feedback.
Sales Promotion Involves the use of special short-term techniques,
often in the form of incentives, to encourage customers to respond or
undertake some activity. For instance, the use of retail coupons with
expiration dates requires customers to act while the incentive is still
valid.
Public Relations Building good relations with the companys various
publics by obtaining favorable publicity, building up a good corporate
image, and handling or heading off unfavorable rumors, stories, and
events. This type of promotion uses third-party sources, and
particularly the news media, to offer a favorable mention of the
marketers company or product without direct payment to the
publisher of the information.
Personal Selling As the name implies, this form of promotion involves
personal contact between company representatives and those who
have a role in purchase decisions (e.g., make the decision, such as
consumers, or have an influence on a decision, such as members of a
company buying center). Often this occurs face-to-face or via
telephone, though newer technologies allow this to occur online via
video conferencing or text chat.

Communication goes beyond these specific promotion tools. The products
design, its price, the shape and color of its package, and the stores that
sells it_ all communicate something to buyers. Thus, although the promotion
mix is the companys primary communication activity
As NILE, its nature is not a highly priced consumer product rather it is
the finest quality at convenient price; therefore, it doesnt strongly need
personalized promotion, even then, for the purpose of personal selling we




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are hoping to place our stalls at shopping malls such as Pace, Al-Fateh,
HKB, CSD, Metro Cash and Carry, etc. Moreover, well air a live program
on Radio FM consisting of questioners that would be asked from the callers
and the winners would e awarded with surprise gifts. Apart from Stalls and
FM questionnaires, Brochures and Feedback forms would be used as well.
Although NILE, its nature, is not a complicated product and doesnt
require answering numerous complex questions, even then we will use two way
communication approaches in order to avoid any confusion or
misunderstanding.
Promotion Summary Table
The table below compares each of the promotion mix options on the eight
key promotional characteristics. The summary should be viewed only as a
general guide since promotion techniques are continually evolving and how
each technique is compared on a characteristic is subject to change.
Characteristics Advertising Sales
Promotion
Public
Relations
Personal
Selling
Directed Coverage mass & targeted mass & targeted mass targeted
Message Flow one & two-way one & two-way one-way two-way
Payment Model paid
limited non-paid
Paid non-paid paid
Interaction Type non-personal personal & non-
personal
non-personal personal
Demand Stimulation Lagging Quick lagging quick
Message Control Good Good poor very good
Message Credibility low-medium low-medium high medium-high
Cost of Promotion CPI - Low
CPTI - Varies
CPA - Varies
CPI - Medium
CPTI - Varies
CPA - Varies
CPI - None
CPTI - None
CPA - None
CPI - High
CPTI - High
CPA - High

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Factors Affecting Promotions Choice
With four promotional methods to choose from how does the marketer
determine which ones to use? The selection can be complicated by company
and marketing decision issues especially if a company is going to launch a new
product in the market.
Company Issues:

Promotional Objective There are several different objectives a
marketer may pursue with their promotional strategy. Each type of
promotion offers different advantages in terms of helping the marketer
reach their objectives.

Availability of Resources The amount of money and other resources
that can be directed to promotion affects the marketers choice of
promotional methods. Marketers with large promotional budgets may be
able to spread spending among all promotion options while marketers
with limited funds must be more selective on the promotion techniques
they use.

Company Philosophy Some companies follow a philosophy that
dictates where most promotional spending occurs. For instance, some
companies follow the approach that all promotion should be done through
salespeople while other companies prefer to focus attention on product
development and hope word-of-mouth communication by satisfied
customers helps to create interest in their product. However the
promotion of a drinking water can be done through either salespeople
or word-of-mouth communication.
Marketing Decision Issues:

Target Market Characteristics such as size, location and type of
target markets affect how the marketer communicates with customers.

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For instance, for a small marketer serving business markets with
customers widely dispersed, it may be very expensive to utilize a sales
force versus using advertising.
Product Different products require different promotional
approaches. For the consumer market, products falling into the
convenience and shopping goods categories (as our mineral water) are
likely to use mass market promotional approaches while higher-end
specialty goods are likely to use personalized selling.

Distribution Marketing organizations selling through channel partners
can reach the final customer either directly using a pull promotion
strategy (creates demand for a product) which is used when channel
partners are hesitant about stocking a product unless they are assured
of sufficient customer interest or indirectly using a push promotional
strategy (pushing the product down the channel and into customers
hands) which is used to encourage channel partners to stock and promote
the product to their customers.

Price The higher the price of a product the more likely a marketer
will need to engage in personalized promotion compared to lower priced
products that can be marketed using mass promotion.
Advertising
Advertising is a non-personal form of promotion that is delivered through
selected media outlets that, under most circumstances, require the
marketer to pay for message placement. Advertising is a method of mass
promotion in that a single message can reach a large number of people. But,
this mass promotion approach presents problems since many exposed to an
advertising message may not be within the marketers target market, and
thus, may be an inefficient use of promotional funds. However, this is
changing as new advertising technologies and the emergence of new media
outlets offer more options for targeted advertising.


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Advertising also has a history of being considered a one-way form of
marketing communication where the message receiver (i.e., target market) is
not in position to immediately respond to the message (e.g., seek more
information). Another characteristic that may change as advertising evolves
is the view that advertising does not stimulate immediate demand for the
product advertised. That is, customers cannot quickly purchase a product
they see advertised.

Importance of Advertising

Spending on advertising is huge. This huge level of spending supports
thousands of companies and millions of jobs. In fact, in many countries most
media outlets, such as television, radio and newspapers, would not be in
business without revenue generated through the sale of advertising.
While worldwide advertising is an important contributor to economic growth,
individual marketing organizations differ on the role advertising plays. For
some organizations little advertising may be done, instead promotional money
is spent on other promotion options such a personal selling through a sales
team. For some smaller companies advertising may consist of occasional
advertisement and on a very small scale, such as placing small ads in the
classified section of a local newspaper.
Managing Advertising Decisions
Delivering an effective marketing message through advertising requires
many different decisions as the marketer develops their advertising
campaign. For small campaigns, that involve little creative effort, one or a
few people may handle the bulk of the work. For larger campaigns the skills
needed to make sound advertising decisions can be quite varied and may not
be easily handled by a single person. While larger companies manage some
advertising activities within the company, they are more likely to rely on the
assistance of advertising professionals, such as those found at advertising
agencies, to help bring their advertising campaign to market.


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Advertising Agency Functions
Professionals at advertising agencies and other advertising organizations
offer a number of functions including:
Account Management Within an advertising agency the account
manager or account executive is tasked with handling all major decisions
related to a specific client. These responsibilities include locating and
negotiating to acquire clients. Once the client has agreed to work with
the agency, the account manager works closely with the client to develop
an advertising strategy.

Creative Team For large accounts one task account managers
routinely delegate involves generating ideas, designing concepts and
creating the final advertisement, which generally becomes the
responsibility of the agencys creative team. An agencys creative team
consists of specialists in graphic design, film and audio production,
copywriting, computer programming, and much more.

Researchers Full-service advertising agencies employ market
researchers who assess a clients market situation, including
understanding customers and competitors, and also are used to test
creative ideas. Researchers also help in following the completion of an
advertising campaign to measure whether the campaign reached its
objectives.

Media Planners Once an advertisement is created, it must be placed
through an appropriate advertising media. Each advertising media, of
which there are thousands, has its own unique methods for accepting
advertisements, such as:

different advertising cost structures (i.e., what it costs marketers to
place an ad),
different requirements for accepting ad designs (e.g., size of ad),


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different ways placements can be purchased (e.g., direct contact with
media or through third-party seller), and
Different time schedules (i.e., when ad will be run).

Understanding the nuances of different media is the role of a media
planner, who looks for the best media match for a client and also
negotiates the best deals.
For the purpose of media planning, Professional Advertising Agency would
be hired and it will design and plan all the following functions to do the job
effectively.
Account Management
Creative Team
Researchers
Media Planners
Types of Advertising
Type of advertising refers to the primary focus of the message being sent
and falls into one of the following four categories:
Product-Oriented Advertising
Most advertising spending is directed toward the promotion of a specific
good, service or idea, what we have collectively labeled as an organizations
product. The goal of product advertising is to clearly promote a specific
product to a targeted audience. Marketers can accomplish this in several
ways from a low-key approach that simply provides basic information about a
product (informative advertising) to blatant appeals that try to convince
customers to purchase a product (persuasive advertising) that may include
direct comparisons between the marketers product and its competitors
offerings (comparative advertising).



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As marketer of new products, we are planning to follow the teaser
approach in advance of a new product introduction to prepare the market for
the product

Image Advertising

Image advertising is undertaken primarily to enhance an organizations
perceived importance to a target market. Image advertising does not focus
on specific products as much as it presents what an organization has to
offer. In these types of ads, if products are mentioned it is within the
context of what we do rather than a message touting the benefits of a
specific product. Image advertising is often used in situations where an
organization needs to educate the targeted audience on some issue.

Advocacy Advertising

Organizations also use advertising to send a message intended to influence a
targeted audience. Mostly there is an underlying benefit sought by an
organization when they engage in advocacy advertising.

Public Service Advertising

Sometimes, organizations are permitted to run advertisements through
certain media outlets free-of-charge if the message contained in the ad
concerns an issue viewed as for the greater good of society. But this
approach is usually applicable for non-profit organizations.
As marketer of new products, we are planning to follow the teaser
approach in advance of a new product introduction to prepare the market for
the product One week before the launch of NILE, its nature, well air our
teaser proclaiming its nature, its your body this teaser will help to
create curiosity about our product among the buyers.
In case of image advertising, our major concern here is to let people know
about the benefits and purity of NILE, its nature rather then enhancing
the organizations perceived importance to a target market.

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Advertising Trends
Like most areas of marketing, advertising is changing rapidly. This change
has affected advertising more than any other marketing function. The more
important trends in advertising include:

Digital Convergence

In advertising convergence, and more appropriately digital convergence,
refers to a growing trend for using computer technology to deliver media
programming and information. Convergence allows one media outlet to take
advantage of features and benefits offered through other media outlets.
But convergence is not limited to just television. Many media outlets are
experiencing convergence as can be seen with print publications that now
have a strong web presence. These include outdoor billboards that alter
displays as cars containing geographic positioning systems (GPS) and other
recognizable factors (e.g., GPS tied to satellite radio) pass by or direct mail
postcards that carry a different message based on data that matches a
households address with television viewing habits.
Focus on Audience Tracking
The movement to digital convergence provides marketers with the basic
resources needed to monitor users activity, namely, digital data. All digital
information can be stored and later evaluated. For media outlets delivering
information in digital form, the potential exists for greater tracking and
matching this with information about the person receiving the digital data.
And tracking does not stop with what is delivered; it also works with
information being sent from the customer. Tracking can be used in future
marketing efforts.
Audience Concern with Tracking
While media convergence offers marketers more options for tracking
response to advertisements, such activity also raises ethical and legal
concerns. Many consumers are not pleased to learn their activities are being
monitored when they engage a media outlet. Yet consider the following
examples of how marketers are tracking users:

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Television Viewing The advent of digitally delivered television allows
cable, telephone and satellite providers to track user activity through
the set-top boxes connected to a subscribers television.

Television recording A digital video recorder (DVR), such as TiVo,
can track users recording habits and, based on a viewers past activity,
make suggestions for programs they may want to record. Additionally,
advertising services can program the DVR to insert special
advertisements within a program targeted to a particular viewer.

Internet Spy ware Spy ware is a special program that runs in the
background of a users computer and regularly forwards information over
the Internet to the spy wares company. In some cases spy ware keeps
track of websites the user has visited. The information is then used to
gain an understanding of the users interests, which then results in
delivery of special ads when a user visits a certain site.
Ad Skipping and Blocking
Viewer convenience is not the only advantage of the DVR. The other main
reason consumers are attracted to the DVR is their ability to quickly skip
over commercials. Of course this presents major issues for advertisers who
are paying for advertisements. As more DVR devices with ad skipping or
even ad blocking features are adopted by mainstream consumers the
advertisers concern with whether they are getting the best value for the
advertising money becomes a bigger issue.
Changing Media Choices
There is a major cultural shift occurring in how people use media for
entertainment, news and information. Many traditional media outlets, such
as newspapers and major commercial television networks, are seeing their
customer base eroded by the emergence of new media outlets. A number of
important applications tied to the Internet are creating new media outlets
and drawing the attention of many, mostly younger, consumers. Examples
include:

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Pod casting Audio This involves delivering programming via
downloadable online audio that can be listened to on music players, such
as Apples I-Pod. Many news websites and even other information site,
such as blogs, offer free downloadable audio programming.

Pod casting Video While audio downloading has been available for
some time, the downloading of video to small, handheld devices, including
cell phones, is in its infancy.

RSS Feeds This is an Internet information distribution technology
that allows for news and content to be delivered instantly to anyone who
has signed up for delivery. Clearly those registering for RSS feeds
represent a highly targeted market since they requested the content.
Networked Gaming Gaming systems attached to the Internet for
group play is relatively new and becoming more practical as more people
move to faster Internet connections.

For marketers these new technologies should be monitored closely as they
become accepted alternatives to traditional media outlets. While these
technologies are currently not major outlets for advertising, they may soon
offer such opportunity. As these technologies gain momentum and move into
mainstream acceptance marketers may need to consider shifting advertising
spending.
The bottom line for marketers is they must stay informed of new
developments and understand how their customers are using these in ways
that may offer advertising opportunities.
But here we are not concerned with such complicated types of advertising,
we want to launch NILE, its nature in a simple but effective and strongly
convincing way, so that it becomes easy to persuade people and create
demand.


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Managing the Advertising Campaign
Whether a marketer employs a professional advertising agency to handle its
advertising campaign or chooses to undertake all advertising tasks on its
own, a successful campaign requires a number of important decisions
including:

Setting the Advertising Objective
Setting the Advertising Budget
Creating a Message
Selecting Media for Message Delivery
Evaluating Campaign Results

For major consumer products each of these decisions will be intensely
evaluated and knowledge of all advertising campaign decisions is important
and should be well understood by all marketers.
Setting the Advertising Objective
Marketing promotion, which includes advertising, can be used to address
several broad objectives including: building product awareness, creating
interest, providing information, stimulating demand and reinforcing the
brand. To achieve one or more of these objectives, advertising is used to
send a message containing information about some element of the marketers
offerings.
Message About Product Details about the product play a prominent
role in advertising for new products. In fact, a very large percentage of

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product-oriented advertising includes some mention of features and
benefits offered by the marketers product.

Message About Price Companies that regularly engage in price
adjustments, such as running short term sales (i.e., price markdown), can
use advertising to let the market know of price reductions.

Message About Other Promotions Advertising often works hand-in-
hand with other promotional mix items. Also, advertising can help
salespeople gain access to new accounts if the advertising precedes the
salespersons attempt to gain an appointment with a prospective buyer.
This may be especially effective for a company entering a new market
and launching a new product where advertising may help reduce the
uncertainty a buyer has about a new product.

Message About Distribution Within distribution channels,
advertising can help expand channel options for a marketer by making
distributors aware of the marketers offerings. Also, advertising can be
used to let customers know locations where a product can be purchased.
Setting the Advertising Budget
Setting an advertising objective is easy, but achieving the objective requires
a well-thought out strategy. One key factor affecting the strategy used to
achieve advertising objectives is how much money an organization has to
spend. The funds designated for advertising make up the advertising budget
and it reflects the amount an organization is willing (i.e., approved by high-
level management) to commit to achieve its advertising objectives.
Organizations use several methods for determining advertising budgets
including:
Percentage of Sales Under this approach advertising spending is set
based on either a percentage of previous sales or a percentage of
forecasted sales. For example, an organization may set next years
advertising budget at 10% of this years sales level

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What is Affordable Many smaller companies find spending of any
kind to be constraining. In this situation, advertising may be just one of
several tightly allocated spending areas and, thus, the level spent on
advertising may vary over time. For these companies, advertising may
only occur when extra funds are available.

Best Guess Companies entering new markets often lack knowledge of
how much advertising is needed to achieve their objectives. In cases
where the market is not well understood, marketers may rely on their
best judgment (i.e., executives experience) of what the advertising
budget should be.


Selecting Media Outlets
With an objective and a budget in place, the advertising campaign will next
need to focus on developing the message. However, before effort is placed
in developing a message the marketer must first determine which media
outlets will be used to deliver their message. These range from traditional
outlets, such as print publications, radio and television, to newly emerging
outlets, such as the Internet and mobile devices. The characteristics
by which different media outlets can be assessed include the following
factors:
1. Creative Options.
2. Creative Cost.
3. Media Market Reach.
4. Message Placement Cost.
5. Length of Exposure.
6. Advertising Clutter.
7. Response Tracking.



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1.Creative Options
An advertisement has the potential to appeal to four senses sight, sound,
smell and touch. However, not all advertising media have the ability to
deliver multi-sensory messages. Traditional radio, for example, is limited to
delivering audio messages while roadside billboards offer only visual appeal.

2.Creative Cost
The media type chosen to deliver a marketers message also impacts the cost
of creating the message. For media outlets that deliver a multi-sensory
experience (e.g., television and Internet for sight and sound; print
publications for sight, touch and smell) creative cost can be significantly
higher than for media targeting a single sensory experience.

3.Media Market Reach
The number of customers exposed to a single promotional effort within a
target market is considered the reach of a promotion. Some forms of
advertising, such as television advertising, offer an extensive reach, while a
single roadside billboard on a lightly traveled road offers very limited
reach.
Market reach can be measured along two dimensions:
Channels Served - This dimension relates to whether a media outlet is
effective in reaching the members within the marketers channel of
distribution. Channels can be classified as:

Consumer Channel Does the media outlet reach the final
consumer market targeted by the marketer?
Trade Channel Does the media outlet reach a marketers
channel partners who help distribute their product?
Business-to-Business Does the media outlet reach customers
in the business market targeted by the marketer?




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Geographic Scope This dimension defines the geographic breadth of
the channels served and includes:
International Does the media outlet have multi-country
distribution?
National Does the media outlet cover an entire country?
Regional Does the media outlet have distribution across
multiple geographic regions such as counties, states, provinces,
territories, etc.?
Local Does the media outlet primarily serve a limited
geographic area?
Individual Does the media outlet offer individual customer
targeting?
4.Message Placement Cost
The other cost is for media placement; the purchase of ad time, space or
location with media outlets that deliver the message. Media outlets set
placement cost using several factors though the most important are
determined by audience size, audience type and an advertisements
production characteristics:
Audience Size Refers to the number of people who experience the
media outlet during a particular time period. In general, the more people
experiencing a media outlet, the more the outlet can charge for ads

Audience Type the key to marketing is aligning marketing decisions
to satisfy the needs of a target market. The more selectively targeted
the audience, the more valuable this audience is to advertisers since
with targeted advertising promotional funds are being spent on those
with the highest potential to respond to the advertisers message.

Characteristics of the Advertisement Media outlet also charge
different rates based on creative characteristics of the message.
Characteristics that create ad rate differences include:


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Run Time (e.g., length of television or radio ads)
Size (e.g., print ads size, billboard size)
Print Style (e.g., black-and-white vs. color)
Location in Media (e.g., back magazine cover vs. inside pages)
5.Length of Exposure
Media outlets vary in how much exposure they offer to their audience.
Magazines and other publications provide opportunities for longer exposure
times since these media types can be retained by the audience (i.e., keep old
magazines) while exposure on television and radio are generally limited to
the time the ad was broadcast.
6.Advertising Clutter
In order to increase revenue, media outlets often include a large number of
ads within a certain time, space or location To break through the clutter
advertisers may be required to increase the frequency of their advertising
efforts (i.e., run more ads). Yet greater advertising frequency increases
advertising expense.
7.Response Tracking
Newer media developed using Internet technology offer effective methods
for tracking audience response compared to traditional media. But
Internet-media are not alone in providing response tracking. Other
advertising outlets, such as advertising by mail and television infomercial
programming, also provide useful measures of audience reaction.
Type of Media Outlets
The reason for the growing number of media outlets lies with advances in
communication technology. Here we provide an overview of 10 leading media
outlets:
Television.
Radio.
Print Publications.

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Internet.
Direct Mail.
Signage.
Product Placement.
Mobile Devices.
Sponsorships.
Others.
Television Advertising
Television advertising is viewed as the pillar of advertising media outlets.
Television advertising offers the benefit of reaching large numbers in a
single exposure. Yet because it is a mass medium capable of being seen by
nearly anyone, television lacks the ability to deliver an advertisement to
highly targeted customers compared to other media outlets However,
television remains an option that is best for products that targeted to a
broad market.
Radio Advertising
Promotion through radio has been a viable advertising option for over 80
years. Radio advertising is mostly local to the broadcast range of a radio
station. In many ways radio suffers the same problems as television, namely,
a mass medium that is not highly targeted and offers little opportunity to
track responses. But unlike television, radio presents the additional
disadvantage of limiting advertisers to audio-only advertising. For some
products advertising without visual support is not effective.
Print Publication Advertising
Print publications such as magazines, newspapers and Special Issue
publications offer advertising opportunities at all geographic levels.
Newspapers have also incorporated color advertisements, though their main
advantage rests with their ability to target local markets.


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Internet Advertising

The fastest growing media outlet for advertising is the Internet. Internet
advertisings influence continues to expand and each year more major
marketers shift a larger portion of their promotional budget to this
medium. The Internet offers many advertising options with messages
delivered through websites or by e-mail.

Direct Mail

This method of advertising uses postal and other delivery services to ship
advertising materials, including postcards, letters, brochures, catalogs and
flyers, to a physical address of targeted customers. Direct mail is most
effective when it is designed in a way that makes it appear to be special to
the customer. Direct mail can be a very cost-effective method of
advertising, especially if mailings contain printed material.

Signage and Billboards

The use of signs to communicate a marketers message places advertising in
geographically identified areas in order to capture customer attention. The
most obvious method of using signs is through billboards, which are generally
located in high traffic areas. Outdoor billboards come in many sizes, though
the most well-known are large structures located near transportation points
intending to attract the interest of people traveling on roads or public
transportation. Indoor billboards are often smaller than outdoor billboards
and are designed to attract the attention of foot traffic (i.e., those moving
past the sign). For example, smaller signage in airports, and large
commercial office space fit this category. While billboards are the most
obvious example of signage advertising, there are many other forms of
signage advertising include:
Mobile billboards where signs are placed on vehicles, such as buses
and cars, or even carried by people
Plastic bags used to protect newspapers delivered to homes
Advertisements attached to grocery carts

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Product Placement Advertising
Product placement is an advertising approach that intentionally inserts
products into entertainment programs such as movies, TV programs and
video games.
Placement can take several forms including:
visual imagery in which the product appears within the entertainment
program
actual product use by an actor in the program
words spoken by an actor that include the product name
Mobile Device Advertising
Handheld devices, such as cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and
other wireless devices, make up the growing mobile device market. Such
devices allow customers to stay informed, gather information and
communicate with others without being tied to a physical location.
Currently, the most popular advertising delivery method to mobile devices is
through plain text messaging.
Sponsorships
Sponsorships are intended not to be viewed a blatant advertisement and in
this way may be appealing for marketers looking to establish credibility with
a particular target market. However, many sponsorship options lack the
ability to tie spending directly to customer response. Additionally, the
visibility of the sponsorship may be limited to relatively small mentions
especially if the marketer is sharing sponsorship with many other
organizations.
Others
While the media outlets discussed above represent the overwhelming
majority of advertising methods, there are several more including:
advertising using telephone recordings (e.g., political candidates
messages)

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advertising via fax machine (though there may be certain legal issues
with this method)
advertising through inserted material in product packaging (e.g., inside
credit card bill)
advertising imprinted on retail receipts (e.g., grocery store, cash
machine)
Creating a Message
In advertising, the act of creating a message is often considered the
creative aspect of carrying out an advertising campaign. And because it is a
creative process, the number of different ways a message can be generated
is limited only by the imagination of those responsible for developing the
message.
When creating an advertising message the marketer must consider such
issues as:
General Message Factors
Message Structure
Message Testing
General Message Factors
The makeup of the target audience (e.g., age, location, attitudes, etc.)
impacts what is conveyed in the message. The media outlet (e.g.,
television, print, Internet, etc.) used to deliver the message impacts the
way a message will be created. The objective of the advertising
campaign can affect the type of ad that is designed. For example, an
advertisement with the objective of stimulating immediate sales for an
existing product will be different than an advertisement that seeks to
build initial awareness of a new product.
Message Structure
Most advertising messages share common components within the message
including:

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The Appeal This refers to the underlying idea that captures the
attention of a message receiver. Appeals can fall into such categories as
emotional, fearful, humorous, and sexual.

Value Proposition The advertising message often contains a reason
for customers to be interested in the product which often means the ad
will emphasize the benefits obtained from using the product.

Slogan To help position the product in a customers mind and
distinguish it from competitors offerings, advertisements will contain a
word or phrase that is repeated across several different messages and
different media outlets.
Message Testing
The most popular method of testing advertising for the marketer is to
conduct focus groups where several advertising messages are presented. On
the Internet, advertising delivery technology allows for testing of ads by
randomly exposing website visitors to different ads and then measuring
their response.
Evaluating Campaign Results
The final step in an advertising campaign is to measure the results of
carrying out the campaign. Whether a campaign is judged successful is not
always tied to whether product sales have increased since the beginning of
the campaign. In some cases, such as when the objective is to build
awareness, a successful campaign may be measured in terms of how many
people are now aware of the product. Once the campaign has run, a second,
post-campaign or post-test measure is undertaken to see if there is an
increase in awareness.
Because NILE, its nature, is a new product so, the chief objective of our
advertising campaign is to create the brand identity. The strategy is to get
market share by providing superior quality at acceptable price. We have

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many competitors providing high quality, but even then we dont believe to be
skeptical and let down there product in order to show superiority.
Because we are launching a product for the first time and the amount that
would be used for promotion (electronic, print and other media types) is
Capital Investment, so we have taken the cost of promotion in CAPEX
(capital expenditure) of the company and after that it would be 5% of total
sales.
For NILE, its nature, the media outlets that we have used are:
Television
Radio
Print publications
Direct mail
Billboards/ Hoardings
Sponsorship
Product placement
Posters
Stalls
For NILE, its nature, the act of creating a message is often considered
the creative aspect of carrying out an advertising campaign. The basic
purpose of our message is informing people about the finest quality and
natural goodness of our water.
Sales Promotion
Sales promotions are used by a wide range of organizations in both the
consumer and business markets, though the frequency and spending levels
are much greater for consumer products marketers. Sales promotion
describes promotional methods using special short-term techniques to
persuade members of a target market to respond or undertake certain
activity because advertising alone is not enough to move people to take
action, such as getting them to try a new product. As a reward, marketers
offer something of value to those responding generally in the form of lower
cost of ownership for a purchased product (e.g., lower purchase price, money

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back) or the inclusion of additional value-added material (e.g., something
more for the same price).
Objectives of Sales Promotion
Sales promotion is a tool used to achieve five major promotional objectives
Building Product Awareness Several sales promotion techniques are
highly effective in exposing customers to products for the first time
and can serve as key promotional components in the early stages of new
product introduction.

Creating Interest Creating interest is often considered the most
important use of sales promotion. In the retail industry an appealing
sales promotions can significantly increase customer traffic to retail
outlets.

Providing Information Generally sales promotion techniques are
designed to move customers to some action and are rarely simply
informational in nature. However, some sales promotions do offer
customers access to product information.

Stimulating Demand Next to building initial product awareness, the
most important use of sales promotion is to build demand by convincing
customers to make a purchase. Special promotions, especially those that
lower the cost of ownership to the customer (e.g., price reduction) can
be employed to stimulate sales.

Reinforcing the Brand Once customers have made a purchase sales
promotion can be used to both encourage additional purchasing and also
as a reward for purchase loyalty.


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As mentioned earlier, we have used various techniques to create buyers
interest in our product. Therefore in order to persuade our buyers to
purchase NILE, its nature, we offer them something extra i.e.:
(600ml in price of 500ml)
Free Tang sachets
Free Hajj/ Umrah packages
Types of Sales Promotion
Sales promotion can be classified based on the primary target audience to
whom the promotion is directed. These include:
Consumer Market Directed - The most well-known methods of
sales promotion are those intended to appeal to the final consumer.
Consumers are exposed to sales promotions nearly everyday, and many
buyers are conditioned to look for sales promotions prior to making
purchase decisions.

Trade Market Directed Marketers use sales promotions to
target all customers including partners within their channel of
distribution. Trade promotions are initially used to entice channel
members to carry a marketers products and, once products are stocked,
marketers utilize promotions to strengthen the channel relationship.

Business-to-Business Market Directed Sales promotions are
also targeted to the business-to-business market. While these
promotions may not carry the glamour associated with consumer or trade
promotions, B-to-B promotions are usually used in industries.
1) Consumer Sales Promotion
Consumer sales promotions encompass a variety of short-term promotional
techniques designed to induce customers to respond in some way. The most
popular consumer sales promotions are directly associated with product
purchasing. These promotions are intended to enhance the value of a

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product purchase by either reducing the overall cost of the product (i.e., get
same product but for less money) or by adding more benefit to the regular
purchase price (i.e., get more for the money). Promotion techniques can be
used to achieve other objectives such as building brand loyalty or creating
product awareness. A marketers promotional toolbox contains a large
variety of consumer promotions.
Types of consumer sales promotions:
1. Coupons
2. Rebates
3. Promotional Pricing
4. Trade-In
5. Loyalty Programs
6. Sampling and Free Trials
7. Free Product
8. Premiums
9. Contests and Sweepstakes
10. Demonstrations
11. Personal Appearances
Coupons
Most consumers are quite familiar with this form of sales promotion, which
offers purchasers price savings or other incentives when the coupon is
redeemed at the time of purchase. Coupons are used widely by marketers
across many retail industries and reach consumers in a number of different
delivery formats including:
Rebates
Rebates, like coupons, offer value to purchasers typically by lowering the
customers final cost for acquiring the product. Rebates are generally
handed or offered to customers after a purchase is made and cannot be
used to obtain immediate savings in the way coupons are used. Rebates tend

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to be used as a value enhancement in higher priced products compared to
coupons.

Promotional Pricing

One of the most powerful sales promotion techniques is the short-term
price reduction or, as known in some areas, on sale pricing. Lowering a
products selling price can have an immediate impact on demand, though
marketers must exercise caution since the frequent use of this technique
can lead customers to anticipate the reduction and, consequently, withhold
purchase until the price reduction occurs again.
Trade-In
Trade-in promotions allow consumers to obtain lower prices by exchanging
something the customer possess, such as an older product that the new
purchase will replace. While the idea of gaining price breaks for trading in
another product is most frequently seen with automobile sales, such
promotions are used in other industries, such as computers and golf
equipment, where the customers exchanged product can be resold by the
marketer in order to extract value.
Loyalty Programs
Promotions that offer customers a reward, such as price discounts and free
products, for frequent purchasing or other activity are called loyalty
programs. Many loyalty programs have become ingrained as part of the
value offered by a marketer. That is, a retailer or marketing organization
may offer loyalty programs as general business practice.
Samples and Free Trials
Sampling and free trials give customers the opportunity to experience
products, often in small quantities or for a short duration, without
purchasing the product. Today, these methods are used in almost all
industries and are especially useful for getting customers to try a product
for the first time.

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Free Product

Some promotional methods offer free products but with the condition that a
purchase be made. The free product may be in the form of additional
quantities of the same purchased product (e.g., buy one, get one free) or
specialty packages (e.g., value pack) that offer more quantity for the same
price as regular packaging.
Premiums
Another form of sales promotion involving free merchandise is premium or
give-away items. Premiums differ from samples and free product in that
these often do not consist of the actual product, though there is often some
connection. For example, a cell phone manufacturer may offer access to
free downloadable ring tones for those purchasing a cell phone.
Contests and Sweepstakes
Both contests and sweepstakes are games, which come in a variety of
formats such as scratch-off cards and collection of game pieces. Unlike
contests and sweepstakes, which may not require purchase, to participate in
a game customers may be required to make a purchase.
Contests are special promotions awarding value to winners based on skills
they demonstrate compared to others. For instance, a baking company may
offer free vacations to winners of a baking contest.
Demonstrations
Many products benefit from customers being shown how products are used
through a demonstration. Whether the demonstration is experienced in-
person or via video form, such as over the Internet, this promotional
technique can produce highly effective results.
Personal Appearances
An in-person appearance by someone of interest to the target market, such
as an author, sports figure or celebrity, is another form of sales promotion

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capable of generating customer traffic to a physical location. However, as
with demonstrations, personal appearance promotion can be expensive since
the marketer normally must pay a fee for the person to appear.
Trade Sales Promotions
Certain promotions can help push a product through the channel by
encouraging channel members to purchase and also promote the product to
their customers. For instance, a trade promotion aimed at retailers may
encourage retailers to instruct their employees to promote a marketers
brand over competitors offerings. With thousands of products competing
for limited shelf space, spending on trade promotion is nearly equal that
spent on consumer promotions. Some of the other approaches are:
1. Point-of-Purchase Displays
2. Advertising Support Programs
3. Short Term Allowances
4. Sales Incentives or Push Money
5. Promotional Products
6. Trade Shows
Point-of-Purchase Displays
Points of purchase (POP) displays are specially designed materials intended
for placement in retail stores. These displays allow products to be
prominently presented; POP displays come in many styles, though the most
popular are ones allowing a product to stand alone, such as in the middle of a
store aisle or sit at the end of an aisle where it will be exposed to heavy
customer traffic.
Advertising Support Programs
In addition to offering promotional support in the form of physical displays,
marketers can attract channel members interest by offering financial
assistance in the form of advertising money. In certain cases the marketer

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will offer to pay the entire cost of advertising, but more often, the
marketer offers partial support known as co-op advertising funds.
Short Term Trade Allowances
Mostly, the allowance is not only given as encouragement to purchase the
product but also as an inducement to promote the product in other ways
such as by offering attractive shelf space or store location, highlighting the
product in company-produced advertising or website display, or by agreeing
to have the retailers sales personnel talk-up the product to customers.
Sales Incentives or Push Money
A marketer may offer sales promotions to their resellers sales force and
customer service staff where they are used as incentives to help sell more
of the marketers product. Sometimes called push money, these promotions
typically offer employees cash or prizes, such as trips, for those that meet
sales requirements.
Promotional Products
Among the most widely used methods of sales promotions is the promotional
product; products labeled with the brand or company name that serve as
reminders of the actual product. For instance, companies often hand out
free calendars, coffee cups and pens that contain the product logo.
Trade Shows
One final type of trade promotion is the industry trade show (exhibitions,
conventions). Trade shows are organized events that bring both industry
buyers and sellers together in one central location. Spending on trade shows
is one of the highest of all sales promotions,
While launching NILE, its nature, our major focus is on consumer market
and trade market. The customer based promotion would be done on daily
basis and the trade based promotion would be done on monthly basis.


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Besides consumer based promotion, we have specially emphasized on trade
based promotion because type of promotion can help a lot in selling our
product in a smooth and effective way. Moreover, we are hoping to display
NILE, its nature at Expo-centre in Fortress Stadium, Lahore by erecting
specially built display booths that dominate that trade show floor.
Business-to-Business Sales Promotions
The use of sales promotion is not limited to consumer products marketing.
In business-to-business markets sales promotions are also used as a means
of moving customers to action. However, the promotional choices available
to the B-to-B marketer are not as extensive as those found in the consumer
or trade markets. Rather, the techniques more likely to be utilized include:
price-reductions
free product
trade-in
promotional products
trade shows
As mentioned, trade shows are by far the mostly widely used sales
promotion for B-to-B marketers.
For NILE, its nature, the challenge is to balance the advantages short-
term promotions offer versus the potential to erode loyalty to the product.
Trends in Sales Promotion
Marketers who employ sales promotion as a
key component in their promotional strategy
should be aware of how the climate for these
types of promotions is changing. The
important trends in sales promotion include:



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1) Customers Expectations
Many customers are conditioned to expect a promotion at the time of
purchase otherwise they may withhold or even alter their purchase if a
promotion is not present.
2) Electronic Delivery
Sales promotions are delivered to customers in many ways such as website,
in-person or within print media. However, the Internet and mobile
technologies, such as cell phones, present marketers with a number of new
delivery options.
3) Tracking
Tracking customers response to marketers promotional activity is critical
for measuring success of an advertisement. In sales promotion, tracking is
also used. For instance, mineral water retailers, whose customers are in
possession of loyalty cards, have the ability to match customer sales data to
coupon use. This information can then be sold to coupon marketers who may
use the information to get a better picture of the buying patterns of those
responding to the coupon. Therefore, we will issue customer cards to buyers
of NILE, its nature in order to track there response.
4) Internet Communication
The Internet is changing how customers obtain promotions. There are a
large number of community forum sites where members share details about
how to obtain good deals which often include information on how or where to
find a sales promotion. Monitoring these sites may offer marketers insight
into how customers feel about certain promotions and may even suggest
ideas for future sales promotions.



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5) Clutter and Need for Creativity
An advertisement competes with other ads for
customers attention, so to do sales promotions.
This is particularly an issue with inserted
coupon promotions that may be included in
mailing or printed media along with numerous
other offerings. The challenge facing
marketers is to find creative ways to separate
their promotions from those offered by their
competitors.

PUBLIC RELATIONS
Public relations involve the cultivation of favorable relations for
organizations and products with its key publics through the use of a variety
of communications channels and tools. Traditionally, this meant public
relations professionals would work with members of the news media to build
a favorable image by publicizing the organization or product through stories
in print and broadcast media.
Advantages of PR
Public relations offers several advantages not found with other promotional
options.
First, PR is often considered a highly credible form of promotion. One
of PRs key points of power rests with helping to establish credibility
for a product, company or person (e.g., CEO) in the minds of targeted
customer groups by capitalizing on the influence of a third-party --
the media. For example, a positive story about a new product in the
business section of a local newspaper may have greater impact on
readers than a full-page advertisement for the product.



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Second, a well-structured PR campaign can result in the target market
being exposed to more detailed information than they receive with
other forms of promotion. That is, media sources often provide more
space and time for explanation of a product.

Third, depending on the media outlet, a story mentioning a company
may be picked up by a large number of additional media,
thus, spreading a single story to many locations.

Finally, in many cases public relations objectives can be achieved at
very low cost when compared to other promotional efforts. This is
not to suggest public relations is not costly, it may be, especially when
a marketer hires PR professionals to handle the work..
Apart from this, public relations can be helpful in many ways in order
to give boost to a newly launched product and existing products as
well.
For NILE, its nature, the role of public relations is much broader and
includes:
building awareness and a favorable image for a company or client
within stories and articles found in relevant media outlets,
closely monitoring numerous media channels for public comment about
a company and its products,
managing crises that threaten company or product image, and
Building goodwill among an organizations target market through
community, philanthropic and special programs and events
For NILE, its nature, most of our focus is on how public relations
supports marketing by building product and company image (sometimes
referred to as publicity).
Objectives of Public Relations
Like other aspects of marketing promotion, PR is used to address several
broad objectives including:

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Building Product Awareness When introducing a new product or
re-launching an existing product, marketers use a PR element that
generates consumer attention and awareness through media placements
and special events.

Creating Interest Whether a PR placement is a short product
article or is included with other products in round up article, stories in
the media can help entice a targeted audience to try the product.

Providing Information Through articles, collateral materials,
newsletters and websites, PR delivers information to customers that can
help them gain understanding of the product.
Stimulating Demand A positive article in a newspaper, on a TV
news show or mentioned on the Internet, often results in a discernable
increase in product sales.

Reinforcing the Brand Today it is ever more important for
companies and brands to build a good image. A strong image helps the
company build its business and it can help the company in times of crises
as well.
Public Relations Tools
Marketers should be aware of the tools used in the public relations
function. Skilled PR professionals offer many advantages for marketers with
their two most important being:

1) their ability to understand and unearth good stories about a company and
its product, and
2) their knowledge of the media market may place them in a better position
to match stories to the news angles media reporters look for.


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Whether handling PR internally or hiring professionals, marketers should be
familiar with the tools available for public relations: Before choosing among
the various tools marketers should begin by identifying their targeted
audiences (e.g., target markets) and key messages they wish to send. The
key tools available for PR include:
Media Relations
Media Tours
Newsletters
Special Events
Speaking Engagements
Sponsorships
Employee Relations
Community Relations and Philanthropy
Media Relations
The core of public relations, media relations, includes all efforts to publicize
products or the company to members of the press. In garnering media
coverage, PR professionals work with the media to place stories about
products, companies and company spokespeople. This is done by developing
interesting and relevant story angles that are pitched to the media.
Key tools used in media relations include:
Press Kits - written information such as a news release, organization
background, key spokesperson biographies and other supporting
materials that provide information useful to reporters.

Audio or Video News Releases - These are prerecorded features
distributed to news media that may be included within media
programming.

Matte Release - PR professionals submit matte releases through
syndicated services (i.e., services that supply content to many media
outlets) or directly to targeted media via email, fax or snail mail.


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Website Press Room - Marketers are well served by an online press
room that caters to media needs and provides company contact
information. Many story ideas for newspapers, magazines and television
news often start with a suggestion from a PR person.
Media Tour
Some new products can be successfully publicized when launched with a
media tour. On a media tour a company spokesperson travels to key cities to
introduce a new product by being booked on TV and radio talk shows and
conducting interviews with print and Internet reporters or influencers (e.g.,
bloggers).
The spokesperson can be a company employee or someone hired by the
company, perhaps a celebrity or expert who has credibility with the target
audience.
Newsletters
Marketers who have captured names and addresses of customers and
potential customers can use a newsletter for regular contact with their
targeted audience. Newsletters can be directed at trade customers, final
consumers or business buyers and can be distributed either by regular mail
or








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electronic means (i.e., e-newsletters delivered via email or rss feed). Online
newsletters offer the opportunity to link to stores carrying the marketer's
products.
Special Events
Special events can be designed to reach a specific narrow target audience.
Stunts, such as building the worlds largest ice cream captures the attention
of an audience in the immediate area, but also attracts the attention of
mass media such as TV news and major newspapers, which provide broad
reach.
Speaking Engagements
Speaking before industry conventions, trade association meetings, and other
groups provides an opportunity for company experts to demonstrate their
expertise to potential clients/ customers. The right speaking engagement
puts the company in front of a good target audience and offers networking
opportunities for generating customer leads.
Sponsorships
Companies and brands use sponsorships to help build goodwill and brand
recognition by associating with an event or group. Marketers can examine
sponsorship opportunities to find those that reach target groups, fit within
a specified budget and provide sponsorship benefits that suit the marketers
objectives. There are numerous local, regional, national and international
sponsorship opportunities that help marketer to enhance his business.
Employee Communications
Communicating regularly with employees is important in keeping employees
informed of corporate programs, sales incentives, personnel issues, as well
as keeping them updated on new products and programs. PR department
often works in conjunction with the Human Resources Department to develop
employee communications.

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Community Relations and Philanthropy
In order to be a successful company fostering good relations with key
audiences includes building strong relationships with their regional
community. The goal is generally to develop a positive relationship with
members of the community (i.e., be known as a good neighbor). Some
companies also make an effort to contribute to charitable organizations,
often organizations that have some relationship to the companys mission or
to a key principal of the company.
Market Monitoring
Monitoring public comment about a company and its products is becoming
increasingly important especially with the explosion of information channels
on the Internet. Monitoring includes watching what is written and reported
in traditional print and broadcast media and also keeping an eye on
discussions occurring through various Internet outlets. Marketers must be
prepared to respond quickly to erroneous information and negative opinions
about products.

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The chief objective of our public relations is to create our brand awareness
and creating demand to stimulate sales and this can be done through
providing information about our product and reinforcing the brand.
For this purpose, we will go for press conferences and Free Water
Supply to SHAUKAT KHANNUM MEMORIAL HAOPITAL for 3 months. This
would be done through Special events, Media relations, News letters and
Sponsorship.

PERSONAL SELLING
Personal selling is a promotional method in which one party (e.g., salesperson)
uses skills and techniques for building personal relationships with another
party (e.g., those involved in a purchase decision) that results in both parties
obtaining value. However, getting a customer to purchase a product is not
always the objective of personal selling. For instance, selling may be used
for the purpose of simply delivering information.











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Among marketing jobs, more are employed in sales positions than any other
marketing-related occupation. It has been estimated that over 14 million or
about 11% of the overall labor force are directly involved in selling and
sales-related positions. Worldwide this figure may be closer to 100 million.
The techniques higher management employs to gain benefits for their
company are the same used by the front-line salesperson to sell to a small
customer.
Advantages of Personal Selling
One key advantage personal selling has over other promotional
methods is that it is a two-way form of communication. So if a
customer does not understand the initial message (e.g., doesnt fully
understand how the product works) the salesperson can make
adjustments to address questions or concerns.

Many non-personal forms of promotion, such as a radio advertisement,
are inflexible, at least in the short-term, and cannot be easily
adjusted to address audience questions.

Personal selling also makes it the most effective promotional method
for building relationships with customers, particularly in the business-
to-business market. This is especially important for companies that
either sell expensive products or sell lower cost but high volume
products.
Finally, personal selling is the most practical promotional option for
reaching customers who are not easily reached through other
methods.
Objectives of Personal Selling
Personal selling is used to meet following objectives of promotion in the
following ways:
Building Product Awareness A common task of salespeople is to
educate customers on new product offerings. In fact, salespeople serve

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a major role at industry trades shows where they discuss products with
show attendees. But building awareness using personal selling is also

important in consumer markets. The advent of controlled word-of-
mouth marketing is leading to personal selling becoming a useful
mechanism for introducing consumers to new products.

Creating Interest Personal selling induces a person to experience
product for the first time. In fact, creating interest goes hand-in-hand
with building product awareness as sales professionals can often
accomplish both objectives during the first encounter with a potential
customer.

Providing Information When salespeople engage customers, they
majorly focus on product information. Marketing organizations provide
their sales staff with large amounts of sales support including
brochures, research reports, computer programs and many other forms
of informational material.

Stimulating Demand The most important objective of personal
selling is to convince customers to make a purchase and in this way
creating demand for the product.

Reinforcing the Brand Most personal selling is intended to build
long-term relationships with customers. Meeting with customers on a
regular basis allows salespeople to repeatedly discuss their companys
products and by doing so helps strengthen customers knowledge of what
the company has to offer and also reinforcing the brand.
Personal selling would be done to deliver the information about our product
as it results in two way form of communication and it will help the buyers to
understand the initial message. This approach will help us to address the
audience questions easily.
Moreover, it would help us to build relationships with customers, particularly
in the business-to-business market.

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Classifying Selling Roles
The actual functions carried out by someone in sales may be quite different.
Below are four major types of selling roles, these roles are not mutually
exclusive and that a salesperson can perform more than one and possibly all
activities.
Order Getters
The role most synonymous with selling is a position in which the salesperson
is actively engaged in using their skills to obtain orders from customers.
Such roles can be further divided into:
New Business Development A highly challenging yet potentially
lucrative sales position is one where the main objective is to find new
customers. Sales jobs in this category are often in fields that are very
competitive, but offer high rewards for those that are successful. The
key distinguishing factor of these positions is that once a sale is made
new business salespeople pass customers on to others in their
organization who handle account maintenance. These positions include:

Business Equipment Sales - These salespeople are often found in
industries where a companys main profits come from the sale
of supplies and services that come after an initial equipment
purchase. The key objective of business equipment salespeople
is to get buyers to purchase the main piece of equipment for
which supplies and service are needed in order for the
equipment to function.

Telemarketing This category includes product sales over the
phone, whether aimed at business or consumer. While
sometimes, laws restrict unsolicited phone selling, the practice
is still widely used in the business market.


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Consumer Selling Certain companies are very aggressive in
their use of salespeople to build new consumer business. These

include: retailers selling certain high priced consumer products,
housing products and in-home product sellers including those
selling door-to-door and products sold at home party events
such as cosmetics, kitchenware and decorative products.

Account Management Most people engaged in sales are not only
involved in gaining the initial order, but salespeople involved in account
management are found across a broad range of industries. Their
responsibilities involve all aspects of building customer relationships
from initial sale to follow-up account servicing. These include:

Business-to-Business Selling These salespeople sell products
for business use with an emphasis on follow-up sales. In many
cases, business-to-business salespeople have many different
items available for sale (i.e., broad and/or deep product line)
rather than a single product.

Trade Selling Its role is focused on first getting distributors,
such wholesalers and retailers, to handle their products and
once this is accomplished, helping distributors sell their product
by offering ideas for product advertising, in-store display and
sales promotion.
Order Takers
In this role, salespeople primarily assist customers with a purchase in ways
that are much less assertive than order getters. As might be expected,
compensation for order takers is generally lower than that of order
getters. Among those serving an order taker role are:
Retail Clerks While some retail salespeople are involved in new
business selling, the vast majority of retail employees handle order

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taking tasks, which range from directing customers to products to
handling customer checkout.


Industrial Distributor Clerks Industrial purchase situations, such as
distributors of building products, will also have clerks to handle
customer purchases.

Customer Service Order taking is also handled in non face-to-face
ways through customer service personnel. Usually this occurs via phone
conversations or newer technologies such as online chat etc.

Order Influencers
Some salespeople are not engaged in direct selling activities at all. Instead
these salespeople concentrate on selling activity that targets those who
influence purchases made by the final customer. The primary example of an
order influencer is the missionary salesperson:
Missionary - These salespeople are used in industries where
customers make purchases based on the advice or requirements of
others. Two industries in which missionary selling is commonly found are
pharmaceuticals, where salespeople, known as product detailers, discuss
products with doctors (influencers) who then write prescriptions for
their patients (final customer) and higher education, where salespeople
call on college professors (influencers) who make requirements to
students (final customer) for specific textbooks.
Sales Support
A final group involved in selling mostly assist with the selling activities of
other sales professionals. These include:
Technical Specialists - When dealing with the sale of technical
products, particularly in business markets, salespeople may need to draw
on the expertise of others to assist with the process. This is

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particularly the case when the buying party consists of a buying
center. If this buying center includes technical people, such as scientists
and engineers, a salesperson may seek assistance from members of their
own technical staff, who can help address specific questions.

Office Support Salespeople also may receive assistance from their
companys office staff in the form of creating promotional materials,
setting up sales appointments, finding sales leads, arranging meeting
space or organizing trade shows exhibits.
As mentioned earlier, For the purpose of personal selling we are hoping to
place our stalls at shopping malls such as Pace, Al-Fateh, HKB, CSD, Metro
Cash and Carry, etc. moreover, well air a live program on radio FM consisting
of questioners that would be asked from the callers and the winners would e
awarded with surprise gifts.
Although NILE, its your body, is not a complicated product and doesnt
require answering numerous complex questions, even then we will use two way
communication approaches in order to avoid any confusion or
misunderstanding.
Apart from Stalls and FM questionnaires, Brochures and Feedback forms
would be used as well.
Trends
While the basic premise of personal selling, building relationships, has not
changed much in the last 50 years, there are a number of developments that
are impacting this method of promotion including:

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1)Controlled Word-of-Mouth Promotion
One of the most influential forms of promotion occurs when one person
speaks highly of a product to someone else. The technique is especially
useful when building awareness of new products and this approach has been
dubbed buzz marketing as a way to describe its objective of building a high
level of awareness for a product. Controlled word-of-mouth has received a
great deal of publicity though much of it has focused on potential ethical
concerns. Some have expressed concern that paying people to act as if
they are interested in a product without any indication of their relationship
with the product breaches ethical standards. As more companies explore
controlled word-of-mouth marketing it is expect to become an even more
scrutinized form of personal selling.
2) Customer Information Sharing
CRM is the name given to both the technology and the philosophy that drives
companies to gain a better understanding of their customers with the goal
of building stronger long-term relationships. The essential requirement for
an effective CRM system is the need for all customer contact points (e.g.,
salespeople, customer service, and websites) to gather information so that
this can be shared with others in the company. CRM and information sharing
has proven to be critical for maintaining strong customer relations and
salespeople must learn to adapt to it.

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3) Mobile Technology and Web-Based Computing
Mobile technologies, such as wireless internet (WiFi) and cellular Internet
access, allow salespeople to retrieve needed information at any time. For
example, if a salesperson takes a customer to lunch, the salesperson can
quickly access company material to respond to questions such as how long it
may take to receive product if an order is placed.
Additionally, there is a growing trend to make key business applications
available through a browser rather than having programs loaded on a
salespersons computer. This allows for the application to be accessed from
anywhere at anytime. Many new office productivity applications, such as
word processing and spreadsheets, are now becoming web-accessible.

4) Electronic Sales Presentations
While audio/video conferencing has been available for many years using high-
end telecommunication hookups, it has only been within the last few years
that improvements in Internet access speeds, computing power and meeting
software have made this method for reaching customers a practical
alternative to face-to-face sales meetings. These options include:
Online Video Conferencing Online conferencing essentially acts in
the same way as telecommunications videoconferencing, with one big
exception; it is delivered over the Internet. But sometimes delivering
video over the Internet can be slow, jittery and sometimes not even
recognizable

Web/Phone Conferencing To offset the problems associated with
Internet delivery of real time audio and video, many companies deliver
sales presentations using a combination of web and telecommunications.
The most widely used services use the Internet, to deliver visual
material (typically a slide presentation) and telecommunications, to allow
for voice conversation.


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Online Text Chat - Online chat (available on companys web site)
allows for real time communication between multiple participants using
text messaging. While this form of buyer-seller communication may not
be very effective at getting customers to agree to make a purchase, it
has proven very effective in building initial product interest.
5) Electronic Sales Training
Sales training is the hallmark of professional selling. If there is one thing
that separates the truly successful salesperson from those who are not, it is
the amount of training and preparation they engage in. Those involved in
selling must continue to stay abreast of their products, customers, markets
and competitors.


Using electronic delivery, the cost to the company for adding or updating
training material is inexpensive and quick compared to the cost and time
needed to produce and ship paper-based materials. Additionally, the use of
RSS feeds or email enables salespeople to be quickly notified when new
training material is available. This is useful when the sales force must be
made aware of a recent change that will impact how products are promoted
such as a price change, new information to be used as comparison to
competitors products.
6) Use of Customer Sales Teams
Companies are moving away from the traditional sale force arrangement,
where a single salesperson handles nearly all communication with an account,
in favor of a team approach where multiple people are involved.
Teams consist of individuals from several functional areas such as marketing,
manufacturing, distribution, and customer service. In some configurations
all members share bonuses if the team meets sales goals