5 basic elements of investment you need to know as an investor

The  Elements  of  Investments  are  as  follows:     

a)  Return: Investors  buy  or  sell  financial  instruments  in  order  to  earn  return  on them.  The  return  on  investment  is  the  reward  to  the  investors.  The  return includes  both  current  income  and  capital  gain  or  losses,  which  arises  by  the increase or decrease of the security price.  

b)  Risk:  Risk  is  the  chance  of  loss  due  to  variability  of  returns  on  an  investment.  In case  of  every  investment,  there  is  a  chance  of  loss.  It  may  be  loss  of  interest, dividend  or  principal  amount  of  investment.  However,  risk  and  return  are inseparable.  Return  is  a  precise  statistical  term  and  it  is  measurable.  But  the  risk is  not  precise  statistical  term.  However,  the  risk  can  be

Effective Techniques you can use when Pricing a New Product

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In the  initial  setting of  a product's price,  you must try to achieve three objectives:
 *  Getting the product accepted.
 *  Maintaining  market share as competition grows.
 * Earning a profit.

You have three strategies to choose from:

 •  Penetration:  The idea is  to gain quick acceptance and extensive distribution in the  market. You introduce your  product at  a  low price. The low  profit margins  may discourage other  potential competitors  from entering the market with similar products.

•  Skimming:  The idea is  to set a price well  above the  total unit  cost  and to promote  the product  heavily  in  order to  appeal  to  the  segment of  the market  that  isn't  sensitive to  price. This  technique often reinforces  the unique

developing a marketing strategy episode 4

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PRICE

 In setting a price  for your product,  you  must consider  competition  in  the  target  market,  and the  cost  of  the  total marketing mix.  You  must also  estimate  customer reaction  to possible prices. 

Furthermore, you also should know current competitor practices such  as markups, discounts, and  other terms  of sale. You  must be aware of  legal restrictions on pricing.  If customers won't accept  the price,  all your planning effort will be wasted.

 Consider what  the customer  is willing to  pay and  what  the customer is  likely to expect  for that  price.   Ask yourself whether  the  customer feel  that  he/she is getting  value for money  at that  price?  Remember

developing market strategy episode 3

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MAKE YOUR  DECISIONS ON THE  PLACE ELEMENT OF THE MARKETING MIX

 Place is concerned with  all the  decisions involved in getting the right product to  the target market's environment. A product isn't of much use  to  a customer  if  it's  not available where and when  it  is wanted,  or needed.

A product reaches  its  target  market through a channel  of  distribution  - any series of companies or  individuals,  from producer  to final user/consumer.  Sometimes a channel system  is quite short.  It may run directly from a  product to a  final user. This  is  especially common in  business  markets and  the marketing of  services.  Often  a  channel system is  more  complex  and  has  levels,  which  involves different

market strategy episode 2

Hope you enjoy the part 1 of this market strategy
For those that missed the part 1  click here to read the part 1

So let begin

 FOCUS ON THE PRODUCT

 This area  is  concerned  with  developing  the right product for the target market.  This offering may  involve a physical  product, a service,  or  a  blend  of  both.  Remember  that  a product  is  not  limited  to  a physical good.  The important thing is  that  your  product and/or service should  satisfy  a specific  customer need.

At the  most  fundamental level we  normally talk  about  the  core product.   The core product answers the question "what  is  the buyer really buying?"  The  woman buying  a camera  is  not buying  a  mechanical  box, she  is  buying  the opportunity  to  take  photo's,  when  she want  to have and keep forms of  "immortality"  or precious  moments.   The marketers' job is  to sell  these  core  benefits of  the  product  or service.

Branding  

means the use  of a name,  term, symbol,

social media strategy

Today we are going to discuss 6 tools that you can use to develop an outstanding social media marketing strategy.  We hope you enjoy this!

1. Twitter.

Twitter is a very popular social media channel. It's a great way to build a following and keep in contact with your customers. However, it can be tricky as it limits your posts to 140 characters, and it's fast-paced. It's demanding in that it requires constant communication with your followers. If you can handle that, one way to stand out on Twitter is to send a thank you any time your company gets mentioned. Try to respond to questions the same day, or within the hour if possible.  Add symbols and emoticons for a fun twist to your posts as a way to cultivate interest in your posts while also making them shorter and easier to read.

2. Facebook.

Facebook recently changed up their algorithms, so brands are getting less exposure. This makes it more important for them to stand out. One way for this is make short and simple posts. Longer posts tend to not perform as well. Also, asking questions rather than making statements tends to increase interaction.
Pinning posts is also a good tactic, especially for drawing attention to current specials or important information. Experiment with Facebook ads, too.

3. Images.

Use images when you can. It doesn't matter what it is -- a photo of a favorite celebrity, a pretty landscape, a cute animal, a colorful infographic or a fun GIF. A photo or animation will catch the eye and more than likely make them stop browsing long enough to look. It will also help with your SEO optimization. Videos also work well for this.

4. Content.

Content is king. Remember that. Once your image has caught their eye, the viewer will be looking for the content behind the photo. What they read will determine if they click through. So provide content that will make them want to click. Be sure to keep your target audience in mind when creating your content. What will catch their attention? What are they looking for from you? What answers can you provide to their questions?

5. Build a community.

Don't just look for followers. Build a community with them. Put some personality and humor into your brand with your posts. You want to be "social", after all. That means you need to entertain your followers once in a while. And remember to converse directly with your followers. Interact with them. Like and respond to their posts. Retweet them. And ask them to interact directly with your posts.

6. Campaigns.

To keep your audience engaged, you need to be engaging as well. One way to do that is run cross-channel campaigns on all you social platforms. But while anyone can run a contest or campaign like this, to stand out you need to make yours have a charitable, inspirational, or emotional component to it -- something that will tug at the heartstrings of whoever is reading about it. If your company is already involved in some sort of volunteer work, this is a good way to inspire and engage followers. How do you do this across channels? 1. Tell a powerful story. Use short quotes about if you have to, and link back to your website so they can find out more. 2. Brand your campaign with a unique name and hashtags to make it memorable and stand out.

That's it for today, thanks for reading,

developimg a market strategy part 1

WHAT IS A  MARKETING STRATEGY AND MARKETING PLAN? 

A  MARKETING STRATEGY  in general sets a target market  and a marketing mix.  It  is  a  "big picture" of what a company  will do in  some market  in order to  gain  a competitive advantage. A  MARKETING PLAN  is  a detailed breakdown of  your marketing strategy.   It  is a written  statement of  a  marketing strategy  with the time - related details  as well as  the 

By now you should already: 

•  have decided  on the nature  of your business and  you know that  your business  idea  is
 • feasible;
•  have also  identified your market and decided on your target market;
•  know what  the  needs  of your customers are  and you have  identified and assessed your
• Competition.

Now you need to decide on:  

•  the  Product  and Service  to  offer your customers;
•  how you will make your  Products available to customers;
•  how you will communicate  the benefits  of  your Products  and persuade  customers  to  buy  them;
• the price you will charge.

These four  decision variables are  the ingredients of  the so-called  marketing  mix.   Your task is  to create  these elements effectively in order  to  market your product/service to the  target  market  in  an optimal way.

CREATE AN EFFECTIVE MARKETING MIX 

 The  MARKETING  MIX  consists  of  all  the controllable variables the  company puts together  to  satisfy  its  target  market.  A typical MARKETING  MIX  includes  decisions regarding  the product,  the price of  the product, how to promote the product  and how to  get  the product  to  the  right  customer  at  the right time and place.

All these  variables  are controllable elements in the  marketing  mix and can be  reduced  to four basic  ones, each starting  with  a P (also  known as the four Ps):

 •  Product.
 •  Place.
 •  Price.
 • Promotion.

 The four  Ps  are those  factors that  you can control  directly, for example,  you develop your product,  you  decide how  to  get  it to  the customer, you  determine  the price and you choose the promotion  mix.   The four  Ps are, as you  will  realize now,  with  the selection of your target  market  are the basic ingredients of your marketing strategy.

All four  Ps  are  needed  in a marketing mix  and should therefore be tied together. When  a marketing mix  is developed,  all final decisions about  the P's  should be  made.   All four  Ps should be in harmony and aimed at satisfying the customer's needs in an optimum way.

You  do  have  control  over the marketing mix and can vary  it  to suit  the needs of your customers and the  resources of your  business. Customers are continuously matching  their needs with  the products offered by you  and your competitors.

  You should now know your target market  and the  needs  of  your potential  customers.  From analyzing your  competitors,  you can  identify what they offer the  target consumer through their marketing mixes. This determines what your marketing mix and  your competitive advantage will  be. All of  the marketing  mix elements  must  reinforce the image of the product or service  that  the  business portrays to the potential customer.

Let’s  discuss  each  P  in  the  marketing  mix in more detail.

Pls state in the comments box if you need the part 2