Developing an Annual Marketing Plan and Marketing Strategy
Flyer Distribution Supplier Sinhagad Pune
Fulcrum Marketing is a strategic Flyer Distribution Supplier Sinhagad Pune. Our team of marketing consultants also specialise in marketing planning and Flyer Distribution for all types of business of any size.
MARKETING STRATEGY
Effective marketing organisations must be driven through sound business strategy. Fulcrum produce marketing strategy that is always well embodied by your business strategy.
The best marketing strategy does not start with creative, it starts with a marketing process.
The Fulcrum Marketing Strategy Development Process is a thorough problem solving and marketing strategy development program that focusses on solving your growth challenges and maximising the return from your company’s marketing operations. It is particularly useful for innovating within a market or creating a position of market leadership.
Overview
Indentifying key sources of growth, challenging the current business operations and identifying key growth creating activities are crucial for businesses which want to grow.
The process looks at your whole business with the aim to maximise the potential by focussing on:
reviewing your market conditions
reviewing your current market challenges and capabilities
identifying and maximising competitive advantage
creating and amplifying market positioning
developing new revenue sources
maximising market communication techniques
Action Orientated
Fulcrum works alongside senior management to develop achievable and actionable strategies and build the company plans around them. Real results are achieved when your management team have consistent and ongoing interaction with the Fulcrum team. At the end of the process, you must own the strategy and be able work the plan yourself. You are left with a growth system which is repeatable over time to achieve consistent growth. Companies effectively implementing this program often achieve more than 25% ongoing growth per annum.
Your Challenges
Business owners, senior executives and managers are frequently facing growth related issues such as: – Turning around a declining sales trend – Identifying and entering new markets – Launching new business and product lines – Identifying emerging growth opportunities – Managing the risks of growth If you have any of the above issues, then the Fulcrum Marketing Strategy Development Process is for you.
Approach
The process considers what could be rather than only what is. Whereas, a regular marketing strategy process might simply consider what a customer tells you and respond, Fulcrum considers how a customer might react when given a slightly or radically different proposition to the one currently in the market.
Benefits
Each strategy generates actionable tasks to achieve medium and long-term revenue and growth targets. Brief but highly strategic plans are created that drill down into action items. You are then lead through specific actions to implement, or the Fulcrum team implement them for you.
Development Process
Experience the Fulcrum Marketing Strategy Development Process. It is a tailored program designed to provide companies with the highly-focussed strategy development and implementation resources necessary to address specific growth challenges and opportunities.
1. Seek and learn.
Information Gathering – The first step is to gain an understanding of the market in which you are participating; target audiences, competitor offerings, current pricing and more. Review the business realities – Gain an understanding and commitment to potential resources available to make it all happen. Review the market realities – What limitations might we be dealing with and how far can we push the market potential?
2. Set the hypothesis.
Hypothesis development – Develop the potential strategic alternatives and understand what would need to happen for them to become reality. Reality test – Review the strategies for practical application, decide which are practical now and which could be left for a future date and understand what resources are necessary to make these alternatives. Solidify strategy – Make some strategic decisions to understand which alternatives provide the growth desired, build an understanding of the risks involved, ensure all strategies can work together and consider the reality of them working within the business.
3. Set the course.
Key strategies – Articulate the strategies and provide means for measurement and communication. Plan action – Develop broad and specific actions stemming from the strategies.
4. Build a foundation.
This stage involves developing a compelling ‘marketing tool box’ that clearly defines your value to the target audience and creates appropriate messages and triggers to sale.
5. Implement and educate.
The stage after the plan development involves completing agreed actions and driving deep engagement and understanding throughout the company, whilst developing the ongoing implementation activities, including allocation of resources.
Business-to-Business Marketing Strategies
What do business professionals think about marketing in the business-to-business (B2B) environment? We examined survey results and reports* that compiled data on the topic, and created a list of eight B2B marketing strategies commonly recognised as successful regardless of industry.
Referral Programs
Word of Mouth Plus
Trade Shows
Online Advertising
Remarketing
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Content Marketing
Inbound Marketing
Choosing the Right Marketing Agency: Marketing Execution Vs Marketing Strategy
If you pretty much know what marketing you need to do and how it is going to be accomplished then most likely you need some type of marketing agencyto do it for you. Depending on what the activities are, you will choose a different type of agency. For example, if you are more likely to be doing TV, radio or magazine advertising you will likely need a traditional advertising agency. If it sits more in the digital realm, with a lot of Google AdWords or YouTube commercials, then a digital advertising agency is probably for you. Alternatively, you may simply need a graphic designer to bring your ideas to life.
Making Marketing Plans Happen
A marketing plan is paramount for achieving business growth. The purpose of a marketing plan is to assess the current market position of your business and develop marketing strategies and actions to undertake to meet your business objectives. Putting together a strategic plan that develops your business around your competitive advantage, and ensures that you are in a position to take advantage of your strengths, is a key to continued business prosperity. Of course, once you have the plan, making it work is the next step.
Developing an Annual Marketing Plan and Marketing Strategy
Make your business New Year resolution to start the year with an integrated marketing plan that clearly outlines your business objectives and the marketing strategies and tactics you plan to use to achieve them
An annual marketing plan helps keep businesses on track with goals and objectives for the year and ensures that marketing opportunities and budgets are maximized. Developing a marketing plan that you revisit every year is the key to success year after year.
A solid annual marketing plan should be structured with a disciplined approach to reaching your business goals and objectives, yet flexible enough to adapt to changing market conditions and business opportunities throughout the year.
Start Annual Marketing Planning by Reviewing Previous Year Marketing Performance
Before you begin the annual planning process for the coming year’s marketing efforts, you’ll want to take a close look at how you performed over the current year. Even if you did not have a structured marketing plan in place previously, you should be able to review past marketing activities and results.
Here are some questions to ask when evaluating the performance of a previous annual marketing plan or year’s activities:
Did you achieve desired results from your marketing efforts (such as improved brand recognition, X number of leads generated or sales/revenue figures)?
Which specific marketing activities were effective?
Which specific marketing activities were not effective?
Should you reallocate resources to better performing targets, markets or marketing tactics?
Has your target market, audience or geographic area changed over the year?
Were you able to stay within a marketing budget at the end of the year?
What areas of your marketing budget do you need to cut costs in for the coming year?
What areas of your marketing budget do you want to invest more in for the coming year?
The answers to questions about your previous year’s marketing plan will play a big part in building an annual marketing plan for the coming year. Each year adjustments should be made to your marketing planning efforts that incorporate learning from the past – what works or what doesn’t work.
Develop Essential Components of an Annual Marketing Plan
A marketing plan is a written document that contains a business’ marketing strategies and tactics. The first step in developing an annual marketing plan is getting organized. Make a list of all the marketing components or categories that are important for your business.
Typical components in a marketing plan include:
Advertising (print and/or online)
Branding and Graphics (promotional giveaway items, photography, video production, graphic development)
Collateral (sell sheets, brochures, business cards)
Events (trade shows, webinars)
Direct Marketing (email, direct mail, list generation, promotional incentives/contests)
Public Relations (press release distribution, PR agency)
Research (focus groups, surveys, marketing reference books)
Social Media (social media networks)
Website (search engine optimization, web development/hosting)
Of course the actual components for your business may vary depending on your business, industry and marketing budget. The important thing is to identify all the potential components in your annual marketing plan so you can decide how you plan to address those components for your business. Even if you do not plan to allocate budget for a category – like social media – it should be included if you have any marketing efforts planned for the category so strategies and tactics can be outlined in an integrated planning approach.
Define Marketing Plan Strategies, Tactics and Budget
Once marketing components are outlined for the business, all potential strategies and tactics should be defined per category or component.
Here is an example of defining strategies and tactics for the “advertising” category:
Marketing Category: Advertising Strategy #1 – Drive traffic to website via online advertising Tactic # 1 – Google Adwords Tactic #2 – Banner ads on industry association website Tactic #3 – Internet yellow pages ads
Each tactic will also need to have an allocated budget, if applicable. The marketing plan should include fields to capture your allocated budget, actual spend and budget variance so that you can track throughout the year and make any adjustments needed. For example, if you are tracking under budget in one category you can shift funds to another category where you may be tracking over budget.
Flexibility to adapt an annual marketing plan throughout the year is important to adapt to a changing business environment and be “opportunistic” in marketing efforts. Be sure to take advantage of tracking mechanisms for marketing efforts whenever possible – such as unique 800 numbers or website analytic reports – so that you can make adjustments to maximize performance of campaigns (or dump marketing efforts that are not producing desired results). Goals should also be set for all areas of a marketing plan so that you can measure the performance of marketing tactics against business objectives.
SALES METHODOLOGIES
Personal selling is a promotional method in which one party uses skills and techniques for building personal relationships with another party that results in both parties obtaining value. Personal selling occurs whenever an individual salesperson sells a product, service or solution to a client.
Salesmethods
There are many different sales methods that can be used to complete a sale and form the required relationships. Determining which sales method is more effective depends on what you are selling, who you are selling to and when you are selling it.
AIDA Method
AIDA is an acronym that stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. This is a method that looks at the steps a client will undertake from when they first becomes aware of the product or service, to when they are making a purchase decision.
Attention – Get the other person’s interest Interest – Spark their curiosity Desire – Create the need Action – Get them to commit to something
Need satisfaction
The need satisfaction technique is a question and answer technique to make the client to recognise the need for your offering. This then leads to the client agreeing that they have a need to be fulfilled, which leads to you showing them how your offer can satisfy their needs. This method is based on a win-win approach for both the sales person and the client.
Depth Theory
Depth Theory is when a creation of trust occurs between the buyer and seller. The seller uses expertise in their product, service or industry to create trust between themselves and the buyer. The client will see the salesperson as an expert in that area and will trust them to solve the issues that they have.
Step process
The 7 step process is a plan of action that starts at the planning and preparation to make the sale and leads to after sale follow ups. The 7 steps are: 1. Planning and preparation 2. Introduction or opening 3. Questioning 4. Presentation 5. Overcoming objections/negotiating 6. Closing 7. After-sales follow-up
communication and Flyer Distribution management
Effective communication and advertising management is important to not only correctly identify a target audience, but also to reach this audience efficiently through different information channels. There are many benefits of successfully managing these marketing communications, including, but not limited to:
Behavioural segmentation: purchasing patterns, loyalty status
Implementing a Flyer Distribution Strategy
Implementing a Marketing Strategy Execution Plan, known to Fulcrum and our clients as a “Sprint Plan” is the most effective way to prevent this highway-less journey , Flyer Distribution Supplier Sinhagad Pune. A Marketing Strategy is a set of strategic goal-focused plans for a certain period of time.
Flyer Distribution Strategy and Planning
Implement your marketing plan
Your marketing plan must do more than just say what you want to happen. It must describe each step required to make sure that it happens.
Schedule The plan should include a schedule of key tasks. This sets out what will be done, and by when. Refer to the schedule as often as possible to avoid losing sight of your objectives under the daily workload.
Team And Resources It should also assess what resources you need. For example, you might need to think about what brochures you need, and whether they need to be available for distribution. You might also need to look at how much time it takes to sell to customers and whether you have enough salespeople.
Cost The cost of everything in the plan needs to be included in a budget. If your finances are limited, your plan will need to take that into account. Don’t spread your marketing activities too thinly – it is better to concentrate your resources to make the most of your budget. You may also want to link your marketing budget to your sales forecast.
Control As well as setting out the schedule, the plan needs to say how it will be controlled. You need an individual who takes responsibility for pushing things along. A good schedule and budget should make it easy to monitor progress. When things fall behind schedule, or costs overrun, you need to be ready to do something about it and to adapt your plan accordingly.
Everyone likes to talk about creating a marketing plan. It’s the fun part of marketing, the creative aspect of your planning process and Flyer Distribution Supplier Sinhagad Pune. But strategy without execution won’t help your business succeed. In fact, marketing execution is how you achieve results.
Create your marketing strategy
Decide how to market your product or service to potential customers by developing a marketing strategy that positions your product to particular customers
Write a marketing execution plan
How to identify your objectives and write a plan that will help your marketing generate sales, including tactics and objectives
Marketing on a tight budget
How to get the most out of a small or limited marketing budget using cost-effective marketing methods such as Public Relations and online marketing
face to face field marketing is also called personal selling or door to door marketing, customers are met directly in order to sell their products, using this method of field marketing.
Fulcrum are a highly recommended provider of product sampling staff. We specialise in the implementation of sampling campaigns using our in house sampling team and logistical know-how.
Dealer marketing is of utmost importance for the success of any brand. For most brands, dealers, distributors and resellers are critical links to success.
we can help with everything from planning and design to production and delivery ensuring your direct marketing campaigns are delivered on time to the highest quality.
When it comes to guerrilla marketing the gloves are off. They are usually low budget campaigns but with the right imagination and ideas they offer up some unprecedented results
Much like product demonstrations these campaigns have brand reps or ambassadors at the center of them. The difference is it’s more about the selling of the product
Auditing takes the reps out off the front line and away from the consumer. Auditing teams are used by marketers to monitor traditional marketing strategies that they put in place across retail.
Door To Door Marketing:
Nothing beats the reality that one gets when you can interact with potential clients face to face physically moving from door to door within a community or household to household,
As mentioned already, demo days are a popular tool of field marketing. These campaigns can stretch from as little as one week to 6 months however some are continuous and full time.
The team at Fulcrum has delivering successful Shopping Centre Marketing Campaigns across a wide range of shopping centres and retail complexes. From major retail locations to local community focused shopping centres; we have secured real, measurable results across the board.
Marketing Plan and Marketing Strategy
Flyer Distribution | Flyer Distribution Supplier Sinhagad Pune
Sinhagad , Pune
Sinhagad is a hill fortress located at around 35.6 kms southwest from Pune city. Previously, it was called Kondana. The fort is of historical importance as many battles have been fought around it. The most important one being the Battle of Sinhagad of 1671. The locality of Sinhagad comes under the jurisdiction of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). Other prominent localities situated close to Sinhagad are Khanapur, Donaje, Arvi, Kondhanpur, Kalyan, Osade, Sasewadi, Girinagar, Paud among others. This is a popular trekking destination for the people of Pune as it is situated on a hill, at a height of 700m above the surrounding landscape. You can also see Panshet, Khadakwasla, and Varasgaon dams as well as the Torna fort. Sinhagad in Pune is easily accessible by PCMT buses. The local municipal transport service runs buses every hour from “Shaniwar Wada” and “Swargate” to the Sinhagad foothills at Donje village. Shared taxi services to the base as well as the top of the mountain are also available. Some of the key residential projects in Sinhagad are Gokhale Mist, Mantra 7 Hills, Sumeru Vilochan, Aadishri Apartment among others.
Sinhagad is a hill fortress located at around 35.6 kms southwest from Pune city. Previously, it was called Kondana. The fort is of historical importance as many battles have been fought around it. The most important one being the Battle of Sinhagad of 1671. The locality of Sinhagad comes under the jurisdiction of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). Other prominent localities situated close to Sinhagad are Khanapur, Donaje, Arvi, Kondhanpur, Kalyan, Osade, Sasewadi, Girinagar, Paud among others. This is a popular trekking destination for the people of Pune as it is situated on a hill, at a height of 700m above the surrounding landscape. You can also see Panshet, Khadakwasla, and Varasgaon dams as well as the Torna fort. Sinhagad in Pune is easily accessible by PCMT buses. The local municipal transport service runs buses every hour from “Shaniwar Wada” and “Swargate” to the Sinhagad foothills at Donje village. Shared taxi services to the base as well as the top of the mountain are also available. Some of the key residential projects in Sinhagad are Gokhale Mist, Mantra 7 Hills, Sumeru Vilochan, Aadishri Apartment among others.
Connectivity
It is easily accessible from Pune via PMPML buses. Pune- Swargate-Sinhagad Road-Khadakwasla-Sinhagad are the main routes. The local municipal transport service, the PMPML, runs buses every hour from Shaniwar Wada and Swargate – to the Sinhagad foothills at Donje village
Pune International Airport which is located at a driving distance of 52.2 kms from Sinhagad via NH48. Shivajinagar, Manjri, Dapodi and Khadki are the nearby railway stations. However, Shivajinagar Railway Station is the nearest railway station to Sinhagad which is located at a distance of 36 kms via NH48.
Factors for past growth Being close to the developing localities along with major tourist places has attracted both investors and end users toward Sinhagad. Locality is moving towards the development as roads are widening and reconstruction. It is a favourite tourist destination in Maharashtra. People who visit here. Look for the rental option. As a result, huge demand for 2 BHK flats for rent in Sinhagad. The presence of Banks, ATMs, Schools, Hospitals and retail stores etc. in the locality makes Sinhagad a self-sustained locality.
Infrastructural Development (Social & Physical) Venkateshwara High School, DSK School, Nalanda English Medium School and Aryans School are some good schools in the vicinity. Some of the renowned hospitals providing health care facility to the residents of Sinhagad are Sinhagad Speciality Hospital, Sahara Hospital, Pulse Multispeciality Hospital, Trimurti Hospital, Sai Hospital, Shri Balaji Trust Sanjivani Hospital and Bharti Hospital among few. Abhiruchi Mall, Dorabjees Mall, Brand factory and Revolution Mall are the major malls in and around Sinhagad which serves the daily needs of the residents of Sinhagad as well as its neighboring localities.
Major issues There is a steep and narrow two lane road from the base of the fort to the top. In between the road is in bad condition and currently getting reconstructed. Also you have to pay vehicle toll at the base of the fort to continue your journey to the top.
Our talented team know how to excite, inspire and engage. With backgrounds in events, entertainment and travel, we’re full of ideas for amazing prizes and unforgettable incentives!
At Fulcrum, we all come to work every day because we have a shared love of travel and delivering once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
Our team meetings are buzzing with fresh ideas, brand new experiences and glowing feedback from our travellers. We know what makes a great incentive, we have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the best experiences around the world, and we have an ever-expanding ‘little black book’ of the most exclusive suppliers in the business.
In addition to our creative ideas and experience, we know that our clients value our expertise and dedication to solving problems rather than creating them. Prizes and incentives are our world, but we understand that our clients have other priorities, so we make sure we’re delivering our ideas on-time, on-budget and on-brand. We thrive on tight deadlines, logistical challenges and creating perfectly tailored solutions, without the headaches!
About us
Perfect solutions every time As a leading marketing Agency, we’re immensely proud to work with brands and agencies across a huge range of sectors and industries, giving us an unrivalled breadth of experience.
we have created and fulfilled prizes for promotions and activations across the world.
Our aim: help our clients achieve their goals through our experience and expertise, taking the stress and hassle out of prize fulfilment.
We work for both direct brands and agencies, often in collaboration or with other specialist agencies and partners. Many of our clients have existing assets – from festival tickets to sports hospitality – which we help them to build into the best possible prize packages. Others want to create unique, eye-catching marketing and btl content around their prize winners. We can deal with winners from any country and in any language; we can provide a full btl management service; we can even source camera crews for content capture.
Whatever your brief, we’ve got it covered.
SALES INCENTIVES
Driving sales and performance through tailored, flexible incentive programmes
With pressure always on to drive sales and performance, sales incentives are an essential part of rewarding achievement within many companies. From internal staff reward programmes to dealer and channel incentives, there’s no better way to create a happy, engaged and motivated workforce.
Our main goal is to understand your people and what makes them tick. From hundreds in a call centre team to a small on ground sales team, a clear overview of your audience is the most important part of the process. By taking a best approach, offering maximum choice and flexibility, we create incentives which are targeted, effective and tailored to your team.
Whether it’s sales rewards, dealer incentives or channel incentives, drop us a line; we’d love to help you drive sales with our fresh and creative approach to prizes and incentives. From once-in-a-lifetime holidays to mini-breaks, high-street vouchers and designer goods, you can rest assured that with Fulcrum you’re in safe hands.
24 hour turnaround for urgent briefs Topline ideas within 2 hours if needed Competitive fixed quotes with no hidden costs Expert Winner Management and Fulfilment
general trade marketing Service Provider Agency | Loyalty marketing Campaigns Currey Road
Forecasting
16.3 Forecasting
Learning Objectives
List steps in the forecasting process.
Identify types of forecasting methods and their advantages and disadvantages.
Discuss the methods used to improve the accuracy of forecasts.
Creating marketing strategy is not a single event, nor is the implementation of marketing strategy something only the marketing department has to worry about. When the strategy is implemented, the rest of the company must be poised to deal with the consequences. As we have explained, an important component is the sales forecast, which is the estimate of how much the company will actually sell. The rest of the company must then be geared up (or down) to meet that demand. In this section, we explore forecasting in more detail, as there are many choices a marketing executive can make in developing a forecast.
Accuracy is important when it comes to forecasts. If executives overestimate the demand for a product, the company could end up spending money on manufacturing, distribution, and servicing activities it won’t need. The software developer Data Impact recently overestimated the demand for one of its new products. Because the sales of the product didn’t meet projections, Data Impact lacked the cash available to pay its vendors, utility providers, and others. Employees had to be terminated in many areas of the firm to trim costs.
Underestimating demand can be just as devastating. When a company introduces a new product, it launches marketing and sales campaigns to create demand for it. But if the company isn’t ready to deliver the amount of the product the market demands, then other competitors can steal sales the firm might otherwise have captured. Sony’s inability to deliver the e-Reader in sufficient numbers made Amazon’s Kindle more readily accepted in the market; other features then gave the Kindle an advantage that Sony is finding difficult to overcome.
The marketing leader of a firm has to do more than just forecast the company’s sales. The process can be complex, because how much the company can sell will depend on many factors such as how much the product will cost, how competitors will react, and so forth—in fact, much of what you have already read about in preparing a marketing strategy. Each of these factors has to be taken into account in order to determine how much the company is likely to sell. As factors change, the forecast has to change as well. Thus, a sales forecast is actually a composite of a number of estimates and has to be dynamic as those other estimates change.
A common first step is to determine market potential, or total industry-wide sales expected in a particular product category for the time period of interest. (The time period of interest might be the coming year, quarter, month, or some other time period.) Some marketing research companies, such as Nielsen, Gartner, and others, estimate the market potential for various products and then sell that research to companies that produce those products.
Once the marketing executive has an idea of the market potential, the company’s sales potential can be estimated. A firm’s sales potential is the maximum total revenue it hopes to generate from a product or the number of units of it the company can hope to sell. The sales potential for the product is typically represented as a percentage of its market potential and equivalent to the company’s estimated maximum market share for the time period. As you can see in Figure 16.8 “A Marketing Plan Timeline Illustrating Market Potential, Sales, and Costs”, companies sell less than potential because not everyone will make a decision to buy their product: some will put off a decision; others will buy a competitor’s product; still others might make do with a substitute product. In your budget, you’ll want to forecast the revenues earned from the product against the market potential, as well as against the product’s costs.
Forecasting Methods
Forecasts, at their basic level, are simply someone’s guess as to what will happen. Each estimate, though, is the product of a process. Several such processes are available to marketing executives, and the final forecast is likely to be a blend of results from more than one process. These processes are judgment techniques and surveys, time series techniques, spending correlates and other models, and market tests.
Judgment and Survey Techniques
At some level, every forecast is ultimately someone’s judgment. Some techniques, though, rely more on people’s opinions or estimates and are called judgment techniques. Judgment techniques can include customer (or channel member or supplier) surveys, executive or expert opinions, surveys of customers’ (or channel members’) intentions or estimates, and estimates by salespeople.
Customer and Channel Surveys
In some markets, particularly in business-to-business markets, research companies ask customers how much they plan to spend in the coming year on certain products. Have you ever filled out a survey asking if you intend to buy a car or refrigerator in the coming year? Chances are your answers were part of someone’s forecast. Similarly, surveys are done for products sold through distributors. Companies then buy the surveys from the research companies or do their own surveys to use as a starting point for their forecasting. Surveys are better at estimating market potential than sales potential, however, because potential buyers are far more likely to know they will buy something—they just don’t know which brand or model. Surveys can also be relatively costly, particularly when they are commissioned for only one company.
Sales Force Composite
A sales force composite is a forecast based on estimates of sales in a given time period gathered from all of a firm’s salespeople. Salespeople have a pretty good idea about how much can be sold in the coming period of time (especially if they have bonuses riding on those sales). They’ve been calling on their customers and know when buying decisions will be made.
Estimating the sales for new products or new promotions and pricing strategies will be harder for salespeople to estimate until they have had some experience selling those products after they have been introduced, promoted, or repriced. Further, management may not want salespeople to know about new products or promotions until these are announced to the general public, so this method is not useful in situations involving new products or promotions. Another limitation reflects salespeople’s natural optimism. Salespeople tend to be optimistic about what they think they can sell and may overestimate future sales. Conversely, if the company uses these estimates to set quotas, salespeople are likely to reduce their estimates to make it easier to achieve quota.
Salespeople are more accurate in their near-term sales estimates, as their customers are not likely to share plans too far into the future. Consequently, most companies use sales force composites for shorter-range forecasts in order to more accurately predict their production and inventory requirements. Konica-Minolta, an office equipment manufacturer, has recently placed a heavy emphasis on improving the accuracy of its sales force composites because the cost of being wrong is too great. Underestimated forecasts result in some customers having to wait too long for deliveries for products, and they may turn to competitors who can deliver faster. By contrast, overestimated forecasts result in higher inventory costs.
Executive Opinion
Executive opinion is exactly what the name implies: the best-guess estimates of a company’s executives. Each executive submits an estimate of the company’s sales, which are then averaged to form the overall sales forecast. The advantages of executive opinions are that they are low cost and fast and have the effect of making executives committed to achieving them. An executive-opinion-based forecast can be a good starting point. However, there are disadvantages to the method, so it should not be used alone. These disadvantages are similar to those of the sales force composites. If the executives’ forecast becomes a quota upon which their bonuses are estimated, they will have an incentive to underestimate the forecast so they can meet their targets. Organizational factors also come into play. A junior executive, for example, is not likely to forecast low sales for a product that his or her CEO is pushing, even if low sales are likely to occur.
Expert Opinion
Expert opinion is similar to executive opinion except that the expert is usually someone outside the company. Like executive opinion, expert opinion is a tool best used in conjunction with more quantitative methods. As a sole method of forecasting, however, expert opinions are often very inaccurate. Just consider how preseason college football rankings compare with the final standings. The football experts’ predictions are usually not very accurate.
Time Series Techniques
Time series techniques examine sales patterns in the past in order to predict sales in the future. For example, with a trend analysis, the marketing executive identifies the rate at which a company’s sales have grown in the past and uses that rate to estimate future sales. For example, if sales have grown 3 percent per year over the past five years, trend analysis would assume a similar 3 percent growth rate next year.
A simple form of analysis such as this can be useful if a market is stable. The problem is that many markets are not stable. A rapid change in any one of a market’s dynamics is likely to result in wide swings in growth rates. Just think about auto sales before, during, and after the government’s Cash for Clunkers program. What sold the previous month could not account for the effects of the program. Consequently, if an executive were to have estimated auto sales based on the rate of change for the previous period, the estimate would have been way off.
Figure 16.10
The federal government’s Cash for Clunkers program resulted in a significant short-term increase in new car sales and filled junkyards with thousands of clunkers!
The Cash for Clunkers program was an unusual situation; many products may have wide variations in demand for other reasons. Trend analysis can still be useful in these situations but adjustments have to be made to account for the swings in rates of change. Two common adjustments are the moving average, whereby the rate of change for the past few periods is averaged, and exponential smoothing, a type of moving average that puts more emphasis on the most recent period.
Correlates and Other Models
A number of more sophisticated models can be useful in forecasting sales. One fairly common method is a correlational analysis, which is a form of trend analysis that estimates sales based on the trends of other variables. For example, furniture-company executives know that new housing starts (the number of new houses that are begun to be built in a period) predict furniture sales in the near future because new houses tend to get filled up with new furniture. Such a correlate is considered a leading indicator, because it leads, or precedes, sales. The Conference Board publishes an Index of Leading Indicators, which is a single number that represents a composite of commonly used leading indicators. Some of these leading indicators are housing starts, wholesale orders, orders for durable goods (items like refrigerators, air conditioning systems, and other long-lasting consumer products), and even consumer sentiment, or how consumers think the economy is doing.
Response Models
Some companies create sophisticated statistical models called response models, which are based on how customers have responded in the past to marketing strategies. JCPenney, for example, takes previous sales data and combines it with customer data gathered from the retailer’s Web site. The models help JCPenney see how many customers are price sensitive and only buy products when they are on sale and how many customers are likely to respond to certain offers. The retailer can then estimate the sales for products by market segment based on the offers and promotions directed at those segments.
Market Tests
A market test is an experiment in which the company launches a new offering in a limited market in order to gain real-world knowledge of how the market will react to the product. Since there isn’t any historical data on how the product has done, response models and time-series techniques are not effective. A market test provides some measure of sales in response to the marketing plan, so in that regard, it is like a response model, just based on limited data. The demand for the product can then be extrapolated to the full market. However, remember that market tests are visible to your competitors, and they can undertake actions, such as drastic price cuts, to skew your results.
Figure 16.11
HEB uses Waco, Texas, as a test market, combining data from its loyalty program with sales data to see who buys what and at what price.
The grocery chain HEB uses Waco, Texas, as a test site. HEB has a loyalty program that enables it to collect lots of data on its customers. When HEB wants to test market a new product, the firm does it in Waco, where individual customer data can be combined with sales data. Testing in Waco tells HEB who is likely to buy the product and at what price, information that makes extrapolating to their larger market more accurate.
Building Better Forecasts
At best, a forecast is a scientific estimate, but really, a forecast is still just a sophisticated guess. Still, there are steps that can enhance the likelihood of success. The first step is to commit to accuracy. At Konica-Minolta, regional vice presidents are rewarded for being accurate and punished for being wrong about their forecasts, no matter what the direction of them is. As we mentioned earlier, underestimating is considered by Konica-Minolta leadership to be just as bad as overestimating sales.
We’ve also mentioned how salespeople and managers will lower estimates if the estimates are used to set quotas. Using forecasts properly is another factor that can improve forecasting accuracy. But there are other ways to make forecasts more accurate. These begin with picking the right methods for your business.
Pick the Right Method(s) for Your Business and Your Decision
Some products have very short selling cycles; others take a long time to produce and sell. What is appropriate for a fast-moving consumer good like toothpaste is not appropriate for a durable good like a refrigerator. A response model might work for Crest toothpaste in the short term, but longer-term forecasts might require a sophisticated time-series technique. By contrast, Whirlpool might find, for example, that channel surveys are better predictors of refrigerator sales over the long term.
Use Multiple Methods
Since forecasts are estimates, the more estimates generated from various methods, the better. For example, combining expert opinions with a trend analysis could help you understand not only what is happening but also why. Every forecast results in decisions, such as the decision to hire more people, add manufacturing capacity, order supplies, and so forth. In addition, practice makes perfect, as they say. The more forecasts you have to make and resulting decisions you have to live with, the better you will get at forecasting.
Use Many Variables
Forecasting for smaller business units first can result in greater accuracy. For example, JCPenney may estimate sales by region first, and then roll that information up into a national sales forecast. By forecasting locally, more variables can be considered, and with more variables comes more information, which should help the accuracy of the company’s overall sales forecast. Similarly, JCPenney may estimate sales by market segment, such as women over age fifty. Again, forecasting in a smaller segment or business unit can then enable the company to compare such forecasts to forecasts by product line and gain greater accuracy overall.
Use Scenario-Based Forecasts
One forecast is not enough. Consider what will happen if conditions change. For example, how might your forecast change if your competitors react strongly to your strategy? How might it change if they don’t react at all? Or if the government changes a policy that makes your product tax free? All of these factors will influence sales, so the smart executive considers multiple scenarios. While the executive may not expect the government to make something tax free, scenarios can be created that consider favorable government regulation, stable regulation, and negative regulation, just as one can consider light competitive reaction, moderate reaction, or strong reaction.
Track Actual Results and Adjust
As time goes on, forecasts that have been made should be adjusted to reflect reality. For example, Katie Scallan-Sarantakes may have to do an annual forecast for Scion sales, but as each month goes by, she has hard sales data with which to adjust future forecasts. Further, she knows how strongly competition has reacted and can adjust her estimates accordingly. So, even though she may have an annual forecast, the forecast changes regularly based on how well the company is doing.
Key Takeaway
A forecast is an educated guess, or estimate, of sales in the future. Accuracy is important because so many other decisions a firm must make depend on the forecasts. When a company forecasts sales, it has to consider market potential and sales potential. Many methods of forecasting exist, including expert opinion, channel and customer surveys, sales force composites, time series data, and test markets.
Better forecasts can be obtained by using multiple methods, forecasting for various scenarios, and tracking actual data (including sales) and adjusting future forecasts accordingly.
Review Questions
Which forecasting method would be most accurate for forecasting sales of hair-care products in the next year? How would your answer change if you were forecasting for the next month? For home appliances?
What is the role of expert opinion in all forecasts?
How can forecasting accuracy be improved?
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No matter who you are and what you sell, the success of your business relies on your ability to engage with two critically important groups – the people who buy from you and the people who work for you. At Fulcrum, we create truly personalised incentive programmes that have the power to energize your business. Each Fulcrum initiative is designed around the specific interests and aspirations of your customers and your people. We engage and inspire the people that matter – the people who power your business.
Our Values Client- centricity and the provision of quality service are key values. Providing a developmental and supportive marketing environment for our staff and recognising the importance of our suppliers are integral to our business ethic. Openness, honesty, transparency and a commitment to our community underpin everything we do.
Our Team The heart and soul of what has made us so successful is our staff. It is their passion, commitment to quality and positive, can-do attitude that delivers outstanding performance to our clients and reinforces our reputation for service excellence. From selection & recruitment through to training & development, we continually invest in our staff to ensure we have the right people, with the right skills to make sure that the job gets done right, first time.
Quality Fulcrum has always aimed to be quality leaders in our industry. An impressive array of accreditations, for Quality, Environment, Security and Staff development are simply the kite-marks that demonstrate our core values in this respect.
Fulcrum Agencies Over the years we have worked with agencies of all sizes and styles. We understand the hectic world of marketing and advertising and we have developed services specifically designed to adapt to short lead-times, changing needs, last minute requests and the occasional ‘sprint finish’.
Retail With a long-history of providing services to retailers, whether major chains or small specialist outlets, it was a very easy step for us to adapt that to the on-line world. These days we can handle high-volume fulfilment for direct-to consumer on-line web-orders as we can easily provide retail replenishment and store refurbishment.
New Event Strategies: The Art of the Refresh
1. Ignite Talks. Ignite talks are fun, fast presentations that have become an international phenomenon since first appearing about ten years ago. For this format, speakers build five minute, 20-slide presentations, with each slide automatically advancing every 15 seconds. During the session, attendees informally stand around the speaker – which makes this format easy to implement in a wide variety of event venues.
According to Ignite’s founders, these five minute sessions and informal set-ups mean “anyone, anywhere can learn and present their ideas and stories.” Consider using an Ignite-style talk for rapid-fire new idea or research presentations.
2. PechaKucha Talks. Similar to Ignite Talks, PechaKucha (Japanese for ”chit chat”) is a simple presentation format where speakers show 20 images for 20 seconds each – to deliver a six minute and 40 second speech.
PechaKucha talks are especially popular in design-based or creative industry events. Some event hosts even invite all attendees to give a PechaKucha presentation – and then use the ideas shared to jumpstart brainstorming sessions.
3. Campfire Sessions. This year, the Advocamp schedule included campfire sessions – small groups of attendees informally sharing stories and strategies with each other during breaks. Advocamp even added marshmallows to the laid-back setting to simulate campfire storytelling.
A campfire approach is an excellent way for attendees to network and learn from their peers – with no real fire needed. And one of the new event strategies we are definitely warming up to.
4. Unconferences. Unconferences feature participant-driven content. For example, many unconferences start with the attendees creating the agenda on-site—and then deciding who will lead various segments. This format is also characterized by open group discussions versus “soap-box”-style speakers.
This format is best for groups with similar experience or knowledge—where high levels of attendee participation are likely. For instance, unconference sessions have worked well at tech conferences in lieu of traditional breakout sessions.
5. World Cafés.The World Café methodology is a flexible format designed to facilitate large group dialogue. The typical set-up is to seat groups of four to five attendees at small roundtables equipped with colored pens.
The host kicks the Café off by posing an open-ended question or sharing a problem that needs solving. Each table then spends 20 minutes talking about the topic. After each timed segment, participants move to different tables. Either a new topic is posed, or the same question is repeated. Following the roundtable discussions, the small groups share their insights with the entire group.
The benefits of this format are that it increases participation and make attendees feel like they’re part of the problem-solving process.
6. Tech Café. No relation to World Cafés, the Tech Café format gives attendees hands-on experience with new technologies and an opportunity to “test-drive” different solutions.
One way to implement a Tech Café would be to set-up a dedicated space for hands-on play. Place a Tech Café in a coffee break space to spark conversation and collaboration among attendees.
7. Graphic Recordings. Also called graphic facilitation, this popular process distills key takeaways from meetings, seminars, workshops and presentations into colorful, engaging drawings. A graphic facilitator/artist listens to speakers and summarizes key information on a large poster or sign.
The visual representations shared by the graphic facilitator help attendees retain and use the information they’ve learned at the event. Plus, the highly visual representation makes great shareable content that can be socially shared within and beyond the event.
8. Sli.Do. Everyone has seen an event staffer sprint up the aisle during Q&A so attendees can use the handheld mic to ask a keynote speaker a question. Sli.Do automates this process by enabling all attendees – even the shy, silent ones – to ask questions. Sil.Do works like this: attendees submit questions as they think of them at any time during the presentation. Then Sil.Do aggregates the questions into a queue for the presenter – and even allows participants to up-vote their favorite questions so the speaker knows what to address first.
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Fulcrum Marketing Services in Pune are the catalyst to bringing your advertising vision to life. While many ideas start in a boardroom, you need experienced marketers on the ground who are able to conceptualize, plan and execute a well thought-out marketing campaign in the field.
we supply the experience, connections, relationships, and knowledge needed to maximize the potential return on investment for each of our clients as well as help identify and pursue select market opportunities as they come available, house to house marketing Supplier | general trade marketing Service Provider Agency in pune. Our local insight allows us to create exceptional investment potential for our partners and clients and enhanced living experience for our residents.
CREATING COMMUNITIES WHERE PEOPLE ARE EAGER TO LIVE AND RELUCTANT TO LEAVE
We define and position apartment homes for success. We are passionate about the residential experience and the qualitative and quantitative points that drive us to make strategic decisions that inform what a home should be — specific to its marketplace.
Results are realized through both the speed of lease-ups and financial performance of the on-going stabilized investment.
MARKET RESEARCH We crunch the numbers, ask the questions, assess current trends and forecast future trends with detailed, up-to-date research to understand our markets; Ensuring our clients have the right data points to make the best decisions going forward.
MARKET POSITIONING What’s the experience living here? What’s the story and name of this place? Our experience and insight allows us to identify and position each project’s distinctive offerings as its market niche. We provide an understanding that goes deeper than looking at trends. We create sought-after, thoughtfully executed apartment communities that are compatible with their surrounding neighborhoods.
MARKETING STRATEGY Overall success relies on a thoughtful marketing strategy. In a constantly changing environment, we develop and implement each marketing initiative specific to your audience and budget. Reaching consumers in a way that educates and informs; ultimately creating product desirability and excellent rates of return.
7 Reasons Your Business Needs an Incentive Travel Program
Many businesses still don’t think they can afford an incentive program. But when you look more closely at the many benefits of creative travel rewards tied to employee performance, it’s clear that most businesses can’t afford not to have an incentive travel program in place.
1. Inspire your employees
Hopefully your employees find enjoyment in their work. Maybe they even find fulfillment. Even so, a creative incentive travel program always gives employees something extra to strive for when they’re tempted to fall into a rut. When employees know that their company is ready and willing to reward their hard work, they don’t feel like they have to do their best—they want to.
2. Get more bang for your buck
Nobody is going to complain when they receive an extra check from their employer, but that check will likely be saved or put toward living expenses. In other words, cash is boring. For the same amount—or almost always less—you can give your employees the gift of adventure, romance, and friendship. Through incentive travel, you connect with your employees on a much deeper level dollar-for-dollar than plain old cash.
3. Reap the rewards of higher performance
What behavior do you want to encourage in your employees? How can you measure it? Incentive programs are often tied to hard sales numbers, but they can also reward more intangible employee contributions such as excellent customer service, punctuality, and positive energy that can be measured by performance reviews from peers and supervisors.
4. Help your employees work together
When children play with one another at recess, they are also learning how to interact with one another. The same is true of adults when we socialize together, albeit on a more sophisticated level. Traveling affords employees who may only know one another in a more buttoned-up context countless opportunities to bond and develop their relationships. When they get back to the office, they find that their communication has improved as a result of mutual appreciation and respect through their shared experiences on the incentive program.
5. Boost the health of your employees
Even the biggest workaholics need a break to recharge now and then. Corporate travel allows employees to celebrate their successes together as they catch their breath and unwind. It’s a very healthy way to achieve psychological and physical well-being, and it translates into continued growth and success when they return to work — continuing their effort to contribute to the corporate goal.
6. Increase employee loyalty and retention
Every aforementioned benefit will improve your employees’ attitude and morale. Many more of them will not want to imagine leaving the company and will do everything they can to contribute their talents to the company’s success.
7. Turn employees into evangelists
When people are enjoying themselves, they can’t help but share the love. Particularly in this age of social media, employees are going to post pictures, videos, and status updates that do more than show off their tans—they show off your company’s dedication to its employees, as well.
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