Category Management Concept in Retailing

Retail is often termed as a business of responding to change. Today‘s retailer is faced with a rapidly changing and demanding consumer, intense competition, and pressures on costs. The combinations of the business condition that exist today and the advances in technology have created an opportunity for the development of new management approaches. One such approach is that of category management.

The need to reduce costs, control inventory levels and replenish stock efficiently, led to the concept of Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) taking shape in the grocery retail industry in Europe and America. By focusing on a superior understanding of consumer needs, category management provides renewed opportunities for meeting consumer needs, and at the same time, for achieving competitive advantage as well as lower costs through greater work process efficiencies.… Read the rest

Retail Selling Process – Personal Selling Process

Retail selling as the name suggests involves personal contacts. Advertising, on the other hand, involves no personal contact. Sales promotion is different from both these techniques. Now let us briefly explain about the Retail selling, its definition, qualities of retail seller and objectives .

Salesmanship and Retail Selling

The success of a marketing firm really depends on its effectiveness in creating a demand for its products and how effectively it satisfies its customers. To create a demand for the product, usually three techniques are employed by the marketing firms, namely, Personal Selling, Advertising and Sales Promotion. Of them personal selling has assumed an ever increasing importance than other techniques.… Read the rest

The Global Advertising Plan

The strategic advertising plan usually is prepared in conjunction with the advertising budget. Basically, the plan outlines the marketing strategy, whereas the budget allocates the funds. Two major approaches to advertising in foreign cultures differ in their orientation: one is market oriented and the other is culture oriented.

The Market Analysis Model

This model is based on data and observation from several countries. It recognizes the existence of local, regional, and international brands in almost every product category. The two major variables are the share of market of brands within a category and the size of the category. A marketing manager must look not only as share but also at market size, growth rates, and growth opportunities.… Read the rest

The Standardized Advertising Approach

There are three basic schools of thought regarding advertising standardization. First one is standardization approach which assumes that due to faster communication there is a convergence of markets and that costumer are becoming increasingly similar. Second is an adaptation approach which point to cultural differences and conclude that advertising must be adapted and the last one compromise approach which recognizes local differences but also that some degree of advertising standardization is possible.

Standardized Approach  

Standardized or global advertising approach is practice of advertising the same brand or same product in the same way everywhere around the world. It looks for similarity across countries and segments to catch up a common thread to capitalize on adverting.… Read the rest

Approaches to Measuring Advertising Effectiveness

There are two approaches  to measuring advertising effectiveness, viz,, experimental method and survey method. Under experimental method, consumers are given a controlled exposure to the message and the effects are measured on the basis of the change in opinion or attitude. A base line is observed with the use of a control group not exposed to the advertising campaign.  The results of the exposure in almost all the situations are recorded. The alternative effects of each exposure are considered for comparison and with a view to establishing a relationship between the exposure and the effects. Field experiments are conducted to measure the effects of mass communication.… Read the rest

Evaluating Advertising Effectiveness

An advertising measurement is adopted both before and after an advertising campaign is launched. After a campaign has been launched, it is essential to know how far the advertising plans, strategies and programmes are successful in achieving the objectives so that they may be modified and redesigned for better performance if needed. This process is known as evaluating advertising effectiveness.

Some advertisers do not bother to measure advertising effectiveness. They expect that the sales will ultimately increase by reason of advertising. But, recently, problems and difficulties have compelled them to measure advertising effectiveness. The producers also adopt a measuring device because they incur a sizable amount of expenditure on advertising.… Read the rest