E-commerce-mobile marketing

What are the main drivers of M-Commerce?

1.Mobile phones are widely available

2.We the consumer like to communicate via our mobile phone

3.We are now a more mobile workforce

4. Better infrastructure

5. Better pricing plans from mobile phone providers

Forms of Mobile Marketing Campaigns

-         The following are some of the forms of mobile marketing campaigns:

•           For informational purposes
•           Entertainment
•           Competitions
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Why do companies invest in m-commerce? Once a company has

obtained a mobile number for their customer they can devise a

database that can enable them to do the following:

•           Companies can use m-commerce to promote upcoming sales 
•           To promote the company's brand/brands
•           For viral marketing purposes
•           Create/improve brand loyalty

M-Commerce works very well in the entertainment field of

marketing such as  music, video,  games and of course

gambling.

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Business and Marketing Students-Marketing Information Systems

All companies need to collect information on their customers, competitors, the sales of their products and services to name but a few.  Information that is collect needs to be timely, relevant, accurate and timely.  


The aim of market research is:

• Specify the information needed to address a particular marketing issue
• Designs the method of collecting that information
• Manages and implements the data collection process
• Analyses and interprets the results
• Communications the implications of findings to the marketing manager

Information that is collected can be used to: 

1. Track existing trends
2. Forecast future market opportunities and threats
3. Analyse the results of a company's marketing programme

Managers need to analyse information in regarding to the Micro and Macro Environment. 

Where do companies get data from?

• Internal data-company sales records, accounting data, production data etc
• Marketing intelligence
• Test marketing

Every company needs to weigh up the cost versus the benefits of conducting market research.  Is it worth the investment?  

Marketing-Business Environment

•A company’s marketing environment consists of the actors and forces outside marketing that affect marketing management’s ability to develop and maintain successful transactions with its target customers. 

•The marketing environment offers both opportunities and threats. 

Microenvironment

       These are factors that the company can control to a certain extent.  

•        Competitors -both direct and indirect.  It is essential to do a SWOT analysis on competitors that pose the biggest threat to the company
•        Customers-who are our target market?  Where are they located? Are they loyal customers? How often do they purchase etc
•        Company departments-every department in the organisation should be aware of the products and services offered by the company, price points, and promotional offers.
•        Marketing intermediaries-these can be retailers, wholesalers, agents etc.  Marketing intermediaries can give very important information to companies as in some cases they have a very close relationship with their customers.
•        Publics-these are groups that have an interest in your company.  Publics can include: past, present and future customers, financial institutions, potential investors, community groups etc

Macro Environment

      These are five major forces of the Marco Environment referred to as STEEP or PEEST.  These factors are outside the control of the organisation, therefore the organisation needs to be flexible enough to react to changes in the Marco Environment

Forces of the Marco Environment

•      Political/Legal-since we are part of the EU much of our laws originate from the EU.  Companies need to pay attention to company, competitor and consumer legislation. 
•      Economic-elements such as interest rates, customers available discretionary income,  currency exchange rates, the state of the Euro currency are some of the factors that may affect the operation of a company.  The level of exports out of the country-who are our trading partners-how dependent are we on them?
•       Environment-this is the natural environment.  We are all aware of the shortage in raw material (oil and coal)  the increased cost of energy (the cost of Gas and electricity has increased in recent times) and lastly the issue of increased pollution.
•       Social-within the social environment there are two important elements.  These are: cultural and demographic factors.  Demographic factors-change in the age of the population, population growth and trends, changing age structure of the population, the changing family and the rising number of education people.  Cultural factors-companies need to take into consideration are the awareness of cultural norms and language. 
•       Technological-the fast pace of technological change may have a profound impact on our company.  Are we trend setters or followers? How much do we need to invest in R&D to develop new technological products and services for our customers? 
•   

Marketing research-Exploratory Research:primary research experimentation

In this session we focus on the experimentation. Experimental or causal research can help provide answers to managers because its objective is to uncover cause and effect relationships.


Where can experiments take place?


Experiments can take place in a lab setting or in a field setting.


Lab setting
The lab setting enables the researcher to control all variables that might affect the dependent variable and thus more confidently infer that the change in the dependent variable was caused by the independent variable.


Field settings
Field experiments are viewed as being more realistic in respect of the marketplace, but the researcher is unable to control all the factors that may impact on the dependent variable.


Test Marketing
Test marketing is used for a variety of reasons:
1.Tests a new product or existing marketing strategy
2.Involves the use of experimental procedures




Use and objectives of test marketing
Pre-testing is important to ensure that research funds are spent wisely and the product is properly targeted so that the financial target will be reached and the product will be a success.
(1)Test marketing can help the company to have a focused view from the
outset and has a number of required objectives:
(2)Evaluate proposed national programmes, estimate market share and volume
(3)Study the effect on other items that the company markets:
cannibalisation rate
(4)Collect data about potential customers
(5)Analyse reaction and behaviour of customers.


Test marketing involves both direct and indirect costs. Direct costs include distribution of coupons, media time and space, the purchase of a database with relevant names and addresses.
Indirect costs include-the possibility of the product failing and that impact on the sales of existing products, a large percentage of management time is given to the promotion of the test product.


There are a number of steps involved in test marketing. These include:
(a) Define the objectives
(b) Select a basic approach
(c) Develop detailed procedures for the test
(d) Select the market for the test
(e) Execute the plan
(f) Analyse the results

E-Commerce Business to consumer(with a focus on advertising)

For this session we focused on advertising element of the business to consumer model. Companies have to decide whether they are going:
(1) Mass marketing
(2) Market segmentation
(3) One to one marketing


Trust is a major element when it comes to business to consumer marketing. As a result it is necessary for a company to establish high levels of trust with current and potential customers. This is why it is important to have signs and symbols on a website that the customer or potential customers is familiar with.


In order to ensure that the customer is targeted with hte right information it is necessary to undertake some market research. Market research can be undertaken via online surveys, online sampling methods, data 2.0 technology (facebook, blogs etc., hearing from customers online and observing customers online.


There are however limitations to market research. These are:
(a) Accuracy responses
(b) Loss of respondents because of equipment problems
(c) Ethics and the legality of Web tracking




Once market research has been undertaken then the advertisements can be designed to suit the target audience. There are some terminology associated with web advertising. These are:


A) Ad views
B) Button
C) Page
D) Click through
E) CPM
F) Conversion rate
G) Click through rate
H) Click through conversion
I) Hit




Why do companies prefer to advertise online instead of using traditional media such as broadsheet or tabloid newspapers, magazines, TV and radio?


1. Costs
2. Format-can have graphics, animation, sound and text.
3. Timing
4. Ability to personalise ads




There are a number of online advertising methods such as:
(a) Banner ads
(b) Pop up ads
(c) Email advertising
(d) Online newsletters
(e) Advertising in online games


As part of the advertising strategy of the company it is necessary to manage the advertisements. This involves being able to match the advert with specific content. Secondly having the ability to understand the metrics and the impact it has on the content and delivery of the advertisements. Do we want to have three or four adverts that we can rotate depending on the time of day, day of the week or for special occasions throughout a month or season.


Lastly we focused on the problems that surround e-tailing. These are:


(a) Disintermediation and reintermediation
(b) Channel conflict
(c) Determining the right price
(d) Product and service customisation and personalisation
(e) Fraud and other illegal activities
(f) How to make customers happy

Marketing planning

In this session we focused on marketing planning. Kotler defined marketing
"a systematic process that involves assessing marketing opportunities and resources, determining marketing objectives and developing a plan for implementation and control".


As part of the marketing planning process a marketing manager has to undertake an analysis of the marketing environment (this will be discussed in detail in the next session. A SWOT analysis also has to be undertaken. This entail analysis the companies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Examples of strengths may be the company's brand name, logo, employee knowledge, company location, if the company is a market leader, worldwide distribution, emphasis on innovation.
Weaknesses-economic climate, poor branding strategy, dependence on one product, lack of innovation, not a market leader
Opportunities-economic climate, demographic changes, technological changes
Threats-new entrants into the market, change in government regulations, demographic changes


Some thought should go into segmenting the market. In some markets there may be lots of segments-the company has to decide which segment to target. For example in car market companies may divide the market into the following segments-city car, family saloon car, sports car.


Once the segment has been identified then the targeting process begins. Targeting is usually based on the following factors-geographic, demographic,psychograhic and behavioural.


How do we want to position our company or product in the market. This will be dependent on the 4p's (product, price, place and promotion). For example if the company is selling expensive perfume, the price charged for the product should reflect that. It will be sold in department stores that sell high end products and the promotion (mainly advertising) will probably take place in glossy magazines or TV ads that portray the expensive nature of the product.

Marketing Research-Exploratory Research design-survey research

Surveys are commonly used in research.  We often use them to understand why our customers use or products or services, how they use or products and services and who actually buys ours products or services.
There are different types of error associated with survey research.  These are:

1. Sampling error (random sampling error, systematic error, frame error, population specification error, selection error,
2. Measurement error(surrogate error, interviewer error, measurement instrument bias, non-response bias and response bias.

Type of surveys.

(a) Door to door.  Used to be a popular method however, in recent times it has decline becuase:

1. Changes in availability
2. Deteriorating co-operation rates
3. Unsafe neighbourhoods
4. Lacks of hands on control of interviewers
5. Interviewer tolerance
6. Cheating or fudging of answers
7. Slow and expensive process

(b) Shopping centre interviews

(c) Executive interviews

(d) Telephone interviews

(e) Computer assisted telephone interviews

(f) Direct computer interview

(g) Self administered interviews

(h) postal surveys


There are a number of factors that determine which choice of survey method will be chosen.  These are:

1. The sampling precision required
2. Budget available
3. The need to expose the respondent to various stimuli
4. The validity and reliability of the data is often decided by the survey method used.
5. The need for the respondent to perform specialised tasks
6. The length of the questions may constrain the survey method used.

Introduction to Marketing

For this session we focused on the following areas:

• Definition of Marketing
• The five marketing concepts or philosophies

So what is Marketing?  There are lots of definitions of marketing, however, for the purpose of your course the following are some definitions that you should know:

1. A social and mangerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need  and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others (Kotler et al, 1999)
2. Marketing is the process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customers requirements profitably (Jefkins)

There are five management marketing philosophies/concepts.  These are:

• Production
• Product
• Selling
• Marketing
• Societal

Production -Henry Ford concept. You can have any colour car you want once it is black! This concept follows the premise that customers will favour products that are available and are affordable.

Product concept-this is where companies hold the view that customers will value products that offer the best quality, performance and innovative features-however, this is not always the case!!!

Selling concept-customers won't purchase the product or service unless you undertake a large scale selling and promotional effort. (E.g. eircom, vodafone and airtricity.)  The focus here is the for the salesperson to sell as much of a product or service to the customer.  The focus is meeting targets and not necssarily what is good for the customer.

Marketing Concept-This is a customer orientated view of marketing-the customer is the most important person on our premises.  Without customers we would not have a business.  Treat the customer with respect, provide them with the product or service that the need and they will return time and time again (boomerang principle)

Societal Marketing Concept-most recent concept of marketing.  Are we doing what is best for our customers in the long run?  Are we encouraging customers to purchase products that may end up damaging their health and their environment?  See the following YouTube videos:

•YouTube - Hidden Face of Globalization

•YouTube - International Cocoa Initiative: Child Labour on Cocoa Farms

 

The are four P's in Marketing.  These are:

1. Product
2. Price
3. Place
4. Promotion

Business Admin-operations and administration

In this session we focused on the last section of the business admin module-operations and administration. 


What is the role of the Administrative Manager?

• Ensuring that market information is collected
• Examining work practices
• Assisting in the recruiting and training of staff
• Auditing existing work practices to ensure compliance
• Ensuring that all stationery, diaries, calendars etc carries  the correct information

Centralisation and decentralisation
A decision has to be made whether to centralise or decentralise the duty of an administrative manager


The following are some of the advantages of centralisation

•  It concentrates the work into one area which mininises costs
• It avoids duplication of effort
• It avoids confusion regarding area responsibility and the location of information
• It allows for the sharing of standard technology such as computers and printers
• It is easier to control by one manager

Decentralisation

• can place clerical work closer to the practical work to which it relates
• Organisations that have a wide geographical spread may require an administrative function in each area to properly service the target audience

The next issue that needs to be considered is the layout of the office. This can be open plan or single offices
Before choosing the layout the following should be considered:

1. Space requirements
2. Open plan design
3. Number of staff
4. Storage requirements
5. Placement of machinery

Business Administration-Production

This week we looked at the production process and how to layout a production facility.  There are a number of factors that need to be considered prior to designing a production facility.  These are:

1. The production process itself
2. Where are the inputs coming from?
3. What method of material handling will be required?
4. Process layout
5. Production layout

All companies should be involved in research and development to help them develop a new product or service to meet the changing needs of their customers/clients.  There are a number of stages involved in developing a new product or service.  These include:

1. Idea generation
2. Idea screening
3. Concept development and testing
4. Market strategy
5. Business analysis
6. Product development
7. Test marketing
8. Commercialisation

EC-Business to Customer

Last week we concentrated on business to business e-commerce.  Today we will focus on business to consumer.  With a predicted growth rate of 14% business to consumer e-commerce, it is essential that companies understand the importance of e-commerce in their business. 
What sells well on the Net-books, CDs, clothing, holidays etc. 

There are a number of enablers and limiters of e-tailing. 

Enablers:

1. Product category
2. Access to information
3. Access to price information
4. Novelty
5. Accessibility
6. Convenience 

Limiters

1. Lack of trial
2. Lack of interpersonal trust
3. Lack of instant gratification
4. High shipping and handling costs
5. Lower customer service
6. Loss of privacy and security
7. High economies of scale
8. Lack of a stable customer base
9. Poor logistics
10. Lack of experience
11. Lack of in-store shopping experience

Are there any consequences associated with e-tailing?
There are a number of consequences that e-tailers have to be aware of.  These are:

1. It can increase intertype competition
2. It can lead to conflict between channel members
3. It can lead to price competition

As mentioned earlier there are some servies or products that sell very well on the Internet.  In class we focused on the following

• Recruitment
• Travel and tourism
• Banking
• Grocery
• Entertainment

Another aspect of business to consumer e-commerce is the ability to understand the behaviour of consumers online.  Is there a difference in the behaivour of offline consumers and online consumers?????????? 

During the next session we will look at a model of consumer behaviour online

Market Research-Observation

In this session the focus was on observation.  Ideally, observation should not be used in isolation.  The following are the methods of observation used in research.

1. Natural/contrived situations
2. Open/disguished 
3. Structured/unstructured
4. Human/machine
5. Direct/indirect

There are a number of advantages of observation.

1. Allows you to get a feel for how the respondent actually behaves
2. If the respondent fails to respond, the researcher can still observe their behaviour
3. Some forms of data are gathered more quickly by observing

Disadvantages

1. Can't question the behaviour
2. Observation research can be timely and costly
3. Behaviour display today may not be a reliable indicator for future behaviour

Business Administration-Human Resource Management

A manager should remember that people are the ultimate resource in the organisation.  At present there are a number of challenges facing Human Resource Managers.  These challenges include:

1. Dynamic Global Competition
2. Technology and the importance of the knowledge economy
3. Demographics
4. Legal and political changes

There are a number of factors that should be considered when developing a human resource plan, these include:

• Understanding the corporate objective
• Analyse current human resources
• Estimate future needs-conduct a demand and supply analyses
• Develop action plans for recruitment, selection and induction

Recruitment and Selection
This process is concerned with the finding, assessing and engaging new employees.  Prior to designing the recruitment advertisement it is necessary to focus on creating a job analysis.  This involves focusing creating a job description, person specification and terms and conditions of employment.  A job description identifies the scope, duties and responsibilities attached to the job.  The person specification identifies the traits and abilities that the ideal candidate should have.  A HR manager can identify the ideal and desireable traits the ideal candidateshould have.  The terms and conditions have to be identified before the contract is signed.

Once a number of CVs or application forms have been processed a small number of candidates will be chosen.  The find the right candidate a number of selection methods could be used.  These include:

• Intelligence tests
• Aptitude tests
• Proficiency
• Personality tests
• Interview and reference checks

Once the ideal candidate has been chosen there is a placement and induction process.

Motivation and reward
How do you motivate your staff?  What types of rewards are used to motivate staff?  Does money really motivate??

There are three main theories of motivation and these are:

• McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y
• Herzberg Two Factor Theory
• Vroom's Expectancy Theory

A new employee will go through an appraisal process possibly within twelve months of starting in the organisation.  The main reasons why an appraisal is undertaken is as follows:

• It identifies whether people are performing at a satisfactory level
• Determining if additional training is needed
• Identify potential in existing employees
• Provide input into the reward system
• Enables more effective communication between management and employees

Training and development
Training is for the here and now-to acquire skills that are necessary for the job.  Development is for the future.  Some training courses take place within the company such as manual handling and health and safety training.  More specialised training may take place in training centres, colleges or universities. 

Business Administration-Finance

In this session we focused on some financial controls that are commonly used in organisations. 
We tend to use trading profit and loss accounts and balance sheets to understand the use, flow and control of organisational assets.
There are three main categories of financial controls, these are:

1. Budgetary controls
2. Break even analysis
3. Ratio analysis

Budgetary controls
Budgeting is used to express in quantifiable terms, plans for a particular future period.  There are four main types of budgetary controls:

1. Revenue and expense budgets
2. Time, space, material and production budgets
3. Cash budgets
4. Capital expenditure budgets

Break even analysis

When calculating the break even point it is necessary to look at fixed and variable costs.  The break even analysis aims to identify the point at which it becomes profitable to produce a product or service.  There are a number of reasons why an organisation conducts a break even analysis:

• It facilitates long term planning
• It can identify the minimum sales or volume of business that the organisation must achieve to remain in profit.
• It also provides essential information for decision making such as which products to eliminate.

Ratio Analysis
There are four main types of financial ratios which include:

1. Liquidity
2. Activity Ratios
3. Profitability
4. Leverage or gearing ratios

Liquidity Ratios
These ratios measure the organisation's financial stabilty.
These are two common types of liquidity ratios:

1. Current ratio
2. Acid test ratio

The formulae for current ratio is:
Current Assets
___________
Current Liabilities


Assets Test Ratio

Quick Assets (current assets less stock)
_______________________________
Current Liabilities


Activity Ratios
These indicate how efficiently an organisation is using its resources.  The three main ratios we covered were:

• Inventory turnover
• Debtors to sales ratio
• Creditors turnover

Profitability Ratios
This informatoin can be found in the profit and loss accounts.

Leveraging and Gearing Ratios
This looks at the long term funding of the organisation.  There are three main gearing ratios:

1. Debt ratio
2. Debt equity ratio
3. Times interest earned ratio

Market Research-Exploratory Research Design: Secondary Data

In this session we focused on secondary data.  There are two forms of secondary data:

• Internal
• External

Examples of internal include:

• Invoices
• Shipping records
• Sales reports
• Customer service reports

External sources include:

• Reports produced by government departments
• Reports produced by market research firms
• Directories

What are the advantages and disadvantages of secondary data

Advantages

1. Cost-in some cases there is a little or no cost involved in accessing secondary data-i.e. CSO statistics from the CSO website
2. Completedness-data can be more detailed than primary research data
3. Timeliness-secondary data can be accessed quite quickly from the Internet

Disadvantages

1. Data bias-there is the possibility that the same data can be interpreted differently
2. Data accuracy-how was the data collected
3. Is the data useful?

We will focus on observation next week.

Business Administration-Control

For this session we focused on the management function of control.  What is the importance of control in the work place?  Control enables a manager to prevent negative events from happening and it also enables management to keep staff and groups on track to achieving specific company goals and objectives. 
In order for control to be effective managers must set standards, measure performance against standards, analyse results and give feedback and if necessary correct any mistakes and prevent them from happening in the future.

There are a number of characteristics that should be present to ensure effective control in an organisation.  These are:

• The control system must be understandable
• The control system must be related to decision centres and conform to organisational structure.
• It must identify any deviations/exceptions
• It must identify critical activities
• The control system must have flexibility
• The control system must be consistent
• It must be cost effective
• The control system must be reviewed on a regular basis

In order for the control system to be effectively implemented the following must be present:

• There must be consultation and participation from all employees in the organisation
• Motivation-why should the employees implement/conform toa new control system
• Groups and informal organisation must also be taken into consideration
• Before implementing the control system the organisational structure must analysed in detail
• Leadership styles can have a profound impact on whether a control system is implemented correctly
• MBO

Within an organisation there are two forms of control which are:

• Financial control
• Non-financial control

For this session we will focus on non-financial controls.  Next week we will focus on financial forms of control.

Non financial forms of control

• Gantt Charts

(http://www.ganttchart.com/)

• PERT analysis

Task ID	Task Description	Prerequisites	Optimistic Duration	Most Likely Duration	Pessimistic Duration
1	Build internal components	none	1	2	3
2	Modify roof and floor	none	2	3	4
3	Construct collection stack	1	1	2	3
4	Pour concrete and install frame	2	2	4	6
5	Build high-temperature burner	3	1	4	7
6	Install control system	3	1	2	9
7	Install air pollution device	4, 5	3	4	11
8	Inspection and testing	6, 7	1	2	3

(http://www.waa-inc.com/projex/examples/pert_eg2b.htm)

• Management audits
• Inventory control
• EOQ-Economic order quantity
• Production control
• Quality control (Six sigma and TQM)