Body Language

Interestingly, while words or verbal communication have their own impact, it’s the gestures and involuntarily movements of body parts i.e. non-verbal communication that conveys the strongest of messages.

Hence, social scientists have given great impetus on understanding body language of people to know exactly their state of mind. In a corporate set up too, HR managers are being trained in grasping the subtle messages that prospective recruits as well as existing employees convey through their hand and body movements.

Even a simple observation as to how a person sits in a chair can convey a lot about his or her personality. Understanding this can help HR managers identify whether the person is right for a particular job or not.

According to studies done by psychologists, over 90% of the communication is done through body language only.

Almost all interviews give importance to body language in evaluating candidature. Some interpretations of body language are ads follows:

• An erect walk conveys confidence.
• Raising eyebrows means probing/interest.
• Tilted head signifies doubt.
• Touching nose with a finger conveys doubt.
• Biting nails is a sign of nervousness.
• Folded hands are a sign of defensiveness.
• Hands in the pockets mean dejection.
• Hands on hips while standing shows aggression.
• Legs crossed while sitting signifies boredom.
• Legs apart while sitting shows you are open.

Psychologists state that when it comes to expressing feeling: 55% of the communication-n consists of body language; 38 % is expressed through tone of voice and only; 7% is communicated through words.

That means we express 93% of our feelings in a non-verbal way. A solid reason to mind the way we gesticulate.

Honesty Goes A Long Way

The Seed

A successful business man was growing old and knew it was time to chose a successor to take over the business. Instead of choosing one of his directors or his children, he decided to do something different.

He called all the young executives in his company together.

"It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO," he said. "I have decided to choose one of you."

The young executives were shocked, but the boss continued. "I am going to give each one of you a seed today - a very special seed. I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from the seed I have given you. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO."

One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed.

He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She helped him get a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed.

Every day, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew.

Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn't have a plant and he felt like a failure.

Six months went by - still nothing in Jim's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Jim didn't say anything to his colleagues, however. He just kept watering and fertilizing the soil - he so wanted the seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company brought their plants to the CEO for inspection. Jim told his wife that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she asked him to be honest about what happened.

Jim felt sick at his stomach. It was going to be the most embarrassing moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right.

He took his empty pot to the board room. When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were beautiful in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor and many of his colleagues laughed. A few felt sorry for him!

When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young executives.

Jim just tried to hide in the back.

"My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown," said the CEO.

"Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!"

All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered the financial director to bring him to the front.

Jim was terrified. He thought, "The CEO knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me fired!"

When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his seed. Jim told him the story.

The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and then announced to the young executives, "Here is your next Chief Executive! His name is Jim!"

Jim couldn't believe it. Jim couldn't even grow his seed. How could he be the new CEO the others said?

Then the CEO said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a seed.

I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead - it was not possible for them to grow.

All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers.

"When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Jim was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief Executive!"

If you plant honesty, you will reap trust
If you plant goodness, you will reap friends.
If you plant humility, you will reap greatness.
If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment
If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective.
If you plant hard work, you will reap success.
If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.

Branding Decisions

Branding Decisions

Branding is an important strategy to differentiate the product from its competitors. Its a name ,logo ,trade mark, even patent number or package design, intended to identify the firm’s products or services from others. It represents to the customer the source of the product which leads him to associate with the brand. In taking brand decisions, the firm has to consider the target market, cultural influences on the market and the role the brand will play in its business strategy. Foe example, a brand name which is culturally alien will find difficulty in getting accepted in the market, like in the case of Kiss and Tell brand of cosmetics that failed in the Indian market. Besides, a firm has to ensure that a brand name is not banned because it represents either a national leader or the country.

The brand decisions a firm has to take are:

1.Manufacturer’s name ,i.e whether to have its own name on all products ,or
2.Marketing organization/Distributions brand name ;or
3.Adopt a combination of the two.

Manufacturer’s Brand Policy or National Brand Policy

This policy is based on the assumption that the manufacturer had built a reputation in the market, has strength in distribution and the firm had adequate financial resources to establish a new product in the market. Customer confidence in the firm is the prime factor in the manufacturer deciding to brand the production his own name. When the firm markets this product in its own name ,nationally, this may also be called the national brand policy Common examples are all leading national brands of all well known firms in India.

The options available to a firm here are :

1.Family brand name ;or
2.Independent brand name.

The strategy of family brand name works when its name brings positive associations in the mind of the consumer. To the customer ,it represents quality, reliability and assurance of meeting specific standards.

The strategy of an independent brand name is therefore advisable. This can also help to penetrate different markets segments which may buy the firm’s product for different reasons. This strategy can also ensure that the firm doesn’t lose its original position. For example ,if Hindustan Lever would have introduce different detergent powders under the name of Surf for different market segments and differentiated them only on the basis of price it could have run the risk of losing even the original positioning of an economical detergent powder to an economy conscious middle-class housewife

Even in the same market segment ,a firm may offer different brands of the same product but with different benefits and appeal. Consider for example ,Hindustan Levers’ Liril and Lux brand of toilet soaps in the premium market .Lux has traditionally been positioned as a beauty soap while Liril offers benefits of lemon. Thus, an independent brand offers extensive benefits without endangering the corporate image.

Mixed Brand Policy

The two options is for the firm to enter into a strategic alliance with a well-known marketing firm and let it market the product under its brand name in a defined geographical area .The manufacturer also continues to market the product under his own name nationally. This is done to fight regional competition .Consider Kelvinator’s strategy of marketing refrigerators in its own name and also that of others like Blue Star, Leonard and Spencer ,Whirlpool also lets Mirc Electronics market its washing machines under the name ONIDA.

This strategy allows the firm to take benefits of both the options spelt out earlier.
Brand decisions are central to new product launches and have to be carefully taken. These represent investments in future and also the degree of control the manufacturing firm wants over its marketing operation.

Positioning

Another decision in commercialization of a new product is how to differentiate it in the midst of an already over-communicated society of ours, where an average consumer screens out most of the messages .The strategy to differentiate the brand or product is to place it in an appropriate cell of the human mind so that whenever the customer recalls the product, the firm’s brand id the first to be recalled. This strategy is called Positioning .Positioning is the act of communicating company’s offer so that it occupies a distinct and valued place in the customers mind.

The concept of positioning was first advocated by Al Ries and Jack Trout ,two advertising executives in their articles titled The Positioning Era: A View Ten Years Later in Advertising Age in 1972 and later in their book Positioning :The Battle For Your Mind in 1982. According to them :

Positioning is not what you do to a product. But what you do to the mind of the prospect .That is, you position the product in the mind of the prospect.

Ries and Trout believe that marketing is like a war which is fought in the mind of consumers. They advocate that the marketer should perceive each consumer to mentally have a product ladder. The customer often knows brands in the form of this ladder. There is a brand on the top of the ladder (brand leader) and there are others that occupy the second and the third step in this ladder .Sometimes the top slot may be vacant and at other times there may be two or three brands vying for this pr4estigious slot in the customer’s mind .The rush for the top slot is understandable as people remember number one.

Advertising Decisions

Advertising Decisions

Advertising objectives

The starting point in any planning exercise is one of setting the goals or objectives .In evolving an advertising plan, objectives have to be set as they help in measuring the performance of an advertising campaign .It is important for the strategist, to know how the strategy fared and the only way to know is how far did it go to achieve the objectives. Objectives or goals are also necessary to justify financial resources that are required for an advertisement campaign. The only way to counter skeptics s to state what it would cost to achieve a specific objective ,say a 20% increase in awareness in the target audience.

Objectives are also required for coordination purposes .As we have mentioned earlier ,advertising is just one of the communication tools and to achieve desired marketing objective of sale or market share all elements of communication mix must be coordinated .Each element should have both, a short term and a long term goal.

So ,to be meaningful, advertising objectives have to be measurable and communicated .Measurability is important or else performance cannot be evaluated.

Let us consider a few objectives for advertising.

Sales objectives

Marketing’s prime objective is to increase the firm or brand’s sales, market share and profits .Hence marketing activities have to be directed this goal. By the same logic, the advertising goal should also be to increase sales. This goal gives credibility to advertising expenditures and may even subdue the complaints that 50% of advertising expenditure is a waste of money .But this goal for advertising has a problem. As we mentioned, sales is a function of a firm’s marketing mix, competition activity and consumer behavior Hence ,to attribute increase or decrease in sales to advertising alone is like attributing success or failure in a game of football to just one single player, when it is really a team game. Besides, the effect of advertising on sales is lagged one ,in the sense that an advertisement may continue to have a demand pull even after it has been withdrawn. It is never that sales start and end immediately after the campaign has got off the ground or comes to an end. In other words, the impact of an advertising campaign may not be known for certain until considerable time has passed. According to one of the researches for frequently purchased consumer non-durable products like soft dinks, tea ,coffee toiletries, etc, the effect of an advertising exposure can take upto nine months to get dissipated.

Typically, an advertising campaign mat attract new customers to the brand, or it might help develop more positive attitudes in the target market towards the brand or may even generate trial purchases. All these together will lead to an increase in the brands; sales. Isolating these effects and conclusively show that the advertising campaign has led to an increase in sales is a difficult proposition.

In case of financial instruments advertising or the direct marketing campaign or even individual classified advertisements—the kind one often sees in the print media ,the results are more tangible.
Thus ,but for the above situations ,it is perhaps incorrect to define advertising goals in terms of sales.

Sardar and Cancer

Sardar and Cancer

Santa Singh went to his doctor after a long illness. The doctor, after a lengthy examination, sighed and looked Santa Singh in the eye and said, "I've some bad news for you... you have cancer and it can't be cured. I'd give you two weeks to a month."

Santa Singh, shocked and saddened by the news, but of solid character, managed to compose himself and walk from the doctor's office into the waiting room. There he saw his son who had been waiting. Santa Singh said, "Puttar, we Surds celebrate when things are good and celebrate when things don't go so well. In this case, things aren't so well. I have cancer and I've been given a short time to live. Let's head for the pub and have a few pints." After three or four pints, the two were feeling a little less somber.

There were some laughs and more beers. They were eventually approached by some of Santa Singh's old friends who asked what the two were celebrating. Santa Singh told them that the Surds celebrate the good and the bad. He went on to tell them that they were drinking to his impending end. He told his friends "I've only got few weeks to live as I have been diagnosed with AIDS."

The friends gave Santa Singh their condolences and they had a couple more beers. After his friends left, Santa Singh's son leaned over and whispered his confusion, "Dad, I thought you said that you were dying from cancer? You just told your friends that you were dying from AIDS!"

Santa Singh said, " I am dying from cancer, puttar. I just don't want any of them around your mother after I'm gone."

Developed vs Developing Markets

Developed vs Developing Markets

The needs of the emerging or developing world represent huge potential markets for food, clothing, shelter, consumer electronics, appliances and other goods. Many market leaders are rushing into Eastern Europe, China, and India. Colgate now draws more personal and household products business from Latin America than North America

The developed nations and the prosperous parts of developing parts of developing nations account for less than 15% of the world’s population. Is there a way for marketers to serve the other 85%, which has much less purchasing power? Successfully entering developing markets requires a special set of skills and plans. Consider how the following companies are pioneering ways to serve these invisible consumers:

Grameen Phone markets cell phones to 35,000 villages in Bangladesh by hiring village women as agents who lease phone time to other villagers, one call at a time.

Colgate Palmolive rolls into Indian villages with video vans that show the benefits of tooth-brushing; it expects to earn over half of its Indian revenue from rural areas.

An Indian-Australian car manufacturer created an affordable rural transport vehicle to compete with bullock carts rather than cars. The vehicle functions well at low speeds and carries up to two tons.

Fiat developed a "third-world car," the Palio, that far outsells the Ford Fiesta in Brazil and that will be launched in other developing nations.

Corporacion GEO builds low income housing in Mexico. The two-bedroom homes are modular and can be expanded. The company is now moving into Chile and southern U.S. communities.

A Latin American building supply retailer offers bags of cement in smaller sizes to customers building their own homes.

These marketers are able to capitalize on the potential of developing markets by changing their conventional marketing practices to sell their products and services more effectively. It cannot be business as usual when selling in developing markets. Economic and cultural differences abound; a marketing infrastructure may barely exist; and local competition can be surprisingly stiff. In China, PC maker Legend and mobile phone provider TCL have thrived despite strong foreign competition. Besides their close grasp on Chinese tastes, they also have their vast distribution networks especially in rural areas.

Smaller packaging and lower sales prices are often critical in markets where incomes are limited. Hindustan Unilever’s 4-cent sachets of detergent and shampoo have been a big hit in rural India, where 70% of the country’s population still lives. When Coke moved to a smaller 200ml bottle in India, selling for 10 to 12 cents in small shops, bus-stop stalls, and roadside eateries sales jumped. A western image can also be helpful as Coke discovered in China. Part of its success against local cola brand Jianlibao was due to its symbolic values of modernity and affluence.

Recognizing that its cost structure made it difficult to compete effectively in developing markets, Procter & gamble devised cheaper, clever ways to make the right kinds of products to suit consumer demand. It now uses contract manufacturers in certain markets and gained eight points in Russia for Always feminine protection pads by responding to consumer wishes for a thicker pad. Due to a boom in consumer spending, Russia has been the fastest growing market for many major multinationals including Nestle, L’Oreal, and IKEA.

The challenge is to think creatively about how marketing can fulfill the dreams of most of the world’s population for a better standard of living. Many companies are betting that they can do that.

After launching Buick in China in 1999, GM poured more than $2 billion into the region over the next five years, expanding the lineup to 14 models, ranging from the $8,000 Chevrolet Spark mini car to high-end Cadillacs. Although competition in the third largest car market is fierce, GM was able to secure 11% market share in 2004 and reap sizable profits. But initial gains in the Chinese market do not necessarily spell long term success. After investing to establish the markets, foreign pioneers in television sets and motorcycles saw domestic Chinese firms emerge as rivals. In 1995, virtually all mobile phones in China were made by global giants Nokia, Motorola, and Ericsson. Within 10 years, their market share had dropped to 60%. To secure and build on its gains, General Motors pledged to invest another $3 billion in the region to boost capacity and build its reputation.

Credit Cards

Credit Cards

When applying for a credit card it is always a good idea to know your personal credit score, since this will affect your ability to negotiate beneficial terms for your credit. If your credit score is poor – e.g. due to unpaid bills, a habit of paying your bills to late or an earlier filing for bankruptcy – you will most likely end up with a high interest credit card, if your application is accepted at all. If your credit card score is poor, it is therefore advisable to try to rebuild you credit score.

You might already have received a lot of different credit card offers through the mail, on the Internet or from credit card promoters in malls or on campuses. Simply choosing the credit card company that has the flashiest online commercial or the one that is handing out balloons at your local mall every Saturday may however not be the wisest decision. Always compare several credit card offers before you make up your mind. The credit card that is ideal for you friend might be highly unsuitable for you, your financial situation and your lifestyle. Do not only choose among the credit card companies that shower you in commercials and promotional gift. Instead, you should always contact your bank and ask about their credit card offers for long time customers. By applying for a credit card from a bank that knows your financial history and current economical situation you might be able to negotiate a better deal. This is however not a strict rule, and you should always compare the offer from your bank with offers from other credit card companies.

The credit card application will usually be sent to you by ordinary mail, since you need to sign it. Today, there is also the possibility to apply online or over the phone. Be very careful when you fill in a credit card application, regardless of if it is to be mailed, transmitted online or over the phone. You will share highly personal information in your application and you do not want this information to end up in the wrong hands. There are many examples of dishonest websites gathering personal information from unsuspecting individuals. This information is then used for fraudulent undertakings and can seriously harm your financial situation. In cases of severe identity theft, you could even face charges and it can take a long time to establish that you are in fact innocent and that someone else have been using your name, address, social security number etcetera.

Only fill out credit card applications for credit cards that you actually need. Filling out applications as a “test” or to get some promotional gizmo is unadvisable since each application will be noted on your personal credit record. Having a large amount of different credits can make creditors perceive you as a high risk person. Having a lot of different credit cards is also generally a bad idea, unless you know from experience that you are a very neat and organized person that will keep track of all your different debts regardless of how many credit cards you use. Only use several credit cards if you actually gain something from it.