Areas of marketing specialization

• agricultural marketing
• advertising and branding
• communications
• database marketing
• professional selling
• direct marketing
• event organization
• experiential marketing
• field marketing
• global marketing
• guerilla marketing
• international marketing
• internet marketing
• industrial marketing
• market research
• marketing strategy
• marketing plan
• political marketing
• product marketing
• proximity marketing
• public marketing
• public relations
• retailing
• search engine marketing
• social media marketing
• strategic management
• wholesale marketing

Marketing communications

Marketing communications breaks down the strategies involved with marketing messages into categories based on the goals of each message. There are distinct stages in converting strangers to customers that govern the communication medium that should be used.

Advertising

• Paid form of public presentation and expressive promotion of ideas
• Aimed at masses
• Manufacturer may determine what goes into advertisement
• Pervasive and impersonal medium

Functions and advantages of successful advertising

• Task of the salesman made easier

Objectives

• Maintain demand for well-known goods
• Introduce new and unknown goods
• Increase demand for well-known goods/products/services
• Create Awareness

Requirements of a good advertisement

• Attract attention (awareness)
• Stimulate interest
• Create a desire
• Bring about action

Eight steps in an advertising campaign

• Market research
• Setting out aims
• Budgeting
• Choice of media (television, newspaper/magazines, radio, web, outdoor)
• Choice of actors (New Trend)
• Design and wording
• Co-ordination
• Test results

Personal sales

Oral presentation given by a salesperson who approaches individuals or a group of potential customers:

• Live, interactive relationship
• Personal interest
• Attention and response
• Interesting presentation

Sales promotion

Short-term incentives to encourage buying of products:

• Instant appeal
• Anxiety to sell

An example is coupons or a sale. People are given an incentive to buy, but this does not build customer loyalty or encourage future repeat buys. A major drawback of sales promotion is that it is easily copied by competition. It cannot be used as a sustainable source of differentiation.

Marketing Public Relations (MPR)

• Stimulation of demand through press release giving a favourable report to a product
• Higher degree of credibility
• Effectively news
• Boosts enterprise's image

Basics of Stock Exchanges and Stock Market Trading

Stock Trading

The phrase Stock Trading is commonly used to encompass both the physical location for buying and selling (trading) stocks as well as the overall activity of the market within a certain country. When we hear an expression such as the stock market was down today it refers to the combined stock trading activity of many stock exchanges i.e. the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Nasdaq etc. in the United States.

Stock Exchange is the term for the physical location where the actual activity of stock trading/share trading or investing in stocks takes place. Most countries have many different stock exchanges and usually a particular company's stocks are traded on only one exchange, although large corporations may be listed in several different locations.

Stock Exchanges

Stock exchanges exist throughout the world. It is possible to buy or sell stocks on any of them by having trading accounts with the various stock brokers. You can also get stock trading information from these exchanges. The only restriction is the opening hours of each exchange. For example, NYSE and NASDAQ allow stock trading operations from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time from Monday to Friday. Other exchanges have similar opening hours based on their local time. If you want to trade on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange your order will be executed sometime between 9:30 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. New York time.

The major stock exchanges of the world are located in Japan (Tokyo Stock Exchange), India (Bombay Stock Exchange), Europe (London Stock Exchange, Frankfurt Stock Exchange, SWX Swiss Exchange), the People's Republic of China (Shanghai Stock Exchange) and the United States. The major exchanges in the US are the NYSE, NASDAQ, and Amex.

By providing a centralized, ready market for the exchange of securities, stock exchanges greatly facilitate the financing of business through flotation of stocks and bonds. However, speculative stock trading can sometimes accentuate the instability of an economy. The reality of the Great Depression was emphasized by the stock market crash in 1929. The interstate sale of securities and certain stock exchange practices in the United States are regulated by federal laws administered by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Stock trading closely follows the economy of a country. When the economy is doing well, the market is bullish. Bull markets occur during times of high economic production, low unemployment and low inflation. Bear markets, on the other hand, follow downtrends in the economy. When inflation and unemployment see an upturn, stock prices start falling. Hence, to keep investments safe, savvy investors track various economic indices, and stock market trends.

Fluctuations in stock prices are also driven by supply and demand, which in turn are determined to a large extent on investor psychology. Seeing a stock rise in price may cause investors to jump on the bandwagon and this rush to buy drives the price even faster. A falling price can have the same effect. These are short term fluctuations. Stock prices tend to normalize after such runs. Hence, to predict possible upturns or downturns in the stock markets, it becomes imperative to track and analyze stock trading information.

The stock exchange is only one of many opportunities to invest. Other popular markets include the Foreign Exchange Market (FOREX), the Futures Market, and the Options Market.

Foreign Exchange Market

The FOREX is the biggest (in terms of value of trades) investment market in the world. FOREX traders buy one currency against another and can profit from small changes in value. Most FOREX trades are entered and exited in one 24 hour span, and traders have to keep a close watch on the market in order to make profitable trades.

Futures & Options

The Futures Market is a market of contracts to buy and sell goods at specified prices and times. It exists because buyers and sellers of goods wish to lock in prices for future delivery, but market conditions can make the actual futures contract fluctuate considerably in value. Most investors in the futures market are not interested in the actual goods - only in the profit that can be realized in trading the contracts.

The Options Market is similar to the Futures Market in that an option is a contract that gives you the right (but not the obligation) to trade a stock at a certain price before a specified date. They can be traded on their own or purchased as a form of insurance against price fluctuations within a certain time frame.

All three of these markets are quite risky and require considerable knowledge and experience to prevent substantial losses. They also require close attention to market movements. Stock Investments, on the other hand, are less risky because movements of the market are usually gradual. Although short term investment strategies are possible, most view stocks as long term investments. But whatever your financial objectives may be, try to use a stock trading system. This will help you in maximizing your profits and keeping your investments safer.

The Most Important Marketing Principles of All Time

As you have probably experienced there is a lot of hype in the business and marketing world. New concepts, revolutionary methods and the like land in our in boxes every day. But I’m going to confirm something you probably already know - the fundamentals of marketing haven’t changed for decades. Here’s my summary of the marketing principles that have stood the test of time.

1. Know your customer. Know their wants and desires.

2. Offer the customer more benefits from your product or service than they would get by keeping their wallet closed, or shopping with the competition.

3. Have a unique selling proposition for your business. For example Federal Express Couriers ‘Absolutely, positively overnight’.

4. Always have your marketing communicate WIIFM (What’s in your product/service for me the customer).

5. Give your customers both emotional and rational reasons to buy from you.

6. Thank your customers for their business.

7. The customer is always right. In their mind they are. You better deal with this effectively because it will gain or lose business for you.

8. Loyal customers are a businesses greatest asset.

9. Customers are looking to reduce risk when they buy. The least risky option is generally the one they will take, even
if this means no purchase at all.

10. The latest, hottest thing in marketing is unlikely to be all it’s cracked up to be!!

Good Marketing Tips

For any of our readers who have been following the Good Marketing Tips, you know that this site was created to provide objective reviews of online marketing tools and resources. I have found literally hundreds of marketing related tools to improve my business. But there are only a few that I use on a daily basis.

I'd like to start posting info on these tools more frequently as this blog evolves. Although I may recommend pay-for products and services in addition to free ones, I'll only do so if I've used the product myself. Also, I'm very interested in your comments regarding marketing products you've tried. Simply comment on any of the products I discuss on this blog so that the marketing community can benefit.

Today, I'd like to talk about a simple tool that is so easy to us, and free, that you have to check it out. That tool is Quantcast. Quantcast.com is a website that gives you a really good understanding of your competitors website(s). For example, let's look at this result for a random website.

Quantcast shows me their traffic information as well as demographics. Check out this demographics snapshot that shows me what types of people are using there site! It's a great way to understand your audience and the audience of your competitors.

This tool is a great place to start for your marketing related activities such as research and even creating new client campaigns. As you explore the tool, you will find that the information is really helpful.

Give it a try and let me know if you find this web traffic tool helpful. I used it quite often and find that it provides info that just isn't available anywhere else.

Trading System?

Beginning traders and investors to some seasoned investors are constantly asking us “What exactly is a system?” The purpose of this article will be to give you that information as clearly as possible. First, we’ll go through some background information to help you understand what a system is outside of the context of trading. You’ll learn how different people relate to systems according to how they relate to money. The second part of this article will focus on clearly defining what a trading system is. The third part of this article will focus on the broader picture of your system—your trading plan. Finally, we’ll focus on some key elements in system development.

Business Systems

In Robert Kiyosaki’s book, Cash-Flow Quadrant, he distinguishes two types of people who work for money and two types of people who have money working for them. In each case, one of the major distinguishing characteristics is how they deal with systems.

First, let’s look at the idea of business systems. McDonald’s, as a major franchise, is basically a large set of systems that one buys. In fact, a person who buys a McDonald’s franchise must go to Hamburger University for about six months (I believe that’s the length of it) to learn the systems for operating the franchise. There are systems for food delivery, preparing food, greeting customers, serving them within a minute, cleanup, etc. And all of these systems can easily be carried out by a manager who has a college degree and employees who might even be high school dropouts. In other words, a system is something that is repeatable, simple enough to be run by a 16 year old who might not be that bright, and works well enough to keep many people returning as customers.

Now, knowing that definition of a system, let’s look at how people in the four cash flow quadrants relate to systems.

The Employee: Employees are basically motivated by security. They have a job and they do their work to get money. Employees basically run the systems. They don’t necessarily know that they are running a system, but that is their function. For example, one employee at McDonald’s will greet customers and take their order. This employee is basically running the “customer-greeting” system.

Most employees do not understand systems. Instead, they just know what their job is. And this is typical of employees who become traders or employees who work as traders. They typically ask questions such as “What stocks should I buy?” “What is the market going to do?” Or “How do I go about doing this?” We see it all the time in the questions we get. For example, a gentleman just called into CNBC, as I’m writing this, and asked the guest, “What direction do you think the market may go with respect to 'the war' and how might one profit from it?” These are typically employee questions. And they amount to saying, “I don’t really understand anything, please tell me what to do!” The financial media thrives by answering the questions of the employee investor/trader.

The Self-Employed Person: The self-employed person is basically motivated by control and doing it right. Notice that I have often talked about how these motivations constitute some of the biases that most traders have—the need to be right and the need to control the markets. The self-employed person is the entire system. They are basically running on a treadmill only they don’t know it. And the more they work, the more tired they get.

Like the employee, the self-employed are working for money. However, they like it a little better, because they are in charge. They think working harder will make them more money—and to a certain extent it does. But mostly, working harder gets them tired. Nevertheless, they continue to plough forward thinking that they are the only ones who can do it right.

As I said earlier, the self-employed person basically is the system. And quite often they cannot see the system because they are so much a part of it. They are stuck in all the details. In addition, they have a strong tendency to want to “complexify” things. They are always looking for perfectionism and they believe that the perfect system must be complex. They are always asking, “What will make my system perfect?”

A lot of people come into trading from the self-employed mentality—doctors, dentists, and other professionals who had their own small business in which they were basically all of the systems in one. This is all they tend to know and they approach trading the same way. They keep adding complexity “until it works,” even though this strategy seldom works. The self-employed person would be likely to have a discretionary system that is constantly being changed.

Industry trade policy

The Office of Trade Policy Analysis (OTPA) serves as the International Trade Administration’s principal advisor on trade policy issues affecting the competitive position of multiple U.S. industries while also representing the Manufacturing and Services division in key international trade negotiations and policy initiatives. In this capacity, OTPA utilizes complex economic and trade policy analyses to help ensure that the national economic interest of U.S. industry is fully represented in deliberations and negotiations where national or international policies impacting domestic industries are being developed and/or debated.

This site makes available a variety of reports, analyses and resources to assist you in following and interpreting trade policy developments affecting U.S. industry competitiveness.

Many SMEs Stand to Profit from Future Global Trade Negotiations

The Commerce Department's Exporter Database (EDB) reveals that in 2003 the total number of U.S. firms exporting goods stood at 225,190—almost double the 112,854 firms that exported in 1992. The EDB captures companies exporting merchandise, but not firms that export only services.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (companies with fewer than 500 workers) would be among the major beneficiaries of U.S. initiatives to reduce foreign barriers to U.S. exports. A total of 218,382 SMEs exported from the United States in 2003, accounting for 97 percent of all U.S. exporters. This is up slightly from the 96 percent share registered in 1992.

Very small companies—i.e., those with fewer than 20 employees—made up 69 percent (more than two-thirds) of all U.S. exporting firms in 2003. This is up significantly from 1992, when 59 percent of all exporters employed fewer than 20 people. This includes firms where the number of employees is unknown.

SMEs accounted for over 98 percent of the 1992-2003 growth in the exporter population. The number of SMEs that export merchandise soared from 108,026 in 1992 to 218,382 in 2003.

The SME share of U.S. merchandise exports has recently hovered around

Many SMEs Stand to Profit from Future Global Trade Negotiations

The Commerce Department's Exporter Database (EDB) reveals that in 2003 the total number of U.S. firms exporting goods stood at 225,190—almost double the 112,854 firms that exported in 1992. The EDB captures companies exporting merchandise, but not firms that export only services.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (companies with fewer than 500 workers) would be among the major beneficiaries of U.S. initiatives to reduce foreign barriers to U.S. exports. A total of 218,382 SMEs exported from the United States in 2003, accounting for 97 percent of all U.S. exporters. This is up slightly from the 96 percent share registered in 1992.

Very small companies—i.e., those with fewer than 20 employees—made up 69 percent (more than two-thirds) of all U.S. exporting firms in 2003. This is up significantly from 1992, when 59 percent of all exporters employed fewer than 20 people. This includes firms where the number of employees is unknown.

SMEs accounted for over 98 percent of the 1992-2003 growth in the exporter population. The number of SMEs that export merchandise soared from 108,026 in 1992 to 218,382 in 2003.

The SME share of U.S. merchandise exports has recently hovered around

SMEs Stand to Profit from Future Global Trade Negotiations

The Commerce Department's Exporter Database (EDB) reveals that in 2003 the total number of U.S. firms exporting goods stood at 225,190—almost double the 112,854 firms that exported in 1992. The EDB captures companies exporting merchandise, but not firms that export only services.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (companies with fewer than 500 workers) would be among the major beneficiaries of U.S. initiatives to reduce foreign barriers to U.S. exports. A total of 218,382 SMEs exported from the United States in 2003, accounting for 97 percent of all U.S. exporters. This is up slightly from the 96 percent share registered in 1992.

Very small companies—i.e., those with fewer than 20 employees—made up 69 percent (more than two-thirds) of all U.S. exporting firms in 2003. This is up significantly from 1992, when 59 percent of all exporters employed fewer than 20 people. This includes firms where the number of employees is unknown.

SMEs accounted for over 98 percent of the 1992-2003 growth in the exporter population. The number of SMEs that export merchandise soared from 108,026 in 1992 to 218,382 in 2003.

The SME share of U.S. merchandise exports has recently hovered around

Returns on investments in Indian market

There are very important benefits of Delivery based trading
¨ Hold as long as you want
If you buy shares and if it goes down, then you can hold them and sell them only when your shares go above your buy price.
¨ Loan
Nowadays some banks and some financial firms provide loans on your shares. So you can utilize your shares in your bad times.
¨ Dividend (very important)
If companies make good profit, then they may declare dividend per share. If you hold shares of such companies then you may get
dividend per share.
¨ Good returns
Nowadays if you keep your money in banks then you get maximum 9% or 9.5% per year. If you invest in shares of good growing
companies then you can earn minimum 15% returns per year. Some companies give 30 to 40% returns per year.
Best share market returns are based on delivery based trading for long term.
¨ Bonus share
If company makes extra ordinary profit then company may declare bonus shares. Bonus share like 1:1 means if you have one share
then you may get another free.
So if you have delivery of such shares then you are liable for such bonus shares.

Investment for long term trading

Taking delivery of shares during Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 results is very common among investors/traders who knew the historical
performance and current market situation of those particular companies or sector, so study historical yearly profits and sales ratios
of top companies and buy shares of those companies.
Some weeks before, their quarterly results and after declaring their huge growth in quarterly results, obviously share price will shoot
up then you may sell your shares and make handsome profit in very few weeks.
¨ If you hold bit longer, then you may also get benefited of dividend. If companies make outstanding profit then they may declare
dividend.
For more guidance or advice on trading on new

Tips for investment based trading

Please study following points, carefully, and get best returns in short period of time.
Basically, Delivery based trading can be minimum one week, one month or couple of months. How long to hold your scrip’s/shares will depend on other technical indicators and averages.

How to select best scrip’s

There are thousands of shares/stocks, which one is best for delivery trading and which one will give maximum profit in short period of time. Please have a look following selection criteria points.
Points to remember for fundamental screening,
1. Sector - 50% of stocks rise and fall is directly related to the strengths and
weakness of its industry group.
2. Never lose more than 1-2% of your total amount on any one trade.
3. Promoters holding more than 40% indicate safety for retail investors.
(Promo)
4. FII holding minimum 20 and maximum 25 is safe for retailer, not much volatility.
More FII investment = more volatility.
5. Liquidity - buying and selling of shares minimum 1L/day

Delivery based trading

Delivery based trading means buying shares and holding them for certain period of time is called delivery based trading.
The shares you bought will be in your demat account.
Once you take delivery of shares you can hold them as long as you want. To take delivery of shares, you must have sufficient funds in your account. You don’t get any margin to buy shares in delivery.
If you have Rs.5000 means you can buy shares worth of Rs.5000 and not more than this.

Day trading

Buying and selling of shares on daily basis is called day trading this is also called as Intra day trading. Whatever you buy today you have to sell it today OR whatever you sell today you have to buy it today and very importantly during market hours that is 9.55 am to 3.30 pm (Indian time).

Resources for day trading in india

Read financial newspaper like Business Standard, Economics Times, etc. If possible note down the high lights/breaking news with respective
company names and keep close watch on them for that day.
¨ If possible watch share (stock) market related TV channels like Zee Business, CNBC, etc. In these TV channels you get over all idea/movements
of all share prices and markets (BSE, NSE). And also it becomes easy to catch and keep close watch on related companies if any breaking
news comes out during that day.
¨ Especially some share market related websites always displays current news, market affairs, share market trends, breaking news and various
announcement done by company or government which may effect the share market and related companies. So try to access and have all ok on
such types of websites before starting trading and also through out the day, if possible.
For latest market news, latest stock updates on day to day basis and also latest share market updates which may affect your shares

Guide for day trading daily profit

¨ Don’t jump in trend early - Wait and get paper confirmation of trend change, and then plan and do your trades (buy/sell). Don’t jump in or do
early trades before any trade change confirmation this may damage your capital (bank balance).
¨ Don’t wait in trade for long time - Suppose that you had done one trade (either buy or sell) but the scrip is not moving either up or down, it is
just stable or moving with very low price difference, then you should get out of that trade and look for other scrip’s. You may encounter these
type of situations when indices (NSE or BSE) and not moving (or moving with narrow range). At such time either you wait or come out of trade,
don’t loose patience and fall under loss.
¨ Don’t change your trend on volume volatility - Some time you enter in trade by seeing the buy and sell quantities. For example, suppose you
brought shares by seeing more buy quantity then sell quantity, expecting more buy quantity may push the share/stock up but after few
minutes you see exactly reverse that you see more sell quantity and less buy quantity or both buy and sell high quantity or the difference of
buying and selling quantity is decreased as compared to what you had seen before. So this point is very important, don’t panic here and sell
off your stock, wait and realize the situation properly and then take action. This situation comes many times but if you are sure that your share
is going to move up then stick to it.
¨ Beware of companies’ acquisition or any announcement by Government - Suppose in the morning, before market begins, you should read or
viewed the news of any Indian Company has acquired any foreign company (or part of foreign company) if you see this is actually best
news/things that Indian company. But if acquisition amount is far more than expectation then this good news will turn into worst news. The
shares of that company will start falling. So you should not get in trade and buy shares you have to wait and watch how market or other people
are responding to these shares and once you understand then you can trade. So always watch where the market heading towards and then
react.
Announcement of Government - You should also be very careful to decide your trade based on any government announcement.
For example, if government has declared any hike in interest rate then its good news for bank stocks and hence the shares will rise but if
government has declared 2nd rate hike in very less span of time as company to first one ( stay within duration of one, two month or three
month) then this news will be worse for bank stocks, the share may keeping fall during the trading period. So realize and analyze the news
and finally watch market behavior and this fall or do trade you will get success.

Day trading tools

A successful day trader or share market trading requires couple of disciplines and following trading requirements -
¨ PC with internet - If you need to do trading yourself then you need to have a PC or else you can do trading in internet café also. A PC
with good internet connection speed. The internet connection should not be slow or should not face any other problem especially in
Day Trading.
¨ Online Trading Account (Demat Account) - You need to open online share trading account with any of the available banks or online
brokers.
If you want to know more about demat account then please go to and check in

Advantages of day trading

In Day trading you get margin on your balance amount means you get more leverages (amount) on your available balance amount to
do day trading this concept is called margin trading. Margin trading is only possible in day trading and not in delivery trading. How much
extra amount (margin) you are going to get that totally depends on your broker, or your online trading system brokers.
Some broker provides 3, 4, 5, and 6 times extra margin.
If you do margin trading then you have to square off your open trades on the same day (means if you bought shares then you have to
sell and if you sold shares then you have to buy)before market time (that is 3:30 PM) finishes.
¨ Second important advantage is that you have to pay is less brokerage (commissions) on day trading (Intraday) as compared to delivery
trading. This brokerage again depends from broker to broker (or on your online trading system).
¨ In day trading you can sell and then buy this is called short sell which you cant do in delivery trading. You can sell shares when
prices are falling and then buy when price falls further.