Differntiate your company strategy

There are several ways to summarize your company’s strategy, but in the same time we should know what is the successful tool or road map to identify the right framework for this strategy? It is our experience that very few executives can honestly answer these simple questions in the affirmative. And the companies that those executives work for are often the most successful in their industry. 

Conversely, companies that don’t have a simple and clear statement of strategy are likely to fall into the sorry category of those that have failed to execute their strategy or, worse, those that never even had one. In an astonishing number of organizations, executives, front line employees, and all those in between are frustrated because no clear strategy exists for the company or its lines of business. The kinds of complaints that abound in such firms include.

• “I don’t know whether I should be pursuing this market opportunity. I get mixed signals from the powers that be.”

• “Why are we bidding on this customer’s business again? We lost it last year, and I thought we agreed then not to waste our time chasing the contract!”

• “Should I cut the price for this customer? I don’t know if we would be better off winning the deal at a lower price or just losing the business.”

For instance, if you are planning to enter the restaurant business, will you provide sit-down or quick service ( just take away)? Also we you should know what type of food will you offer—Arabic, French or Italian? If you are living in Dubai for example you should keep in mind what geographic area will you serve? Alone, these two aspects of strategy are insufficient. 

You could go into business tomorrow with the goal of becoming the world’s largest cafe chain within 6 years. But will anyone invest in your company if you have not explained how you are going to reach your objective? Your competitive advantage is the essence of your strategy: What your business will do differently from or better than others defines the all-important means by which you will achieve your stated objective. 

Therefore, drawing a clear sketch about your business strategy in terms of basic framework (customer, company and competition) is considered a key role in build a your future business pathway.

Written by Yasser Al Mimar ..

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Promotion and Marketing Buisness

There are two different meanings of "promotion" in marketing:

1. In the marketing mix 4P's, promotion refers to any form of marketing communications.
2. Promotion also refers to discounts and other special offers to increase sales.

Nowadays, there are many forms of promotional media. Some marketers also refer to them as "touch points," since they are every place where people encounter your brand. Here I'll describe a few in a Western context (which I know best). Effectiveness and popularity of these media — and even how they are used — vary from country to country, even neighborhood by neighborhood. In addition, what works for one industry or brand may not work for other industries and brands. This is simply to provide you with an idea of the options; it's imperative that you adapt the medium to what works best for your brand, your stakeholders, and your goals.

 I. Traditional Media

Most people are familiar with these options, which are mostly used for basic advertising.

• Television: Generally the most expensive medium, not only to buy, but also to produce.The advantage of television is that it still provides the largest possible audience condensed in a short time frame, so it is ideal if you need to create a high level of awareness and reach specific goals by a certain deadline. Ad agencies love TV commercials because they provide a lot of opportunities for creativity, and because they get a percentage of the media cost.
  
  
• Radio: This is a classic medium, but it's critical to understand how your customers are using it before you advertise on it. For example, this is a good way to reach drivers, though not if you expect them to act immediately (such as making a phone call or writing something down).
  
  
• Print: Newspapers and magazines are declining in popularity, but they still reach an educated audience, some of whom actually enjoy reading the ads. They are ideal if you have a lot to say, and you want a more targeted readership (particularly business-to-business). You can also include forms and coupons in print ads.
  
  
• Outdoor: This includes billboards, bus stops, posters and other out-of-home advertising. The purpose of outdoor advertising is to create awareness, because you usually do not have the time or space in outdoor media to communicate a lot of words. The effectiveness of outdoor advertising is also very difficult to measure. Some governments restrict outdoor advertising as "visual pollution."
  
  
• Promotional Literature: This includes brochures, business cards, and other printed materials. These may be referred to as "collateral."

 II. New Media

Considering that the first websites are nearly 20 years old, it's odd to refer to many of these media as "new." Some marketers prefer to call these options "digital media." There's a lot of excitement about new media, since consumers are spending a lot of time online, and the media are relatively inexpensive to produce. However, doing new media properly often requires a large investment of time, talent, even money. I'll introduce the most popular forms here, and will discuss social media more next week.

• Websites: A website can serve as promotion, place and even product. (Consider my website UAEMD website that a lot of people are using now.) Creating a website is easier and more affordable than ever, though some complex websites can still require millions of dollars and several months of high-skilled labor. The challenge with websites is that, even though they serve as a promotion, they usually need to be promoted themselves. You can't just build it and expect customers to find it.
  
  
• Search Engine Optimization: This is an ongoing practice to make your website more easily found and highly ranked by Google and other search engines. Since Google and other search engines keep their algorithms (the computational formulas they use) secret, SEO experts conduct a lot of experimentation to see what works. In addition, Google changes its algorithm continuously to ensure that the most useful sites rise to the top, and to prevent spammers from gaming the system. To successfully execute SEO, you need to continuously research what words and phrases (called "keywords") are being used by your potential customers and to include those keywords on your site; to make sure that your site is user-friendly, so that visitors spend a lot of time and visit a lot of pages on it; and most importantly, to entice other websites to link to you. Google evaluates the number of sites that link to you, and the "authority" (size and importance) of those sites. The number and value of those links affects how they rank your website.
  
  
• Search Engine Marketing: You can also buy ads on search engines, which usually appear at the top and down the right hand side of search results. These ads are also based on keywords. Marketers usually pay per click (PPC) for these ads.
  
  
• Banner Advertising: These are the small online ads you're familiar with. If you click them, they will take you to a destination site. Marketers can pay per click (PPC) or pay per 1000 views (CPM - the M stands for "mille"). The click-through rate on most banners ads is abysmally low — less than 0.5% — so the PPC rates are increasing while CPM rates are decreasing. Most consumers don't even notice banner ads anymore, and software exists to block them.
  
  
• E-mail Marketing: Nearly as old as the Internet itself, e-mail marketing has actually become more difficult as countries pass laws to block spam. (And, yet, we seem to get as much spam as ever.) A more legal and effective form of e-mail marketing is the e-newsletter, which enables the marketer to maintain touch with past and current customers, while providing news and offers.
  
  
• Videos: Videos will soon be as popular as photos on the Internet. They're more effective than banner ads in attracting attention and getting people to spend more time (what marketers refer to as "engagement"). However, the competition to get views on YouTube and other popular video sites is incredibly intensive, and often requires both a high level of creativity and the marketer to promote the video itself. Yes, your marketing needs to be marketed! Note: do not call these videos "viral videos" until they have gone viral, which most don't.
  
  
• Social Networks: You're probably familiar with social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, whose primary purpose is to help people build relationships with each other. Marketers can buy different forms of advertising on these sites. They can also create their own corporate profiles and try to build relationships with potential customers and provide service to current customers. The greatest marketing value of social networks is the opportunity to learn more about customers and, particularly, "influencers" who are popular and authoritative.
  
  
• Mobile: Marketing on smartphones is perhaps the fastest growing promotional category, since there are many more phones in use than computers, and people take their phones with them everywhere. Mobile marketing can take the form of basic on-screen advertising; dedicated websites; text (SMS) ads; location-based marketing (the marketer knows the user's GPS location, or the user registers that she is at a certain location, and therefore she receives a customized message or offer); apps; and other opportunities just now being created.

Written By Yasser Al Mimar ..

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ROI and Business Profit

Return on Investment (ROI) is arguably one of the most important tools, and ROI analysis (when applied correctly) is a powerful technique in making informed decisions.  However, we need to know what precisely is a return first in order to get the clear picture?  Firstly, I would say ROI analysis is a powerful tool for measuring the net financial benefits of an investment and is commonly used by business-oriented organization when evaluating where to spend their resources.

For instance, in the stock market it should has two components: the market value of the asset and the cash flow from it.  The two are intertwined; for example, an older bond with a coupon higher than would be offered by a similar bond today will see its market price go up.  

In fact, there are quite precise calculations to show this effect.  Nevertheless, if you hold a share or bond to maturity, you know what its value will be at maturity; it will be the par value and it is that which you will get back.  

Likewise, a share offering a good dividend will be valued, under normal circumstances, more than a share generating as much profit, but not distributing that profit partly by dividend.  It must be admitted, however, that some hi-tech companies even boast that they do not distribute dividend as there is so much potential for company growth in the future.

In the project ROI is a project’s net output (cost savings and/or new revenue that results from a project less the total project costs), divided by the project’s total inputs (total costs), and expressed as a percentage. The inputs are all of the project costs such as software, license, maintenance, programmers’ time, hardware, services and  training. Therefore if a project has an ROI of 100%, from this definition the cash benefits out of the project will be twice as great as the original investment. 

So apart of the bonds or stocks as individual investment, if we need to address the ROL to company or organization.  We need to answer this question; Should a manager invest a company’s money in an e-business project if it has a projected ROI of 100%? 

• The answer is: There are many factors one should consider when making an investment decision. These factors include, but are not limited to those listed below:
• The assumptions underlying the costs of the project
• The assumptions underlying the potential benefits
• The ability to measure and quantify the costs and benefits
• The risk that the project will not be completed on time and on budget and will not deliver the expected benefits
• The strategic context of the firm; that is, does the project fit with the corporate strategy?

Written by Yasser Al Mimar

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