CULTURE AND THE BUSINESS.

CULTURE  AND THE BUSINESS.

Culture is a phenomenon that every business company must understand; this is because people will always be persuaded to purchase if they see the product or services comprises the operation of their lives. Therefore before doing the business it is better to do the environmental scanning to the place that you want to conduct the business such by looking on values, myths, believes so as the product you want to sell will not affect their operation of their lives.

Therefore as the marketers we have to understand that culture is what drives our business. Therefore, for the business to get profit we have look on the culture of the people that we want to do the business so as they may purchase, if we won’t do that we may conduct the business to the people where our product go against their culture which may lead the company to get lose.

Virtual culture

Virtual means the quality of affecting something without actually being that something and the concept Culture can be defined as the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving. Culture is the communication and communication is culture, it is the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of people.

Virtual culture as the culture that has emerged or is emerged from the use of computer networks for communication, entertainment and business. It is also the study of various social phenomena associated with the internet and other new forms of network communication such as online communities, online multi player gaming and text messaging. ( Jones. S. 1997)

Therefore in simple understanding Virtual culture can be referred as the culture which emerged or introduced because of the development of digital age/ new media/ uniformities age whereby now people of the certain society or world interact through social media such as Skype, twitter, Facebook, email, world wide web (w.w.w) and whatsapp.

Within virtual culture there is a certain society formed which known as a virtual community. Virtual community is a social aggregation that emerges from the Net when enough people carry on public discussion long enough with sufficient human feeling to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace (Gibson, 2003). In other words the term Virtual Community can be expressed as the group of people who may not meet one another face to face and who exchange worlds and ideas through the mediation of computer bulletin boards and networks.

Howards. R. (1993) argued that, in a cyberspace people always chat, argue, engage in intellectual discourse, and perform acts of commerce, exchange knowledge, share emotional support, make plans and brainstorm. All of these issues are done by people when they get together and they do it with words on computer screens, through the communication people built communities where by identities commingle and interact electronically.

In the virtual community there is the formation of cyberspace whereby it’s defined as the electronic medium of computer networks in which online communication takes place. 

........By Faith Gabriella.

Steps to effective marketing communication

The following are the steps to effective marketing communication;

Identify the target audience: like all marketing programs, marketing communication should begin with a specific audience in mind. Who is the intended recipient of a company’s messages? Who marketers target will dictate what is said, how is said, when it is said, and where it is said.

Establish goals and objectives: effective marketing communications also begin with the end in mind. What does the company want to achieve with its communication efforts? More specifically, how does it want its audience to respond?

Develop a compelling message: once marketers have identified its target and other objectives, they must then design a provocative message that draws attention, piques interest and spurs action. An effective message will include what a company will say, how it will say it, how it will be formatted, and who will deliver it.

Select communications channels: marketers can select from five communication tactics to deliver its message: Advertising, PR, Direct marketing, Sales promotion, and Personal selling. Some of these channels are personal i.e. emails, others are not i.e. paid media. Marketers must choose the most efficient channels of communication to deliver its message.

Determine how much to spend; most marketing organization do not have carte Blanche when it comes to marketing spend. Given that, marketers must determine how much of its budget to allocate towards marketing communications. This decision can be based on how much it can afford, a percentage of sales, or even a competitor’s spending on communication.

Decide on a marketing communication mix: depending on the market and target audience, some communications channels can be more effective than others. Marketers must find the most efficient combination of channels i.e. the marketing communication mix necessary to achieve its goals and objective.

Measure and optimize: like all marketing programs, an effective marketing communications program should be designed as a continuous improvement process. Marketers should regularly measure the effectiveness of its marketing communications mix (message recall, message frequency), and make changes as needed.  

Budget promotional.

Promotional budgets these are created to anticipate the essential costs associated with growing a business or maintaining a brand name. Also it can be defined as a specified amount of money set aside to promote a businesses or organization's products or beliefs. This budget is often set according to a percentage of sales or profits in order to maintain the intended growth rate.

One of the most difficult jobs to the organization in each year is budgeting. It's a function that requires you to predict what you'll need, what it will cost and what will be the rewards. When the organization thinks about the promotional budget it should think on the following "how much?" what are the various methods for setting promotional budget. There are different ways which has to be established on a promotional budget.

Promotion budgeting methods has been classified into six categories

·         Percentage method,

·         Goal-and-task method

·         What’s-in-my-wallet method

·         Based-on-my-competitor method,

·         Co-op only method,

·          Zero method.

Percentage Method; this approach is the most common for organizations, this method involves setting a budget by percentage of sales, sales goals. . This method bodes well for creating a comprehensive annual plan.

The percentage used can be derived from your company’s past performance and/or industry standards. This approach is usually the best option for most organizations because the goal is tied directly to increasing revenue.

Goal-and-Task Method (in-my-Wallet Method); this method is common with long-term objectives like increasing market-share or increasing brand name top-of-mind-awareness. This approach is developed by defining specific goals, determining the tasks needed to achieve these goals and then estimating the costs of performing these tasks what’s in-my-Wallet Method.

This method involves planning marketing promotions month-to-month by “what’s available” rather than by “what’s the sales goal.” This approach may hold back revenue opportunities because of the lack of planning. This method is common because some companies look at marketing promotion as an expense rather than as an investment.

Based-on-my-Competitor Method; this method is based on a strategy to invest less, the same or more than a competitor. A company using this method may be at a disadvantage because they are at the mercy of their competition’s spending patterns rather than their own goals.

Co-op Only Method; this planning method involves limiting a budget to just the manufacturer’s cooperative (co-op) advertising support dollars. This may cause a disadvantage because the business using the co-op is limited by the manufacturer’s creative message strategy and available co-op funds.

Zero Method; this method involves keeping the marketing investment as close to zero as possible. Sometimes, this method is regretted, especially when the going out of business advertising works well to move inventory.

Whatever budgeting method for marketing promotions you choose for your organization, make sure to budget “time” to develop a comprehensive written plan to keep all parties involved on track.

........................ BY SYEKEYE MATHAYO M..........................