Overview on E-commerce

E-Commerce or Electronics Commerce is a methodology of modern business, which

addresses the need of business organizations, vendors and customers to reduce cost
and improve the quality of goods and services while increasing the speed of delivery.
Ecommerce refers to the paperless exchange of business information using the
following ways −

 Electronic Data Exchange (EDI)

 Electronic Mail (e-mail)
 Electronic Bulletin Boards
 Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT)
 Other Network-based technologies

Features
E-Commerce provides the following features −
 Non-Cash Payment − E-Commerce enables the use of credit cards, debit cards, smart
cards, electronic fund transfer via bank's website, and other modes of electronics
payment.
 24x7 Service availability − E-commerce automates the business of enterprises and the
way they provide services to their customers. It is available anytime, anywhere.
 Advertising / Marketing − E-commerce increases the reach of advertising of products
and services of businesses. It helps in better marketing management of
products/services.
 Improved Sales − Using e-commerce, orders for the products can be generated anytime,
anywhere without any human intervention. It gives a big boost to existing sales volumes.
 Support − E-commerce provides various ways to provide pre-sales and post-sales
assistance to provide better services to customers.
 Inventory Management − E-commerce automates inventory management. Reports get
generated instantly when required. Product inventory management becomes very
efficient and easy to maintain.
 Communication improvement − E-commerce provides ways for faster, efficient, reliable
communication with customers and partners.
Traditional Commerce v/s E-Commerce
Sr. Traditional Commerce E-Commerce
No.

1 Heavy dependency on information Information sharing is made easy via electronic

exchange from person to person. communication channels making little
dependency on person to person information
exchange.

2 Communication/ transaction are done Communication or transaction can be done in

in synchronous way. Manual asynchronous way. Electronics system
intervention is required for each automatically handles when to pass
communication or transaction. communication to required person or do the
transactions.

3 It is difficult to establish and maintain A uniform strategy can be easily established

standard practices in traditional and maintain in e-commerce.
commerce.

4 Communications of business depends In e-Commerce or Electronic Market, there is no

upon individual skills. human intervention.

5 Unavailability of a uniform platform as E-Commerce website provides user a platform

traditional commerce depends heavily where al l information is available at one place.
on personal communication.

6 No uniform platform for information E-Commerce provides a universal platform to

sharing as it depends heavily on support commercial / business activities across
personal communication. the globe.
Advantages of E-commerce
 Much faster transactions available 24/7.
 Products and services are easy to find.
 Easier time managing a business.
 Doesn’t require much (if at all) physical space.
 No geographical limitations translates as a bigger customer
reach.
 Higher quality of services and lower operational costs.

Disadvantages of E-commerce
 No guarantee of product quality.
 Customer loyalty becomes a bigger issue as there is a minimal
direct customer-company interaction.
 Inability to experience products beforehand leads to more
checkout dropouts.
 Anyone can start an online business, which sometimes leads to
scam and phishing sites.
 Hackers target web shops more often than you think.
 Mechanical failures can get quite more punishing.

Making a lead generation programme

Online lead generation plays a vital role in any well-planned business development
program. According to MarketingSherpa’s research, generating “high-quality leads” is
the B-to-B marketer’s No. 1 challenge.

Lead generation describes the marketing process of stimulating and capturing interest in a
product or service for the purpose of developing sales pipeline.

Lead generation often uses digital channels, and has been undergoing substantial changes in
recent years from the rise of new online and social techniques. In particular, the abundance
of information readily available online has led to the rise of the “self-directed buyer” and the
emergence of new techniques to develop and qualify potential leads before passing them to
sales.
 Why develop a lead generation program?
In sales, your most expensive resource is your time and or your sales team’s time. An
effective lead generation plan makes your sales team more productive. When you
develop a flow of qualified leads for your sales team, they can close more sales.

A well-developed sales lead generation program:

 provides a continuous flow of quality leads

 allows your sales team to spend more time on high-level sales activities (and not making
cold calls)
 positions you as an expert with your target audience
 enables you to build a “top-of-mind” presence with your target audience
 delivers measurable results
 integrates your company’s marketing and sales efforts
Here are five essential steps to creating a winning lead gen
strategy.
Step 1: Define Your Objectives and Goals.
Define your program’s key lead generation objectives. Take a look at your typical
prospect’s buying cycle and buying stages.

Do you need a two-step sales process? In a two-step process, your marketing programs
generate and nurture leads and your sales team closes the sale.

Or, can your Web site generate leads and close sales in one step?

Define your lead gen objectives based on your sales process. Determine the number of
leads you need to reach your sales goals and revenue targets.

Step 2: Define a Lead and Set the Value of Your Raw Lead.
Make sure that marketing and sales agree on the definition of a lead. Based on your
expected close rates, determine what a raw lead is worth to you. You will use this figure
to set the overall budget and goals for specific campaigns. Example: If a company
makes $50,000 per sale for financial services, a raw lead will be worth much more than
a company selling a $100 software package.

Step 3: Select Appropriate Lead Generation Message and Channels.

Lead generation works differently from one industry to the next. Remember that most
prospects need to hear your message more than once, before they respond. Develop a
budget and plan for multiple touches.
 Create Your Offer. What are you going to offer to entice the prospect to provide follow-
up information for a two-step process? What will you offer to encourage a Web site
purchase for a one-step process?
Do you typically sell to a committee? If yes, you should develop different messages for
the members of your buying committee. Example: If you sell high-end software
consulting, you may need to provide financial and ROI for the CFO and technical
marketing messages for the CTO.

If your Web site is your lead generation hub, your outbound messages must sell the click
to your Web site.

Your campaign’s landing page will do the heavy lifting of enticing response.

Use Least Expensive Tactics First. Few companies have all the money they need for
lead generation. To use your budget wisely, use the least expensive lead gen tactics first
and follow up with the more expensive tactics.
Typically the most expensive tactic is your sales staff. You should not use your sales
staff to generate raw leads, referrals yes, but not raw leads.

Many of our clients rank their least to most expensive lead generation tactics as follows:

 e-mail (in-house)
 online PR and word-of-mouth (WOM marketing)
 social media marketing (this can take longer to show results)
 e-mail (rented lists)
 search ads (pay-per-click)
 ads in targeted e-newsletters
 direct mail (letters and postcards)
 telemarketing
 trade publication ads
 trade shows
 personal visit by sales staff
Step 4: Develop a Response Process.
Before you launch your first program, decide how you will capture, measure and respond
to leads. Will you direct responders to a dedicated web page or email address, a
personalized web page or an 800 number? How will marketing pass leads to sales?
Make sure your sales team is ready to handle Have your process set-up and test it prior
to starting the first campaign.

Step 5: Maintain a clean database.

The least expensive tactic is to send marketing messages via email to a house list. For
this tactic to work, your in-house list must be up-to-date. The key to an up-to-date list is
database maintenance. This is often an overlooked and undervalued process. Make
sure you practice good list hygiene. Diligently remove all unsubscribes, track your
forward-to-a-friend, check for duplicates, etc. With each “touch” of a prospect, capture a
little more information to improve your ability to target specific needs. If you cannot
handle this in-house, use an outside service to periodically scrub your list.

B2B marketing

Business-to-business marketing (or B2B marketing, as it is commonly known) involves the sale
of one company’s product or service to another company. B2B marketing techniques rely on the
same basic principles as consumer marketing, but are executed in a unique way. While
consumers choose products based not only on price but on popularity, status, and other
emotional triggers, B2B buyers make decisions on price and profit potential alone.
Finding new ways to foster relationships through social media is currently a hot topic in the B2B
marketing world. Social media platforms have opened up two way conversations between
businesses. A survey organized by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate, showed that
businesses are more likely to buy from companies they track through social media.
Tech-savvy B2B companies have continued to find innovative ways to use social media to their
advantage. Cisco Systems, Inc, a leading seller of networking systems, launched a campaign
introducing a new router solely on social media advertising. The launch was classified as one of
the top five in the company's history, and shaved over $100,000 off normal launch expenses.
2B marketing involves building valuable relationships to guarantee lasting customers -- an
important goal for any company

The B2B market is the largest of all the markets, and exceeds the consumer market in dollar
value. Companies like GE and IBM spend an estimated $60 million a day on goods that support
the operation of their business.
B2B marketing is largely employed by companies that make products that consumers have no
practical use for, such as steel. However, it is also used by companies selling products and
services bought by consumers and other businesses alike.
For example, Sprint (a consumer phone supplier) provides wireless, voice and data services to
both businesses and consumers. In fact, VHA, a health-care purchasing network, recently
agreed to extend a three-year, $1.2 billion contract with Sprint. Sprint continues to be a
nationwide leader in both B2B and consumer marketing.
y, whether a mega retail corporation or a smaller family-owned one
 B2B marketers generally focus on four large categories:

 Companies that use their products, like construction companies who buy sheets of steel to use in buildings.
 Government agencies, the single largest target and consumer of B2B marketing.
 Institutions like hospitals and schools.
 Companies that turn around and resell the goods to consumers, like brokers and wholesalers.
A B2B marketer can effectively put their product or service into the right hands by positioning
their offering in an exciting manner, understanding the customer’s needs, and proposing the right
solutions to combine the two (See also Persuasion Marketing).
It is important for B2B marketers to understand their clients’ needs before implementing any
marketing or advertising tactic. In consumer marketing, an effective advertisement can be
blasted out over wide channels, and a percentage of consumers will be driven to buy the product.
However, since B2B marketing is so much more specialized, marketers run the risk of alienating their
specific prospective candidates if they do not pay close attention to their needs before tailoring their
services to those needs.

A B2B marketing plan must be focused in delivery and broad in application. This means that while
consumer marketing can advertise very specifically (one mass-consumed product advertised through
print, television commercials and the Internet) to a wide audience, B2B marketing cannot. Instead, it
needs to brand itself very broadly (through email, corporate image and technical specifications) to a
very specific customer.

Business marketers can develop and decide how to employ their B2B plan by identifying and
understanding the importance of the following topics:
 The product or service: When marketing to consumers, there is an emotional component involved.
Individuals are drawn to products because of how they make them feel. With B2B customers, the
buyers are trained professionals who care about the quality of products, their cost-saving and/or
revenue-producing benefits, and the service provided by the host company.
 The target market: Many B2B marketers are able to focus on very niche industries which reflect
specialized needs. While this can make marketing a bit more straightforward, it also requires a high
level of knowledge outside of marketing specialists.
 Pricing: Businesses are usually more concerned with cost, value, and revenue potential than
consumers. However, they can also be more readily convinced to pay top dollar – as long as B2B
marketers do an excellent job of convincing them that the product, quality and customer service will
be worthwhile.
 Promotion: B2B marketers need to be experts not only of marketing and advertising, but experts
within their fields. Once this happens, they will learn the best ways to market to this field, whether it is
through blogs, journals, tradeshows or word of mouth. B2B marketing very rarely employs traditional
media like TV and radio commercials.

Types of career work with B2B marketing strategies

A B2B career requires marketers to not only have a marketing background, but also a firm
understanding of business. B2B marketers are often creative-minded individuals who are
comfortable working with numbers, statistics, and outcomes. Because of the varied, specific skills
desired for this industry, there are a variety of careers that are involved with B2B marketing, on
both the seller’s and the buyer’s side.
MODULE 3

Definition of Advertising Creativity

• Ability to generate fresh, unique and appropriate
ideas to solve communications problems.
• To be appropriate and effective the idea must be
relevant to the target audience.
• Break through the clutter.

Importance of Advertising Creativity

• Good creative strategy is often central to
determining the success of a product or service.
• Advertising campaign that is poorly conceived or
executed can be a liability.
• An ad or commercial that is creative does not
mean it will effectively communicate the intended
message.

Top 10 best practices for developing effective DM creative:

1) Think about the people you are talking to. What do they care about and want to hear?
That's much more important than what you want to tell them. Once you look at it from
your prospects' point of view, you can tailor your message to make it relevant to them.

2) Create curiosity—desire to open the package, email or keep watching/listening

3) Generous use of the word "FREE" where applicable. It's the No. 1 most powerful word
in direct marketing and it's sure to grab the desired attention.

4) Include a repeated, strong, clear, time-bound call-to-action (call, click, send, etc.)

5) Benefits, benefits, benefits. Features are fine for describing benefits, but consumers
want to know how a product or service will improve/grow/reduce/stretch/enhance/save
their lives, health, bank account, carpets or other valuables in their control. Benefits
address the "Why should I care?" and "What's it going to do for me?" questions that are
always in the back of consumers’ minds.

6) Focus on content that is quick and easy to absorb…Bullets. Underscore. Bold. Italic.
Highlighted copy. Faux handwritten notes in the margins. Circled copy. Faux Post-it
notes. Johnson's boxes. (But remember, everything in moderation!)

7) Talk to your reader/listener, not at them. Make your communications an interesting

conversation. The conversation should speak in terms of "you" (the reader/listener) and
"your", not "us" or "we" (the soliciting company). "You will enjoy..." not "We have
created..." etc.

8) The overall look/feel and messaging so be appropriate for intended target audience.

9) Test. Measure. Refine. Repeat.

10) Focus on ROI by utilizing formats/methods that are proven and cost efficient…every
extra $ you spend needs to be justified with an anticipated lift in response or conversion.

Direct marketing creativity

Direct marketing is a great way to generate measurable response and real results. The challenge
lies in standing out from the masses of other marketers who are also using this form of marketing
to reach targeted prospects.

Why Creativity in direct marketing is Important

Tangible
One of the benefits of using a creative direct mail ad is that it provides a tangible way for
prospects to connect with you. When people shop online, they are bombarded with video
ads, remarketing, and all other kinds of product placements. It’s second nature to click
the “x” when an ad pops up, or fast forward a YouTube video to skip the commercial. By
delivering direct mail ads to your customers and prospects, you get your message right
into their hands, making it more difficult for them to ignore or dismiss you.
Part of a Digital Strategy
Creative direct mail strategies are also a helpful tool to connect prospects and customers
to your web site or online store. They can access your social media platform, send you e-
mails for more information, or call you about a purchase. This multi-channel approach
helps you make more of an impact on your audience and expands your reach.

Original
You can make your advertising campaign anything but normal. You are more likely to
grab your audience’s attention by using elements that are rare or surprising, and that
stray away from commonplace or obvious ideas. By focusing on the uniqueness of your
ideas, or the features that you want to sell, your ad can tell the story that you want to get
across in an interesting way.

Flexible
Another good tip for your creative advertising campaign is to link your product to
different uses or ideas. For example, if you are selling a multi-purpose cleaning product,
show images of all of the different ways that it can be used. Showing how your product
can serve multiple functions in a consumer’s life will add value to your ad.

Artistic Value
Take care to make sure your ad is high-quality and shows appealing visuals and font. The
production quality should be top notch, you should include clever descriptions, and use
an original color palette that reflects your brand. Consumers are often drawn to ads that
don’t look like traditional ads, but are more of an art piece.

Basic steps of managing catalogue & printing

advertising
Catalogue advertising :

Definition: Catalogue Marketing

Catalogue Marketing is form of direct marketing where the seller prepares catalogues of
merchandise or products and sells directly to the customer. The catalogues are
generally in printed form but can also be distributed in the form of CDs. To avoid printing
and distribution costs, the catalogues are being increasingly made available online.
Products from various companies or vendors may be combined into a single catalogue
to provide a one shop point for customer looking out for a particular type of product.
Example : Avon is a good example of a company successfully leveraging this channel to sell
its range of cosmetics
To avoid printing and distribution costs, the catalogues are being increasingly made
available online. Products from various companies or vendors may be combined into a
single catalogue to provide a one shop point for customer looking out for a particular type of
product.
1. Audience
Do you understand who your target audience are? Gender, age and how your product or service
fulfils their needs should all colour the message, design, tone and language of your brochure.
Ask questions of customers or sales people and create a profile of your target audience to use
throughout the process.
2. Purpose
Get a clear understanding on the role your brochure should fulfil. Even if it has a ‘jack of all
trades’ role with several uses, it’s important to understand them all so you can ensure the
brochure fulfils them adequately. If it does have multiple roles, you’ll need to design and check
the brochure with many hats on to ensure each of these specific purposes are adequately
serviced.
3. Involvement
If there’s one truth in writing any marketing communications, it’s that your own perspective of the
market can be wide of the mark. It’s therefore worth involving colleagues in a brochure and
allowing their own opinions to colour the design, messages and writing too. It also spreads the
burden of what can be a very time-consuming project.
4. Copywriting
As a rule-of-thumb, the writing counts for 80% of any marketing communications (see below).
Good writing drives sales. It needs to speak in the language of the customer, inform them,
influence them, build your brand in their minds and drive them to your predetermined action
(such as picking up the phone and emptying their credit card into your lap!) It’s a tricky
proposition and requires experience and time, so is probably not for the faint-hearted, time-
limited business owner. Get a pro involved and they’ll pay you back in improved response rates
and profitability.
5. Design/Layout
While it’s the writing that carries the majority of the meaning and message of your brochure, the
design dictates its pull on the customer and usability – and supports and encourages the call to
action. It’s therefore no less important and, except for the most basic layouts, is usually not
something for an amateur to tackle. Apart from creative considerations (impact and usability
especially) ensuring the brochure is supplied in a format which your brochure printer can use can
be tricky and cause headaches and increased cost. The moral – get a good designer involved
from the outset!
6. Check, Check and Check again!
Quality proofing is just as important as quality writing and designing. Edit aggressively, culling
unnecessary words and anything that doesn’t add to your call to action. Sleep on changes and
revisit afresh in the morning. Get colleagues to look over and suggest amends. Get several
people to check key details such as web addresses and phone numbers. Check out some of our
guides (such as how to deliver artwork to a printer, artwork
proofing, PDFs, preflighting and pantone) to make sure what you see is what you get.
7. Brochure Printing
Find a quality, service-oriented commercial printing partner who will bend over backwards to help
you. Good ones can really add value to your business, for free. You need someone who will give
you a great deal, who will project manage for you, who is a great communicator and keeps you in
the loop, who will quickly resolve any issues should they occur and delivers a quality product in
the manner you expect. Check out our guides on finding a new print supplier, the best place to
find a new printer and print management to give you some help in this area.
8. Return on Investment
Even though it’s a stack of work, it’ll be worth it in the end. A quality brochure will quickly pay
back its production costs and support your business in lots of ways. You can calculate its direct
ROI (Measuring ROI from printed marketing materials) which is probably more of a concern as a
small business owner than indirect benefits such as brand building.
Here are five key steps to producing a catalog that will increase sales.
 Print advertising

Print media advertising is a form of advertising that uses physically printed media, such as
magazines and newspapers, to reach consumers, business customers and prospects.
Advertisers also use digital media, such as banner ads, mobile advertising, and advertising in
social media, to reach the same target audiences. The proliferation of digital media has led to a
decline in advertising expenditure in traditional print media, but print isn't dead.

7 Steps to Profitable Print Advertising

Step 1: Set Your Budget Carefully

In order to make a profit you need to be sure you get a solid return on your investment. You’ve
also got to make sure you can afford that investment in the first place. Don’t fall into the trap of
thinking you have to spend your entire ad budget or at least as much as your competition to get a
healthy return.

What your budget should be based on are your goals and projected sales over the coming year.
A good rule of thumb is to spend 10% of your gross sales for the year (if you are just starting out
and trying to establish yourself) and between 5-7% each year after that.

Step 2: Plan Your Ads in Advance

Never think of advertising as a one-off endeavor. Each ad must fit into the overall storyline of
your company. If you create one ad… and then another… and then another… you are apt to
change direction with your messaging and confuse your audience.

It’s best to plan and develop your ads six to twelve months in advance so you deliver a
consistent brand message that will build customer confidence.

Step 3: Write Your Copy with the

Customer in Mind
Successful print advertising means writing copy that speaks directly to your potential customers,
and this means focusing on the benefits and not the features of your product or service. In case
you’re not clear on the difference between the two:

 A feature tells people what your product or service does (gets 35 miles per gallon)
 A benefit tells people how your product or service will make their lives better (you’ll save money
on gas so you can put in that pool your kids keep bugging you about)
And finally, make sure each one of your ads has its own specific goal, and then write your copy
to ensure it supports that goal. And always, always, always tell the reader what to do with a clear
call to action such as, “Stop in this week for our buy one get one special.”
 Step 4: Build Audience Recognition
through Design
A few things to keep in mind when designing your ads:
 Borders draw the readers’ eye to your ad.
 Use only one typeface. If you want to add impact here and there, simply use a larger point size.
By using too many typefaces your ad will look sloppy and unprofessional.
 Don’t try and get too much information in by using a type that’s so small no one can read it. Make
sure your type size is at least as big as the type used by the newspaper for its editorial content.
 Leave enough white space so your copy can “breathe.”

Step 5: Choose the Right Newspaper

Depending on where you live, your local town or city may have multiple newspapers such as
metro papers, college papers, local papers, weekly papers, etc. all vying for your advertising
dollars. So how do you choose the right one?
The first piece of data you’ll want to take a look at is reach or the number of people in your
particular demographic who read that newspaper. Your ad rep will be able to provide you with
circulation stats that will be broken down into demographics like gender, age, and income.

Step 6: Decide on the When and

Where
You’ll next need to determine which position in the paper and which day of the week is best for
your ad. There are general newspaper advertising consistencies to help you know which day will
work for your particular industry. For instance, Wednesdays are typically the day food stores run
all their specials. Fridays are generally crowded with entertainment ads. Thursdays are “retail
day” and a good time to grab the attention of shoppers who are planning their weekend shopping
trips. And on Sundays people lay in their pajamas and leisurely read most sections of the paper.
As far as the position of your ad, since it will most likely be on the smaller side (unless you
happen to have a very large marketing budget) finding that sweet spot is key to your success.
You can either request “ROP” (run of the paper) or “preferred position.” ROP is less expensive,
but it means the newspaper will place your ad wherever they determine it fits. Preferred position
means you select exactly where your ad will go.

Unless your budget is incredibly tight, always opt for a preferred position and know that the best
place to be is on a right-hand page and above the fold when it comes to print advertising. The
main news section is typically your best bet to get the most eyes, but remember who your target
audience is and choose the section (entertainment, sports, fashion) that makes the most sense.

Step 7: Test and Tweak

You’ll never get the greatest return if you don’t test and tweak your ads, newspaper, day of the
week, and placement. Test your headlines, test your ad size, try to run your ad on a Thursday
instead of Friday, take your ad out of the main news section and put it in the entertainment
section. Many marketers see testing as such a chore which is the wrong mindset completely.
Instead, think of testing as an absolute way to increase your profits. You may think you’re fine
with a 5% return, but wouldn’t a 10% return be much better?

Once you have tested and found ad gold, keep that ad running. Remember, in advertising,
consistency plus repetition means sales. By the end of the year you will have discovered what
we have been saying for many years now: print advertising is a low-cost and highly-effective way
to get the biggest returns.

Innovation through creativity

The companies that have done the best over the long haul are those who
are the most creative and innovative. These organizations don’t copy what
others do; instead, they may use innovative ideas from others as a spring
board to come up with a unique application, product, or service for
themselves. They tend to distance themselves from the competition rather
than compete with them. If they see another company copying what they
do, they create something new and better. In other words, they are able to
leverage their creativity and their innovative capabilities to attain long-term
success.
In fact, all companies can be more creative and innovative no matter what
their expertise, product, or service. When you apply creativity and
innovation to everything aspect of your business, you are able to stay
ahead of a changing marketplace and the competition.

What is creativity
Creativity is a function of knowledge, curiosity, imagination, and evaluation.
The greater your knowledge base and level of curiosity, the more ideas,
patterns, and combinations you can achieve, which then correlates to
creating new and innovative products and services. But merely having the
knowledge does not guarantee the formation of new patterns. The bits and
pieces must be shaken up and iterated in new ways. Then the embryonic
ideas must be evaluated and developed into usable ideas. In other words,
there really is a process.

#1. Discovery: The lower level of creativity is discovery. Just as the name
implies, it’s when you become aware of or stumble upon something—
discover it. For example, there is art called “discovered art.” It might be a
rock with a unique shape or a piece of wood with an interesting pattern. If
you have ever purchased a piece of natural stone or wood art, that art was
discovered art. Many inventions start with a discovery.
 #2. Invention: A higher level of creativity is invention. For example,
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. But you have to ask
yourself, “Would the telephone have been invented without Bell?” The
answer is yes. Eventually the telephone would have been invented
because the science was there. It might have taken longer, but it would
have happened. So while invention is higher than discovery, it’s something
that is going to happen. If you don’t invent it, someone else will.

#3. Creation: Creation is the highest level of creativity. For example, the
stage play Othello is genuinely a creation. Elizabethan drama would have
gone on without Shakespeare, but no one else would have written Othello.
Similarly, there are things that only your organization can create! The key is
tapping in to what those things are.

Here’s an example of how this could play out in your company. While at a
conference you might discover a tool, a technology, or a process that you
didn’t know before. You purchase the tool for your staff, and that discovery
helps everyone work better. After some time, that discovery may also spur
an innovative idea of how to apply the discovery. You may then use that
innovative idea as an inspiration that yields something never seen before,
something created by your company that helps you and your customers.
That’s how the three levels of creativity can work together.

Realize that creativity and innovation are different. Creativity refers to

generating new and novel ideas. Innovation refers to the application of an
idea and, in many cases, is a collaborative enterprise. So in other words,
innovation is applied creativity. Or if I put my creative speaker hat on, I
might say, “Creativity is a bioelectrical thunderstorm that precipitates an
inescapable notion.”

10 Strategies for Increasing your Creativity and Innovation

Now that you understand the various levels of creativity, you can implement
some strategies that will boost your company’s ability to create and
innovate.
1. Truly creative people have developed their ability to observe and to use all
of their senses, which can get dull over time. Take time to “sharpen the
blade” and take everything in.
2. Innovation is based on knowledge. Therefore, you need to continually
expand your knowledge base. Read things you don’t normally read.
3. Your perceptions may limit your reasoning. Be careful about how you’re
perceiving things. In other words, defer judgment.
4. Practice guided imagery so you can “see” a concept come to life.
5. Let your ideas “incubate” by taking a break from them. For example, when
I’m working on a big business project, one of the best things I can do to
take a break from it is play my guitar or the flute for a few minutes, or take a
ride on my motorcycle. It shifts my brain into another place and helps me
be more innovative and creative.
6. Experience as much as you can. Exposure puts more ideas into your
subconscious. Actively seek out new experiences to broaden your
experience portfolio.
7. Treat patterns as part of the problem. Recognizing a new pattern is very
useful, but be careful not to become part of it.
8. Redefine the problem completely. One of the lines I’ve been sharing for the
past few decades is: “Your problem is not the problem; there is another
problem. When you define the real problem, you can solve it and move on.”
After all, if you had correctly defined the real problem, you would have
solved it long ago because all problems have solutions.
9. Look where others aren’t looking to see what others aren’t seeing.
10. Come up with ideas at the beginning of the innovation process ... and
then stop. Many times we come up with several ideas and start innovating,
and then we come up with more ideas and never get a single idea done. At
some point you have to turn off the idea generation part of the process and
really work on the innovation and execution part in order to bring a project
to life.
Module 5 : Direct Marketing Implementation and
control.
The Decision Model is an intellectual template for perceiving, organizing, and
managing the business logic behind a business decision. 1 An informal definition of
business logic is it is a set of business rules represented as atomic elements of conditions
leading to conclusions. A more formal definition of business logic is “a means by which
a business derives a conclusion from facts.” So, business logic is a prescription for the
way business experts want to evaluate facts in order to arrive at a conclusion where the
conclusion has both meaning and value to the business. Therefore, a business decision
is defined as a conclusion that a business arrives at through business logic and which
the business is interested in managing.

It follows then that business logic itself is intellectual in nature because, it represents
business thinking about the way important decisions are to be made.

To make business logic tangible, common practice is to translate the business thinking
into a visible, communicable form, which often is a set of business rules or business
statements. These vary in format: free-form text, fill-in-the-blank templates, decision
tables, decision trees, or sentences adhering to specific syntax or grammar. Regardless,
it is these business rules or statements (more accurately, their intended logic) that are
modeled in a Decision Model structure adhering to the Decision Model principles.

First, it is important to understand what it means for the Decision Model to be an

intellectual template.

The Decision Model as an Intellectual Template

As an intellectual template, the Decision Model is a logical representation of business

logic. It is, by deliberate intent, not a physical model of how that business logic is to be
implemented in specific technology. It is not even a model for how that business logic
is to be communicated through procedure manuals or training materials. Instead, it is an
intellectual template for the full and rigorous specification of that logic. From this full
and rigorous specification, if the goal is to automate it, a Decision Model can be
translated into one or more target technologies through appropriate design
methodologies. If the goal is for humans to follow it, a Decision Model can be translated
into whatever format is most easily referenced by humans.

It is also important to understand that the Decision Model is a model and not just a list.
The Decision Model as a Model

The Decision Model is not simply a list of business rules or business statements. Rather,
it is a model representing a structural design of the logic embodied by those statements.

As a model of business logic, the Decision Model is a unique representation of business

logic, unlike other representations. For example, it is, by deliberate intent, not a model
of how that business logic relates to processes, use cases, information, or software
models. It is not a notation added to data models, fact models, process models, or any
other kind of model. Instead, it is an independent representation of business logic based
on the premise that business logic has its own existence, independent of how it is
executed, where in the business it is executed, and whether or not its execution is
implemented in automated systems. The Decision Model can be anchored to any and
all other kinds of models, but maintained independently of them.

Having its own existence implies that a model of business logic has a recognizable
structure that is not the same as the structure of other kinds of models.2 Not only that,
the Decision Model is distinct in its representation of business logic because a Decision
Model aims to be:

 Simple to interpret and manage

 Declarative so as to be independent of technology or processing requirements
 Optimal in integrity, meaning that its business logic is consistent within itself

and aligns with business direction

As a separate model with these characteristics, the Decision Model elevates business
logic to the status of a valuable organizational asset that would remain elusive without
such a representation.

Top 5 Decision Making Models

Business models can be useful for a variety of reasons. Whenever you come upon a
problem on the job that seems to have you stumped, it is likely that a model exists to
help you work through the issue. In this case, we are going to be talking about
models that help you make smart decisions. Of course, decision making is a critical
part of any business, so these models should be considered a valuable piece of your
operational toolbox.
 Below, we have listed five decision-making models which have served countless
businesses over the years. Take a few moments to get familiar with each model, and
consider putting one or more of them into use the next time you need to make a key
decision.

The Vroom-Yetton-Jago Decision Model

At the heart of the Vroom-Yetton-Jago Decision Model is the fact that not all
decisions are created equal. Some decisions are extremely important and will
require input from many people, while other decisions can be made quickly as they
won’t have long-lasting effects on the company as a whole. Understanding this basic
concept is important, because you aren’t going to use the same decision-making
process for all choices that you have to make. With the assistance of this model, you
can customize your approach to decision making based on the situation at hand.
There are three factors which this model uses to analyze the decision that needs to
be made. Those factors are listed below –

 Decision Quality. Simply put, this is where you think about how important it is to come up

with the right decision. Sure, you always want to make the right choice, but some

circumstances are more important than others in the context of business as a whole.

Committing a large number of resources to each and every decision you make would be

inefficient, as many decisions just are not important enough to warrant that kind of

investment. Pick and choose your spots and only invest a large amount of time and energy

into the decisions that are truly going to shape your organizational future.

 Subordinate commitment. Some decisions that you make are going to have a strong impact

on your team, while others will not affect them at all. When thinking about each decision,

consider how much of an affect it is going to have on your team and others within and

around the organization. If you it essential that you have ‘buy in’ from the people on your

team, you will be more inclined to include them in the decision-making process. If not, you

may be able to make the decision on your own with very little input from others below you.

 Time constraints. Obviously, the timeline that you have in front of you for a given decision is

going to impact the process that you can use to make your choice. If you are in no particular

rush to make the decision, there will be plenty of time to include others, conduct research,
 and more. On the other hand, if the matter if time sensitive, you might not really have the

option of going to others for help. Develop a clear timeline right up front for your decision and

then chart out whether or not you are going to have time to get input from various areas.
Once you have held up the decision you need to make to the light that is offered by
each of these three points, you should have a much clearer picture of the path
needed to make a quality choice. Moving on, you will then decide which leadership
style will be best for making this decision. You can pick from three options –
autocratic, consultative, and collaborative. You can read more on the specifics of this
model for more detail on these three, but their titles largely speak for themselves. By
thinking about the factors that make up each decision, and the type of leadership
style best-suited for the decision, this model can lead you to a wise choice in the
end.

The OODA Loop

As an owner or manager, it is up to you to make the tough choices that steer the
business in the right direction. To do so, you may wish to turn to tools such as
the OODA Loop. This model is relatively simple and straightforward, but it can be
highly effective. When you think about the operations of your organization in the
frame of the OODA Loop, you will quickly see that you are never going to be finished
making decisions. This model is a loop for a reason – it continues with no end in
sight, for the life of the organization in question.
There are four stages built in to the OODA Loop. Those stages are as follows –

1. Observe

2. Orient

3. Decide

4. Act
That’s it. It is a simple model, yet it says so much about how you are going to make
decisions in business. Three of the four stages – observe, decide, and act – are
pretty straightforward, and will be familiar to any business professional. That second
stage, however, – orient – might be foreign. The idea here is that you need to orient
yourself correctly with the information at hand in order to make a good choice.
Allowing your personal orientation to get in the way, such as past experiences which
 really aren’t relevant to this decision, you might not come away with the best
decision.

The Recognition-Primed Decision Model

In business, you don’t always have a lot of time to make a quality decision. While it
would be great to be able to sit down in your office for a period of time to think
through the various options at hand before making a choice, that simply isn’t how
things work in the real world. Sometimes, you have to act quickly based upon the
information that you have available. When that is the case, you might want to turn to
the Recognition-Primed Decision (RPD) Model for assistance.
Within this model, there are three steps that you are going to work through as you
make your decision. Those steps are as follows –

1. Experiencing the situation.

2. Analyzing the situation.

3. Implementing the decision.

At the first stage, you are going to ‘take in’, or experience, as much as possible
about the situation that needs to be solved. If you don’t have all of the information
available at the time, you aren’t going to be able to make a clear and appropriate
decision. One of the best things you can do at this stage is to listen. Listen to the
people who are directly involved in the situation and will be able to tell you exactly
what is going on, why it is a problem, and how they think it may be fixed.

Once you have a basic understanding of what is going on and why it is a problem,
you next need to move into the analytical process to start to work toward a solution.
You can ask yourself a number of different questions at this stage in order to trigger
potential solutions based on past experience. For example, what about this situation
is surprising, and what parts of it might you have seen coming? Is this something
that has happened previously, even if in a slightly different way?

Finally, once a decision has been made, it will need to be implemented in a timely
manner in order for it to be able to actually take effect. It does no good to quickly
make a decision if you are then going to take your time implementing your choice –
so get right down to business on putting this decision to work once you have gone
through the first two steps of the model. As you are thinking about the various
decisions you can make, the implementation phase is something that should always
be in the back of your mind. After all, it isn’t going to be an effective decision if you
aren’t able to implement it quickly to rectify the situation. Only those choices that are
going to work in the practical application of implementation will be successful in the
end.

Paired Comparison Analysis

Understanding priority is an important part of making good decisions. Even if you
don’t think about it consciously at the time, it makes sense – you are making your
choices in most cases based on the underlying priorities that you have in mind. Of
course, the priority in business is often to make money, but that isn’t always the
case. Or, at least, that isn’t always the guiding light for the decisions you need to
make. So how do you make a decision when you aren’t exactly sure where your
priorities lie? The Paired Comparison Analysis model is a great way to make tough
choices that have many complexities to consider.
The process of using this model involves first creating a table which is going to
layout all of your various options. Every option you have at hand with regard to the
decision that needs to be made should be listed in the chart, both across the top and
down the side. Now, you have a chart that will let you compare options directly
against one another. This is where the ‘paired analysis’ comes into the picture. You
are going to compare one option against another, and determine a winner. Repeat
this process until all options have been compared against all other options.

In the end, the option which has won the most head-to-head showdowns should be
considered the winner. This isn’t going to be the right decision-making tool for every
situation, but it can help to shed some light on a situation where there are many
competing options at play.

The Ladder of Inference

The idea behind the Ladder of Inference is to help you avoid making poor
judgments based on your past experiences, biases, or other factors. You should be
aiming to set aside as much personal influence as possible in order to make choices
that are simply in the best interest of the organization as a whole.
 In this model, there are a total of seven ‘rungs’ on the ladder that is supposed to
represent the common thought process that we go through while making decisions.
Those rungs are as follows – listed from bottom to top as they would be seen on the
ladder.

1. Reality and facts

2. Selected reality

3. Interpreted reality

4. Assumptions

5. Conclusions

6. Beliefs

7. Actions
If you think about how this theory of how we think would work in the real world, you
can see how it might be dangerous when making business decisions. Specifically,
your judgements can be warped as they move through the ‘selected reality’ and
‘assumptions’ stages. When you allow your own personal beliefs to interfere with the
choices you are making, you might lose track of the actual facts that are sitting right
in front of you.

In many ways, using the Ladder of Inference is all about tearing apart your lines of
thinking in order to build them back up again on a better foundation. It is only human
nature to start to make decisions quickly when faced with a new problem – even if
those decisions really aren’t based that deeply on facts. So, by using this model, you
can effectively look for holes in your logic, only to plug those holes and then move
back up the ladder again in a logical manner. You always want to be able to defend
your decisions in business, and using this tool will help you to do just that in the end.

If you have not previously used any of the decision-making models included in this
list, you are likely going to appreciate what they can do for your business once you
put them into action. You may find that you start to use these models regularly to
make even minor decisions, or you might only put them to use when big choices
come up. Whatever the case, your performance on the job should benefit from the
assistance of these models.
Mathematics tools for control in direct marketing

What is Direct Marketing? Any product that is sold through the market goes through an
elaborate system of production, transportation, procurement at market place and
subsequently one or two steps before reaching the end consumer. In the entire value chain,
some value is added either in transportation, storage, delivery or product improvements.

As can be understood from the description above, traditional marketing involves a variety of
players before it reaches the final stakeholder- the consumer or customer. The Direct
Marketing strategy reduced the number of stake holders to possibly two or three- Either the
company directly sells to consumers or in some cases a carrying & forwarding agent would
stock the goods in various cities for final delivery to consumers.

Incomplete

Future of direct marketing (In india)

The future of Direct Marketing in India is dependent on the following:

1) Reaching out to non-metro/non-urban market:

As metro and urban markets get saturated by products and services promoted in both
general and direct marketing models, the key to any direct marketing campaign lies in
expanding its reach to rural and semi rural markets.

Infrastructural constraints have so far come in the way of the direct marketer.

But with rural cyber cafes, satellite television reaching rural areas, telecom booths and
mobile telephony now gaining popularity, it should be possible for the marketers to reach
out to their target market in these areas.

Indian post offices are located in the farthest corner India and services villages with a
population as low as 20 households. These offices can be used as an effective medium to
communicate, deliver and even service the rural consumer.

IDBI, ICICI, SBI and other financial institutions are today directly marketing their mutual
funds and financial products through the Indian post offices.

Thus, the key to success in the Indian market lies in the firms’ ability to access rural
markets.

2) Enhancing credibility of the offer:

The Indian customer generally does not buy the product or service until he/she has seen
it, touched it and experienced it.

Therefore these are key ingredients in the customer selection process and the direct
marketer has to enhance his credibility as he cannot offer these benefits.

Therefore, he needs to pay special attention to ensuring that the customers’ experience
with the product exceeds his/her expectations.

Also he needs to focus on service to endure speedy settlement of any claims. Credibility
is the key to success in direct marketing.

3) Wider use of debit and credit card:

Direct Marketing’s success in India will be dependent on the wider use of debit and credit
card as mode of payment by both the customer and the marketer.

This involves a shift of transactions from cash to non – cash modes and hence a change
in the customers and the seller’s mindset.

4) Emergence of specialized database firms:

Another key factor in the success of direct marketing is the evolution of specialized
Database firms.

It is expensive proposition both in terms of money and time to create a customer

database. This makes direct marketing feasible only for large firms.

A very large component of Indian economy consists of the small and medium sized firms
who cannot afford to create this database.

Hence emergence and evolution of firms specialized in database management will

contribute to the success of direct marketing in India.
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MODULE 2 :
Research design for direct marketers