INFORMATION SHEET NUMBER 3.1.

1:
FUNDAMENTAL COMMUNICATION PRINCIPLES

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

After reading this INFORMATION SHEET, you must able to:

• Principles of selling
• Fundamental communication principles
• Customer preference
• Customer profile – socio-economic status
• Available time or time element

The seven Cs of Communication

You write emails, facilitate meetings, participate in conference calls, create

reports, devise presentations, debate with your colleagues…the list goes on.

We can spend almost our entire day communicating. So, how can we provide a
huge boost to our productivity? We can make sure that we communicate in the
clearest, most effective way possible.

This is why the seven Cs of communication provide a checklist for making sure
that your meeting, emails, conference calls, reports, and presentations are well
constructed and clear – so your audience gets your message.

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According to the seven Cs, communication needs to be: clear, concise,
concrete, correct, coherent, complete and courteous.

In this article, we look at each of the 7 Cs of Communication, and we’ll

illustrate each element with both good and bad examples.

1. Clear

When writing or speaking to someone, be clear about your goal or message.

What is your purpose in communicating with this person? If you’re not sure,
then your audience won’t be sure either.

To be clear, try to minimize the number of ideas in each sentence. Make sure
that it’s easy for your reader to understand your meaning. People shouldn’t
have to “read between the lines” and make assumptions on their own to
understand what you’re trying to say.

Information and actions required, must be clear so the reader has the
information they need to take action.

2. Concise

When you’re concise in your communication, you stick to the point and keep it
brief. Your audience doesn’t want to read six sentences when you could
communicate your message in three.

3. Concrete

When your message is concrete, then your audience has a clear picture of what
you’re telling them. There are details (but not too many!) and vivid facts, and
there’s laser-like focus. Your message is solid.

4. Correct

When your communication is correct, it fits your audience. And correct

communication is also error-free communication.

Do the technical terms you use fit your audience’s level of education or
knowledge?

Have you checked your writing for grammatical errors? Remember, spell
checkers won’t catch everything.

Are all names and titles spelled correctly?

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5. Coherent

When your communication is coherent, it’s logical. All points are connected
and relevant to the main topic, and the tone and flow of the text is consistent.

6. Complete

In a complete message, the audience has everything they need to be informed

and, if applicable, take action.

Does your message include a “call to action,” so that your audience clearly
knows what you want them to do?

Have you included all relevant information – contact names, dates, times,
locations, and so on?

7. Courteous

Courteous communication is friendly, open, and honest. There are no hidden

insults or passive-aggressive tones. You keep your reader’s viewpoint in mind,
and you’re empathetic to their needs.

Note:
There are a few variations of the 7 Cs of Communication:

Credible – Does your message improve or highlight your credibility? This is

especially important when communicating with an audience that doesn’t know
much about you.

Creative – Does your message communicate creatively? Creative

communication helps keep your audience engaged.

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 INFORMATION SHEET NUMBER 3.1.2
CUSTOMER PREFERENCES

The 5 Principles of Successful Selling

Sales has many differences. Whether it's selling different products to different
industries that have different types of customers and different types of
processes. There are often a lot of variables that change in each sales role out
there. It can be hard comparing someone selling used cars for example to
someone selling property, or comparing someone selling insurance to someone
selling corporate software.

That being said, there are principles of sales that don't change. Principles that
remain the same as the process of selling something to someone.
Understanding those basic principles can then help you master to core of
selling and develop skills that can be used to sell anything to anyone.

1) Selling is all about relationships.

It doesn't matter what you sell, the ability to win that sale will ultimately
always result in your ability to build some form of relationship with the buyer.
People buy from people and in a world full of competition it can often boil down
to your ability to build a better relationship. This includes a mixture of building
rapport, identifying needs, showing genuine interest, building trust and adding
value.

The question you always need to ask yourself is "Why should my prospect
chose me over my competition?", with the answer not being about the product
but about why they should buy from YOU personally.

2) The sale is not about your product, but their problem.

To win in sales you need to make the whole thing about their problem or their
reason for buying and not about your product. Their need should always come
first with your product then answering the problem they have. The key to
success in sales and a principle that will count for all forms of selling is the
need to identify the pain behind the buying decision. Why do they want or need
this product? What problem will it solve and how will it remove this potential
pain from them?

People will buy for emotional reasons which they then back up and justify with
logic. The trick is to identify the problem and tap into the emotional part of the
buying decision, then justify it with the value, features, benefits etc.

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3) Price and value go hand in hand

You could be selling a product that throughout the competition the features
rarely change, but the price does. What defines that price is the value that you
create for the product and what it can offer the potential buyer. If your
prospect thinks your product is expensive, it's because you haven't created
enough value for it.

Every industry will have competition and it can often be irrelevant what the
difference in price is if you can't create and sell value. A lot of sales people get
really hung up around the price and see it as a real blocker to their ability to
sell. In reality the price is irrelevant if you can build up the value for the
customer so they don't feel it's expensive.

4) There is no sale unless you can close it.

We all love a big pipeline, we all love to brag about the amazing opportunities
that we're working on, the big customers we're targeting, the hard work we're
putting in. Unfortunately, one of the key principles of selling is the reality that
there is NO sale unless you close it. All of that stuff is great and part of the
process, but success in sales won't come from the size of your pipeline or the
hard work you're putting in, it comes from actually selling!

It doesn't matter what you're selling, where you're selling or who you're selling
too, your ability to succeed in sales will always come down to your ability to
close deals and actually sell!

5) Those who listen, win.

We've all heard the "2 ears 1 mouth" quote but it's such a powerful and
important principle for success in selling. It's only by listening that you build
relationships, it's only by listening that you identify real problems and buyer
pains, it's only by listening that you can find buying signals and close the sale.

The best sales people are those who are good listeners, who still control the
conversation but who know how to ask the right questions and effectively listen
to get the information they need to progress the sale.

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 INFORMATION SHEET NUMBER 3.1.3
CUSTOMER PROFILE-SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS

New consumer trends in Tourism

One of the biggest challenges in the tourism sector is to be able to offer

products tailored to customer needs. And the world is changing faster due to
the impact of technology on our lives. Tourism consumers are changing their
preferences to the same rhythm. Your agency must be aware of the most
important trends among your target audience in order to keep up with the
dynamic pace of tourism. Especially for your company to know how to apply
the new trends in your marketing strategy.

How to attract travellers to DMC agencies with the latest trends of tourism
consumer

1. Consumers are more aware of their needs

Thanks to the possibilities offered by the internet to tourism consumers, they
feel freer to look for information. The travellers is becoming more informed,
more empowered, and able to organize their trip independently. Although there
are still customers who rely on travel agencies to organize their entire holiday,
the number of customers who prefer to contact the agencies once they have
decided to choose one or more products is increasing.

On many occasions agencies have been forced to compete in the market

through prices. However, this consumer does not exactly seek to analyse
tourism products by their prices. This traveller will study the tourism options
which best suit their needs, their interests. Such is the change in their attitude
in decision making that travellers will not mind paying more for the product if
they are sure this product will bring them the value they ask for.

The consumer demand definitely highlights the evolution that has taken place
in the last years. After decades of tourism focused on the summer season,
travellers are looking for authenticity. They are looking for different
destinations, such as areas away from the big tourist areas, and for products
that allow them to live unique experiences, connected to the authenticity of
those different places.

Basically, both the destination to visit, and the activities that the traveller can
perform there, are the two key factors of the purchase decision. That is why
part of the client's research includes the analysis of the opinions of experts in
tourism as well as other travellers who have shared their experience on the
internet.

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2. Sustainable holidays
In a world more aware of sustainability issues, the traveller is increasingly
being involved in seeking options that reduce the negative impact on the
environment.

Europe’s major tourist destinations, although they use their resources to keep
clean their cities and environment, are now noticing the consequences of
tourism overcrowding. That’s what the travel consumer feels too. While mass
tourism is still popular, travel agencies who want to reach a more demanding
traveller must consider the impact of their products on the destination.

That's why the most demanding tourism consumer seeks to move away from
the big tourist areas, looking for destinations close to these which are less
crowded. Or they choose to stay in big cities with the option of visiting local
points where there is no saturation of tourists.

This means the traveller feels more responsible for its impact. They will be
interested in finding tourism products that take into account values as
important today as sustainability, respect for the environment, safety, and even
equality. The demanding traveller wants to be respectful of the destination’s
environment and the local population, and to be able to enjoy his or her
journey without feeling worried about circumstances or threats that endanger
his or her well-being or the others'.

Perhaps, this is why tourism focused on rural experiences, connected with

nature, is becoming a trend. They do not only want to visit natural
environments that have not suffered the urban impact, they also take it as a
way to disconnect from daily routine, to enjoy a few days without stress.

3. Looking for a personal challenge

Other of the trends in travellers is their searching for experiences which can
transform them, that could help them in their personal growth. Although one of
the most outstanding aspects is the need to disconnect from the daily routine,
the traveller now sees their holidays as a way of living experiences that help
them to meditate, to learn, to grow as an individual.

This is why there are travellers who opt for tourism products that include
activities to seek disconnection or relax. For example, practicing yoga or
meditation. It is true that these practices are very common throughout the
world. But by applying these activities in a different environment, travellers see
them as methods that help them connect with the identity of the destination
they visit while taking care of themselves. There are other travellers who choose
to take courses at the destination, or even volunteer activities.

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Travellers who need new experiences might look for almost non-explored
destinations by international tourism. There is a very few undiscovered corners
on our planet, but there are travellers who want to become ‘adventurers‘ by
doing activities in distant places.

On the other hand, there are travellers who repeat visits to already known
destinations. They live this transformation looking for experiences that have
not yet lived in that place. This is more common on short trips, such as
weekend trips.

4. Alone or in company?
People who travel as a couple or in a group essentially seek to strengthen their
ties. For example, it is more common for couples to look for tourism products
where they can be more active. The sensation of adventure, fun and adrenaline,
brings them not only personal entertainment, but also experiences to share
and that might help them to strengthen their relationship.

On the other hand, thanks to the ‘empowerment‘ of the traveller, more tourism
consumers are opting to travel alone. This allows greater freedom to choose
destination, accommodation, dates, but above all freedom to choose the tourist
product best suited to itself.

5. ‘Millenials’ and ‘Baby boomers’

Today the world’s favourite tourist audience are the so-called ‘Millennials‘.
These were born approximately between 1981 and 1995, in a time when
technology began to form an important part of the civilization. Indeed, they are
the first generation to experience the 'technological boom', they are the ones
who know best how to use the internet to plan their trips. And the ones the
DMCs want so badly to attract.

23% of international travellers are people being 15 - 29 years old. (World

Tourism Organization, 2016). This percentage will continue increasing: it is
expected that by 2025 ’Millennials’ will become 50% of international travellers
(Tourism Megatrends 10 things you need to know about the future of Tourism,
2016). This is not only due to pleasure trips, but also to the fact that many
Millennials are entering the field of business travel.

In the case of the ‘Baby boom‘ generation (born between 1946 and 1965), they
belong to an older age group, which means that not many share the same
information-seeking trends as the ‘Millennials‘. This group does tend to
continue to rely on travel agencies to organize their entire holiday.

However, they do share certain interests with the Millennials. For example,
personal growth, balance, and enjoying their freedom. That is why these
consumers are attracted by those tourist products that make them recover that
youth spirit and inspiration. (Euromonitor International, 2019)
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6. Consumers and technology
So far, you can imagine the latest technologies have had a great impact on the
tourism sector. Especially in the phase prior to the purchase process. However,
once it is time to pick up the luggage and leave home, there are two types of
attitudes that are standing out in the tourism sector.

One trend is to go on holiday, but to stay connected to the world through

smartphones. The phenomenon of being afraid to miss what happens on social
networks now has the name of ‘Fear of Missing Out‘ (FOMO). This is why many
companies take advantage of this trend to continue maintaining contact with
their customers through their social networks.

At the opposite, there are those travellers who use their holidays to disconnect
from the stress of the virtual world. These costumers - ‘Joy of Missing Out’
(JOMO) - disconnect from their smartphones to enjoy their free time, and above
all their privacy. In such a technological world in which we live, more travellers
are looking for JOMO experiences. (Euromonitor International, 2019)

For this reason, the companies are also relying on experiences specially
prepared for this digital switch-off. These experiences specially include a
greater interaction of the company’s staff with the customers, to offer a more
human connection.

7. Interest in local culture and customs

Because of travellers interest in connecting more with the destination they
visit, they prefer to do other different activities. Instead of seeking experiences
focused on the large masses of tourists, the most demanding travellers prefer
to live authentic and local experiences. From cultural visits where you can
learn about the history and traditions of the place, to gastronomic routes to
taste local products.

8. Personalized experiences
There are DMCs agencies that are detecting these trends among their clients,
which is a great opportunity to create personalized experiences. This allows
companies to define products fully tailored to customer needs. And above all,
taking into account these latest customer preferences.

If you have detected any of these new interests among your target audience, it
may be a good time to take another look at your types of customers and
rethink your marketing strategies to attract them considering these new
consumer trends.

What is your socio-economic status?

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Socioeconomic status is the social standing or class of an individual or group.
It is often measured as a combination of education, income and occupation.
Examinations of socioeconomic status often reveal inequities in access to
resources, plus issues related to privilege, power and control.

What is the socio-economic profile?

Socioeconomic status (SES) is an economic and sociological combined total
measure of a person's work experience and of an individual's or family's
economic and social position in relation to others. ... However, SES is more
commonly used to depict an economic difference in society as a whole.

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 INFORMATION SHEET NUMBER 3.1.3
INTERPRETING CUSTOMER PROFILE

What Are the 3 Methods of Customer Profiling?

Understanding Customer Profiling

Customer profiling is a way of creating portraits of your customers that are
based on factual information, such as their buying behaviors or customer
service interactions. These aren’t meant to replace traditional demographics,
but are used to complement them as you work with customer touchpoints.

In many businesses, the people behind the products or services offered are
rarely the end users. Customer profiling is a tool which allows you to visualize
the customer types who will actually interact with what you provide. Instead of
deferring to team members when making a decision, you can refer to these
customer types to meet the customer’s pain points and expectations.

Customer profiling can tailor products or services for more specific groups of
people, rather than drawing broadly and hoping to capture more of the market.
In recognizing your customer, you can develop an edge over competitors since
you can tailor your products to have more impactful features and attract more
people who are likely to buy it.

How Customer Profiling Is Done

Customer profiling is done by breaking customers down into groups that share
similar characteristics and goals. For example, if the goal is to purchase a
smartphone online, there might not be too much of a difference in the habits of
a single professional and a married business executive.

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Both would know how to use an online shopping platform, but won’t have
much time to spend in choosing a smartphone model. They would also have
more purchasing power compared to someone like a high school student.

There are three methods of profiling customers based on their decision-

making styles:

1) The Psychographic Approach

The psychographic approach takes a look at customers’ lifestyles to define
market segments. Many components play a role in using the psychographic
approach, such as activities, interests, values, and social class.

Lifestyle and demographics are factors that include age, location, and gender.
For example, a customer’s lifestyle determines how your product will fit into
the needs of school-going, college-going, and office-going customers’ buying
habits respectively.
Activities, interests, and opinions are a subset of lifestyle, focusing on
your customers’ activities, interests, and opinions. It’s not a problem if
customer A enjoys romance books while customer B prefers fantasy novels –
both of them are readers, and that is how you profile them.
Values, attitudes, and social class pertain to how people were brought up.
These affect how they spend their money and what they choose to spend their
money on. Social class is especially important, as their income determines their
buying power.

2) The Consumer Typology Approach

The customer typology approach segregates consumers based on their
motivations, their mindsets, and how to engage them. There are usually four
types of consumers: loyal consumers, discount consumers, impulsive
consumers, and need-based consumers.

Loyal consumers are rare, but valuable. They tend to remain loyal to a brand
and promote these brands through word-of-mouth.
• Discount consumers, on the other hand, don’t prefer one brand over
another. They will only make a purchase if there is a discount or a sale.
• Impulsive consumers do not shop with anything specific in mind.
Unlike either loyal or discount consumers, they aren’t looking for a
product, service, or brand, and spend their money capriciously. They are
more emotionally driven rather than logically driven when making
decisions.
• Need-based consumers are the opposite of impulsive ones, as they will
only purchase a product or service to fulfill a need. They are the type who
would enter a store quickly, make a purchase, then leave.

3) The Consumer Characteristics Approach

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The consumer characteristics approach asks what traits influence buying
decisions. There are a variety of consumer characteristics, but there are three
common ones that define modern consumers.

• Convenience-driven is one trait that characterizes a modern consumer.

These are the customers who may not have much time on their hands,
so they order products or services online so these arrive faster. For them,
everything should be fast, simple, and easy to use.
• Connectivity-driven consumers want to feel part of a community; they
feel connected to someone else if both purchase the same product.
Connectivity-driven consumers also tend to listen to other people for
their opinion on products, services, and brands. If one person says the
product is good, then these consumers would be more inclined to make
the same purchase.
• Personalization-driven consumers would prefer a customer experience
that is customized for them specifically. These consumers value making
the choice of how a product will look, or how a service will be attuned to
their needs exactly.

Creating Your Customer Profiles

Creating a customer profile begins by gathering information on existing,

satisfied customers, then trying to target new prospects with matching profiles
of your target group. You can begin customer profiling by:

Collecting feedback from your customers: Survey your existing customers to

get their feedback on what you are offering and how they perceive your
business. It’s important to do this especially when your business launches
something new. You would know what works, what doesn’t work, and what can
be improved. Include incentives that will induce them to complete your survey,
such as discounts on the next purchase.
Keeping your customer profiles consistent and up to date: Documentation is
naturally a part of consumer profiling. Keep your findings in a database that is
easy for you to read and familiarize yourself with. The template of the profiles
should be the same for every customer type and should include information,
such as their name, email address, demographics, behaviors, habits,
psychographics and societal surroundings.
Surveying your customers on their interests and preferences: A customer
profile will change based on customer experiences and trends, which is why it
is recommended to conduct surveys quarterly. Identify their gender, job role,
location, habits, interests, and preferences and include these in the profile.
Using Customer Profiles to Find the Best Customers
Among the many case studies conducted by McKinsey, a quick-service
restaurant chain used people analytics to create a profile for their frontline
employees to understand how they can play a part in growing the business.

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They created a profile for each employee and categorized them into four
different archetypes. Using each profile, they gathered, the business tried to
find out which variables corresponded most closely to store success and found
that certain employee archetypes achieved more due to their personalities.

The reverse can be done to find an ideal customer for your business as well. In
creating a customer profile of your ideal customer, your sales team will be able
to better identify similar customers who are a better fit for your business. You
can match the customer profile of each successful sale to understand who your
business should be looking for.

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 INFORMATION SHEET NUMBER 3.1.4
AVAILABLE TIME FOR TIME ELEMENT

1. Understand the importance of providing excellent customer service in

travel and tourism organisations

Customer service: first impressions; company image eg logo, premises,

organisational efficiency; speed and accuracy of service; consistency; products
and services offered; meeting customer needs; offering information and advice;
dealing with complaints; dealing with problems; meeting and exceeding
customer expectations

Importance to the organisation: keeping existing customers satisfied;

increasing customers’ loyalty; ensuring repeat business; enhancing an
organisation’s image; providing an edge over the competition; increasing sales
and usage by attracting new customers; the consequences of poor customer
service for the customer, the staff and the organisation

Importance to the customer: meeting individual customer needs; exceeding

customers’ expectations; safe and secure environment for internal and external
customers Importance to the employee: a happier working environment; job
satisfaction; job security; higher self-esteem; possibility of promotion

2. Know how travel and tourism organisations adapt customer service to

meet the individual needs of customers

Different types of customer: individuals eg leisure, business; groups

Individual needs: products and services; stated; unstated; special needs eg
medical conditions, mobility; customers with cultural and language needs;
other needs eg relating to age, gender, socio-economic group, family
circumstances

3. Know the customer service skills required to meet customer needs in

travel and tourism contexts

• Communication skills: face to face; telephone eg call centre; building

rapport; effective listening; questioning; developing a dialogue; non-
verbal communication eg body language, eye contact; written
communication
• Presentation: of self eg hygiene, dress, personality, appearance; of
working environment Teamwork: eg motivation, team roles, delegation of

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 tasks, lines of authority; benefits of teamwork to colleagues, customers
and the organisation
• Business skills: completion of documentation eg tickets, forms; use of IT
eg email, computerized reservations system (CRS), internet; business
standards eg accuracy, legibility, business conventions Complaint
handling: listening; questioning; empathizing; understanding the
problem; taking control of the situation; agreeing solutions; follow up
Selling skills: building rapport; establishing customer needs and
expectations; product knowledge; features and benefits; overcoming
objections; closing the sale

4. Be able to apply customer service and selling skills in travel and

tourism situations

Customer service: providing information and advice; providing assistance;

dealing with complaints; dealing with problems eg overbookings, lost property;
making sales; after sales advice; product knowledge

Situations: verbal (face-to-face, telephone); non-verbal (written, electronic);

holiday sales eg accommodation reservations, flight bookings, ticket sales,
excursion sales; requests for information eg flight and journey details; requests
for advice eg visa and health requirements; complex requests eg airport
assistance, priority seating and flight upgrade; complaints eg flight delays, poor
quality accommodation

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 INFORMATION SHEET NUMBER 3.1.5
COMMUNICATION SKILLS, SPECIFICALLY ACTIVE LISTENING AND
QUESTIONING

Generating Ideas for Business

The process of developing/generating business idea is not a simple

process. Some people just come to a bunch of business ideas, but some
really are without ideas. There are two problems that arise: first is the
excessive generation of ideas which will take forever and will remain in the
dreaming stage, and second is when they do not have ideas and want to
become entrepreneurs.

The most optimal way is to have a systematic approach in generating

and selecting business idea that will be transferred in real business. Here are
some basic yet very important considerations you may use to generate
possible ideas for business:

1. Examine the existing goods and services. Are you satisfied with the
product? What do other people who use the product say about it? How
can it be improved? There are many ways of improving a product from the
way it is made to the way it is packed and sold? You can also improve the
materials used in crafting the product. In addition, you introduce new
ways of using the product, making it more useful and adaptable to the
customers’ many needs. When you are improving the product or
enhancing it, you are doing an innovation. You can also do an invention
by introducing an entirely new product to replace the old one.
Business ideas may also be generated by examining what goods
and services are sold outside by the community. Very often, these
products are sold in a form that can still be enhanced or improved.

2. Examine the present and future needs. Look and listen to what the
customers, institutions, and communities are missing in terms of goods
and services. Sometimes, these needs are already obvious and felt at the
moment. Other needs are not that obvious because they can only be felt
in the future, or in the event of certain developments in the community.
For example, a province will have its electrification facility in the next six
months. Only by that time will the entrepreneur think of electrically powered or
generated business such as photo copier, computer service,
digital printing, etc.

3. Examine how the needs are being satisfied. Needs for the products and
services are referred to as market demand. To satisfy these needs is to supply
the products and services that meet the demands of the market. The term
market refers to whoever will use or buy the products or service, and these may
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be people or institutions such as other businesses, establishments,
organizations, or government agencies.

There is a very good business opportunity when there is absolutely no supply

to a pressing market demand.

Businesses or industries in the locality also have needs for goods and services.
Their needs for raw materials, maintenance, and other services such as selling
and distribution are good sources of ideas for business

4. Examine the available resources around you. Observe what materials or

skills are available in abundance in your area. A business can be started out of
available raw materials by selling them in raw form and by processing and
manufacturing them into finished products. For example, in a copra-producing
town, there will be many coconut husks and shells available as “waste”
products. These can be collected and made into coco rags/doormat and
charcoal bricks, and sold profitably outside the community.

A group of people in your neighborhood may have some special skills that can
be harnessed for business. For example, women in the Mountain Province
possess loom weaving skills that have been passed on from one generation to
the next generation. Some communities there set up weaving businesses to
produce blankets, as well as decorative items and various souvenir items for
sale to tourists and lowland communities.

Business ideas can come from your own skills. The work and experience you
may have in agricultural arts, industrial arts, home economics, and
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) classes will provide you with
business opportunities to acquire the needed skills which will earn for you
extra income, should you decide to engage in income-generating activities. With
your skills, you may also tinker around with various things in your spare time.
Many products were invented this way.

5. Read magazines, news articles, and other publications on new products

and techniques or advances in technology. You can pick up new business
ideas from Newsweek, Reader’s Digest, Business Magazines, “Go Negosyo”,
Small-Industry Journal. The internet serves as a library where you may browse
and surf on possible businesses. It will also guide you on how to put the right
product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time.

Listing of possible businesses to set up in an area may also be available from

banks or local non-government organizations.

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 INFORMATION SHEET NUMBER 3.1.6
INTERPRETING CUSTOMER PROFILE

Key Concepts of Selecting a Business Idea

Once you have embarked on identifying the business opportunities, you will
eventually see that there are many possibilities that are available for you. It is
very unlikely that you will have enough resources to pursue all of them at once.
Which one will you choose?

You have to select the most promising one from among the hundreds of ideas.
It will be good to do this in stages. In the first stage, you screen your ideas to
narrow them down to about five choices. In the next stage, trim down the five
choices to two options. In the final stage, choose between the two and decide
which business idea is worth pursuing.

In screening your ideas, examine each one in terms of the following

factors:

1. How much capital is needed to put up the business?

2. How big is the demand for the product? Do many people need this product
and will continue to need it for a long time?

3. How is the demand met? Who are processing the products to meet
the need (competition or demand)? How much of the need is now being met
(supply)?

4. Do you have the background and experience needed to run this particular
business?

5. Will the business be legal, not going against any existing or foreseeable
government regulation?

6. Is the business in line with your interest and expertise?

Your answers to these questions will be helpful in screening which ones from
among your many ideas are worth examining further and worth pursuing.

Branding

Branding is a marketing practice of creating names, symbols or designs that

identifies and differentiates products/services from other products/services. It
is also a promise to your customers. It tells them what they can expect from
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your product/ services and it differentiates your offerings from other
competitors. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and
who people perceive you to be.

Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business. An effective

brand strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly competitive markets.

The features of a good product brand are as follows:

- Delivers the message clearly

- Confirms your credibility
- Connects your target prospects emotionally
- Motivates the buyer
- Concretizes user loyalty

Here are some simple tips to publicize your brand.

.
• Develop a tagline. Write a meaningful unforgettable, and easy to
remember statement that captures the essence of your brand.
• Get a great logo. Create a logo suitable to your business and
consistent with your tagline and place it everywhere.
• Write down your brand messaging. Select key messages you
want to communicate about your brand.
• Be true to your brand. Deliver your brand promise.
• Be consistent. Be reliable and consistent every time.

In generating business idea, you should first identify what type of

business is suited to your idea. You should analyze and scan the potential
environment, study the marketing practices and strategies of your
competitors, analyze the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and
Threats in your environment to ensure that the products/services you are
planning to offer will be patronized within easy reach by your target
markets/consumers.

Bear in mind these simple rules for successful SWOT analysis.

• Be realistic about the strengths and weaknesses of your business
when conducting SWOT analysis.
• SWOT analysis should distinguish between where your business is
today, and where it could be in the future.
• SWOT should always be specific. Avoid any grey areas.
• Always apply SWOT in relation to your competition i.e. better than or
worse than your competition.
• Keep your SWOT short and simple. Avoid complexity and over
analysis
• SWOT is subjective.

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