Questions 1.

(a)Describe the marketing information you need and how you will acquire it citing the sources and the processes to launch marketing campaign locally and abroad.
A marketing information system is a continuing and interacting structure of people, equipment and procedures to gather, sort, analyse, evaluate, and distribute pertinent, timely and accurate information for use by marketing decision makers to improve their marketing planning, implementation, and control A marketing information system (MIS) is intended to bring together disparate items of data into a coherent body of information. An MIS is, as will shortly be seen, more than raw data or information suitable for the purposes of decision making. An MIS also provides methods for interpreting the information the MIS provides. Moreover, as Kotler's definition says, an MIS is more than a system of data collection or a set of information technologies.
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a) Internal reporting systems: All enterprises which have been in operation for any period of time nave a wealth of information. However, this information often remains under-utilised because it is compartmentalised, either in the form of an individual entrepreneur or in the functional departments of larger businesses. That is, information is usually categorised according to its nature so that there are, for example, financial, production, manpower, marketing, stockholding and logistical data.

It sources is from various department within the KMC company such as financial, production, manpower, and marketing departments which will help the manager in decision making!!
The internal records that are of immediate value to marketing decisions are: orders received, stockholdings and sales invoices. These are but a few of the internal records that can be used by managers, but even this small set of records is capable of generating a great deal of information.

Methodology or procedure of implementing internal reporting systems in launching marketing campaigns locally and abroad.

Understand the Definition of Internal Control

The starting point for an evaluation of internal control is defining the criteria against which the assessment will be made

Organize a Project Team to Conduct the Evaluation

Selecting an appropriate team and establishing ground rules such as responsibilities, documentation approach, and timing are important to a successful project. Section 2 discusses these matters.

Evaluate Internal Control at the Entity Level

Begin the evaluation by considering internal control at the entity level. Strong internal control at the entity level is an important part

of an effective system of internal control.

Understand and Evaluate Internal Control at the Process, Transaction, or Application Level
Determining significant accounts 1 Identifying significant processes that affect those accounts 1 Identifying the major classes of transactions that are embedded in those significant processes 1 Determining where errors could occur in the processes 1 Identifying controls designed to prevent or detect those errors

Evaluate Overall Effectiveness, Identify Matters for Improvement, and Establish Monitoring System
The evaluation of the overall effectiveness of internal control is both the end and the beginning of the process. In a dynamic business environment, controls will require modification from time to time. Certain systems may require control enhancements to respond to new products or emerging risks. In other areas, the evaluation may point out redundant controls or other procedures that are no longer necessary importance of this system!

Reducing the cost of accounting processes 1 Identifying existing control procedures that are redundant, inefficient, or cost ineffective 1 Simplifying systems Increasing productivity 1 Improving the effectiveness of the design or operation of controls
Marketing research systems Marketing research is a critical part of such a marketing intelligence system; it helps to improve management decision making by providing relevant, accurate, and timely (RAT) information. Every decision poses unique needs for information, and relevant strategies can be developed based on the information gathered through marketing research in action. Firms can achieve and sustain a competitive advantage through the creative use of market information. Hence, marketing research is defined as an information input to decisions, not simply the evaluation of decisions that have been made. Marketing research is not an immediate or an obvious path to finding solutions to all managerial problems. A manager who is faced with a particular problem should not instinctively resort to conducting a marketing research to find a solution to the problem. A manager should consider several factors before ordering marketing research. Sometimes it is best not to conduct marketing research. Hence, the primary decision to be made is whether or not market research is called for in a particular situation. Factors that influence this initial decision include the following. Relevance Type and Nature of Information Sought

 Timing Availability Cost-Benefit

of Resources Analysis

Sources of marketing research systems

Questionnaires Interviews Observations Process

Problem Identification and Definition This is the introductory phase of the marketing research process. Basically, it involves a clear and precise understanding of the problem at hand. It is crucial that the research team identifies, understands and defines the problem in its entire capacity, as it affects all the subsequent activities involved in the research process. Research teams make use of customer feedback, internal and external data reports, sales graphs, purchasing patterns, etc. to come up with an accurate problem definition. Designing a Proper Approach The next step is to come up with a near-flawless approach which is aimed at solving the identified problem. During this process, the research team has to analyze and examine a variety of factors such as the company's targets, goals and objectives, financial resources, skill sets, manpower, industry environment, changing business trends, etc. This phase often involves joint discussions between the research team, industry experts and higher management. Developing the Actual Research Design This is the decisive step of the marketing research process. The research design is the very fulcrum of the entire marketing research process. The solidity of the research design alone decides the success or failure of the research program to a large extent. Naturally, this step is the most time-consuming of all the steps and it needs careful thinking and precise execution. Different activities involved in this process include feedback analysis, qualitative and quantitative analysis, preparing questionnaires as well as sampling of data and processes. Data Collection and Survey This process mainly involves a lot of field-related work activities such as outdoor interviews, survey campaigns and feedback sessions which are done by specially assigned data collection agents or field agents. Almost all of those doorbell-ringing pamphlet guys or the irritating telecallers who telephone at the most untimely of hours, are data collection agents who are just doing their duty, as part of their company's marketing research process. Data collection and surveying is also implemented by means of Internet surveys, group discussions, mail surveys, etc. Data Structuring and Analysis Once the data collection and surveying activities have yielded sufficient and relevant data, it is time to systematically organize the data so that it can be interpreted and analyzed by decision makers. This typically involves activities such as data mining, clustering of data, preparing statistical graphs and curves, etc.

Report Generation and Presentation All the effort that goes into designing an approach, developing a research design, collecting data and finally analyzing the data, completely goes waste, if the findings and the results are not presented properly. It is imperative that the whole marketing research project be properly documented and accounted for. The entire purpose of the research campaign is to enable the higher management to make informed decisions which will benefit the progress and the sales of the concerned product or service. Hence, it is crucial that the research findings be presented accurately, clearly and relevantly. For this purpose, the use of appropriate statistics, graphs, piecharts, etc. is recommended.

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/basic-steps-of-marketing-research-process.html

question 2 Type of Product Market: Communications mix allocations vary between consumers & markets. Consumer marketers tend to spend comparatively more on sales promotion & advertising; business marketers tend to spend comparatively more on personal selling. In general, personal selling is used more with complex, expensive & risky goods in markets with fewer & larger sellers (hence, business markets).

1. Push or Pull Strategy: The promotional mix is heavily influenced by whether the company chooses the push or pulls strategy to create sales. Push strategy involves the manufacturer using sales force & trade promotion to induce intermediaries to carry, promote & sell the product to end users. Push strategy is especially appropriate where there is no brand loyalty in the category, brand choices made in the stores, the product is an impulse item, & the product benefits are well understood. A pull strategy involves the manufacturer using advertising in consumer promotion in order to induce consumers who asks the intermediaries to order it. A pull strategy is appropriate when there is high brand loyalty & high involvement in the category, people pursue differences between brands & people choose the brand before they go to the shop. Companies in the same industry may differ in their emphasis on push or pull. For instance: Procter & Gamble relies more on pull strategy whereas the Lever Brothers rely more on push strategy. Top marketing companies such as coca-cola, Intel and Nike skillfully employ both push and pull strategy. PUSH vs. PULL a) PUSH: Producer marketing activities to Retailers and Wholesalers who resell to Consumers. Personal selling, trade promotion by producer and personal selling, advertising and sales promotion by wholesaler/retailer.

b) PULL: Producer marketing activities directed at consumer to create demand from retailers and wholesalers that then creates demand from producer. Consumer advertising, sales promotion.

2. Buyer Readiness Stage: Communication tools vary in cost effectiveness at different stages of buyer readiness. Advertising & publicity play the most important roles in the awareness building stage. Customer comprehension is primarily affected by advertising & personal selling. Customer conviction is influenced mostly by personal selling. Closing the sale is influenced mostly by personal selling & sales promotion. Reordering is also affected mostly by personal selling & sales promotion, & s3. Product Life Cycle Stage: The promotional tools also vary in cost effectiveness at different stages of the product life cycle. i. In introduction stage, advertising and publicity have the highest cost effectiveness followed by personal selling in order to gain distribution coverage and sales promotion to induce trial. ii. At the growth stage all the tools can be toned down because demand has its own momentum through word of mouth. iii. In the maturity stage, sales promotion, advertising & personal selling all grow more important in that order. iv. In the decline stage, sales promotion continues strong, advertising & publicity are reduced & sales people give the product only minimal attention. 4. The Company's Market Rank: After implementing the promotional plan, the communicator must measure its impact on the target audience. Members of the target audience are asked whether they recognize or recall the message, how many times they saw it, what points they recall, how they felt about the message, & the previous & current attitudes towards the product & company. The communicator should also collect behavioral measures of audience response, such as how many people bought the product, liked it & talk to other about it. http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-tips-articles/integrated-marketing-management-imc4029166.html Advertising - Any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor. Reaches large, geographically dispersed audiences, often with high frequency; Low cost per exposure, though overall costs are high; Consumers perceive advertised goods as more

legitimate; Dramatizes company/brand; Builds brand image; may stimulate short-term sales; Impersonal, one-way communication; Expensive Public relations - Building good relationships with the companys various publics by obtaining favorable publicity, building up a good "corporate image", and handling or heading off unfavorable rumors, stories, and events. Highly credible; Very believable; Many forms: news stories, news features, events and sponsorships, etc.; Reaches many prospects missed via other forms of promotion; Dramatizes company or product; Often the most under used element in the promotional mix; Relatively inexpensive (certainly not 'free' as many people think--there are costs involved) Direct marketing - Direct communications with carefully targeted individual consumers to obtain an immediate response and cultivate lasting customer relationships. Many forms: Telephone marketing, direct mail, online marketing, etc.; Four distinctive characteristics: Nonpublic, Immediate, Customized, Interactive; Well-suited to highlytargeted marketing efforts http://www.davedolak.com/promix.htm Disadvantages of personal selling high cost-per-action (CPA) As noted in the Promotion Decisions tutorial, CPA can be an important measure of the success of promotion spending. Since personal selling involves personto-person contact, the money spent to support a sales staff (i.e., sales force) can be steep. Training Costs Most forms of personal selling require the sales staff be extensively trained on product knowledge, industry information and selling skills. For companies that require their salespeople attend formal training programs, the cost of training can be quite high and include such expenses as travel, hotel, meals, and training equipment while also paying the trainees salaries while they attend. http://www.knowthis.com/principles-of-marketing-tutorials/personal-selling/disadvantages-ofpersonal-selling/ sales promotions If used over the long-term, customers may get used to the effect Too much promotion may damage the brand image http://tutor2u.net/business/marketing/promotion_mix.asp

question 3 publicity campaign plan

Step 1: Define and write down your objectives for your publicity or media plan. How will you design your public relations campaign? Will it be designed to:
o o o o o o o

Establish your expertise among your peers, the press, or your potential clients or customers? Build goodwill among your customer, supplier, or your community? Create and reinforce your brand and professional corporate image? Inform and create good perceptions regarding your company and services? Assist you in introducing a new service or product to your market? Generate sales or leads? Mitigate the impact of negative publicity and/or corporate crisis?

You may be wondering why I am asking you these things at the beginning of a tutorial that is supposed to show you how to create and your develop publicity plan? The answer is easy. In order for your publicity and media plan to be successful it's first most important to determine and define your objective. With a clear objective in mind you have laid the ground work to the complete the remainder of this tutorial.

Step 2: Define your goals in achieving this objective. It is important that your goals be specific, measurable, results-oriented and time-bound. These goals must be in-line with your overall business, marketing, and sales objectives. Step 3: Determine who your target audience consists of. Who is it that you want to reach with this campaign? What do you want your key message to be? Step 4: Develop a schedule for your public relation campaigns. Create synergy by coinciding your public relations plan with other marketing and sales efforts. Step 5: Develop your plan of attack. What communication vehicles will you use to get your message to the public? Examples may include: o Press releases o Articles o Customer Success Stories o Letters to the Editor o Press Conferences, Interview, or Media Tours o Radio, Television, or Press Interviews o Seminars or Speaking Engagements o Event Sponsorships Select three from the list and beginning researching and developing your approach.

Step 6: Put measures in place to track the results of your PR Campaign. After each campaign sit down and review the results. Did you achieve the defined objectives and goals of this campaign? Should you consider modifying your original plan? If so, how and why?

http://marketing.about.com/cs/publicrelations/a/prplan6steps.htm

market, message, and timing. First, you need a properly selected market. The market must be sizeable enough or have enough resources to support a business. For example, bubble gum requires billions of sales for pennies to be profitable. Jet airplanes require relatively few big-dollar sales. In between is a big range. The numbers have to work, or the business won't work. A marketing-oriented business and it's products are designed around satisfying (delighting) the target market. Understanding this opens up the company to "back end" possibilities beyond traditional businesses of its "type." For example, CPA firms who serve substantial individuals are now offering clients financial planning and financial products (mortgages, securities and life insurance) in addition to traditional tax and accounting services. Second, the message, including the offer, must appeal to the market. Robert Collier described this as harmonizing with the thinking of the customer. You have to understand the customer enough to be able to describe the wants, fears, problems and desires of the customer and how your offering solves or satisfies them so well that the customer will swear you have been hiding under his or her kitchen table! ("How can I go home and tell my wife and kids we don't have the money for that trip to Disneyland we planned this year?") In order to get this information, you need to talk to people. It can be helpful to market to a group with which you have a common background, such as a former barber selling personal care products to other barbers. Third, the timing of the offering is critical. The difference between salad and garbage is timing. Markets tend to go through "waves" when they are receptive to certain products and messages. Some old-timers remember the hula-hoop fad. There isn't much demand for buggy whips these days. Think of the fellow whose wife left with all of the furniture when he was at work one day. Last week, he wasn't interested in buying furniture. Now he's critically interested. If a furniture sales company has its message in his face at that moment, he will be highly receptive. Writing about these elements is easy. Doing the research to understand how they relate to your business can be hard work, but very rewarding! http://www.profitadvisors.com/successful.shtml

countries to target and why???

Business entry strategies: