The Characteristic of Services:

A) A service is intangible – this service is an unknown element therefore carries a small risk factor to customer.

B) Services perishable – A vendor also carries a risk here due to it perish ability. As with intangible services this is an external influence that need be taken into consideration upon marketing them.

C) A service is inseparable – a service relies heavily on its intermediaries to deliver the service in the best way possible. This creates an inseparable area between service provider and consumer. Needs have a direct link.

D) Services are not homogeneous – A service will inevitably vary from one to the other, there is rarely a service that is exactly the same as another. Each service purchase is unique.

Products are Services.

What is the best way to grow sales repertoire brand:

b) Overall the main emphasis is to gain more customers.

As Dirichilet analysis have proven from its findings, customer loyalty makes up only a small percentage of an organizations turnover. This being said of course loyal customers are important, but the push to gain more customers is vanguard. Customer’s loyalty can change overnight, therefore it is important to service and maintain good relationships with these loyal customers but push forward in increasing your customer base. This will equal greater turnover.

Marketing toward this keeps an organization on its toes, continually reassessing its market position has proven to be an important aspect of a company’s sustainability in the market place.

‘Practice what you preach’ as mum always says, somehow I think that saying has found its way into many peoples train of thought in the workplace and that matter everyday life.

Leading by example will gain respect amongst colleagues in your business and organization and in turn will achieve better results. This is not rocket science, however sometimes you can get caught up in everything else that is going on in your business that these sorts of things are pushed aside.

Treat employees as you wish to be treated, they are a part of the team!

Pokies! Not only does it effect the average household but it has a sever impact on our economy and the communities disposable income.

People in small business are definably effected by Pokies, especially those that have a commodity that is not a necessity and even those that do it seems that even the necessities are being neglected.

There is only so much disposable income to go around. And most of it is going into the pockets of  publicans hands, some mind you with very little business innovation at all.

The conclusion myself and colleagues have come to is that many peoples disposable income is thrown down the gurgle and at the same time making publicans look as though they are business gurus(most know better than that), and as a whole this has a direct effect on small business. The only positive thing to come out of it is that all pubs are being renovated giving us all nice drinking holes to go to!

As a business owner myself I can totally understand and why hotels and pubs welcome the pokies in their business as a strong form of revenue raising. However. perhaps firmer regulations need to put in place by state and federal governemnts to help maintain other parts of the economy whom supply a lot of people an income and jobs too.

Why some ‘local’ brands in thinking of local, consider brands that are currently only seen in countries of their origin cannot make it to the international market?
What are some of the obstacles faced by ‘local’ companies when developing their brands for international markets?

Brand equity is formulated and built up over time. To just go from one country to another and expect that your Brand recognition will be there will not happen. A brand has an evolving process that is associated visually and by the name. Therefore it takes some time for Brand equity to build up. A particular Brand has built up loyalty, reputation, relevance, awareness etc in that particular country to be able to achieve its Brand Equity.

Obstacles: what ‘local’ companies are faced with when developing their brands internationally.
- Competition: they will be likely to be faced with direct competition that may not have brand equity where you are currently operating but most certainly will in the country you are attempting to expand to.
- Cultural understanding: understanding the particular culture thoroughly, making sure that your product will be accepted into their society. Cultural sensitivity. Building brand awareness.
- Brand Relevance
- Price: bringing the product at an acceptable price to the consumer of that country. What is acceptable in the brands origin may not be acceptable there.
- Building brand loyalty
- Understanding what will be visually stimulating to that particular country
- Building Reputation to increase Brand equity.

Advantages of Co-branding
- Synergy of two brands that share the same market place – using this to increase sales
- To give a brand access to the market place for that particular product that it may not been able to reach otherwise.
- Saving of advertising money – sharing the cost with the co brander
- Easier access to retail shelf space. By co branding with a brand that has the access already.
- Combining brands to produce a product concept that will work in the market place.
- Quickly transfer the stature, imagery and approbation of one brand to another.
- Rapidly increases almost every aspect of the marketing funnel from initial awareness to building loyalty
Types of Co-branding
- Promotional/Sponsorship Co-Branding
- Ingredient Co-Branding
- Value Chain Co-Branding – Product Service Co-Branding, Supplier-retailer and Alliance Co-Branding.
- Innovation-Based Co-Branding
‘One of the most successful and well-known innovators of co-branding is VISA card. With selective partnering, VISA has gained worldwide recognition with over a billion cards in use today spanning across more than 130 countries!’

Disadvantages of Co-branding
- If a brand has too many Brand Liabilities this can be detrimental to the other brand.
- Customer dissatisfaction
- Environmental problems
- Product or service failures
- Lawsuits and boycotts
- Questionable business practices
- Devaluation
- If one partner files for bankruptcy – an unexpected challenge
- Bad press re criminal activity – if made public this can be detrimental
- Threats to operation – the partnering organizations may not be able to work well together
- Conflict of interest if two organizations are looking to attract the same customer, this can be detrimental to sales of one or both partners
- Believing the partner brand is omnipotent
What is the lesson? How does it relate to any concept so far?

Lessons and Relation to concepts so far:
- Strong differentiation can be less effective than hiding behind an existing
- New brand with strong differentiation is a stronger concept
- To produce a product that consumer’s see relevant to them for their use, combing this together with differentiation will be successful in the market place.
- To make consumers aware of the difference – Customer Awareness
- Innovate in small increments – then take a larger step – strategic innovation
- Customers generally follow products in their repertoire
- Understanding your customers habits and behavior
- Use effective marketing to support the innovation
- Avoid persuasion – doesn’t work
- Research the negative actions – i.e. relative to purchasing the old (replacement product)
- Influential groups/people – Opinion leaders – know the people who influence/use the innovation.
- Offer something with that point of difference, keeping on track to what is relevant to your target market. NEEDS/WANTS.

There are so many underprivileged and undereducated people whom products are in demand and are taken for granted when supplying them. Incorporating a social aspect into a business can go a long way to business sustainability and general impact on various peoples lives and standard of living.

See the Starbucks case below to gain an understanding on how they approach fair trade in the coffee industry.

Video Case: STARBUCKS

Introduction/Company Overview

In this case study I will answer and address a key factors of the Starbuck’s Corporation. The importance for Starbucks to ensure a consistent supply of high-grade coffee, discussing long term contracts that Starbuck’s have in place and the drawbacks and effects of this and finally “free trade coffee” vs. “fair trade coffee”. Starbucks are a global corporation established thirty-three years ago in Seattle’s Pike Place Market with a single outlet. Now boasting in excess of 6,300 outlets in 27 countries outlines its deliberate large commitment to Foreign Direct Investment, with an increasing proportion of these outlets found outside of the US. The basic idea that initiated from Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz is to supply premium roasted coffee beverages, pastries, teas and coffee accessories through a coffeehouse format, with a strong focus on customer satisfaction, needs and wants.
Case Discussion Questions

1. Why is it important for Starbucks to ensure a consistent supply of high-grade specialty coffee?

It is important for Starbucks to supply a consistent high-grade specialty coffee for a couple of reasons. The first and foremost reason is that this is the formula that has worked for the Starbucks Corporation, and most of all is expected from their customers. This is a key marketing focus of the Starbucks Corporation and is emulated through all of the media that is produced on Starbucks, ‘premium coffee supplied’. Disappointment in this area from a customer’s perspective will have a domino affect on the company and lead to a severe reduction in sales. At the top of the supply chain, where Starbucks is supplying its Licensees globally, consistency is imperative to maintain and sustain the business 1) the expectations of the licenses to receive this and 2) as mentioned above, customers expect to receive consistency in taste and quality.

2. How do long-term contracts help Starbucks to ensure this consistent supply? What is the main draw back with signing long-term contracts? Why is the drawback not particularly important for Starbucks?

Long-term contracts help Starbucks ensure this consistent supply of coffee because fundamentally they give stability to the farmers business by offering long-term contracts. By doing this they enable the farmers the capabilities to produce premium grade coffee for Starbucks, by keeping up with technology in this area of farming. The main drawback with long-term contracts is that Starbucks guarantee a minimum price to the manufacturers within these contracts, therefore at times are paying a premium price for their coffee. This drawback is not particularly important to Starbucks, as they have tailored their particular market to pay the premium prices for the premium coffee. With Starbucks able to pass on these prices to its customers this alleviates some of the pressure when they pay the premium prices to the manufacturer. Starbucks see this as a partnership with the farmers, and a strategic alliance by assisting in maintaining the farmers business for lengthy periods of times ensures a consistent supply of premium coffee for lengthy periods of time. This is part of the Strabucks successful formula in the sustainability of the business.

3. Starbucks has started to sell Fair Trade coffee. What is the difference between “free trade” coffee and “fair trade” coffee? Does it follow that “free trade coffee” is not fair? What do theories of international trade tell us about how “fair” free trade is?

Starbuck’s and the “Fair Trade Coffee” movement share a common objective and that is to help ensure that the farmers, who are key in supplying Starbuck’s premium grade coffee, receive an equitable price for their coffee and strengthen their farms for the future. It is noted that Starbuck’s is the only company licensed to sell Fair Trade Coffee in 23 countries including; Austria, Australia, Canada, China France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom and the United States.

“Free Trade Coffee” refers to the reduction of taxes, quotas and various other legal barricades to trade between countries. Under the free trade, somewhat of a volatile international market determines coffee prices. The world free market price often falls below a farmer’s costs off production and leaves farm families in a precarious position of survival.

Yes Starbucks does follow that “free-trade coffee” is not fair. That is a moral standpoint. However business ethics vary from company to company, but in Starbuck’s case it definitely is obvious that “free trade coffee” is not fair.

“One reason for the introducing popularity of fair-trade labelling is that it avoids these issues of government intervention and complex and drawn-out negotiations between governments, allowing consumers to voluntarily help disadvantaged producers in poor countries” (Wikipedia, June 2006)

Another point made is that “Fair Trade can operate alongside free trade arrangements such as NAFTA, because it does not introduce new regulations. Fair Trade gives consumers a choice – an important part of the free market system! (Ben & Jerry’s, June 2006)

References

Ben & Jerry’s – Fair Trade Coffee FAQ’s
http://www.benjerry.com/features/for_a_change/coffee_fac/faqs.cfm

Byrnes, Jonathon, S. Harvard Business School, Working Knowledge – Supply Chain Management in a Wal-Mart World, August 4, 2003
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=3616&t=dispatch

Hill, Charles W.L, International Business, Competing in the Global Marketplace, Fifth Edition, 2005

http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/StarbucksAndFairTrade.pdf

http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/origins.asp

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopaedia, June 2006
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_trade

There needs to be a fine balance of urgency and composure. More than likely if you have something new and innovative and are attempting to bring it to the market, there is someone else out there thinking of the same thing.

There are many innovative souls out there competing for a market and if you want to hit the market first it is a matter of those whom are able to act precisely and constructively to get the job done before the other.

It is every man for themselves out there in the world of business, be innovative, productive and accurate to hit the ground running!

If this is a throw away line you have heard in and around your business, reevaluate your situation IMMEDIATELY. Whilst being self employed or owning your own business most certainly has its benefits, if there is an initial mindset like this from yourself or one of the partners, there is a downward spiral about to happen.

Working for yourself takes commitment to your employees, your suppliers and yourself to get the most out what you are doing. Paying yourself a wage from your own business can be a success in itself and to sustain this for a period of time is another thing all together.

Be selective when choosing your partners in business and be aware of their ideologies of work ethic and commitment. There must be an element of fun and enjoyment in the work place and enjoy the advantages of working for oneself at the same time there needs to be synchronizations of work ethic and commitment to a purpose.

There are many other avenues this type of blog can take.. my final comments on this is to establish a parallel view on work ethic and morals, whilst creating an organization culture that lends itself to enjoyment.

Seek the right advice and make sure you seek the right answers while you are at it, if your first opinion does not sit right with you or your business partners, don’t feel pressured to go with this, seek another opinion to verify its validity. Intuition can prove to be an invaluable tool. Learn from those around you, there is nothing worse than pretending you know everything, learning from others and implementing this into your venture can be extremely rewarding. You are about to embark on a huge learning curve so it is best to take all the advice you can from those who no better. I find learning stimulating and enjoy understanding about something new all the time. A good leader, businessman will seek advice where needed no matter how insignificant it may seem. ‘There are no silly questions, only silly answers’ Somewhat of a ‘cliche’ line, however it has proven to carry weight.

Sew the seeds as best you can from the beginning to give your exciting new venture every opportunity to flourish into a profitable orchid!

As a good leader it is important to empower and trust your staff, business partners or associates to do their job they are there for, alternatively frustration will creep in and productivity will reduce significantly.

When talking to many small to medium size businesses everyone recognizes it is imperative to capitalize on this extremely fast paced medium, where does a business start to get the most out of this medium for their particular industry? Ebay, Youtube, Myspace, Google, Blogs, Facebook etc etc etc etc…..

‘Do I create an ebay store with my already existing stock base?’

‘Do I create a reel of adds to create extra brand awareness on you tube?’

‘Do I build a large database of cyber friends to get my message across on My space?’

‘Do I put together a marketing plan to run on google?’

‘Do I do a combination of all of the above?’

…. And the list goes on.

In doing so, identifying and capitalizing on the various mediums available suitable for your particular industry can be an arduous task. However it would be naive to assume that the multitude of mediums available together with the rapid growth and exposure they have, will not make a significant contribution to your businesses sustainability for the future.