Marketing and Sales: Understanding the Difference and Importance of Product Types

Marketing involves the process of managing task and decisions to successfully meet opportunities and threats. They do this by developing and transferring an offering to consumers in such a way that the objective of the business, the consumer and the society is achieved. Sales are when managers or employees are physically selling the products to consumers in the shop. The consumer goes to the company and buys the product from the person responsible for selling it.

Classification of consumer products on the basis of consumer buying habits

Convenience products

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These products are products that are within easy reach of the consumer, for example sweets or cigarettes. The quality and prices of these products are basically all the same and you don't need to go through a lot of trouble to sell these products and the seller of the products doesn't have motivation to sell a certain brand before another one. * Shopping products These are products where the buyer wants to compare quality, price and style before he/she buys it, for example jewelry or clothing.

The buyer goes around looking at the various places offering the product to get information on the product, because they hardly ever have enough information on a product to just go to one shop and buy the product. Speciality products These are products that have exclusive characteristics. Consumers will make a special effort to buy these products. When buying products like these, buyers are almost always looking for a certain brand, for example BMW or Panasonic.

Definition of product differentiation

Product differentiation means a business makes a distinction of its product, physically and/or psychologically from other products that is the same as their product. They do that so that consumers of a specific target market consider their product as different. Question 2 The marketing process feedback by means of marketing research Question 3 Definitions and ratios of financial concepts Cost-volume-profit relationship The profit a business makes is determined by the unit selling price of its product, the cost of the product and the level of production and sales.

If any of those components change, the total profit of the business will change. That is why the components have to be in combination with each other and not separately. Break-even-analysis This is where the break-even point is achieved when total costs are equal to total income. At this point there is no profit or loss. You can work the break-even point out with the next formula: N= F N-number of units (SP-V) SP-sales price V-variable cost To get the break-even point you can also use a graph. If at any time the income decreases, the break-even point will change as well.

Financial analysis and ratios

Financial analysis is used to monitor where the business stands financially. It also helps the business to avoid the risk of financial loss in the business. This analysis can also be used to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the business to ensure the necessary steps can be taken early enough. Financial analysis include income statements, balance sheets, funds flow statements and financial ratios. Productivity can be defined as the ratio between goods and services produced (output) and the resources (input) used to produce them.

It also shows the productive effectiveness with which the labour, capital and materials are used to produce the goods and/or services to satisfy the needs of the consumer. Productivity = Qu Qi Where Qu = quantity of outputs of goods and services.

Productivity problems experienced in South Africa

Productivity in South Africa has a very small effect on our economy, in other words, if productivity improves then economic growth will increase. If higher economic growth is achieved, then the living standards will improve, because it creates more job opportunities and it decreases unemployment.

Cost-push inflation can be improved by just enhancing productivity. Higher productivity allows the better use of resources, which in turn will save money and that will in turn result in lower inflation rates. Higher productivity will also allow our manufacturing companies to improve their products quality and allowing them to compete better against international and national companies. Better productivity will have a positive effect on company profits, it could result in higher wages and salaries to employees, higher dividends could be paid out to stakeholders and products and services will improve largely.

Basically productivity will improve the community s well as the companies in South Africa. In the 1960's, large multinational businesses in the USA controlled global activity to a large extent. These days' businesses from Japan, Britain, Germany, and France are also competing. South African companies have invested in other countries and other companies have exploited international capital markets through listening to foreign stock exchanges. These multinational companies have an enormous affect on world trade. Measuring globalization

One way of measuring globalization is by the ratio of world trade to output (GDP). Another way is by foreign direct investment (FDI). FDI takes place when a firm invests directly in productive facilities in a foreign country where an equity interest of at least 10% is regarded as a direct investment. Advantages and disadvantages of globalization Advantages Disadvantages It allows business to sell their products internationally Globalization forces companies to compete on an international level and not just with local rivals.

It allows companies to base production in the best possible location Globalization creates the possibility of people loosing their jobs, because companies move their production facilities to paces with cheaper rates Globalization results in better efficiency , which results in lower prices for goods and services Question 8 Definition of knowledge management Knowledge management is the procedure for identifying, collecting, storing and changing data and information into an intellectual asset that is made available to employees.

It intends to build a base of intellectual capital be getting information and sharing knowledge with employees. Knowledge management is introduced to increase workplace efficiency, save time, reduce costs and retain, re-use and exchange knowledge. Intellectual assets Intellectual assets is a term used for indicating the knowledge that has been acquired by a company from its employees, it is a process of identifying, collecting, storing and transforming data and information.

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