Strategic business Unit

 In business, a strategic business unit (SBU) is a profit center which focuses on product offering and market segment. SBUs typically have a discrete marketing plan, analysis of competition, and marketing campaign, even though they may be part of a larger business entity.

An SBU may be a business unit within a larger corporation, or it may be a business unto itself. Corporations may be composed of multiple SBUs, each of which is responsible for its own profitability. General Electric is an example of a company with this sort of business organization. SBUs are able to affect most factors which influence their performance. Managed as separate businesses, they are responsible to a parent corporation.General electric has 49 SBUs.

Companies today often use the word segmentation or division when referring to SBUs or an aggregation of SBUs that share such commonalities.

A SBU is generally defined by what it has in common, as well as the traditional aspects defined by McKinsey: separate competitors; and a profitability bottom line. Four commonalities include:

• Revenue SBU
• Like Marketing Cost SBU
• Like Operations/HR Profit SBU
• Like sales judged on net sales not gross

There are three factors that are generally seen as determining the success of an SBU:

• the degree of autonomy given to each SBU manager,
• the degree to which an SBU shares functional programs and facilities with other SBUs, and

the manner in which the corporation is because of new changes in market

Strategic Planning

 Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy. In order to determine the direction of the organization, it is necessary to understand its current position and the possible avenues through which it can pursue a particular course of action. Generally, strategic planning deals with at least one of three key questions:^[1]

• "What do we do?"
• "For whom do we do it?"
• "How do we excel?"

In many organizations, this is viewed as a process for determining where an organization is going over the next year or—more typically—3 to 5 years (long term), although some extend their vision to 20 years.

                The key components of 'strategic planning' include an understanding of the firm's vision, mission, values and strategies. (Often a "Vision Statement" and a "Mission Statement" may encapsulate the vision and mission).

Strategic planning process

There are many approaches to strategic planning but typically one of the following approaches is used:

Situation-Target-Proposal Situation - evaluate the current situation and how it came about. Target - define goals and/or objectives (sometimes called ideal state) Path / Proposal - map a possible route to the goals/objectives

Draw-See-Think-Plan Draw - what is the ideal image or the desired end state? See - what is today's situation? What is the gap from ideal and why? Think - what specific actions must be taken to close the gap between today's situation and the ideal state? Plan - what resources are required to execute the 'plan'?

Direct Marketing

 Direct marketing is a channel-agnostic form of advertising that allows businesses and nonprofits organizations to communicate straight to the customer, with advertising techniques that can include Cell Phone Text messaging, email, interactive consumer websites, online display ads, fliers, catalog distribution, promotional letters, and outdoor advertising.

Direct marketing messages emphasize a focus on the customer, data, and accountability. Characteristics that distinguish direct marketing are:

·         Marketing messages are addressed directly to the customer and/or customers. Direct marketing relies on being able to address the members of a target market. Addressability comes in a variety of forms including email addresses, mobile phone numbers, Web browser cookies, fax numbers and postal addresses.

·         Direct marketing seeks to drive a specific "call to action." For example, an advertisement may ask the prospect to call a free phone number or click on a link to a website.

·         Direct marketing emphasizes trackable, measurable responses from customers — regardless of medium.

Direct marketing is practiced by businesses of all sizes — from the smallest start-up to the leaders on the Fortune 500. A well-executed direct advertising campaign can prove a positive return on investment by showing how many potential customers responded to a clear call-to-action. General advertising eschews calls-for-action in favor of messages that try to build prospects’ emotional awareness or engagement with a brand. Even well-designed general advertisements rarely can prove their impact on the organization’s bottom line.The demonstrable result of Direct Marketing is the reason for its increasing popularity.

Pricing Strategy

 Pricing strategies for products or services encompass three main ways to improve profits. These are that the business owner can cut costs or sell more, or find more profit with a better pricing strategy. When costs are already at their lowest and sales are hard to find, adopting a better pricing strategy is a key option to stay viable.

Merely raising prices is not always the answer, especially in a poor economy. Many businesses have been lost because they priced themselves out of the marketplace. On the other hand, many business and sales staff leave "money on the table". One strategy does not fit all, so adopting a pricing strategy is a learning curve when studying the needs and behaviors of customers and clients.

Model of Pricing: Cost-plus pricing, Skimming, Limit Pricing, Loss Leader, Market oriented pricing, Penetration Pricing, Price discrimination, Premium pricing, Predatory Pricing, Contribution margin – based pricing, Psychological pricing, Dynamic Pricing, Price leadership, Target Pricing, Absorption pricing, High-Low Pricing, Premium decoy pricing, Marginal-cost pricing, Valur-based pricing, Pay what you want, Freemium, Odd pricing.

Product Mix

 Product mix, also known as product assortment, refers to the total number of product lines that a company offers to its customers. For example, a small company may sell multiple lines of products. Sometimes, these product lines are fairly similar, such as dish washing liquid and bar soap, which are used for cleaning and use similar technologies. Other times, the product lines are vastly different, such as diapers and razors. The four dimensions to a company's product mix include width, length, depth and consistency.

Width: The width of a company's product mix pertains to the number of product lines that a company sells. For example, if a company has two product lines, its product mix width is two. Small and upstart businesses will usually not have a wide product mix. It is more practical to start with some basic products and build market share. Later on, a company's technology may allow the company to diversify into other industries and build the width of the product mix.

Length: Product mix length pertains to the number of total products or items in a company's product mix, according to Philip Kotler's textbook "Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control." For example, ABC company may have two product lines, and five brands within each product line. Thus, ABC's product mix length would be 10. Companies that have multiple product lines will sometimes keep track of their average length per product line. In the above case, the average length of an ABC Company's product line is five.

Depth: Depth of a product mix pertains to the total number of variations for each product. Variations can include size, flavor and any other distinguishing characteristic. For example, if a company sells three sizes and two flavors of toothpaste, that particular brand of toothpaste has a depth of six. Just like length, companies sometimes report the average depth of their product lines; or the depth of a specific product line.

Consistency: Product mix consistency pertains to how closely related product lines are to one another--in terms of use, production and distribution. A company's product mix may be consistent in distribution but vastly different in use. For example, a small company may sell its health bars and health magazine in retail stores. However, one product is edible and the other is not. The production consistency of these products would vary as well

Brand Equity

 Brand equity is a phrase used in the marketing industry which describes the value of having a well-known brand name, based on the idea that the owner of a well-known brand name can generate more money from products with that brand name than from products with a less well known name, as consumers believe that a product with a well-known name is better than products with less well known names. Some marketing researchers have concluded that brands are one of the most valuable assets a company has, as brand equity is one of the factors which can increase the financial value of a brand to the brand owner, although not the only one. Brand equity is strategically crucial, but famously difficult to quantify. Many experts have developed tools to analyze this asset, but there is no universally accepted way to measure it. As one of the serial challenges that marketing professionals and academics find with the concept of brand equity, the disconnect between quantitative and qualitative equity values is difficult to reconcile.

                The purpose of brand equity metrics is to measure the value of a brand. A brand encompasses the name, logo, image, and perceptions that identify a product, service, or provider in the minds of customers. It takes shape in advertising, packaging, and other marketing communications, and becomes a focus of the relationship with consumers.

Shopping Goods

 A higher end product occasionally bought by consumers that are usually compared for their appropriateness, quality, cost and features before purchase occurs. Consumers tend to take more time when purchasing a shopping good produced by a business, and they might even travel to buy such goods.

A second type of product is the shopping good, which usually requires a more involved selection process than convenience goods. A consumer usually compares a variety of attributes, including suitability, quality, price, and style. Homogeneous shopping goods are those that are similar in quality but different enough in other attributes (such as price, brand image, or style) to justify a search process. These products might include automobile tires or a stereo or television system. Homogeneous shopping goods are often sold strongly on price.

With heterogeneous shopping goods, product features become more important to the consumer than price. Such is often the case with the purchase of major appliances, clothing, furniture, and high-tech equipment. In this situation, the item purchased must be a certain size or color and must perform very specific functions that cannot be fulfilled by all items offered by every supplier. With goods of this sort, the seller has to carry a wide assortment to satisfy individual tastes and must have well-trained salespeople to provide both information and advice to consumers

Product Life Cycle

 The period of time over which an item is developed, brought to market and eventually removed from the market. First, the idea for a product undergoes research and development. If the idea is determined to be feasible and potentially profitable, the product will be produced, marketed and rolled out. Assuming the product becomes successful, its production will grow until the product becomes widely available. Eventually, demand for the product will decline and it will become obsolete.

Product life cycle is a business analysis that attempts to identify a set of common stages in the life of commercial products, for example, introduction, promotion, growth, maturity and decline. The stages of a product's lifecycle can be classified as follows:

Introduction

The introduction stage is characterized by low growth rate of sales as the product is newly launched in the market. Monopoly can be created, depending upon the efficiency and need of the product to the customers. A firm usually incurs losses rather than profit. If the product is in the new product class, the users may not be aware of its true potential. In order to achieve that place in the market, extra information about the product should be transferred to consumers through various media. The stage has the following characteristics: 1. Low competition 2. Firm mostly incurs losses and not profit.

Growth

Growth comes with the acceptance of the innovation in the market and profit starts to flow. If the monopoly exists, companies can experiment with new ideas and innovation in order to maintain the sales growth. This stage is the best time to introduce new effective products in the market thus creating an image in the product class in the presence of its competitors who try to copy or improve the product and present it as a substitute.

Maturity

In the maturity stage, the end of stage of the growth rate and sales slowdown as the product has already achieved acceptance in the market. New firms start experimenting in order to compete by innovating new models of the product. With many companies in the market, competition for customers becomes fierce, despite the increase in growth rate of sales at the initial part of this stage. Aggressive competition in the market results in profits decreasing at the end of the growth stage thus beginning the maturity stage. In addition to this, the maturity stage of the development process is the most vital.

Decline

The decline stage is where most of the product class usually dies due to low growth rate in sales. A number of companies share the same market, making it difficult for all entrants to maintain sustainable sales levels. Not only is the efficiency of the company an important factor in the decline, but also the product category itself becomes a factor, as the market may perceive the product as "old" and may not be in demand. It is not always necessary that a product should go through these stages. it depends on the type of product, its competitors, scope of the product, etc.

Product Differentiation

 In economics and marketing, product differentiation (or simply differentiation) is the process of distinguishing a product or service from others, to make it more attractive to a particular target market. This involves differentiating it from competitors' products as well as a firm's own products. The concept was proposed by Edward Chamberlin in his 1933 Theory of Monopolistic Competition.

            In economics, successful product differentiation leads to monopolistic competition and is inconsistent with the conditions for perfect competition, which include the requirement that the products of competing firms should be perfect substitutes. There are three types of product differentiation: 1. Simple: based on a variety of characteristics 2. Horizontal : based on a single characteristic but consumers are not clear on quality 3. Vertical : based on a single characteristic and consumers are clear on its quality.

The major sources of product differentiation are as follows.

• Differences in quality which are usually accompanied by differences in price
• Differences in functional features or design
• Ignorance of buyers regarding the essential characteristics and qualities of goods they are purchasing
• Sales promotion activities of sellers and, in particular, advertising

Differences in availability (e.g. timing and location).

Islamic Banking

 Islamic banking is banking or banking activity that is consistent with the principles of sharia and its practical application through the development of Islamic economics. As such, a more correct term for 'Islamic banking' is 'Sharia compliant finance. Sharia prohibits the fixed or floating payment or acceptance of specific interest or fees (known as riba, or usury) for loans of money. Investing in businesses that provide goods or services considered contrary to Islamic principles is also haraam ("sinful and prohibited"). Although these principles have been applied in varying degrees by historical Islamic economies due to lack of Islamic practice, only in the late 20th century were a number of Islamic banks formed to apply these principles to private or semi-private commercial institutions within the Muslim community

Mobile banking

 Mobile banking is a system that allows customers of a financial institution to conduct a number of financial transactions through a mobile device such as a mobile phone or personal digital assistant.

Mobile banking differs from mobile payments, which involve the use of a mobile device to pay for goods or services either at the point of sale or remotely, analogously to the use of a debit or credit card to effect an EFTPOS payment.

The earliest mobile banking services were offered over SMS, a service known as SMS banking. With the introduction of smart phones with WAP support enabling the use of the mobile web in 1999, the first European banks started to offer mobile banking on this platform to their customers.

            In one academic model, mobile banking is defined as:

Mobile Banking refers to provision and availment of banking- and financial services with the help of mobile telecommunication devices. The scope of offered services may include facilities to conduct bank and stock market transactions, to administer accounts and to access customized information."

According to this model mobile banking can be said to consist of three inter-related concepts:

• Mobile accounting
• Mobile brokerage
• Mobile financial information services

Most services in the categories designated accounting and brokerage are transaction-based. The non-transaction-based services of an informational nature are however essential for conducting transactions - for instance, balance inquiries might be needed before committing a money remittance. The accounting and brokerage services are therefore offered invariably in combination with information services. Information services, on the other hand, may be offered as an independent module.

Mobile banking may also be used to help in business situations as well as financial

Green banking

 Green banking is like a normal bank, which considers all the social and environmental/ecological factors with an aim to protect the environment and conserve natural resources. It is also called as an ethical bank or a sustainable bank. They are controlled by the same authorities but with an additional agenda toward taking care of the Earth's environment/habitats/resources.

Ideal Benefits of Green Banking:

* Basically Ethical (Green) banking avoids as much paper work as possible and rely on online/electronic transactions for processing so that you get green credit cards and green mortgages. Less paperwork means less cutting of trees.

* Creating awareness to business people about environmental and social responsibility enabling them to do a environmental friendly business practice.

* Green (Ethical) banks adopt and implement environmental standards for lending, which is really a proactive idea that would enable eco-friendly business practices which would benefit our future generations.

* When you are awarded with a loan, the interest of that loan is comparatively less with normal banks because ethical banks give more importance to environmental friendly factors - ecological gains. Natural resources conservation is also one of the underlying principles in a green bank while assessing capital/operating loans to extracting/industrial business sector.

Green Banking as a concept is a proactive and smart way of thinking with a vision for future sustainability of our only Spaceship Earth - as design science explorer Richard Buckminster Fuller called our Earth.

            Green banking requires a paradigmatic change in thinking about economics, business and finance. Its success would be greater if the world governments started to revise their economic paradigms from being 'monetary economics' to 'ecological economics' and begin to transform their accounting principles from purely being financial into ecological/operational energy accounting patterns

Customer delight ness or satisfaction

 The very favorable experience of the client of a business when they have received a good or service that significantly surpasses what they had initially anticipated. A marketing department can use instances of customer delight to a company's advantage by requesting referrals and obtaining testimonials from delighted customers that can help attract new customers.

Ingredient of customer delight ness:

·         It produces a ‘wow’ reaction!

·         It appears spontaneous or unexpected!

·         It’s the personal touch!

·         It makes customers feel ‘valued’

·         It’s genuine!

·         It creates a ‘talking point’!

 

Customer Satisfaction = Perceived Service – Expected Service

 

Types of customer satisfaction: Criminal, Basic, Expected, Desirable, Unbelievable

Niche marketing

 Concentrating all marketing efforts on a small but specific and well defined segment of the population. Niches do not 'exist' but are 'created' by identifying needs, wants, and requirements that are being addressed poorly or not at all by other firms, and developing and delivering goods or services to satisfy them. As a strategy, niche marketing is aimed at being a big fish in a small pond instead of being a small fish in a big pond. Also called micromarketing.

            A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing. So the market niche defines the specific product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that is intended to impact. It is also a small market segment. For example, sports channels like STAR Sports, ESPN, STAR Cricket, and Fox target a niche of sports lovers.

Push marketing strategy

 A channel partner term that is used to describe how products and services move through channel partners to the consumer.  A push strategy uses marketing channels, such as trade promotions, to "push" a product or service through to the sales channel. Push strategy is one of several types of channel strategies.

The business terms push and pull originated in logistic and supply chain management,^[2] but are also widely used in marketing. Another meaning of the push strategy in marketing can be found in the communication between seller and buyer. Depending on the medium used, the communication can be either interactive or non-interactive. For example, if the seller makes his promotion by television or radio, it's not possible for the buyer to interact. On the other hand, if the communication is made by phone or internet, the buyer has possibilities to interact with the seller. In the first case information is just "pushed" toward the buyer, while in the second case it is possible for the buyer to demand the needed information according to their requirements.

• Applied to that portion of the supply chain where demand uncertainty is relatively small
• Production and distribution decisions are based on long term forecasts
• Based on past orders received from retailer's warehouse (may lead to Bullwhip effect)
• Inability to meet changing demand patterns
• Large and variable production batches
• Unacceptable service levels
• Excessive inventories due to the need for large safety stocks
• Less expenditure on advertising than pull strategy

Telebanking

 Telephone banking is a service provided by a bank or other financial institution, that enables customers to perform financial transactions over the telephone, without the need to visit a bank branch or automated teller machine. Telephone banking times can be longer than branch opening times, and some financial institutions offer the service on a 24 hour basis. From the bank's point of view, telephone banking reduces the cost of handling transactions by reducing the need for customers to visit a bank branch for non-cash withdrawal and deposit transactions.

Operation

• To use a financial institution's telephone banking facility, a customer must first register with the institution for the service, and set up some password (under various names) for customer verification.
• To access telephone banking, the customer would call the special phone number set up by the financial institution. The service can be provided using an automated system, using speech recognition and DTMF technology or by live customer service representatives.

The types of financial transactions which a customer may transact through telephone banking include obtaining account balances and list of latest transactions, electronic bill payments, and funds transfers between a customer's or another's accounts. Cash withdrawals and deposits require the customer to visit an automated teller machine or bank branch

Marketing Mix

 A planned mix of the controllable elements of a product's marketing plan commonly termed as 4Ps: product, price, place, and promotion.

These four elements are adjusted until the right combination is found that serves the needs of the product's customers, while generating optimum income. Sometimes the first P (Product) is substituted by presentation. See also marketing and mega marketing.

            The marketing mix is a business tool used in marketing and by marketing professionals. The marketing mix is often crucial when determining a product or brand's offering, and is often synonymous with the four Ps: price, product, promotion, and place; in service marketing, however, the four Ps have been expanded to the Seven Ps or eight Ps to address the different nature of services these are– physical evidence, people, process.

In recent times, the concept of four Cs has been introduced as a more customer-driven replacement of four Ps. And there are two four Cs theories today. One is Lauterborn's four Cs (consumer, cost, communication, convenience), another is Shimizu's four Cs (commodity, cost, communication, channel).

Product price discrimination

A pricing strategy that charges customers different prices for the same product or service. In pure price discrimination, the seller will charge each customer the maximum price that he or she is willing to pay. In more common forms of price discrimination, the seller places customers in groups based on certain attributes and charges each group a different price.

Price discrimination allows a company to earn higher profits than standard pricing because it allows firms to capture every last dollar of revenue available from each of its customers. While perfect price discrimination is illegal, when the optimal price is set for every customer, imperfect price discrimination exists. For example, movie theaters usually charge three different prices for a show. The prices target various age groups, including youth, adults and seniors. The prices fluctuate with the expected income of each age bracket, with the highest charge going to the adult population 

Retail banking products

 Retail banking refers to the consumer-oriented services offered by commercial banks. These services include checking and savings accounts, mortgages and various types of loans and investment services relating to retirement and educational planning.

Retail banking encompasses the services offered to consumers by commercial banks. The term "retail" refers to the almost storefront-shopping nature of commercial banking services.

Most commercial banks have extensive retail banking services and products to reach a wide consumer base. 

Retail banking products: these include

Personal

Credit Cards: Offers customers an incredibly convenient way to pay for the things they need, where they need, without having to carry cash.

Deposit and Transactions: Flexible, everyday banking products that help our customers manage their cash and save for tomorrow. This includes transaction accounts, savings accounts and term deposits.

Financial Planning: We offer expert financial advice to help our customers start planning for a better life today. This includes planning for retirement and how to grow money.

Home Loans: Range of fixed term and variable interest loan options to help customers buy their own homes. We can help find the right home loan and provide tools to help customers make smart property decisions.

Insurance: We offer insurance for home and contents, cars, loan protection and credit cards – as well as insurance support.

Personal Lending: We also provide flexible solutions to help customers buy their dream car or holiday, manage their debt, meet the unexpected and more.

Travel and International Payments: Our range of currency solutions help customers who wish to take their money in or out of Australia. This includes for travel, foreign exchange or for international payments.

Business products

Credit Cards: We provide flexible options to help our small business owners manage their everyday expenses and cash flow. 

Deposits and Transactions: We also offer flexible, day-to-day banking products to help our business customers manage their cash flow.

Line of products ( Product Line)

 

A group of related products manufactured by a single company. For example, a cosmetic company's makeup product line might include foundation, concealer, powder, blush, eyeliner, eyeshadow, mascara and lipstick products that are all closely related. The same company might also offer more than one product line. The cosmetic company might have a special product line geared toward teenagers and another line geared toward women older than 60, in addition to its regular product line, that can be used by women of any age.

A good way for a company to try to expand its business is by adding to its existing product line. This is because people are more likely to purchase products from brands with which they are already familiar. For example, a frozen pizza company may want to increase its market share by adding frozen breadsticks and frozen pastas to its product line.

Lost Customers

 Lost customer cancels or downgrades to free plan. Lost customer stops paying & lost customer stops being active. Without customers, we wouldn't be in business. That is why it is surprising how easily retail shops unintentionally drive customers away. Sometimes, understanding the what can ruin a business can help us focus on what not to do while building our enterprise. Here are five simple ways to lose customers.

1. Wrong Product Pricing

Besides cost, some of the things to consider when choosing the best strategy for your retail business are the market, the channels of distribution and the competition. Here are a few of the more popular pricing strategies to consider.

2. Terrible Customer Service

It's inevitable that there will be the occasional disgruntled customer. No matter how wonderful your products are or how committed you are to provide the best customer service, problems do occur. Armed with the following customer service tips, you can diffuse a situation and possibly even save the customer, as well as the sale.

3. Poor Store Atmosphere

As retailers, we can't afford to turn off a single customer and image is everything. Take a look around your retail store. Do any of the following situations exist? Here are ten ways your store may be turning off customers.

4. Not Knowing Your Competition

It's important for new businesses to complete a competitive analysis during the business planning stage, but competitive intelligence can also be useful for marketing, pricing, managing and other strategic planning for retailers. Before you can know your competitive edge, you must know your competitor.

5. Lack of Product Knowledge

It is difficult to effectively sell to a consumer if we cannot show how a particular product will address a shopper’s needs. Learn some of the benefits of knowing the products you sell.

Promotion and Publicity

Publicity is the deliberate attempt to manage the public's perception of a subject. The subjects of publicity include people (for example, politicians and performing artists), goods and services, organizations of all kinds, and works of art or entertainment.

            From a marketing perspective, publicity is one component of promotion, which is one component of marketing. The other elements of the promotional mix are advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing and personal selling. Examples of promotional tactics include:

Art exhibitions, event sponsorship, Arrange a speech or talk, Make an analysis or prediction, Conduct a poll or survey, Issue a report, Take a stand on a controversial subject, Arrange for a testimonial, Announce an appointment, Invent then present an award, Stage a debate, Organize a tour of your business or projects, Issue a commendation.

The advantages of publicity are low cost, and credibility (particularly if the publicity is aired in between news stories like on evening TV news casts). New technologies such as weblogs, web cameras, web affiliates, and convergence (phone-camera posting of pictures and videos to websites) are changing the cost-structure.

The disadvantages are lack of control over how your releases will be used, and frustration over the low percentage of releases that are taken up by the media.

            Publicity draws on several key themes including birth, love, and death. These are of particular interest because they are themes in human lives, which feature heavily throughout life. In television serials several couples have emerged during crucial ratings and important publicity times, as a way to make constant headlines. Also known as a publicity stunt, the pairings may or may not be according to the fact.

Corporate Market

 Corporate marketing can be seen as more of a guiding philosophy than a function sat in any one department. It can be used as an over arching or umbrella term covering the interrelating activities associated with managing various corporate-level concepts including organizational identity, corporate identity, corporate branding, corporate reputation, corporate communication and corporate image, spanning and encompassing the whole corporation and its various stakeholders. Corporate marketing also has a general applicability to entities, including corporations, business alliances, cities, government bodies etc.

            Corporate marketing (and Organizational Marketing)  has   a general applicability to entities, whether they are corporations as well as other categories such as business alliances, cities, government bodies and departments, or branches of the armed forces and so on.

Retail market:

 Retail is the sale of goods and services from individuals or businesses to the end-user. Retailers are part of an integrated system called the supply chain. A retailer purchases goods or products in large quantities from manufacturers directly or through a wholesale, and then sells smaller quantities to the consumer for a profit. Retailing can be done in either fixed locations like stores or markets, door-to-door or by delivery. Retailing includes subordinated services, such as delivery. The term "retailer" is also applied where a service provider services the needs of a large number of individuals, such as for the public. Shops may be on residential streets, streets with few or no houses or in a shopping mall. Shopping streets may be for pedestrians only. Sometimes a shopping street has a partial or full roof to protect customers from precipitation. Online retailing, a type of electronic commerce used for business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions and mail order, are forms of non-shop retailing.

A marketplace is a location where goods and services are exchanged. The traditional market square is a city square where traders set up stalls and buyers browse the stores. This kind of market is very old, and countless such markets are still in operation around the whole world.

In some parts of the world, the retail business is still dominated by small family-run stores, but this market is increasingly being taken over by large retail chains.

Retail is usually classified by type of products as follows:

• Food products, Hard goods or durable goods , Soft goods

There are the following types of retailers by marketing strategy:

• Department stores , Discount stores , Warehouse stores , warehouse clubs , Variety stores , Demographic , Mom-And-Pop , Specialty stores, Convenience stores, Hypermarkets, Malls,  Category killers or Category Specialist, E-tailers, Vending Machines, Automated Retail , Big-box stores.

Discuss Product Development Strategies

 Developing new products or modifying existing products so they appear new, and offering those products to current or new markets is the definition of product development strategy. There is nothing simple about the process. It requires keen attention to competitors and customer needs now and in the future, the ability to finance prototypes and manufacturing processes, and a creative marketing and communications plan.

This strategy is employed when a company's existing market is saturated, and revenues and profits are stagnant or falling. There is little or no opportunity for growth. A product development diversification strategy takes a company outside its existing business and a new product is developed for a new market. An example of this strategy is a company that has sold insurance products and decides to develop a financial education program aimed at college students. The new product is not revolutionary as there are other companies producing similar products, but it is new to the company producing it.

Product modification strategies are generally aimed at existing markets, although a side benefit may be the capturing of new users for the new product. An example of this strategy is toothpaste. Toothpastes that promote whitening ability or anti-cavity attributes are built on existing plain toothpastes that only promise clean teeth.

There are several subsets of product development strategy

1.      Technology/Market mix

2.      Market width

3.      Degree of innovation/Limitation

4.      Price/quality ranges

5.      Particular Promotional Requirements

6.      Inside Vs Outside Facilities

7.      Competitive Situations to be sought or avoided

8.      Production Requirements

9.      Patent requirements

10.  Speeds

11.  Pay Back Conditions

12.  Risk/failure Factors

13.  Minimum sales

14.  Need for basic research

15.  Product /service Relatedness

16. The knock opportunities