22 Hukum Tetap Pemasaran (Al Ries & Jack Trout)

Berikut adalah hukum-hukum tetap pemasaran yang dikemukakan Al Ries dan Jack Trout dalam bukunya “The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing” (1993):

1.    Hukum Kepemimpinan

Lebih baik menjadi yang pertma dari pada menjadi yang lebih baik. Kesuksesan pemasaran – berlaku untuk setiap produk, merk, dan kategori - terletak pada siapa yang pertama kali masuk dalam ingatan calon pelanggan.

2.    Hukum Kategori

Jika anda tidak dapat menjadi yang pertama dalam sebuah kategori, buatlah kategori baru yang menjadikan anda yang pertama. Saat kita meluncurkan suatu produk baru, pertanyaan awal yang harus diajukan bukanlah bagaimana produk tersebut lebih baik dari produk lain dalam persaingan, tetapi dalam kategori mana ia akan menjadi yang pertama.

3.    Hukum Ingatan

Lebih baik jadi yang pertama dalam ingatan atau fikiran dari pada menjadi yang pertama di tempat penjualan. Adalah penting menjadi yang pertama di tempat penjualan manakala hal tersebut memberi kemungkinkan kita menjadi yang pertama dalam ingatan.

4.    Hukum Persepsi

Pemasaran bukanlah pertarungan produk, melainkan pertarungan persepsi. Pemasaran adalah manipulasi dan modifikasi dari persepsi. Hal yang tidak mudah untuk dapat merubah ingatan

How to Write a Business Plan

Many potential start-up businesses are daunted by the prospect of writing a business plan. But it is not a difficult process - and a good business plan focuses the mind as well as helping to secure finance and support.

The business plan will clarify your business idea and define your long-term objectives. It provides a blueprint for running the business and a series of benchmarks to check your progress against. It is also vital for convincing your bank - and possibly key customers and suppliers - to support you.

1.       Executive summary

• The executive summary outlines your business proposal. Although it is the last section to be written, it goes on the first page of the business plan. It will be read by people unfamiliar with your business, so avoid jargon.
• The executive summary highlights the most important points and should sum up your product or service and its advantages, opportunity in the market, management team, track record to date, financial projections, funding requirements and expected returns.

2.       The business

• Explain the background to your business idea, including the length of time you have been developing the business idea in its present form, work carried out to date, any related experience you have, the proposed ownership structure of the business.
• Explain what your product or service is. Make it clear how it will stand out as different from other products or services, your customers will gain through buying your product or service, the business can be developed to meet customers' changing needs in the future

3.       Markets and competitors

• Focus on the segments of the market you plan to target - for example, local customers or a particular age group.

Sales Forecasting Method

Properly forecasting sales helps you plan and prepare for the months and years ahead, allowing you to control costs and focus on successful growth strategies. A good sales forecasting methodology also helps your business run more efficiently. The most practical method for forecasting sales is to base your projections on historical sales results and your past experience. The right sales forecast method for your business is the one that is closest to your actual sales results within a reasonable margin of error.

Step 1

Gather your company's past income statements. Go back several years. Sales data from your income statements over the last five to 10 years has more predictive power than just using last year's sales to forecast this year's sales.

Step 2

Calculate the sales growth rate from year to year. Divide the current sales by the prior year's sales. For example, if your sales this year were $487,000 and last year's sales were $412,000, the sales growth rate is 18 percent ($487,000 divided by $412,000). Repeat the process for all other years in the series of sales data. You should have five year's worth of sales growth rates if you go back five years.

Step 3

Compare the sales growth rates year to year. Plot the sales growth rates using a spreadsheet for visual representation. Ideally, your sales growth rate should increase over time.

Step 4

Analyze various factors that impact sales to gain a better understanding of why sales grew or slowed from year to year. Determine the cause and effect relationship of variables, such as customer demand, worker productivity, advertising and promotion. For example, hiring an additional salesperson has an impact on sales. Demographic trends, such as an influx of consumers with high household income, can also have an affect on sales. Greater advertising and promotion affects sales, as well.

Step 5

Identify external factors that affect sales. External factors include the general economic environment or macroeconomic trends, such as unemployment, interest rates, consumer sentiment and inflation. Other macroeconomic trends include the level of competition. A greater number of competitors can potentially depress your company's sales, which you must forecast into your sales projections.

2015 Food Trends

Technomic, Chicago, PRNewswire

The restaurant industry is evolving faster than ever, according to leading food research and consulting firm Technomic. Technology, consumer and menu trends are all revolutionizing food service. Technomic lays out 10 trends that its consultants and experts believe may be transformative in 2015. Predictions are based on Technomic research including consumer and operator surveys and site visits, backed up by data from its Digital Resource Library and vast Menu Monitor database. 

Lights! Camera! Action!

• Dining is no longer just a personal experience, but a staged event that imparts bragging rights. Plating and lighting are increasingly designed with phone snapshots and social-media sharing in mind. Customers collaborate to put on the show; menus, marketing, even charitable efforts are crowd sourced.

Small-minded.

• Small is in: Diners demand petite plates and flexible portions; units are smaller with shrunken, laser-focused menus, multi-use equipment and expanded hours to leverage fixed costs; labor pressures mean leaner staffing and more technology (though a backlash is brewing as many diners seek to unplug and be waited on).

Food service everywhere.

• Alternative forms of food service swallow share—from retailers' ever-more-sophisticated onsite

Marketing Plan : Competitive Analysis and Strategy

Competition

• What products and companies will compete with you?

 List your major competitors with names and addresses:

• Do they compete across the board with your entire business, or just for select products, customers, or only in certain locations?
• Are there any important indirect competitors? (For instance, personal chefs compete with restaurants, even though they are different businesses entirely.)
• How do your products or services compare with your competitions?

Below is a Competitive Analysis table

• Use the table to compare your company with the two most important competitors to your business.
• In the first column of the table, there are some standard competitive factors; of course you may need to customize the list of factors for your unique business.

In the column labeled My Business

• Evaluate how your business compares to your competitor’s to your prospective customer.
• Then consider whether each of these factors are strengths or weaknesses to your business. It may be difficult to evaluate your own business weaknesses but it’s better to be honest than misguided.
• Another option is to consider asking someone outside of your business to help you with the evaluation. The Small Business Administration can help you connect with a business professional to act as your mentor. That person can add invaluable insight into the business planning process. A neutral observer can help you evaluate your business without the emotional attachment you bring to the picture.
• Next, use the table to analyze each of your competitors. Briefly sum up how they compare to your business. 
• Finally, think of how your customer will view these factors – how important is each of the criteria to the customer with 1 being critical and 5 being unimportant.

Top 50 - The World's Best Hotels 2014

according to Travel + Leisure’s 19th Annual World’s Best Award

1.     Triple Creek Ranch, Darby, Montana

2.     Navana Springs, La Fortuna, Costa Rica

3.     Four Season Hotel Gresham Palace, Budapest

4.     Southern Ocean Lodge, Kangaroo Island, Australia

5.     Ocean House, Watch Hill, Rhode Island

6.     The Langham. Chicago

7.     Singita Sabi Sand Kruger National Park Area, South Africa

8.     Londolozi Game Reserve, Kruger National Park Area, South Africa

9.     Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur, India

10.   Taj Lake Palace, Udaipur, India

11.   Four Season Hotel, Hongkong

12.   Lodge at Sea Island Golf Club, Georgia

13.   Te Peninsula, Bangkok

14.   Post Ranch Inn, Big Sur, California

15.   Capella Pedregal, Los Cabos, Mexico

Ways to Control Overhead Costs

Corporate overhead, if unchecked, can eat up your profits and potentially create a net loss before you realize it. Without a breakdown of your costs into production and overhead categories, you might not realize how much you’re actually spending to run your company. Detailed financial reporting and budget variance analyses will help you keep your overhead to a manageable level.

The costs you have to run your business and sell your product make up corporate overhead. These are expenses you have even when you aren’t making your product. They include expenses such as rent, marketing, phones, insurance, administrative staff, office equipment, interest and supplies. Like corporate overhead, departmental overhead includes expenses you have when you’re not producing your product, but they apply directly to one department. For example, machinery maintenance is an example of departmental overhead.

The first step in determining your corporate overhead is to identify it. If you don’t record every expense you have on a budget sheet or other financial report, do so. Start by creating production and corporate overhead reports. Production expenses are costs that apply directly to making your product, such as materials and labor. Next, break down your corporate overhead by function, such as marketing, human resources, information technology, office administration and sales.

Give each of your managers the list of overhead their department generates. Ask them to look for ways to reduce their spending without sacrificing productivity, efficiency and quality. Your department managers might be the most knowledgeable about how to do this. If you don’t already do it, have your department heads submit an annual budget request each year. Labor is often one of the largest costs of any business; have department heads compare outsourcing versus in-house staff for various projects and positions to determine if they can find cost-savings opportunities.

How to Buy an Existing Franchise

Entrepreneurs choose to buy an existing franchise for the advantages it offers over starting a new business. An existing franchise has name branding, a customer base and a proven strategy for earning a profit. The strategy includes interior design, products offered, pricing and marketing. Moreover, the licensing company provides education in their policies and procedures, as well as on-site training for the new franchisee. While the initial investment could be steep, depending on the licensing fee, the potential to earn an immediate profit attracts entrepreneurs to the franchising arrangement.

• Research your favorite industry to track recent business trends. If you want to buy a hardware store, for example, then your target market includes homeowners and contractors. If homeowners are spending money on remodeling and repairs, then a hardware store has a better chance of earning a profit.

• Research the different franchise opportunities within your chosen industry. Eliminate those that do not meet your criteria. For example, some franchise owners must pay the licensing company a percentage of their monthly sales on top of the franchise fee. It can add up to a tidy sum over the years. This money could be reinvested to grow the business if you chose a franchise agreement that did not demand royalties.

• Choose the franchise that you believe is the best fit for your goals. You might prefer to consult with an accountant or attorney who specializes in this field for a professional opinion, as buying an existing franchise is a major investment.

• Contact franchise owners in your area for their unbiased view of the company. Their input might alert you to potential problems not addressed in the franchise business plan.

Franchising : Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages of Franchising

1. The franchisee’s lack of basic or specialised knowledge is overcome by the training program of the franchisor. 
2. The franchisee has the incentive of owning their own business with the additional benefit of continuing assistance from the franchisor. The franchisee is an independent business person operating within the framework of the franchise system. This provides the opportunity through hard work and effort to maximise the return from their business and the value of their investment. In all franchise networks there are three basic levels of performance, despite the fact that all franchisees are provided with the same raw material. There are the high flyers who do extremely well, having the right attitude and approach, as well as some entrepreneurial skill which enables them to make the most of their opportunities. Then there are the average performers, who operate the system and basically achieve the anticipated performance levels and in line with their expectations earn a decent living. Their attitude and approach is sound, but they lack the flair of the high flyers. Finally there are those whose performance levels are low. These are people who joined the franchise with best of intentions, but they now lack the will or the aptitude, or have changed their mind and want to get out of the franchise. They clearly made a mistake in the first place by going into self-employment, and they perhaps deluded themselves into believing that their franchisor would remove all the risk for them. 
3. In most cases, the franchisee’s business benefits from operating under a name and reputation (brand image) which is already well established in the mind and eye of the public. Of course, there will be new franchise schemes which are in the process of being established and in which the name will not yet be well known. This is a factor to recognise and to make allowance for. Picking up a sound, newer franchise in its early stages can be a good proposition but the risks are higher. 
4. The franchisee will usually need less capital than for setting up a business independently because the franchisor, through their pilot operations, will have eliminated unnecessary expense. 
5. The franchisor provides the franchisee with a range of services which are calculated to ensure, that the franchisee will enjoy the same or a greater degree of success as the franchisor has achieved. These services will include:

How to Gain Competitive Advantage in the Restaurant Business

by Stan Mack

Te you will have trouble standing out from the crowd. Gaining a competitive edge requires a detailed analysis of the demographics of the surrounding area and the nature of existing competitors. And even if you are successful at first, new competitors could enter your market at any time to steal your clients. Don’t hesitate to adopt successful strategies from your competitors, but understand that directly competing with an entrenched rival is a bad idea for a beginning restaurateur.

Step 1

Find an area with few competitors that serve food similar to yours. Pizza places, for example, face enough competition from other types of restaurants without having to fight each other.

Step 2

Che restaurant industry is highly competitive. Unless you have a star chef or a novel cuisine, chances arhoose a highly visible location that has a suitable consumer base nearby. For example, don’t open a family restaurant in an area full of office complexes. A residential area with a high percentage of families with young children would offer more potential clients, especially if there are relatively few local restaurants currently serving that demographic.

Step 3

Analyze the local competition after you’ve chosen a location. Chances are any region you choose will have at least a few competitors who target the same consumers. Other restaurants are obvious rivals, but supermarkets, convenience stores and any other businesses that sell prepared food are also competitors.

Step 4

Identify the strengths of each competitor. For example, a supermarket’s ready-to-eat meals are

How to Do a Breakeven Analysis

Breakeven analysis helps determine when your business revenues equal your costs

By Daniel Richards

If you can accurately forecast your costs and sales, conducting a breakeven analysis is a matter of simple math. A company has broken even when its total sales or revenues equal its total expenses. At the breakeven point, no profit has been made, nor have any losses been incurred. This calculation is critical for any business owner, because the breakeven point is the lower limit of profit when determining margins.

There are several types of costs to consider when conducting a breakeven analysis, so here's a refresher on the most relevant.

• Fixed costs: These are costs that are the same regardless of how many items you sell. All start-up costs, such as rent, insurance and computers, are considered fixed costs since you have to make these outlays before you sell your first item.

• Variable costs: These are recurring costs that you absorb with each unit you sell. For example, if you were operating a greeting card store where you had to buy greeting cards from a stationary company for $1 each, then that dollar represents a variable cost. As your business and sales grow, you can begin appropriating labor and other items as variable costs if it makes sense for your industry.

Setting a Price

This is critical to your breakeven analysis; you can't calculate likely revenues if you don't know what the unit price will be. Unit price refers to the amount you plan to charge customers to buy a single unit of your product.

• Psychology of Pricing: Pricing can involve a complicated decision-making process on the part of the consumer, and there is plenty of research on the marketing and psychology of how consumers perceive price. Take the time to review articles on pricing strategy and the psychology of pricing before choosing how to price your product or service.

• Pricing Methods: There are several different schools of thought on how to treat price when conducting a breakeven analysis. It is a mix of quantitative and qualitative factors. If you've created a brand new, unique product, you should be able to charge a premium price, but if you're entering a competitive industry, you'll have to keep the price in line with the going rate or perhaps even offer a discount to get customers to switch to your company.