Courses

Market Identification In this page you will find the unit n.2, where we talk about market identification, the unit is divided in 9 module that you can find down here: – Marketing/Promotion & E-Commerce – Buisness Plan, Budgeting and Management Skills – Financial management in micro-enterprises – EU programme awareness/grants for rural micro-enterprise – Access to non-grant finance for micro enterprises in rural areas – Building Capacity in Rural Micro-Enterprises – Pathways2market e costumer identification – EU Single Market Opportunities for Rural Micro-Enterprises – ICT Literacy for Rural Micro-Enterprises Now let’s start with the unit 2, under here you can see al the modules which can be opened and closed all the time you want and they are ordered froom the first to the last. Now go on and learn more about marketing. Maketing/Promotion & E-commerce Objective of this module:  The goal of this module is to teach you the basics of designing and implementing a comprehensive and result oriented product/service promotion strategy  What is promotion?   Promotion is a mix of Actions used to increase product/service sales through leads generations It is one of the four elements (4 P’s) of Marketing: (Product, Price, Placement,Promotion)  Objectives of Promotion To present product/service information to consumers and others. To increase demand. Product differentation. What is the promotional plan (mix) It refers to the intensity (in terms of time, effort and spending) that each promotional type is being used Types of promotion Personal Selling. In-person sales, transactions made between sales representatives and clients. Advertising. Either audio, visual or printed. It employs an openly sponsored, nonpersonal message to promote or sell a product, service or idea. Sales Promotion. It includes demand raising actions such as contests, coupons, freebies, loss leaders, point of purchase displays, premium prizes, product samples, and rebates. Direct Marketing. Includes communication with customers through a variety of media e.g. cell phone text messagging, email, websites, online adverts, database marketing,fliers, catalogue distributio, promotional letters Publicity. Refers to gaining public visibility or awareness for a product, service or your company via the media.     Examples of promotion tactics in the area of publicity :      Estabilishing a Promotional Mix (1 of 2) Target Market Determination Determination of objectives Message Design Selection of promotional Channels Budget Determination Estabilishing a Promotional Mix (2 of 2) Example 1 : Jeweller’s promotional mix based on a budget of 5.000 Euros Example 2 : Candy bar that fights tooth decay with 5.000 Euros budget     Top Promotional Activities Include: 1. DOVE Dove doubled profits from 1 to 2bn and turned the business of selling soap into a moral campaign How Created a mock-up advert using all of the company directors’ own daughters. With text alongside each image saying how these girls believed they weren’t beautiful, based o the existing images / models used in existing promotions, since their self-esteem was affected. Promotion strategy changd with more average girl  model type. 2. NORDSTROM A fashion retailer with $ 8,000 life-time spending per customer How Creating «Nordy Stories» , examples of great customer service from its employees. «Nordy Stories» give concrete examples to the employees to show them exactly how good customer service is given. Example:  A customer came into Nordstrom wishing to return a $17 tyre iron, without a receipt and in spite of the fact that the company doesn’t sell tyre irons the customer receives full refund. (They know that the Nordstorm customer has an average lifetime spend of $8,000. What’s $17 compared to that?) 3. GE  2 million views of Videos on Company Web-site after replacing heavy mission statements How  The human brain process visuals 50 times faster than text. Customers were attracted by the new appealing company presentation and used multichannel communication (YouTube etc.) to spread the word! Buisness Plan, Budgeting and Management Skills Objective of this module:  You will learn about different financial documents which are an integral part of the business plan with an emphasis on the budget as the most valuable financial document.  – Financial plan as a part of Business plan The financial part of the business plan is one of the most important parts. Every microenterprise should have a business plan with a detailed financial plan included. The financial plan is constructed using: income statement, balance sheet, cash flow and budget. All these document contain essential information for the managers. The Balance sheet is a document that displays the financial situation of a company at a particular moment.  The Income statement is a document which is constructed using all the income of the company and all expenses. This document is made for a defined period of operation of the company, usually a 12 month period.                                                The Income Statement can also be called a Profit and Loss Account. Budget The Budget is one of the crucial parts of a business plan.                                           This module includes all items which are part of the business. This means that the budget sould be constructed by predicting costs of all these items. Tthe Budget will give the manager data for all costs of the company for the planning period. Technique of making a budget Step 1 :  The technique of making a budget includes as a first step predicition of all items. This means that all items from biggest to smallest should be placed on the list. Step 2 : After prediction of the items they should be placed in different sectors or units. Those units are separated by types of costs. Step 3 : After this step, the next one is to predict costs for the individual items. The technique for the prediction of the costs, include collecting data for costs for the items from different sources. Also, data from previous years can be taken for estiating costs for proposed items. Step 4 : After the collection of

Pathways2market & customer identification •Overview How many slides? How long to read and listen? What is the benefit? 22 slides in total 30 minutes (not including exploring the links provided within slides) See expected learning in following slide •Unit Aim ~In this unit, we will learn how to identify potential customers to fulfil their needs and improve sales~ •Expected Learning Outcomes At the end of this module you will be able to:1. Identify costumers to improve sales2. Know how to focus on your most valuable costumers3. You can you chack your knowledge? •Costumers identification Costumers identification helps you to sell more. The more you know about them and their needs, the easier it is to identify opportunities to sell them new products and target them with appropriate offers. Profiling existing customers also makes it easier to find new ones. You can look for similar prospects, and sell to them in a similar way. You can use the information you have on customers to improve efficiency. Keeping a central recors of customer details and sales reduces errors and speeds up transactions. You can also improve customer service. Better access to information helps you deal with customers more quickly. You can tailor product offering and provide personalised treatment. The right information makes it easier to identify and resolve any problems. Finally, costumers identification helps your planning. You can predict what they will buy, and estimate how much stock you need. Linking customer management to purchasing can dramatically improve profitability. The right information will let you build up a useful profile of your customers. This typically includes the following: who they are – the age and gender of individual consumers, or industry and business size for corporate customers what they think and believe, what are their interests and opinions their purchasing behaviour – which products do they buy? Where do they buy them? When? And how do they pay? Profiling your customers in this way helps you group them into different segments, each of which can be approached separately. For example, you might produce customised products or services for different segments. You can also focus the way you market to different groups of customers. Drawing a Picture. On a piece of paper, draw a person. It can be a stick figure if art isn’t your thing. Now, with your ideal customer in mind, begin to fill in details. Is this person male or female? Old or young? Write in details on the side of your drawing about income, education, where this person lives, what this person likes to do. You may not know the answers to many of these questions. That’s the point of the exercise: to see what you don’t know about your customers. Now it’s time to fill in the holes. Analyse your customers. To understand your customers, you need to clearly identify what type of customer you are targeting, and what are their trends. Be sure to include figures and predictions for future. Who are your current customers, and why do they buy from you? Look for common characteristics and interests. Which ones bring in the most business? There are two primary aspects to any customer analysis, a demographic profile and a psychographic or behavioural analysis. Demographic profiles break down customers into age, income, geographic and other easily identifiable categories. A psychographic analysis in its simplest form identifies the reasons why customers choose to buy a certain product, their interests and buying habits. Generally, there are three main ways to understand your customers better. One is to put yourself in their shoes and try and look at your business from their point of view. The second way is to collect and analyse secondary data to define your customers and their buying behaviour. You may be able to find information in publications, which may track demographics, sales information, trends in your industry, and other useful consumer information. The third way, suitable for already established businesses, is simply to ask your customers what they think. Define specific demographics of your target. Figure out not only who has a need for your product or service, but also who is most likely to buy it. Think about the following factors: Age, Location, Gender, Income level, Education level, Marital or family status, Occupation, Ethnic background Consider the psychographics of your target. Psychographics are the more personal characteristics of a person, including: Personality, Attitudes, Values, Interests/hobbies, Lifestyles, Behaviour. Those characteristics can define where you want to focus your marketing efforts. For example, if you find that the characteristics that define your customer include an interest in fine arts, you can place advertisements in local arts venues and program brochures. Determine how your product or service will fit into your target’s lifestyle. How and when will your target use the product? What features are most appealing to your target? What media does your target turn to for information? Does your target read the newspaper, search online, or attend events? Find out where your customers hang out and their lifestyle trends. If you have a social media presence, look at the profile pages of your fans. Assess where your customers are spending their time, and then make sure that your business is visible in those places. After you understand basic demographic and psychographic attributes of your customers, you can better target your marketing plans and be sure that your products meet the needs of your intended audience. Analysing your customers allows you to identify those who best fit your business priorities. By conducting a market analysis, you will be able to gather valuable data that will help you get to know your customers, determine appropriate pricing, and figure out your competitors’ vulnerabilities. Analyse your product/service with respect to customer identification. After you have identified your costumer main characteristics write out a list of each feature of your product or service. Next to each feature, list the benefits it provides (and the benefits of those benefits). Once you have your benefits listed link them to a list of

Online selling channels for Rural Micro Enterprises This page talks about the many online selling channels for Rural Micro Enterprises. In specific, the arguments treated are: Marketing/Promotion & E-commerce; Business plan, Budgeting and Management skills; Financial Management in micro-enterprises; EU programme awareness/grants for rural micro-enterprise; Access to non-grant finance for micro-enterprises in rural areas; Building Capacity in Rural Micro-Enterprises; Pathways2market & customer identification; EU Single Market Opportunities for Rural Micro-enterprises; ICT Literacy for Rural Micro-enterprises; Online selling channels for Rural Micro Enterprises​ We will learn how to identify appropriate selling channels for rural enterprises and make the most out of them. Where? If you want to set up your own online store than you probably already have some idea of business, product range and potential customers of your online store. Think about exactly what kind of products and prices you will include in your shop. Is it worth it to open a specialized online store or perhaps your rural business should rather be offline? Or maybe you can use both online and offline channels, but just make sure you have considered all pros and cons.Selling products online requires answering one basic question: where? First of all you have to decide if you want to implement your own online platform or if you don’t have the time or money to create your own selling platform you can use third parties online selling platforms like Etsy, Amazon, eBay or even Facebook where you can sell directly to consumers without having a website of your own. Making use of these alternatives it is a vital part of a business’ sales strategy.Choosing where to sell products online requires evaluating the fit between channel and product. Finding the right fit means having a strong sense of the company’s products and its customers (What are you selling? Can it be sold online? Where do your customers buy? Will they buy online?), as well as an awareness of who uses various channels. That is why we strongly suggest you to start by defining your mission, vision, products, corporative brand and identity and costumers before starting with online selling.  How? There are some key principles in selling online. Some of them are based on common sense and others are related to online selling. Common sense: Trustworthiness: make sure your customer can trust you and your products. Consistency: make sure you are consistent with your corporative image, mission and vision. Usability: make sure your customer can easily access your products and knows how to use them. Quality of products and of sale process: make sure the sale experience is positive. After sale assistance: make sure you provide personalised assistance to your customer. Online related issues: Pictures: make sure your products are presented through appealing pictures. Language: make sure your contents and translations are meaningful and simple. If you use translations make sure they are done by native speakers and target oriented. Online support: make sure you do not loose your customer while using your online platform. Security channel: make sure you provide https:// security protocols for economic transactions. Privacy policies: make sure you respect data protection laws managing your customers’ data. Logistics: make sure you have all shipping and logistics costs or restrictions well explained. Advantages and disadvantages The advantage of using own online selling platform is that you can control the entire process and selling experience since the very beginning and you can choose if you want to provide an intimate shopping experience and familiar customer relationships or prices and features that you want to highlight for your products.The disadvantage of using own online selling platforms is related to initial set up and maintenance costs, as well as some logistic issues. If you have only few handmade products and your ROI is not big you might want to opt for third parties selling platforms.The advantage of using third parties selling platform is related to traffic and exposure as well as limiting troubles in selling online as you can give it a try and quit immediately if you are not convinced. You can start with these platforms and see if your product is well accepted and your ROI is good enough to think about going on your own. Sites like Amazon or Etsy attract individuals who are prepared to make purchases, whereas it is harder to generate meaningful traffic in your own website or channels. It can be a process of trial and error, and you can add a mix of social channels to a traditional website to get more traffic, more customers and potentially more sales. The disadvantage of using third parties selling platform is related to fees, that you have to pay to advertise your product that inevitably reduce your ROI, and to high competition in terms of products and prices.  What needs to setup a Rural Micro Enterprises? To setup a Rural Micro Enterprise, you need the following things: The power of choosing the right channels lies, in part, in defining correctly different types of customers. People shopping on Etsy, for instance, are primed and ready to buy unique handcrafted items. Whereas, Amazon and eBay have their own types of customers and work well for certain kinds of products. That is why it is so important to define your products and costumers before starting to sell online. If you have a rural business where you manufacture your own product, then Amazon/Etsy/AliExpress can be the best choice. If you are a reseller of existing brands, eBay might be easier for you, especially at the beginning. Just make sure you choose your channels wisely. Website. A website is the cornerstone of most small rural microenterprises online presence. Since people do not know you, make sure your contents and pictures convey your best corporative image. Shopping cart software. Any time you sell something online that is more complicated than one single item, a shopping cart helps. Check with your website hosting company to see what they offer. Make sure your platform runs on a secure communication channel https:// as it will enhance trust in your ecommerce. Payment processing. Whether it’s Paypal or the credit card processor that you use for in-person transactions, you’ll need to figure