Comprehensive Guide to Marketing, Business, and Finance

Posted on May 27, 2024 in Economy

Market and Marketing

Market means any place or means through which economic exchange takes place. Marketing is the strategy development of a company focused on meeting the needs and desires of consumers and providing a benefit to the company.

Product Life Cycle

  • Introduction: Producer input into the market. Sales grow very slowly because consumers do not know the product. Penetration strategies such as advertising and promotions are used.
  • Growth: Consumers begin consuming and identifying the product. Sales and profits increase rapidly, and competitors appear.
  • Maturity: Sales stabilize. Strategies can only increase by opening new market segments or conquering competitors’ market share.
  • Decline: Demand for the product manufactured by the company decreases. The main development strategies in the face of this phenomenon are product innovations.

Product Portfolio Matrix (BCG Matrix)

  • Star: High market share and high growth rate. Products with a strong competitive position and growth expectations.
  • Dilemma or Question Mark: High product sector attractiveness due to high growth rate, but the company’s market position is weak.
  • Cash Cow: Strong market position generating good income, but low growth expectations because it is an established product.
  • Dog: Low market share and low growth rate. Products where profits and investment will decrease.

Pricing and Distribution

Types of Pricing

  • Reference Pricing or Regular Pricing
  • Promotional Pricing
  • Penetration Pricing
  • Skimming (high prices for quick profits)
  • Psychological Threshold Pricing
  • Prestige Pricing

Distribution Channels

  • Retail: Intermediary buys production from wholesalers and sells directly to consumers.
  • Wholesaler: Intermediary who buys large quantities of products from the manufacturer and sells to other brokers, wholesalers, or retailers, not final consumers.
  • Franchisor: The person who initiates a company project and brings the brand, trade name, product or service, generic publications, etc.
  • Franchisee: The individual or firm that runs the award and provides the entry fee, local employees, etc.

Promotion and Organizational Models

Promotion Mix

  • Advertising: Paid communication by the company that aims to inform and motivate consumers, resulting in benefits for the advertiser.
  • Public Relations: A set of activities intended to act on the company’s relationships with certain groups of persons or entities.
  • Merchandising: A set of techniques that aim to highlight the item at the point of sale, so it can differentiate itself from the competition.
  • Loyalty: Includes actions intended to retain customers and prevent them from changing brands or shops.
  • Sales Promotion: A set of short-term activities aimed at increasing the effectiveness of sales efforts.

Organizational Models

  • Functional Model
  • Line-Functional Model
  • Divisional or Segmentation Model

Just in Time: A business philosophy aimed at achieving the highest customer satisfaction by eliminating all unnecessary activities within the organization.

Clover Model

  • Professional Core: Composed of managers and employees.
  • Outsourcing: Contracting with other companies to perform extra activities.
  • Temporary Activities: To be performed by employees of the company only required in high season.
  • Self-Service: Integrates all activities that can be performed by customers themselves.
  • Stalk: Connects the four-leaf clover and is composed of senior management.

Informal Organization: Relationships and friendships that develop spontaneously as a result of the individual’s need for socialization.

Salary Calculation

  1. Base Salary + Salary Supplements
  2. Pro-rata Extra Payments: (Amount Paid * Number of Extra Payments a Year) / 12 Months
  3. Total BCCC = Amount Paid + Pro-rata Bonuses
  4. Check if the BCCC is between the limits.
  5. BCCP: Amount Paid + Pro-rata Overtime + Checks to see if this is within the bounds of the BCCP.

Production and Inventory Management

Role of Production: Design of goods and services, production process planning, design installations, job design, and work planning and scheduling production.

Inventory Terms

  • Stockout: An interruption in the production process of a company due to a lack of replacement materials.
  • Safety Stock: Volume of stock in a warehouse above the normal expected need to deal with possible situations of excess demand.

International Trade

Dumping: A trade practice in which a company sets a lower price for exported goods than those goods sold in the country.

Cost Accounting

Types of Costs

  • Depending on the volume of production: Fixed, variable, and mixed.
  • According to their relationship to a cost object: Direct and indirect.
  • According to temporal consideration: Standard, actual or historical, prospective.
  • According to certainty in the calculation of opportunity cost: Explicit or implicit.

Accounting Principles

Accounting: Must be orderly, appropriate to the activity of the company, allowing chronological tracking of all operations, and enabling the regular production of inventory balances.

Key Accounting Concepts

  • Amortization: Represents the loss of value of fixed assets due to their use or obsolescence.
  • Liquidity: The quality of assets to be converted into immediate cash without significant loss of value.