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Effective Marketing Strategies in Product Creation

Marketing includes matters such as pricing and packaging of the product and creation of demand by advertising and sales campaigns. There are other options, of course, like product creation, resale rights marketing, joint ventures and the likes, but they are merely secondary to the above.

If you take the freelance route, it is important to ensure that all rights to profit from the final product, or any materials produced in its making, remain yours. Bookkeeping, physical product creation or delivery of goods can be done better with specialized help. Determining the purpose of the product is vital in niche product creation.

Implementation of Methodology – The choice of implementation of Six Sigma methodology depends on whether development is required on existing processes (DMAIC) or on new process/product design creation (DMADV). Determining what you really want to sell, something that you can be relaxed selling is the first step at the creation of a niche product. With the technological advancements in the hosting industry, from automated control panels and scripts that simplify creation of accounts; to complete turnkey solutions, there is no excessive need to worry about spending time on the actual product sold to the customer.

For instance, you should be prepared to either perform yourself or to subcontract the completion of the following tasks:- Product idea research (are there any existing products or patents already existing for this idea)- Product specification document training (what it will do, how it will look, how will it be powered, and how the user will interface with it)- Marketing study (what it will be named, who would buy this, how much would they pay, how will we get customers to purchase the product)- Schematic or electronic circuit design process- Creation of a bill of material or BOM and an approved vendor’s list or AVL for each component in the design, preferably with multiple sources identified, with a BOM and AVL for each assembly level in the product- Printed circuit board layout design process (single sided board, double sided board, or multilayer board; size of the PCB; board material)- Mechanical packaging design with user interfaces (displays, buttons, switches, key. This removes all product creation costs from your budget as a marketer.

No other database of affiliate programs offers such a possibility for profit on either the affiliate side or the product creation site. Your chosen niche should allow for the creation of more than one product or service.

There are several marketing strategies that are necessary in the creation of a successful e-commerce web site – Email marketing (broadcasting) of prospects/customers – Effective use of auto responders (generate automatic email messages) – Online Newsletter – Online Form / Survey to capture your prospect’s email address – Electronic Product Delivery (if you sold a digital product) – Advertisement (Ad) Tracking – Back End Sales – Affiliate program etc.

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How To Succeed At Online Product Creation The Easy Way

Product creation could be a frightening subject for a lot of Internet marketers to face. Some folks who get in the game with the intention of making a full time income are completely ignorant as to how an online business operates. One of the most profitable ways to create online cash is by creating a product that others are happy to pay for.

Product creation is legitimate method of generating money through internet marketing but many entrepreneurs get it wrong. They start by imitating their Internet marketing gurus by creating information products on Internet marketing in hopes of getting rich the way their heroes did. The problem is that they usually don’t know what they are doing and enter a highly competitive niche with very little marketing experience or connections.

Here are a few tips for effective product creation that may help you get on the right track:
Start by finding a profitable niche with low to moderate competition. If you conduct some rudimentary market research and keyword research, you’ll find many opportunities in areas that will surprise you. Amazon and eBay are two great places to brainstorm for product ideas.

Developing Your Product does not have to be a difficult project. You can find experts in the right field for your niche and pay them to write the material while an artist designs the packaging and website or blog. You can outsource the entire product creation part of the project after you conduct the research and testing to ensure profitability.

Sales and marketing strategies should be created while developing the product and learning about the market. Some experienced marketers use pay per click to drive traffic to their offer page; some folks outsource the entire marketing campaign to affiliates through ClickBank or other affiliate programs.

Product creation does not need to be hard, particularly when the merchandise is electronic. E-books, videos, audio and multi-media products sell very well. They are distributed immediately to customers electronically. Once you have a good feel for a niche market, try to service your customers with associated products and upgrades. If you want to earn money online through product creation, you must understand supply and demand. The majority of new online marketers fail miserably because they go after highly competitive markets or forget to research their chosen niche properly. You have to create your products according to the needs, wants and desires of the prospective customers.

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Advanced Thinking Concepts for Investing in a Property Management Firm in Uganda

As the Ugandan economy continues developing, the property market will grow. Many of the property sector investors however will probably not have time to manage the properties themselves on a day to day basis. They will increasingly rely on property management firms.

Before considering property management in Uganda as an investment option, the investor needs to however be aware of the following:

THE CONS

1. Legal hurdles.

You should be aware that in Uganda, owing to the poor land tenure system, combined with administrative inefficiencies and corruption, property purchase and construction is often fraught with legal difficulties. It is not uncommon for individuals to obtain illegal planning permits for construction of properties in say gazetted zones like wetlands and forest reserves. Subsequently rectifying this irregularity has often resulted in long drawn out legal processes and the owner and thus the property manager often lose revenues during the non occupancy of the disputed property.

2. Reputation.

Property management firms like any other businesses need to exhibit a high degree of integrity for potential clients to handover the properties. In Uganda there have been some high-profile court cases involving property managers, including one of a leading property management firm whose managing director conned a potential purchaser of advance monies paid. There was a significant reputation loss. If you are considering investing in this sector, you should therefore ensure you maintain the high standards of professional ethics such as separating client and office monies as well as maintaining good accounting records, otherwise your reputation can easily be dented.

3. The property market bubble.

Whilst the global credit crisis continues depressing property values in places such as the USA and the UK, In Uganda this is not particularly being felt for a myriad of reasons. In the commercial sector, malls and shopping centres continue to spring up in the capital city Kampala and its suburbs to cater for the growing middle class and increasing population as a result of rural- urban migration which is currently estimated at 3%-5% per annum.

In the residential sector owing to a general shortage of housing there is always demand for property and as such the property values continue to rise. The shortage of housing is primarily because just like many cities across sub Saharan Africa, rural-urban migration to Kampala has resulted in significant population growth not matched by construction and thus causing a shortage of housing, particularly for the low and middle level income earners.

The main risk of the property bubble in Uganda would arise from political instability which would lead to collapse of the sector.

4. Competition

The competition for property management in this sector is as follows:

At the top end of the market are international property management firm affiliates like Knight Frank. In addition there are ISO certified companies like Amalgamated Property Consultants (APS) as well as large and reputable property management companies such as Crane Management services which is under the Ruparelia Group of companies.

At the lower end of the market are property brokers who also double as property managers for their clients. These typically cater for low-income earners’ housing.

In my model, I advocate that the property management investor will need to develop their niche as follows:

1) A firm that is an affiliate or franchise holder of an international property management firm. In Uganda, as far as I know, international property management firms like CBRE and Colliers have no local representation except for Knight Frank. There is therefore an opportunity for the investor to ensure that their firm gets affiliation to these international firms. This will give them instant brand recognition and the perceived quality and reputation already associated with the international firms. In addition they will benefit from the referrals if clients of the international firm seek a local representative in Uganda. I can expect that this affiliation has contributed to the success of Knight Frank Uganda.

2) A firm that has some brokers on its payroll. Brokers in Uganda tend to act independent of any firm, are semi illiterate and lack sufficient working capital to deal with potential clients.If the firm therefore guarantees them a daily allowance say of shs. 10,000 to cater for meals, transport and communication for their activities, they are likely to refer future business to the firm, particularly if they are unable to handle it themselves.

THE PROS

Excellent return on capital

In my model I expect that the investment will be returned in about 6 months. The reason for this is manifold:

a) The property manager’s advertising will emphasise property management as their core business. This is such that the firm can develop inside knowledge of the sector as well as establish itself as a reputable leader in the sector. When they have developed a good reputation, clients can then entrust them with property sales, which tend to be more lucrative than property management.The property management side is therefore in business terms called the “loss leader”.

b) A significant part of the marketing budget will go to the brokers rather than traditional avenues of marketing like TV and newspaper advertisements. This is because the Ugandan real estate sector is highly informal and as such a significant portion of the illiterate/semi illiterate but wealthy persons will usually revert to the brokers who just like them are often illiterate/semi illiterate. It therefore becomes critical to have these brokers as a linkage to such clientele.

In my model, I expect returns will be as below:

Capital Investment(A): Shs 35, 149, 155

Profit per year (B): Shs. 58,803,380

Return on Investment/Capital (years to get capital back) (A/B): 0.6 years

FINAL WORD

The basics you must get right before investing:

1. Property management software. You must invest in good software to provide you with real-time client accounts and reporting. This will give the client the assurance as to your integrity. I cannot recommend a particular software but a Google search should yield one.

2. Maintain a good contact data base. Property management requires liaison with several bodies including city council authorities, land authorities, utility suppliers, repairs and maintenance personnel, lawyers and brokers. I expect that a good property management software system will have a robust Database Management System at its heart. I will reiterate, include a good lawyer and accountant on this contact database.

3. Become an affiliate of an international property management firm. If you cannot afford one with an international firm such as CBRE or Colliers then go for a locally reputable firm like APS.

For over 8 years I have worked with several clients providing audit, accounts, tax and advisory in sectors ranging from agriculture, mining, entertainment, financial services and technology. My client portfolio in Uganda, The Bahamas and The Channel Islands, United Kingdom has equally been diverse and this experience has given me a “well rounded” view of business including several clients in the Real Estate/Property market.