Without it you cannot live; with it you may die

I wrote two weeks ago about Water: New source of corporate Mantra but here I am going to talk about different phase of water and its solution i.e., SODIS (Solar Water Disinfection). At least one third of population in developing countries doesn’t have safe drinking water. Everyday 4,000 children dying because of water borne diseases.

Is any solution available that is easy, accessible and free of cost? SODIS is simple, sustainable, low cost solution for drinking water treatment at household environment. SODIS uses solar energy to destroy microorganism causing water borne disease. SODIS process is very easy to use:

1- Take clean PET bottles (Coke, Pepsi),
2- Fill with water
3- Place in sun for next six hours.
For this process PET bottle is more useful than glass bottles because it is easily available in remote areas, low weight and chemically stable.

SODIS is already in used more than 20 countries such as Indonesia, Kenya, India and many more. What can we do? It’s available everywhere, sustainable but limited to reach so, need to spread the word. Full Information is available at
www.sodis.ch

Impact of internet in changing the marketing strategies

Strategic change is defined as “change in the content of a firm’s strategy as defined by its scope, resource deployments, competitive advantages and synergy(Hofer and Schendel 1978)
Strategic change can be affected by the internal and the external conditions of a firm because a firm or a company’s performance depends on the opportunities lying externally and how well it can save itself or counter the external changes. Things keep changing outside a company and the threats vary from the competitors to the market status. As a result, companies have to adopt new strategies to avoid biting the dust. It also depends on the way an organization utilizes its resources and the way in which capital is invested. Why marketing strategies are changing because of the web presence. For any business organization in today’s scenario it is very important and urgent not only to show its high-street presence but also to show it’s online or web presence and for the same purpose e-business is the hot favorite of everyone. We can define e-business as operating the business on the Internet, not only buying and selling but also serving customers and collaborating with business partners.
I am looking answer of following question in retail industry:
1. How internet is changing the whole marketing strategies and the overall business process of retail industry?
2. How retail business’s e-marketing strategy forms a platform for the success of a business and a framework for all the stages and functional areas?
3. Is it necessary for a company to carry both types of businesses as it increases the investment and labor for same type of goods & services being sold by both the operations?
4. Are the models complimentary to each other or are they independent of each other?
5. What is the profitability margins in both and which type will dictate in the future?
6. How are retail marketers taking advantage of latest internet marketing tools like social media?
Any comment???

Successful Social Media Marketing-DELL INC.

Social media is contributing to a significant change that take us from “traditional, and objective perspective to a more subjective and personalized perspective. The move from objective, fact-based, third party reporting and commentary (traditional media/advertising/controlled messages/interruptions) to individual, subjective perceptions is very powerful. The new facts are based on real interactions and experiences that people share with each other. Dell provides possibly the best case study of how a company has successfully integrated social media into its marketing communications, and culture. Dell has produced $6.5 million in revenue over twitter presence. Although a tiny percentage of the company’s total sales (Dell generated more than $60 billion in revenue last year), it does represent significant growth in revenue via social media in the past year.
Social media doesn’t only provide medium for sale but it is very strong channel for full cycle of business operation starting from market research to customer support. So far Dell has been pretty successful in using social media to its advantage and maintained its strong presence from the start:

I.Market research: Via platforms like IdeaStorm, more than 350 customer ideas have been implemented into product and business innovations.

II.Brand awareness: Dell has online web community of more than 3.5 million people across the social web, including places like Twitter, Facebook, Direct2Dell and IdeaStorm.

III.Demand generation: Social media presence on sites like twitter, Facebook and linkedin provide effective way to promote new products awareness and deals. Dell built a Flickr page (which recently passed 1 million views) and a Dell YouTube channel to facilitate the sharing of picture and video content produced for Direct2Dell.

IV.Lead generation: All the social media provide most efficient and cost-effective way to be found by or to proactively contact prospective customers; to deliver key messages and offers to them; to motivating these prospects to become sales leads by their responding, providing information or taking actions that identify them as representing real sales opportunities that the company’s salespeople, reps, resellers and distributors can turn into closed sales and revenue for the company.
V.Sales acceleration: Dell’s twitter followers @DellOutlet are more than a million strong (representing more than $3 million in revenue), a robust community of people interested in refurbished units.

VI.Customer support: The Dell Community sites are a great place to go if someone has a problem or want to read about what Dell has to offer. Here one can find great solutions, advice and how-to's, discussions and friends.

VII.Repeat business & referrals: A strong social network of 3.5 million people and providing them with easier and efficient communication channels like twitter and Facebook promotes loyalty and long term business commitment.

Underground Barter system

Barter System is that system in which goods are exchanged for goods. The waiter from the pizza place walks into a café with a bag of French fries and leaves with a best double espresso. Most of the employees had similar friends in low end services jobs like coffee shop, night clubs and they are using this kind of bartering. This isn’t any question that they were stealing but didn’t feel like it because it’s not from cash drawer, According to this useful system who knows businesses is losing 4 million or 40 billion. Movie theatres to bar and even in inter-departmental bartering is happen in hospitality industry likewise production department provides food to F&B personnel and in returns get their favorite fresh drinks. Literature from another screams, "Employees Steal 10 Times More Than Shoplifters!” This is a kind of exchange system which is really not good for any business but mostly using in Food & Beverage outlets.