Marketing Plan

Marketing Plan The information for this article was derived from many sources, including Michael Porter's book Competitive Advantage and the works of Philip Kotler. Concepts addressed include 'generic' strategies and strategies for pricing, distribution, promotion, advertising and market segmentation. Factors such as market penetration, market share, profit margins, budgets, financial analysis, capital investment, government actions, demographic changes, emerging technology and cultural trends are also addressed.

There are two major components to your marketing strategy:

• how your enterprise will address the competitive marketplace
• how you will implement and support your day to day operations.

In today's very competitive marketplace a strategy that insures a consistent approach to offering your product or service in a way that will outsell the competition is critical. However, in concert with defining the marketing strategy you must also have a well defined methodology for the day to day process of implementing it. It is of little value to have a strategy if you lack either the resources or the expertise to implement it.

In the process of creating a marketing strategy you must consider many factors. Of those many factors, some are more important than others. Because each strategy must address some unique considerations, it is not reasonable to identify 'every' important factor at a generic level. However, many are common to all marketing strategies. Some of the more critical are described below.

You begin the creation of your strategy by deciding what the overall objective of your enterprise should be. In general this falls into one of four categories:

• If the market is very attractive and your enterprise is one of the strongest in the industry you will want to invest your best resources in support of your offering.
• If the market is very attractive but your enterprise is one of the weaker ones in the industry you must concentrate on strengthening the enterprise, using your offering as a stepping stone toward this objective.
• If the market is not especially attractive, but your enterprise is one of the strongest in the industry then an effective marketing and sales effort for your offering will be good for generating near term profits.
• If the market is not especially attractive and your enterprise is one of the weaker ones in the industry you should promote this offering only if it supports a more profitable part of your business (for instance, if this segment completes a product line range) or if it absorbs some of the overhead costs of a more profitable segment. Otherwise, you should determine the most cost effective way to divest your enterprise of this offering.

Having selected the direction most beneficial for the overall interests of the enterprise, the next step is to choose a strategy for the offering that will be most effective in the market. This means choosing one of the following 'generic' strategies (first described by Michael Porter in his work, Competitive Advantage).

• A COST LEADERSHIP STRATEGY is based on the concept that you can produce and market a good quality product or service at a lower cost than your competitors. These low costs should translate to profit margins that are higher than the industry average. Some of the conditions that should exist to support a cost leadership strategy include an on-going availability of operating capital, good process engineering skills, close management of labor, products designed for ease of manufacturing and low cost distribution.
• A DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY is one of creating a product or service that is perceived as being unique "throughout the industry". The emphasis can be on brand image, proprietary technology, special features, superior service, a strong distributor network or other aspects that might be specific to your industry. This uniqueness should also translate to profit margins that are higher than the industry average. In addition, some of the conditions that should exist to support a differentiation strategy include strong marketing abilities, effective product engineering, creative personnel, the ability to perform basic research and a good reputation.
• A FOCUS STRATEGY may be the most sophisticated of the generic strategies, in that it is a more 'intense' form of either the cost leadership or differentiation strategy. It is designed to address a "focused" segment of the marketplace, product form or cost management process and is usually employed when it isn't appropriate to attempt an 'across the board' application of cost leadership or differentiation. It is based on the concept of serving a particular target in such an exceptional manner, that others cannot compete. Usually this means addressing a substantially smaller market segment than others in the industry, but because of minimal competition, profit margins can be very high.

Pricing
Having defined the overall offering objective and selecting the generic strategy you must then decide on a variety of closely related operational strategies. One of these is how you will price the offering. A pricing strategy is mostly influenced by your requirement for net income and your objectives for long term market control. There are three basic strategies you can consider.

• A SKIMMING STRATEGY
  If your offering has enough differentiation to justify a high price and you desire quick cash and have minimal desires for significant market penetration and control, then you set your prices very high.
• A MARKET PENETRATION STRATEGY
  If near term income is not so critical and rapid market penetration for eventual market control is desired, then you set your prices very low.
• A COMPARABLE PRICING STRATEGY
  If you are not the market leader in your industry then the leaders will most likely have created a 'price expectation' in the minds of the marketplace. In this case you can price your offering comparably to those of your competitors.

Promotion
To sell an offering you must effectively promote and advertise it. There are two basic promotion strategies, PUSH and PULL.

• The PUSH STRATEGY maximizes the use of all available channels of distribution to "push" the offering into the marketplace. This usually requires generous discounts to achieve the objective of giving the channels incentive to promote the offering, thus minimizing your need for advertising.
• The PULL STRATEGY requires direct interface with the end user of the offering. Use of channels of distribution is minimized during the first stages of promotion and a major commitment to advertising is required. The objective is to "pull" the prospects into the various channel outlets creating a demand the channels cannot ignore.

There are many strategies for advertising an offering. Some of these include:

• Product Comparison advertising
  In a market where your offering is one of several providing similar capabilities, if your offering stacks up well when comparing features then a product comparison ad can be beneficial.
• Product Benefits advertising
  When you want to promote your offering without comparison to competitors, the product benefits ad is the correct approach. This is especially beneficial when you have introduced a new approach to solving a user need and comparison to the old approaches is inappropriate.
• Product Family advertising
  If your offering is part of a group or family of offerings that can be of benefit to the customer as a set, then the product family ad can be of benefit.
• Corporate advertising
  When you have a variety of offerings and your audience is fairly broad, it is often beneficial to promote your enterprise identity rather than a specific offering.

Distribution
You must also select the distribution method(s) you will use to get the offering into the hands of the customer. These include:

• On-premise Sales involves the sale of your offering using a field sales organization that visits the prospect's facilities to make the sale.
• Direct Sales involves the sale of your offering using a direct, in-house sales organization that does all selling through the Internet, telephone or mail order contact.
• Wholesale Sales involves the sale of your offering using intermediaries or "middle-men" to distribute your product or service to the retailers.
• Self-service Retail Sales involves the sale of your offering using self service retail methods of distribution.
• Full-service Retail Sales involves the sale of your offering through a full service retail distribution channel.

Of course, making a decision about pricing, promotion and distribution is heavily influenced by some key factors in the industry and marketplace. These factors should be analyzed initially to create the strategy and then regularly monitored for changes. If any of them change substantially the strategy should be reevaluated.

The Environment
Environmental factors positively or negatively impact the industry and the market growth potential of your product/service. Factors to consider include:

• Government actions - Government actions (current or under consideration) can support or detract from your strategy. Consider subsidies, safety, efficacy and operational regulations, licensing requirements, materials access restrictions and price controls.
• Demographic changes - Anticipated demographic changes may support or negatively impact the growth potential of your industry and market. This includes factors such as education, age, income and geographic location.
• Emerging technology - Technological changes that are occurring may or may not favor the actions of your enterprise.
• Cultural trends - Cultural changes such as fashion trends and life style trends may or may not support your offering's penetration of the market

The Prospect
It is essential to understand the market segment(s) as defined by the prospect characteristics you have selected as the target for your offering. Factors to consider include:

• The potential for market penetration involves whether you are selling to past customers or a new prospect, how aware the prospects are of what you are offering, competition, growth rate of the industry and demographics.
• The prospect's willingness to pay higher price because your offering provides a better solution to their problem.
• The amount of time it will take the prospect to make a purchase decision is affected by the prospects confidence in your offering, the number and quality of competitive offerings, the number of people involved in the decision, the urgency of the need for your offering and the risk involved in making the purchase decision.
• The prospect's willingness to pay for product value is determined by their knowledge of competitive pricing, their ability to pay and their need for characteristics such as quality, durability, reliability, ease of use, uniformity and dependability.
• Likelihood of adoption by the prospect is based on the criticality of the prospect's need, their attitude about change, the significance of the benefits, barriers that exist to incorporating the offering into daily usage and the credibility of the offering.

The Product/Service
You should be thoroughly familiar with the factors that establish products/services as strong contenders in the marketplace. Factors to consider include:

• Whether some or all of the technology for the offering is proprietary to the enterprise.
• The benefits the prospect will derive from use of the offering.
• The extent to which the offering is differentiated from the competition.
• The extent to which common introduction problems can be avoided such as lack of adherence to industry standards, unavailability of materials, poor quality control, regulatory problems and the inability to explain the benefits of the offering to the prospect.
• The potential for product obsolescence as affected by the enterprise's commitment to product development, the product's proximity to physical limits, the ongoing potential for product improvements, the ability of the enterprise to react to technological change and the likelihood of substitute solutions to the prospect's needs.
• Impact on customer's business as measured by costs of trying out your offering, how quickly the customer can realize a return from their investment in your offering, how disruptive the introduction of your offering is to the customer's operations and the costs to switch to your offering.
• The complexity of your offering as measured by the existence of standard interfaces, difficulty of installation, number of options, requirement for support devices, training and technical support and the requirement for complementary product interface.

The Competition
It is essential to know who the competition is and to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Factors to consider include:

• Each of your competitor's experience, staying power, market position, strength, predictability and freedom to abandon the market must be evaluated.

Your Enterprise
An honest appraisal of the strength of your enterprise is a critical factor in the development of your strategy. Factors to consider include:

• Enterprise capacity to be leader in low-cost production considering cost control infrastructure, cost of materials, economies of scale, management skills, availability of personnel and compatibility of manufacturing resources with offering requirements.
• The enterprise's ability to construct entry barriers to competition such as the creation of high switching costs, gaining substantial benefit from economies of scale, exclusive access to or clogging of distribution channels and the ability to clearly differentiate your offering from the competition.
• The enterprise's ability to sustain its market position is determined by the potential for competitive imitation, resistance to inflation, ability to maintain high prices, the potential for product obsolescence and the 'learning curve' faced by the prospect.
• The prominence of the enterprise.
• The competence of the management team.
• The adequacy of the enterprise's infrastructure in terms of organization, recruiting capabilities, employee benefit programs, customer support facilities and logistical capabilities.
• The freedom of the enterprise to make critical business decisions without undue influence from distributors, suppliers, unions, creditors, investors and other outside influences.
• Freedom from having to deal with legal problems.

Development
A review of the strength and viability of the product/service development program will heavily influence the direction of your strategy. Factors to consider include:

• The strength of the development manager including experience with personnel management, current and new technologies, complex projects and the equipment and tools used by the development personnel.
• Personnel who understand the relevant technologies and are able to perform the tasks necessary to meet the development objectives.
• Adequacy and appropriateness of the development tools and equipment.
• The necessary funding to achieve the development objectives.
• Design specifications that are manageable.

Production
You should review your enterprise's production organization with respect to their ability to cost effectively produce products/services. The following factors are considered:

• The strength of production manager including experience with personnel management, current and new technologies, complex projects and the equipment and tools used by the manufacturing personnel.
• Economies of scale allowing the sharing of operations, sharing of production and the potential for vertical integration.
• Technology and production experience
• The necessary production personnel skill level and/or the enterprise's ability to hire or train qualified personnel.
• The ability of the enterprise to limit suppliers bargaining power.
• The ability of the enterprise to control the quality of raw materials and production.
• Adequate access to raw materials and sub-assembly production.

Marketing/Sales
The marketing and sales organization is analyzed for its strengths and current activities. Factors to consider include:

• Experience of Marketing/Sales manager including contacts in the industry (prospects, distribution channels, media), familiarity with advertising and promotion, personal selling capabilities, general management skills and a history of profit and loss responsibilities.
• The ability to generate good publicity as measured by past successes, contacts in the press, quality of promotional literature and market education capabilities.
• Sales promotion techniques such as trade allowances, special pricing and contests.
• The effectiveness of your distribution channels as measured by history of relations, the extent of channel utilization, financial stability, reputation, access to prospects and familiarity with your offering.
• Advertising capabilities including media relationships, advertising budget, past experience, how easily the offering can be advertised and commitment to advertising.
• Sales capabilities including availability of personnel, quality of personnel, location of sales outlets, ability to generate sales leads, relationship with distributors, ability to demonstrate the benefits of the offering and necessary sales support capabilities.
• The appropriateness of the pricing of your offering as it relates to competition, price sensitivity of the prospect, prospect's familiarity with the offering and the current market life cycle stage.

Customer Services
The strength of the customer service function has a strong influence on long term market success. Factors to consider include:

• Experience of the Customer Service manager in the areas of similar offerings and customers, quality control, technical support, product documentation, sales and marketing.
• The availability of technical support to service your offering after it is purchased.
• One or more factors that causes your customer support to stand out as unique in the eyes of the customer.
• Accessibility of service outlets for the customer.
• The reputation of the enterprise for customer service.

Conclusion
After defining your strategy you must use the information you have gathered to determine whether this strategy will achieve the objective of making your enterprise competitive in the marketplace. Two of the most important assessments are described below.
Cost To Enter Market
This is an analysis of the factors that will influence your costs to achieve significant market penetration. Factors to consider include:

• Your marketing strength.
• Access to low cost materials and effective production.
• The experience of your enterprise.
• The complexity of introduction problems such as lack of adherence to industry standards, unavailability of materials, poor quality control, regulatory problems and the inability to explain the benefits of the offering to the prospect.
• The effectiveness of the enterprise infrastructure in terms of organization, recruiting capabilities, employee benefit programs, customer support facilities and logistical capabilities.
• Distribution effectiveness as measured by history of relations, the extent of channel utilization, financial stability, reputation, access to prospects and familiarity with your offering.
• Technological efforts likely to be successful as measured by the strength of the development organization.
• The availability of adequate operating capital.

Profit Potential
This is an analysis of the factors that could influence the potential for generating and maintaining profits over an extended period. Factors to consider include:

• Potential for competitive retaliation is based on the competitors resources, commitment to the industry, cash position and predictability as well as the status of the market.
• The enterprise's ability to construct entry barriers to competition such as the creation of high switching costs, gaining substantial benefit from economies of scale, exclusive access to or clogging of distribution channels and the ability to clearly differentiate your offering from the competition.
• The intensity of competitive rivalry as measured by the size and number of competitors, limitations on exiting the market, differentiation between offerings and the rapidity of market growth.
• The ability of the enterprise to limit suppliers bargaining power.
• The enterprise's ability to sustain its market position is determined by the potential for competitive imitation, resistance to inflation, ability to maintain high prices, the potential for product obsolescence and the 'learning curve' faced by the prospect.
• The availability of substitute solutions to the prospect's need.
• The prospect's bargaining power as measured by the ease of switching to an alternative, the cost to look at alternatives, the cost of the offering, the differentiation between your offering and the competition and the degree of the prospect's need.
• Market potential for new products considering market growth, prospect's need for your offering, the benefits of the offering, the number of barriers to immediate use, the credibility of the offering and the impact on the customer's daily operations.
• The freedom of the enterprise to make critical business decisions without undue influence from distributors, suppliers, unions, investors and other outside influences.

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The A-Z Marketing Innovation Ideas 2007

Interested to be my co-author in formulate marketing innovations?

In December 2006 at MarkPlus Conference, I predicted the year 2007 would be a Growth Year with high business profitability. Therefore, we should enter 2007 with optimism, forward orientation, the desire to grow and the right marketing practices. In the light of optimistic year, companies need to drive their innovation capability, and there are three platforms of innovation capability in term of marketing; 1) minor marketing innovation, 2) moderate marketing innovation, and 3) major marketing innovation. At last, I gave a theme for Year 2007 with “The Way Forward: Innovate to Grow”

Now, the first semester of 2007 has been passed, the economic condition has shown a significant improvement and some companies have had marketing innovations to grow their business. In the mid year 2007, I have named several marketing innovation ideas that work, either from Indonesia companies or from overseas examples that could be implemented, which I shared in MarkPlus Dinner Seminar.

The A-Z marketing innovation ideas are basically practical ideas, whether minor, moderate, or major innovation ideas that works. I found and named ten (A-J) powerful marketing ideas, and invite all of you, my marketer fellows, to collaborate and co-creating value. In this participation era, value shall be co-creation together to face the future competition. I hope that these innovation ideas can be useful in expanding Indonesian companies.

The ten powerful marketing ideas
A: Anthropology / Use anthropology to discover the anxiety and desire of people)
B: Being / Make space for your being (read: brand) for people to recognize, feel, and own
C: Convergence / Convergence at your offerings to create additional value
D: Democratize / Democratize innovation by inviting people to contribute
E: E-everything / E-everything to be the long tail for targeting people at the unlimited niches
F: Foolish / Stay Foolish, Stay Hungry
G: Grameen / Do business like Grameen-bank to create profit and values at the same time
H: Hole / Discover and close the holes to create no-hole-in-the-market situation
I: Icon / Make people crazy about your iconic offering
J: Join / If you can not beat them, join them (competitors, customers, etc)

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Negotiating Identities and Allegiances in Response to

Negotiating Identities and Allegiances in Response to
Multicultural Literature

A change in cultural tools may often be a more powerful force of development than the enhancement of individuals’ skills. (Wertsch, 1998, p. 38)

Books here are not presented as a tunnel, but as an ocean. (Reflection by student participant, p. 138)

High School Students’ Competing Social Worlds: Negotiating Identities and Allegiances in Response to Multicultural Literature by Richard Beach, Thein Haertling, and Daryl Parks is designed for educators and researchers who seek to understand how adolescents construct and reflect on their identities through responses to literature. Blending theory and research with specific application to case study profiles and discourse analysis, this book offers a readable discussion of a large scale qualitative study for both current classroom practitioners and academic scholars. The book provides educators with concrete descriptions of instructional methods that could be used in literature classrooms to encourage critical response to literature and reflection on personal identity construction.

General Overview

Beach, Haertling, and Parks report the results of a study of identity construction in 14 mostly working-class high school students in a literature course over a six month period. Because students received college credit for the course, teacher and co-researcher Parks provided critical analysis strategies and practices that deviated from the “larger school culture of physical and intellectual control.” (p. x). Students were invited to question their own individual discourses through critical analysis of race, class and gender issues in selected multicultural literary works. Dialogic tension arose in these discussions and reflections, and some students moved to interrogation of larger social and political structures influencing their current identity construction. The researchers also sought to understand the influence of school culture on student identity formation by conducting ethnographic observations and interviews with students. Through this data, Beach, Haertling and Parks were able to examine shifts in students’ literary responses across time in their writing, conversation, and personal interaction.

Significance of Study

The authors cite several serious challenges confronting working-class adolescents in contemporary American society:

• Shift in economy from traditional manufacturing to knowledge-based; increased requirement for post-secondary education and flexible portfolios (Apple, 2001)
• Emphasis on transmission model of instruction, NCLB, and teaching to the test (Apple, 2001)
• Lack of cultural capital to navigate school bureaucracy (Eckert, 1989)
• Entering post-secondary work education lacking requisite academic skills or cultural capital (Beach, Lundell, & Jung, 2002)
• Economic disadvantage
• Racial and class segregation within schools (Tatum, 2003)
• Gender disparities favoring female success in and beyond school (Bettie, 2003)
• Increasingly conservative political climate favoring White, middle class voters

In order to successfully meet these challenges, the researchers take the position that adolescents must learn to negotiate the many competing demands placed upon them within diverse social worlds. Students must learn to critically reflect upon their own beliefs and attitudes regarding social structure, race, class, and gender. Learning is thus defined as the “acquiring of ways of knowing and valuing consistent with being certain kinds of persons in certain types of social worlds.” (Hicks,1996). This idea is consistent with the work of Nieto (2002), Fecho ((2004) and Delpit (1995), who each advocate the sort of critical educational experiences that call cultural models and ideologies into question.

Organization of the Book

The book begins with a nice overview of current theories of identity construction based on sociocultural theories of learning, critical discourse analysis, cultural model theory, and critical race theory. Given the idea that discourses of race, class, and gender mediate identity formation, the authors posit a move beyond determinist models of discourses shaping identity to also consider the development of agency as it affects identity construction.

Chapter 2 examines current research on how adolescents negotiate identities among the demands of community, home, peer group, workplace, family and school social worlds. The restrictive, controlling cultural model of school is contrasted with that of Parks classroom, where students are encouraged to resist the status quo and call systems into question.

Chapter 3 reviews sociocultural theories of literary response in contrast to traditional reader-response models. In a sociocultural response model, readers construct “texts worlds” (Smagorinsky, 2001) that are mediated by the discourses and cultural models operating in those worlds. Negotiating the tensions in the competing social worlds of multicultural literature allows the student to examine the institutional forces at work that shape both literary characters and their own lives.

Chapters 4 and 5 explore the ways that students move from identification to critique of institutional forces. Grappling with dialogic tension in texts, students became more open to adopting different perspectives in analyzing issues in their own social worlds. Chapter 4 describes the change in student awareness as they began to identify with literary characters and make connections to their own life. Chapter 5 details Parks’ specific instructional techniques and approaches:

• Positioning of teacher as “text” – also struggling with issues of race/class/gender
• Avoid labeling/criticizing of student opinions
• Focus on larger institutions shaping student expressions instead of student’s themselves
• Avoid demonization of any group
• Provide background cultural information before reading literary works
• Provide concrete, real world examples/analogies applicable to student’s lives
• Use of metaphors for difficult concepts, such as a racetrack with hurdles (p. 114)
• Speak from oppositional points of view through role play
• Give students critical literary discourse language to discuss texts
• Valuing students’ life stories and lived experiences
• Drama activities/readers theater/monologue
• Use writing as a discussion starter
• Know and honor students’ cultural positioning and perception of self

Chapters 6, 7, and 8 consider the impact of Park’s instruction on six particular case study students. The authors examine what kinds of change, if any, occurred for individual students as a result of participating in the class and reading this literature. These profiles describe the ways students internalized some of the practices and tools from the course in newly constructing their identities. Findings revealed that although Parks’ class was constructed to be a safe and equitable environment in which to explore critical issues of race, class, and gender, the female students of color still experienced a sense of marginalization. Parks felt that his attempt to focus on White students’ racist and sexist discourses further served to polarize these female students. This leaves both the researchers and the reader to conclude that dialogic tensions are difficult to mediate.

Chapter 9 of the book is therefore devoted to this difficult topic. An analysis of the discussions of three novels illustrates the role of different types of dialogic tensions in encouraging students to adopt different perspectives on race, class, and gender. Students explored tensions between competing attitudes surrounding spirituality, religion, institutional racism, affirmative action, competitive individualism, individual meritocracy, social class, economic success, and gender issues.

The concluding chapter offers a summary and implications for teaching multicultural literature. Although some students were unwilling or unable to transcend their allegiances to status quo discourses and cultural models, some did allow the dialogic tensions between authoritative voices and the internally persuasive voices (Bahktin, 1981) represented in texts and discussions to alter their perceptions. These students adopted a critical stance as part of their developing sense of agency. The teacher assumes a major role in creating contexts that foster both critical response to literature as well as to life. Suggestions for further research underscore the need to continue to examine identity construction with a critical literacy frame.

High School Students’ Competing Social Worlds is a compelling view of the complexity and importance of culturally conscious education. This richly detailed account offers inspiration and guidance to those working to prepare adolescents for participation in today’s knowledge-based economy. Instructional methods that focus on basic skills acquisition and standardized test achievement are no longer sufficient; successful members of society must be flexible, possess multiple perspectives, think critically, remain open to cultural diversity, and critically analyze those institutional forces that limit or foster agency. From a research perspective, the book chronicles a well constructed qualitative study using a framework of critical literacy. Drawing upon sociocultural theory, it explores identity issues and marginalization within multicultural education. The reference list and literature review is invaluable to those seeking to conduct similar research. This data-driven volume is a significant contribution to the work of identity formation, reader response theory, and multicultural education.

References

Apple, M. (2001). Educating the “right” way: Markets, standards, god, and inequality. Philadelphia: Falmer Press.

Bakhtin, M. (1981). The dialogic imagination: Four essays. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Beach, R., Lundell, D., & Jung, H. (2002). Developmental college students’ negotiations of social practices between peer, family, workplace, and university worlds. In D. B. Lundell & J. L. Higbee (Eds.), Urban literacy and developmental education (pp. 79-108). Minneapolis: Center for Research on Developmental Education and Urban Literacy, General College, University of Minnesota.

Bettie, J. (2003). Women without class: Girls, race, and identity. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Delpit, L. (2006). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: The New Press.

Eckert, P. (1989). Jocks & burnouts: Social categories and identity in the high school. New York: Teachers College Press.

Fairclough, N. (2001). Language and power (2nd ed.). London: Longman.

Fecho, B. (2004). “Is this English?”: Race, language, and culture in the classroom. New York: Teachers College Press.

Gee, J. P. (2008). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses (3rd ed.). New York: Falmer.

Gee, J. P., Allen, A., & Clinton, K. (2001). Language, class, and identity: Teenagers fashioning themselves through language. Linguistics and Education, 12(2), 175-194.

Hicks, D. (1996). Learning as a prosaic act. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 3, 102-118.

Nieto, S. (2002). Language, culture, and teaching: Critical perspectives for a new century. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Smagorinsky, P. (2001). If meaning is constructed, what is it made from? Toward a cultural cultural theory of reading. Review of Educational Research, 71(1), 133-169.

Tatum, B. (2003). Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? And other conversations about race: A psychologist explains the development of racial identity (rev. ed.). New York: Basic Books

Wertsch, J. (1998). Mind as action. New York: Oxford University Press.

About the Reviewer

Janie Cowan is a doctoral student in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia. Her research interests include multicultural children’s literature, sociocultural issues in literacy education, and digital literacies. She currently serves as a school library media specialist in Forsyth County, Georgia.

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INTERNET MARKETING

INTERNET MARKETING

Marketing on the Internet is rapidly becoming big business. Millions of people use the Internet each day. Advertising opportunities are wide open for the computer literate entrepreneur. But, can you sell books on the Internet and is it worthwhile going to the expense of designing and setting up your own web site?

While the Internet promises new opportunities for sales and marketing, at the present time it remains an uncertain source of direct retail sales. As with any form of book marketing, the Internet is most successful for books with a targeted audience. For example, books about computers, science fiction, and sex sell well through the Internet, which has a younger audience than other marketing venues.

Although there has been a rush of commercial web sites going up on the Internet, actual sales volume has not been growing nearly as fast as the Internet itself. It is true that some vendors have been successful, but they are usually specialized and experienced in the unique rules of online marketing. Many more businesses are using the Internet to support and expand their marketing and promotional efforts in the “real” world.

However, until they can overcome the problems of online commerce, and until the consumer comes to accept Internet shopping as routine, sales for the average vendor on the Internet will continue to be unpredictable.

There are a growing number of companies that offer to promote books to Web browsers—usually a listing of a title on a site that acts as an online bookstore. These services are affordable and require little work on your part except for adding their name to the usual marketing that you do. Most of these sites take orders and forward them to you for fulfillment. If you decide to take advantage of this type of marketing, make sure that you are dealing with a well-known, well-established Internet presence, such as Amazon.Com.

With careful planning, you can open your own site on the Internet, providing information, sales opportunities, and an interactive forum for anyone interested in your book. There are generally two ways of going about setting up a site on the Internet: low cost home pages and more expensive web sites.

A private home page, which comes with most online services, such as AOL, allows you to post information in such a way that anyone who is on the Web can access it, but you will be limited in scope and content because such services do not allow commercial postings or transactions on a noncommercial web page. Even if you cannot sell or directly advertise on such a site, you can create a high-profile environment from which to broadcast information, such as your news releases (see also Usenet news) or how interested parties can directly contact you. Your site can also be an access point, providing links to other sites of related interest, such as online bookstores carrying your book.

A commercial web site can be expensive to maintain, but will allow you greater freedom in promoting and selling your book. This is advantageous if you know that you have a large, general target audience.

Publishers are looking to the Internet as a way to promote and sell their books. There are ways to track how many "hits" a site has in a day, but whether that translates into sales of books is difficult to establish. For now, small publishers and self-publishers seem content to use the Internet just to promote their books and/or offer information. Sometimes web sites are just used to establish credibility and a professional image to present to the public.

Each publisher must decide if the cost and time involved in setting up a web site will generate a response that will satisfy the company's long term goals. However, the Internet has not yet become the most important tool that a publisher or self-publisher should use to sell books.

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