"THERE ARE NO FOREIGN LANDS. IT IS THE TRAVELER ALONE WHO IS FOREIGN"

Visiting a new country can be pretty exciting yet intimidiating at the same time. A million questions pop up, most of all, what is worth seeing and how to keep within my budget? For those of you who craves for a holiday so perfect it satisfies even your teeniest desire, I'm glad you've found us- Super.Wander.Full: Your holiday designer based in Malaysia. Continued...

Our Real Estate Agents is made up of years of experience who specialize in residential, commercial and industrial properties and land in Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia.

Our knowledge of the industry enables us to evaluate and advice our clients on the value and quality of each property. This knowledge allows us to serve our clients better not only when it comes to sourcing for properties, but even in selling and leasing as well. We pay great attention to the requirements of our clients as we believe in providing the highest level of service possible... Continued

Company Profile

Al Riyadh Travel and Tours Sdn Bhd is a one-stop global Bumiputera travel agency in Malaysia that specializes in quality services, whether inbound or outbound, tailor made to your budget,requirements and time frame.

Al Riyadh started its operations in January 2011. We have pooled together a team comprising of tour specialists, airline ticketing agents and experienced ground handlersacross the globe. Our dedicated staff have a combined experience of more than 30 years. Coupled with the management’s strong connections with hotels, embassies as well as tour and transport operators worldwide, Al Riyadh is able to provide travel services with an edge to ensure that our customers’ needs are met at the highest level, at all times.

Industry Outlook and Al-Riyadh Positioning Statement

The Travel Agency Market is competitive, and technology, namely the Internet and Computerized Reservations Systems, has changed the way travel agencies operate. The Internet gives agencies and individuals the ability to perform travel related research. Even airlines are offering tickets online at discounted rates and this has increased price competition.

The increased number of travel options available has made it necessary for travel agencies to establish themselves as specialists in one or more types of travel. Al Riyadh Travel and Tours... Continued

Don't hire 10 to design your website

In 90s, we might need to hire 5 to change a light bulb... 4 to spin the table below, then 1 to twist the light bulb above. Now we need only 2, possibly 1... Both go and get a long & 'heavy' aluminum ladder, then 1 climb up to get the job done. Then the one below “hm... I like the yellowish light tone!”

So...! If some ‘old-school-living-in-the-90s’ web design firm tells you that they're looking for tens of thousands Ringgit to design a ‘custom’ website for you, and claims that they aren't any "one-man-show" or "one-leg-kicker" firm out there... and emphasized that they need to bear salary for 10 mans in the design team to “make sure the job deliver”,

Then be extra careful!

Because the situation might be 5 ‘chairman’ tell the 4 ‘table-spinner’ which direction the table should spin, and the 1 pathetic do’er to twist the light bulb (for you)! :P

All you need is 2-3, a web programmer and a web designer

A web designer whose up to the job, have good design sense and able to give advices when choosing a web template. And who knows HTML/CSS markup language to update logo, change color, and insert page’s content and etc for you.

A web programmer to write some scripts for your website like blog, product’s catalog, poll, Facebook Page (landing page), and etc.

The 3rd man probably is, you! Your role & mission is important… to bring in traffic! If you aren’t a web marketing guy, the simplest method you could use is Google Adwords. Spend RM100 per month, they should sent good amount of traffic; at least you can get few email/phone enquiries from web searchers regard “do you provide delivery service from Kuala Lumpur to Seremban?”

Ideally your company will have a portfolio of products, all at different stages in their life cycle, so that balanced growth can be achieved and risks minimized.

Basic types of product

From a marketing point-of-view there are three basic types of products. These are:

• Consumer goods;
• Industrial goods;
• Services.

There are, of course, some products that could be in all three categories. Paint is an examples. It can be purchased by both consumers and industrial companies and can also be part of the ‘service offering’ given by a house-decorating company. It is also true that not all industrial goods are capital goods and that some consumer goods such as houses or cars are capital items to the purchaser. Nevertheless, these broad definitions hold in most cases and key marketing principles apply equally to the marketing of consumer goods, capital goods and services. It is just the way that the principles are applied that takes a different form.

Consumer goods

Consumer markets are characterized by having a large number of customers. By their very nature goods are usually items that are mass-produced in identical form. There are two basic types of consumer goods: fast-moving consumer goods and consumer durables.

• Fast-moving consumer goods: sometimes called convenience goods. These are items such as food, tobacco, drinks and cosmetics that have a quick turnover and tend to be quickly consumed.
• Consumer durables: these are items such as cars, furniture, clothing and electrical goods that are less frequent purchases and will be used by the customer for a long time.

Industrial goods

Industrial goods are any goods sold by industrial companies to manufacturers, suppliers, contractors or government agencies. The goods would normally be incorporated into other products, used within the company’s own business or resold. Industrial goods can be raw materials, components or capital goods. The ultimate consumer of the final product probably has little interest in the raw are often sold directly to the end-user – this is almost never the case with consumer goods, which are usually sold through complex distribution networks.

Services

The third basic type of product is a service. By this we do not mean the customer service that most reputable companies supply with their products, but a service as a product in its own right.

Services range from financial services such as banking and insurance to car hire and carrying out computer repairs. They differ from consumer and industrial goods in that in a service industry there is no tangible product and the product has no shelf life. Service organizations sell the benefits of their service as their product. This is an important fact that influences the way in which services are marketed.

Throughout this book, we will use examples to illustrate how various marketing tools and techniques can be used by companies selling consumer goods, services and industrial goods. For these examples we will use three fictitious companies:

• The Pure Fruit Jam Company (consumer products);
• Quality Car Hire (services);
• The Gear Pump Company (industrial products).

The dictionary definition of marketing is: 'the provision of goods or services to meet consumer's needs'.  In other words, marketing involves finding out what your customers want and matching your company's products to meet those requirements, and in the process making a profit  for the company. Successful marketing involves having the right product available in the right place at the right time and making sure that the customer is aware of the product. It therefore brings in 'tomorrow's orders'.

Selling is a straightforward concept that involves persuading a customer to buy a product. It brings in 'today's orders'. It is, however, only one aspect of the marketing process.

To be successful your company must have the capability to bring in today's orders (selling) and tomorrow's orders (marketing). Most companies lost between 10 and 20 per cent of their customers each year. So if you are not planning how you can find new customers or planning for new or enhanced products to meet your existing customers' needs, you will soon be out of business.

Customers will only buy what they want. Powerful advertising is often criticized as being a tool that allows companies to persuade customers to buy what the company wants to sell. This is just not true. Two-thirds of new products fail in the marketplace. Companies have to listen to customers and the market and adapt their products. They have to become 'market-oriented'.

In many companies marketing is still considered to be more of an art than a science. Most people in sales will have been on one or several sales training courses. These courses will be selling-oriented, of the type run by organizations accredited by The Institute of Sales & Marketing Management (www.ismm.co.uk). As well as general courses that individual sales personnel can attend, there are also many organizations now that run excellent in-house sales training courses that are tailor-made for a particular company. They are good at teaching the basics about selling, but they teach you virtually nothing about marketing, because that is not their function, However, the run marketing courses at various levels. An introductory course on marketing can be invaluable for all sales personnel.

Even now, in large companies, the Sales and marketing functions are often completely separated, sometimes with different directors for 'sales' and for 'marketing'. In some organizations, sales is a local function and marketing is handled in isolation by head office or by a 'marketing executive'. This should not be the case. The sales and marketing functions need to be combined or at least to be run with the same company aims. There needs to be a continuous inter-change of information between the sales function and the marketing function.

The marketing process

Marketing is the process that brings together the abilities of a company and the requirements of its customers:

• The customers receive the benefits that satisfy their requirements.
• The company receives payment for the goods and makes some profit.

Companies have to be flexible if they want to succeed. They have to be prepared to modify or replace products as the marketplace and their customers' requirements change. They must be prepared o introduce new products or enter new markets. They must be able to read their customers and the marketplace.

A company manufacturing portable CD players in the 1990s would have had to change to manufacturing MP3 players in the last 10 years. Video player/recorders were replaced by DVD player/recorders and now these are being replaced by hard disk recorders or by downloading films from the internet. Each of these products satisfied the same basic customer need, but at a different moment in time. If the companies had not changed products, they would have gone out of business.

This balancing process takes place in the 'marketing environment', which is not controlled by individuals or by companies, is constantly changing and must be monitored continuously. There are a number of important factors that affect the way that the marketing balance is achieved in practice and affect the marketing environment.

So marketing involves:

• Using the abilities of the company;
• To meet the requirements of the customer;
• In the marketing environment.

The abilities of the company can be managed by the marketing organization, which can control four main elements of a company's operation known as the 'marketing mix'. The 'marketing mix' is also often referred to as the 'four Ps'. These are four controllable variables that allow a company to come up with a policy that is profitable and satisfies its customers. They relates to:

• The product sold (Product);
• The pricing policy (Price);
• How the product is promoted (Promotion);
• Methods of distribution (Place).

'Promotion' and 'Place' are concerned with reaching your potential customers in the first place, while 'Products' and 'Price' will allow you to satisfy the customers' requirements. All of these elements of the marketing mix will be covered in much greater detail in later chapters, where we will show you how to use them to best effect. But I think it would be useful to include some material here to show how these elements can be considered from a marketing perspective.

The EMyth Revisited - Michael E. Gerber

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