Marketing For Dummies Essays - Small Business Administration

Marketing For Dummies Executive Summary In July of 1953 the United States Congress amended an act called the Small Business Act. Many believed that the essence of the American economic system of private enterprise is free competition. Also, that only through full and free competition can free markets, free entry into business, and opportunities for expression and growth of personal initiative and individual judgment can be assured. Thus, the Small Business Act was amended. In order to carry out the policies of this Act there was hereby created an agency under the name Small Business Administration. The United States Small Business Administration, more commonly known as the SBA, is a federal agency to protect and assist America's greatest resource, the small business. Since American enterprise is the backbone of our economy and the driving force behind economic growth and prosperity. The mission of the Small Business Administration (SBA) is to maintain and strengthen the Nation's economy by aiding, counseling, assisting, and protecting the interests of small businesses and by helping businesses and families recover from disasters. The SBA's mission is to create economic development through small businesses. To put it in simple terms, the SBA helps businesses get started and helps established businesses grow. The SBA has many functions; here we discuss the six of the functions that small businesses should look at. The first function of the SBA is Business Development, based on management assistance through information, counseling, training and conferences, utilizing the following programs: ? Services Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) ? Small Business Institutes (SBI) ? Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) ? Business Information Centers (BIC). The next function, Financial Assistance offers a variety of financing options to eligible small business concerns that cannot borrow on reasonable terms from conventional lenders without government help. Financial Assistance is made up of three different loan categories: ? 7(a) General Business Loan, which is most widely used. It provides funds for almost any legitimate business purpose. ? Certified Development Company Loans (504 Program) provide long term, fixed rate financing at reasonable rates for businesses to grow. ? Other Special Loan P rograms include: Micro loans; Lines of Credit; Contract Loans; Physical Disaster Loans; Direst loans to veterans, Vietnam, disabled and handicapped individuals, etc. Another function of the SBA is Investment Capital. This provides small businesses to have money or capital for growth and finance. The Small Business Investment Capital or SBIC provides the capital. Developed in 1958, the SBIC wanted to fill the gap between venture capitol and the needs of small businesses. There are two types of SBIC's, the regular SBIC and the specialized SBIC. The Procurement Assistance function tries to make sure that small businesses get their fair pay, goods and services from the federal government. Procurement Assistance programs include Prime Contracts Assistance, Natural Resources Assistance, Subcontracting Assistance, COC and PASS programs. The SBA also tries to establish goals for contracting with small disadvantaged businesses. The last area of focus is Disaster Loans Assistance, which comes into play for assistance for non-farm, private sector disaster losses. Most small, independent businesses or individuals starting a business are eligible for SBA assistance. Because the agency is committed to economic development through small business, it strives to help business ventures get started, grow and remain profitable. Many of SBA's clients are new entrepreneurs starting a business for the first time, while others are young, established companies struggling to meet the challenges of growth and change in a competitive business environment. The SBA has more than a hundred offices across the nation and a permanent staff of nearly four thousand employees. The SBA has an office in nearly every state, for easier access for future small business owners. On top of it, the SBA increases its ability to help many small businesses through public or private initiatives. Ninety nine percent of all U.S. businesses are considered small, and approximate amount of 20 million small businesses make up 39 percent of the GNP, provide around 50 percent of America's workforce, and generate 53.5 percent of all sales. Most small, independent businesses or individuals starting a business are eligible for Small Business Administration assistance. Since the SBA is committed to economic development through small businesses, it works to help businesses get

Henkel Essays

Henkel Essays Henkel Essay Henkel Essay Strongest pressure for the brand harmonization was due to the consolidation of European retailers. Retailers are focusing on internationalizing with increasing activity of acquisition and mergers after getting consolidated at variable rates within markets. For instance: combinations of Carrefour and Promodes, of Intermarche and Spar. Products that those retailers are selling should become international also parallel to their evolution, at least those big(heavy buyer) retailers will have greater preference over international branded products over locally known ones. They gained the awareness of the internationalization which is going to be their future in Europe. On the other hand, what counts most for the consumer is the local effect of the product because laundry and home cleaning are cultural related activities in which preferences are passed down through generations. The main difference is demographics ; Southern Europeans prefers less powerful detergents combined with bleach washed in low temperatures whereas Northern tradition involved with powerful detergents without bleach combination washed in hotter water. Packaging differs also; north people want compact product but in south people want big boxes. Henkel implemented different strategies for different markets relying on those differences like; whiteness with care for northern market like Germany and France but to catch the large green customer segment in Netherlands an environmentally friendly label named Persil Grune is launched. 2. Unilever and PG did an outstanding job harmonizing their brand portfolio internationally. Unilever was to reduce its portfolio from 1600 brands to 400 which they believed would allow to save on production from reduced stock-keeping units, concentrate their marketing support and the leaner, more powerful portfolio would give the company leverage with retailers. PG followed suit as they decided to internationalize the management of brands by category. Their consolidation of brands allowed them to re-brand items giving the company a face lift. I do feel that the consolidation of brands is a good idea because it gives the impression of a premium product that can also be exclusive. It might be a better idea to specialize in one brand or area in order to achieve Tier A brand status. 3. Distinction between product and brand became the basis for Henkel`s international brand marketing strategy. In some cases rather than Product Performance Strategy(standardization of product features) Henkel tries to standardize its brands, Brand Platform Strategy (such as design, advertising , brand name) when market is prepared to change its brand preferences. The example for this strategy was standardizing around the light-duty detergent named, Vernel, which is launced in 95 and by 2000 became the companies` primary softener. However, the biggest competitor, PG, decided to lead with Bold in markets which its type B tier product Dash is weak like Italy and Spain but brand is known as Bolt in Italy and Bold in Spain. The 2-in-1 position requiring different advertising campaigns in different countries is not fared well in Europe detergent category 4. Introducing Persil in Italy and Spain turned to be a great idea as they were able to control the market with their premium brand. In Italy, they understood the consumers` needs by establishing a blue powder which was preferred because of the azurrri (blue, national color) it was the national care. They entered the market with a strong idea that their performance brand, Dixan, would be able to achieve market leadership. In Spain, Henkel`s decision was quite simple. They decided to enter the market through acquisition and bought a strong market player, Wipp. Spain is also a performance driven market allowing Henkel to extend its brand image and cut costs by not launching a new brand. However, large retailers will increasingly only take one Tier A brand per supplier, making it harder to Henkel to distribute its various lines of detergent. Another concern is that likelihood that the consumer will try other brands and not stay loyal to the company. The best option would be brand standardization only because product standardization would be next to impossible.