Coupon Redemption: 2009

How To Make The Most Of Your Flyer Distribution Campaign

The key to any successful marketing campaign is to plan and therefore execute it well. There are key issues that must be thought about before any distribution begins.

Firstly you need to think about your market and what you are trying to achieve from your campaign. Is it simply a brand awareness exercise, or is it to have a direct impact upon sales?

Once this has been established you can think about the content of your material, here you can exercise your creative talent. Corporate image is important, it is worth thinking about one logo that is present on all advertising material as this helps build recognition rates and brand awareness.

Obviously money off vouchers will provide a more quantifiable uptake rate in that you will be able to directly measure the response on redemption of these particular coupons.

Try to keep the message short and sweet. Getting your message across quickly in a few simple words which are easy to understand, possibly by using something humorous or a funny graphic, will trigger recognition and therefore help the recipient to remember and hopefully act upon your message.

Think about the type of paper that you use for your flyer , we would recommend that you use no less than 130gsm paper and preferably 300gsm, as this does not fold or crumple as it goes through the letterbox. Sizing is also important, A5 needs no folding so is therefore more suited to flyer distribution.

You now need to source a supplier who specialises in flyer distribution, you may think about finding a small local company who usually will be able to offer better rates, but then they will not be so accountable if things go wrong. The market is dominated by three or four larger companies who specialise in the distribution of advertising material, and it would be wise to approach one of these, as not only will they have the manpower and availability, but they will be able to offer much advice and guidance which will help you at this vital planning stage.

Remember that very attractive rates do not necessarily mean that you will be getting good value for money, it is better to pay a little more, but have the confidence in the company that is undertaking the distribution contract. It is vital that your message reaches the letterbox and not the bin.

When talking with your chosen supplier you need to discuss the areas that you wish to cover. Targeting your material rather than blanket coverage can be the most cost effective way of reaching your most receptive audience. Most companies will offer some form of profiling, and this will help in sourcing the better areas according to your target audience. It is normally possible to target by income group, age range, and leisure preferences etc. Vital here will be determining the size of your print run and therefore the final budgetary expense. This will help you in establishing your final return on investment.

It is very important to undertake this planning process well in advance of your chosen date for distribution; it is too late to plan your Christmas campaign in late November!!

All of the above, form a very simple process that will enable you to get the very best from your distribution, therefore providing a profitable return on expenditure.

Creating Investment Opportunities for Small Investors

Stock exchange or bourse is a mutual organization which provides facilities for stock brokers and traders, in trading company stocks and other securities, and for the issue of redemption of securities and other financial tools and capital events like the payment of income and dividends. The securities traded on a stock exchange include: shares issued by companies, unit trusts and other pooled investment products and bonds. To be able to trade a security on a certain stock exchange, it has to be listed there. Usually there is a central location at least for recordkeeping, but trade is less linked to such a physical place. Electronic networks run modern markets are, providing them great speed and cost of transactions. Stock exchange is often called the most important element of a stock market. The Demand and Supply in the stock markets is attracted by number of factors that affect the price of stocks.

Creating investment opportunities for small investors:
The Stock Exchange provides opportunity for small investors like the big investors to own shares of the same or different companies.

History of stock exchanges:
In 12th century France, the courratiers de change were concerned with managing the debts of agricultural communities on behalf of the banks and these men also traded in debts. These men were the first brokers.

In the middle of the 13th century, Venetian bankers traded in government securities. In 1351, the Venetian Government outlawed spreading rumors about lowering the price of government funds. Because of this rumor people in Pisa, Verona, Genoa and Florence also started trading in government securities which was possible because there were independent city states ruled by a council of powerful citizens during the 14th century.

Raising capital for businesses:
The Stock Exchange helps current and newly-formed companies raise capital for building and expanding their business through selling shares to the investing public.

Mobilizing savings for investment:
When people draw their savings and invest in shares, it leads to a more balanced allotment of resources because funds, which could have been consumed, or kept in idle deposits with banks, are mobilized to promote business activity that benefits several economic sectors like agriculture, commerce and industry, resulting in a stronger economic growth.

Government capital-raising for development projects:
Governments at various levels may decide to borrow money for financing infrastructure projects like sewage and water treatment works or housing estates by selling another category of securities known as bonds. These bonds are raised through the Stock Exchange where public buy them, thus loaning money to the government. The issuance of such municipal bonds can prevent the need to directly tax the citizens in order to finance development, although by securing such bonds with the full faith and credit of the government instead of with collateral, the result is that the government must tax the citizens or otherwise raise additional funds to make any regular coupon payments and refund the principal when the bonds mature.

Listing requirements:
Listing requirements are the set of conditions forced by any given stock exchange upon companies that want to be listed on that exchange.

Requirements by stock exchange:
For companies to have their stock and shares listed at the stock exchange have to meet certain requirements of the exchange. But requirements vary in different exchanges.

What Makes Old Stocks Valuable

An American dream: you find something in an attic or flea market that turns out to be valuable. That something could be a stock certificate that is still valid for ownership in a company. Of course, if you were to find one, it should be researched.

But unfortunately, that rarely happens. However, it still might be worth something as a collector's item. This article discusses the collector value of antique stock certificates.

Ultimately, of course, what makes a collectible stock certificate valuable is someone's willingness to buy it at a particular price. The more people who want it, the more it is worth. That's the demand side of Supply and Demand.

But what about the supply side - the certificates themselves? The following are some of the characteristics of the supply side of certificates that help create more value.

1. Aesthetic appeal - Is it pretty, powerful, soothing, impressive, memorable, joyful, comforting, funny? Do I like it? Is it "me?" You'll notice these are all emotions of the viewer. That's what art does if it's good - it evokes emotions. Here are some of the decorative aspects of stock certificates that most people appreciate:

-The vignette(s). One or more of these pictures can be found on most certificates. Vignettes are usually made from original etchings and cover many different subjects and scenes. Many are so detailed that they can show a wide, complex harbor scene, a busy western town or the individual feathers on an American Bald Eagle.

-The border. Borders are often quite ornate and "frame" the certificate. They can be intaglio printed, which results in a precise 3-D effect. Some may have extra vignettes woven into the design or intertwined in filigree.

-The writing. In the old days, certificates were filled in by hand. In that period, beautiful hand writing was a source of pride, so older documents sometimes look like practiced calligraphy samples.

-The extras. Certificates may have one or more of the following: a company seal (embossed), revenue or transfer stamps (stuck onto the front or back), redemption coupons (for interest or dividend payments), an attached stub (similar to a check stub for registration), under prints (a light design seemingly in the background), sophisticated color tone usage (gradients, realism, dimensional)

-The impression. This goes back to the emotions evoked. Does the overall certificate strike you? Is it one you would be proud to own or display?

2. Signatures - This is similar to the "writing" above, but this is special. Who wrote it? Original, hand written signatures of well known people (Rockefeller, Houdini, Edison, Disney...) are usually in high demand. Even their printed signatures can have incremental value because it is a document from an organization they were affiliated with at a certain time in history. If you research names on certificates, you will find fascinating stories behind them that you probably never learned in history class.

3. Scarcity - This is trickier than it seems. In general, the rarer a document is the more valuable it is, but not always. Take railroad certificates. Relatively, there are lots of them. But, relativley, there are also lots of railroad certificate collectors.

And there are people who collect other types of railroad memorabilia and decide to collect a few railroad certificates. And there are stamp collectors that also collect certificates that have stamps on them.

There are also many people trying to fill in collection themes (geographic, company lineage, varieties, vignette subject...). So a certificate may have more samples available than another, but still be more valuable because the demand is higher.

4. Condition - Most of the time, as with any collectible, the better shape a certificate is in, the more valuable. Very old certificates almost always show some signs of aging and wear (fold creases, fading, rough edges, cancellation marks or punches...). After all, how would you look after 150 years? But excessive marring (heavy stains, splits, holes, tears...) diminish value.

5. Age - Usually, the older the better. Early certificates are often rarer, have more character, have interesting vignettes and have historical significance.

6. History - Every old stock certificate is literally a unique piece of history. Many collectors become history buffs in the process of researching the people and stories behind their certificates. You can learn how towns were named, the quirky way newspaper stories were written long ago, why the mining labor disputes erupted, how railroads became the arteries and veins of America, the trials and joys of Old West living, the crazy inventor ideas that birthed major industries, and lots more.

So these are six major stock certificate characteristics that create value. Add in the overall fact that there is a finite supply of antique stock certificates and, currently, a growing demand, and you have a beautiful Supply/Demand scenario - that's how value increases.

(Disclaimer: No one should promote stock certificates as an investment. You should collect them because you enjoy doing so, and if they happen to increase in value, that just makes it more fun.)

Scripophily (the collecting of antique stock certificates) only got its name and wide recognition as a legitimate collecting field about forty years ago. So, while there are plenty of high-value certificates, there are even more that are very affordable. Enjoy them.

Which Old Stocks Are Valuable?

Everyone dreams of finding something in an attic, flea market or garage sale that turns out to be valuable. That something could be a stock certificate that is still valid for ownership in a company. If you were to find one, it certainly should be researched (just in case). But unfortunately, that rarely happens. However, it still might be worth something as a collector's item. This article discusses the collector value of antique stock certificates.

Ultimately, of course, what makes a collectible stock certificate valuable is someone's willingness to buy it at a particular price. The more people who want it, the more it is worth. That's the demand side of Supply and Demand.
But what about the supply side - the certificates themselves? The following are some of the characteristics of the supply side of certificates that help create more value.

1. Aesthetic appeal -
Is it pretty, powerful, soothing, impressive, memorable, joyful, comforting, funny? Do I like it? Is it "me?" You'll notice these are all emotions of the viewer. That's what art does if it's good - it evokes emotions. Here are some of the decorative aspects of stock certificates that most people appreciate:

The vignette(s). One or more of these pictures can be found on most certificates. Vignettes are usually made from original etchings and cover many different subjects and scenes. Many are so detailed that they can show a wide, complex harbor scene, a busy western town or the individual feathers on an American Bald Eagle.
The border. Borders are often quite ornate and "frame" the certificate. They can be intaglio printed, which results in a precise 3-D effect. Some may have extra vignettes woven into the design or intertwined in filigree.
The writing. In the old days, certificates were filled in by hand. In that period, beautiful hand writing was a source of pride, so older documents sometimes look like practiced calligraphy samples.
The extras. Certificates may have one or more of the following: a company seal (embossed), revenue or transfer stamps (stuck onto the front or back), redemption coupons (for interest or dividend payments), an attached stub (similar to a check stub for registration), under prints (a light design seemingly in the background), sophisticated color tone usage (gradients, realism, dimensional).
The impression. This goes back to the emotions evoked. Does the overall certificate strike you? Is it one you would be proud to own or display?

2. Signatures -
This is similar to the "writing" above, but this is special. Who wrote it? Original, hand written signatures of well known people (Rockefeller, Houdini, Edison, Disney...) are usually in high demand. Even their printed signatures can have incremental value because it is a document from an organization they were affiliated with at a certain time in history. If you research names on certificates, you will find fascinating stories behind them that you probably never learned in history class.

3. Scarcity -
This is trickier than it seems. In general, the rarer a document is the more valuable it is, but not always. Take railroad certificates. There are, relatively, lots of them. But there are also, relatively, lots of railroad certificate collectors. And there are people who collect other types of railroad memorabilia and decide to collect a few railroad certificates. And there are stamp collectors that also collect certificates that have stamps on them.

There are also many people trying to fill in collection themes (geographic, company lineage, varieties, vignette subject...). So a certificate may have more samples available than another, but still be more valuable because the demand is higher.

4. Condition -
Most of the time, as with any collectible, the better shape a certificate is in, the more valuable. Very old certificates almost always show some signs of aging and wear (fold creases, fading, rough edges, cancellation marks or punches...). After all, how would you look after 150 years? But excessive marring (heavy stains, splits, holes, tears...) diminish value.

5. Age -
Usually, the older the better. Early certificates are often rarer, have more character, have interesting vignettes and have historical significance.

6. History -
Every old stock certificate is literally a unique piece of history. Many collectors become history buffs in the process of researching the people and stories behind their certificates. You can learn how towns were named, the quirky way newspaper stories were written long ago, why the mining labor disputes erupted, how railroads became the arteries and veins of America, the trials and joys of Old West living, the crazy inventor ideas that birthed major industries, and lots more.

So these are six major stock certificate characteristics that create value. Add in the overall fact that there is a finite supply of antique stock certificates and, currently, a growing demand, and you have a beautiful Supply/Demand scenario - that's how value increases. (Disclaimer: No one should promote stock certificates as an investment. You should collect them because you enjoy doing so, and if they happen to increase in value, that just makes it more fun.)

Scripophily (the collecting of antique stock certificates) only got its name and wide recognition as a legitimate collecting field about forty years ago. So, while there are plenty of high-value certificates, there are even more that are very affordable. Enjoy them.

Restaurant POS Systems: Enhancing Revenues Through Innovation

It doesn't seem so long ago that hospitality operators were excited to see Remanco POS Systems hit the marketplace. Does anyone out there still remember the original Remanco POS System? You had a sleek looking keypad, a little black plastic "key" and a bible of PLU codes to memorize. You punched in your food and beverage orders, and miraculously, your beverage orders printed out at the bar while your food orders printed simultaneously in the kitchen. It was exciting, sleek, and revolutionary. In many restaurants, the main Remanco terminal was proudly located next to the Pac-Man machine. Enough said.

The world of restaurant POS systems & POS technology in general has come a long way since those early days. Today's hospitality operators are much more tech savvy than they've ever been, and the point of sale industry is slowly responding to this fact. With this said, here's the top features you, as a hospitality operator in 2009, should be looking for once you've decided to invest in a new restaurant POS system.

Data Reporting

The top two issues every hospitality-based business wants to get a handle on are food cost, and labor costs. Keep those things in check, and your chances of succeeding in such a competitive market are greatly increased. Modern POS systems will help you get a handle on these profit killers by allowing managers access to important, easy to understand data on demand, and in real time. A POS system with state of the art data reporting capabilities will allow you to forecast business volumes, which gives managers the information they need to fine tune scheduling and avoid unnecessary labor costs. Time and attendance can be precisely monitored. Real time and instant access to data also allows managers to spot problems quickly and make snap decisions to address discrepancies in cash flow and adjust inventory levels. The POS system will pay for itself many times over if it can help you get a handle on these two issues alone

Back Office Management & Database Integration

Having all your POS terminals linked together, combined with the ability to run reports, make menu and pricing changes on the fly, check inventory levels and consolidate payroll at one central location is crucial to running your business efficiently and profitably. Your POS system should allow you to do this quickly and easily, all from the back office. Database integration and back office management capability should be at the top of your shopping list.

Customer Relationship Management

Effective promotions can go a long way in boosting profits. Determining if your coupon or gift card program is working as it should, however, can be difficult. POS systems that can quickly help you evaluate which promotions are working and which ones aren't, can save you time and money in spades. Having a POS system that can keep track of customer histories, their likes and dislikes, comments, etc. can give you valuable insight into what future promotions to put in effect, and which ones should bite the dust. Effective customer loyalty and points programs keep your customers coming back. When it comes to CRM, let your POS system do most of the thinking for you.

Wireless Mobile Computing & Handheld Devices

Wireless point of sale is imperative for businesses that operate outside of traditional, brick and mortar locations. Venues such as ski resorts, theme parks or even stadiums can greatly benefit from wireless POS systems (think concession stands or private suites for instance). In a more traditional environment, such as a restaurant, the benefits of having wireless, at the table ordering capabilities through handheld devices are many.

With wireless handheld units, serving staff save time by not having to line up to get access to the POS terminal, and therefore are much more productive. Managers can reduce staffing levels by scheduling just a few skilled staff, give them larger sections, and make their primary focus greeting customers, taking orders and up-selling. Non-serving staff can then be hired (at significant payroll savings) to dispatch food and clean sections. When serving staff are able to remain on the floor, the result is a superior customer service experience for your patrons and increased sales for you through up-selling and faster table turns. Also, waste is cut down considerably, since placing orders at the table greatly reduces errors.

Wireless handheld devices have been greatly refined in recent years, with increased battery life for handheld units and improved ease of use for staff. The time indeed has come to embrace wireless POS technology.

Payment Security & PCI Compliance

Payment security is crucial in today's marketplace. With the incidence of fraud and identity theft reaching epidemic proportions, safeguarding the safety of your client's credit card data is vital. The PCI Security Standards Council is an open global forum for the ongoing development, enhancement, storage, dissemination and implementation of security standards for account data protection. It's imperative that POS systems today follow this standard. Is your POS system secure and PCI compliant? If it's not, it needs to be.

Self Service Technology

Self service technology has created quite a buzz in recent years. Having moved beyond kiosks, POS systems now offer self serve options that give restaurateurs' the ability to delegate the food ordering process to customers themselves. Touch screen terminals are now intuitive and easy to use, and offer add on/up sell items items instantaneously, which boosts average check totals. The traditional "Server" is replaced by food runners, or counter staff, who can also do quality checks. Even the payment process can be taken care of by the customer, allowing for quicker table turns and increased cover counts. Self service technology may not be appealing for patrons looking for a fine dining experience, but it certainly is attractive for those who operate fast food or quick serve/casual dining establishments.

Enterprise POS & Multi Location Capability

For those who operate large and multi-location operations, choosing the right POS system has never been easy. Due to logistics and a host of other obstacles, businesses with multiple locations were forced to be creative in how they coordinated the collection of cash and data. Businesses such as these require enterprise wide POS systems that offer features such as client recognition capabilities, hospitality and retail sales, gift card processing, quick and easy debit and credit options, and more. They also require a POS system that can get around cabling and network issues, and preserve precious data in case of a system or network failure. If your company fits in this category, a reliable and flexible enterprise POS solution is a must.

With the above points in mind, one POS system is without peer in the point of sale industry. Toronto based Volante POS Systems offers a state of the art, modern and flexible POS system. Volante has seamlessly embraced all the above features and more, and is fully PCI compliant. Volante is also cross platform compatible, meaning it will run on Windows, Linux or Unix. Linux POS solutions are very attractive these days, since they allow business owners to cut costs by saving on Windows licensing fees, and are easy to use.

According to Eddie Stutz, VP of Operations for Woodbine Race Track in Toronto, Volante's flexibility has been key to ensuring smooth operations on a day to day level.

"We are a very complex company." Says Stutz. "Woodbine has given Volante much more exposure than anticipated, due to the fact that it can be used in many venues. It's an all encompassing system. I'm able to pull up any menu I want from any location, I can pull up a dining room menu, then switch to a lounge menu, for instance."

Other reasons for choosing Volante POS systems included Volante's array of other applications, including purchasing, rewards and retail, as well as the ability to integrate with Woodbine's player-reward application. Woodbine installed Volante at all their various venues (club, casual and fine dine, cafeteria and quick service), numbering some 200+ registers in a mixed Linux / Windows enterprise topology.

"Nowadays everything is about convergence and getting all systems into one", says Randy Folmes, director of IT at Woodbine. "We want to get to the point where we can say 'how much did we sell today?' and run one report to find out".

Volante also utilizes peer-to-peer technology, which allows each terminal to be connected, yet operate independently, without being reliant on a main server. Volante's unique implementation ensures that your business will continue to run smoothly in the event of a terminal or server failure. In other words, if your system crashes, your POS terminal still operates without losing any data or interrupting service.

Volante is a perfect fit for many different types of hospitality operations, having been successfully installed in such venues as restaurants, hotels, stadiums, race tracks, ski resorts, universities, outdoor sales areas (patios), casinos, theme parks and pizza chains. Its multi location capability makes it a full enterprise POS solution. For more information, visit www.volantesystems.com.

From a self service perspective, Volante POS Systems has recently announced a partnership with uWink, a new interactive restaurant and entertainment concept from Nolan Bushnell, of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese fame.

The two companies have partnered to offer the "uV Hospitality Solution", an end-to-end self-order, self-pay and at-the-table digital entertainment delivery solution, which was pioneered and proven in uWink's prototype interactive restaurant in Woodland Hills, California.

The "uV Hospitality Solution" is a seamless integration of uWink's innovative touch screen user interface software and micro-transaction game credit and redemption system with Volante's point of sale and back office enterprise system. At the uWink restaurant in Woodland Hills, customers self-order and self-pay for food, drink and digital media, including short form video games (uWink offers a library of 70+ casual and social single-player and multiplayer games) all from tabletop touch screen terminals located at each seat. This technology is really the new wave of self service technology, and was recently awarded Best Technology Innovation from Hospitality Technology magazine.

With the above points in mind, restaurant & hospitality operators should feel even more prepared when looking at new restaurant POS systems. If the POS software you're looking at doesn't offer the features mentioned above, move on. In today's economic times, you can barely afford not to. However, if worse comes to worse, you could always sell that Pac-Man machine.

Promotional Incentives Drive Traffic and Increase Sales

Promotional incentives represent a powerful motivation tool. When used properly, they can increase brand awareness within a target market, drive traffic to a company's website, and create a lift in sales. What's more, they can be integrated easily through point-of-sale freebies, in-pack bonuses, broad market mail drops and a variety of other distribution channels. Promotional incentives are an effective vehicle for tapping into new markets or expanding an existing customer base. They can be used to support customer loyalty programs, motivate sales staff, or launch new products.

In this article, we'll focus on the use of promotional incentives in the context of driving online traffic, increasing brand awareness and lifting sales. As you'll see, these three objectives converge to encourage recipients to take a predefined action.

Using Promotional Incentives To Build Awareness

One of the ongoing challenges that companies face in competitive spaces is to penetrate new markets with their products. Whether launching a new brand or expanding the market penetration of an existing one, companies must find a way to build awareness in their target audience. Promotional incentives offer a cost-effective platform through which to open these new markets.

For example, suppose a sports equipment manufacturer has traditionally catered to high school and college athletes and wishes to penetrate the "over 50" space. By offering promotional incentives designed to reach that specific demographic, the manufacturer can increase brand awareness for select lines of equipment. Similarly, an athletic shoe manufacturer may want to introduce a new line of dress shoes to executives. A cosmetics company might wish to reach a younger audience. In each case, promotional incentives can be tailored to generate excitement and improve market awareness.

Promotional Incentives Drive Traffic And Increase Sales

Traffic and sales are inseparable. Customized promotional incentives can increase the former and generate a boost in the latter. For example, consider a razor company that wants to produce a lift in blade sales within a particular big-box retailer. In-pack promotional incentives offering a free pack of blades can be included with each razor. The customer would be directed to the razor company's website to register for the freebie. A special promo code or coupon could be emailed to the customer directing them back to the retailer for redemption.

Promotional incentives can also be designed to generate online traffic. Mobile promotions content such as wallpaper images, ringtone promotions, and mobile games can be offered free in order to trigger an action within a target market. The predefined action might include an opt-in for future promotions, registration or a purchase decision.

The use of promotional incentives is a proven strategy for driving traffic, increasing brand awareness and lifting sales. They provide a channel through which companies can tap into new markets or further penetrate existing markets. Success is found in the design. The incentives must accommodate audience desire in order to trigger the appropriate response. For companies that wish to generate excitement and sales by delivering relevant value, this form of marketing can be an ideal solution.

The Truth About Bonds

If you are new to investing perhaps you are not familiar with bonds. Before you get started, you need to understand some of the risks associated with bond investing. Most people assume that all interest-bearing securities are completely risk free, but this is not the case. Even if you know a lot about investing, you may not be aware of some of the risk characteristics associated with bonds.

The most important thing to take into account is the interest rate. The Federal Reserve (also known as the Fed) meets every 6-8 weeks to evaluate the health of the economy. At each meeting, the Fed renders a decision regarding interest rates.

If inflation is rising, the Fed will need to raise interest rates to tighten the money supply. If inflation is moderate or contained, the Fed will likely leave rates unchanged. However, if the economy is slowing down and there is very little inflation or maybe even deflation, then the Fed might decide to reduce interest rates to create a stimulus for economic growth.

The reason why you need to consider present and future interest rate levels is because as interest rates increase, bond prices go down, and vice versa. If you are able to hold your bond until maturity, then interest rate movements do not really matter, because you will redeem the principal upon redemption. But often, investors have to cash out their bonds well before the maturity date. If interest rates have moved up since you purchased the bond, and you sell it prior to maturity, then the bond will be worth less than your initial investment.

You should also be aware of the claim status of the bond you are buying. Claim status refers to your ability to liquidate your investment in the event the bond issuer goes bankrupt. If you are buying a government bond, such as a Treasury Bill, claim status is irrelevant, because the odds of the Federal Government going bankrupt are slim and none.

If you are buying a corporate bond, however, there is always a chance that the issuer could go out of business. In the event of liquidation, bondholders are given priority over stockholders. However, there are often different classes of bondholders. Senior note holders can often claim against certain kinds of physical collateral in the event of bankruptcy, such as equipment (computers, machines, etc.). Regular bondholders can not always claim against physically collateral, and are next in line after the senior note holders.

Next, you should always check the three main features of the bond you are buying; the coupon rate, the maturity date, and the call provisions. The coupon rate is the interest rate. Most bonds pay an interest rate semiannually or annually. The maturity date is the date that the bond will be redeemed by the issuer; simply put, the maturity date is when the company must pay back to you the principal you loaned to them. The call provisions are the rights of the issuer to buy back your bond prior to maturity. Some bonds are non-callable, while others are callable, meaning that the company can buy your bond back before maturity, usually at a higher price than what you paid.

Finally, you should also understand that if economic conditions become more favorable after you a buy a bond, and interest rates start to go down again, the issuer will likely issue a lot more bonds to take advantage of the low interest rates, and will use the proceeds to try to buy back any callable bonds it issued previously. So, when interest rates go down, there is an increasing likelihood that your bond will be redeemed prior to maturity, if in fact the bond is callable.

You should invest in bonds. However, you should also take into account the risk factors we have covered. Your portfolio should contain a mix of corporate, federal, municipal, and even junk bonds (there is always a default risk associated with junk bonds, but they pay a huge interest rate). Talk to your broker about diversifying the kinds of bonds in your portfolio and you will reduce your overall risk and maximize your return.

Is Bond Investing Totally Safe?

Can You Lose Money Investing In Bonds?

Can You Handle Your Own Direct Mail Success?

The success of any direct mail campaign rests on several factors: a well written and compelling sales letter; an attention grabbing headline; an offer that cannot be refused and ease of response are all factors that can determine whether a response rate will be good, average or downright poor.

If you have been lucky enough to get the formula right and are enjoying a high response rate from your mailshot, then efficiently handling these responses is vital if you want to capitalise on your positive results and make the most of your success.

The way in which responses are handled has a lasting effect on your business. Get it right and you could see the return on your investment soar. Make mistakes at this point and the whole thing will have been a waste of time and money.

The key is to make sure that your responses, whether they are orders; surveys; information or brochure requests; subscriptions; voucher redemptions; membership renewals or account applications, are handled efficiently and professionally.

This efficiency will ensure that your business portrays a slick and proficient image that impresses customers and prospects. In turn, impressed customers and prospects are more likely to use you again in the future, and recommend you to others. So you have multiplied your marketing efforts in one go, just by efficiently handling your responses!

You should take some time to consider whether you can efficiently handle your responses. Can you give customers the speedy turnaround they expect on their orders? Can you get those brochures out to your prospects before they buy from your competitors? Can you process applications and redemptions smoothly enough to show customers they have made the right decision in choosing your service?

If you can't, then you are not alone because many businesses struggle to keep up with even the smallest of responses.

Furthermore, you also need to consider whether you are in a position to effectively capture data from your responses. This is an exceedingly important step of the process because this information is vital to the upkeep of your database. Recording addressee gone-aways, changes of address or other contact details and noting recipients who no longer wish to receive mailings from you is imperative so that mistakes that could damage customer relationships – and your reputation - aren't made on future mailings.

Be honest with yourself. Is running your business and working on marketing initiatives taking up a large chunk of your time? If so, it may be in your best interests to source an external agency to manage your response handling on your behalf.

There are companies that have specialist systems in place to handle all types of responses. Not only can they take care of the responses and capture data from your direct mail campaigns; they can also handle replies from any other promotional drives such as direct response advertising campaigns, coupon or on-pack promotions and exhibitions. Some of these companies can even store your literature and stock for you and handle your day to day order fulfilment, whether you are running a campaign or not.

Credit Card Rewards Programs

One of the latest and hottest trends with credit cards these days is all the new and varied rewards programs companies offer. These rewards programs are growing in popularity, and surveys and statistics show that rewards programs affect people's decisions about which credit card or cards they choose to apply for, as well as which one of their existing cards they use for a particular purchase.

However, one prevalent problem with credit card rewards programs is that many consumers and cardholders that are a part of these programs often don't redeem their accumulated points, for various reasons, such as forgetting, not wanting to bother or not knowing how.

Credit card companies offer these rewards programs as a way of promoting their particular credit cards to increase their usage. But when points aren't redeemed, there is often less reason to use the card. As a result, credit card companies are encouraged to offer more exciting, alluring, beneficial and practical rewards programs that customers would actually be interested in and want to use more often; as well as better their communication with the finer points and "how-to" of redeeming rewards points, and making point redemption more convenient.

There are many different types of rewards customers can enjoy through the programs and incentives offered by credit card companies. One of more recent popular choices are lifestyle rewards, allowing cardholders to take vacations and go on other getaways or enjoy a "night out," depending on that they prefer, once they've accumulated a certain number of points.

Other rewards include cash-back rewards-a favorite and top choice among credit card patrons-as well as air travel mile rewards, gift certificates, free merchandise and members-only discounts.

Now that rewards programs are high on the average consumer's list of criteria for choosing a good credit card, credit card companies are finding that they not only need to offer rewards programs, but ones that are useful, beneficial, desirable, sought-after and relevant, as well as programs that are different from others and unusual in the competitive credit card market. If a rewards program isn't attractive or particularly relevant, or if it's the same as every other program offered by credit card companies, it's not going to stand out or attract customers.

There are also ways for credit cardholders to maximize the power of credit card rewards programs they are already part of, and enjoy additional savings.

One example involves using your internet connection and computer to take advantage of many available online rewards programs. All you need to do is register your rewards credit card online in order to get those extra points or cash back, which will go into another account. A lot of these online programs involve shopping rewards and coupon savings-for groceries and gas, for example-letting you save even more than simply using your credit card to make purchases.

For coupons, after registering your credit card online, you can have access to coupons that you simply print out to use along with your credit card. As far as shopping rewards go, with an online registered credit card you can make purchases online through participating merchants in order to get cash back incentives. Generally speaking, credit card companies mail out a cash rebate check once you've reached the minimum amount for payout.

Find out what type of rewards programs, bonuses and incentives are offered by your current credit card as well as other credit cards you might be interested in. Although there are many other factors to take into consideration when thinking about choosing a new credit card or even switching all together-such as APR, interest rates, annual fees and other fees, credit limit and acceptability-rewards programs are certainly not to be overlooked.

Do Auto Rewards Cards Help You Cut Your Costs?

Tired of high car maintenance costs? Your credit cards are most likely to help you reduce them. During the last years the leading car manufacturers have presented credit cards under their brands that offer auto rewards. Card users can get rewards points and then redeem them for a car purchase, auto maintenance and spare parts. So, if you wish to save on your auto spendings and benefit from auto services, think of applying for a card offer that deals with your car manufacturer!
Auto credit cards from different companies offer different options. Some of them will help you earn bonus points that can be redeemed for a new card purchase even if it's your first credit card. Others offer you to get auto parts as a reward. So, let's review the most popular auto cards and their peculiarities.
•    The GM Card offers by General Motors is the oldest auto rewards credit card. It appeared in 1992, and since then it has been widely used. This card can help consumers to get bonus points and some day to redeem them for a new vehicle from GM. After this card was a success, the company has issued other cards with different redemption options.
•    Chrysler has at its disposal Chrysler, Dodge or Jeep credit cards. These plastics feature no annual fee and have rewards programs. You can earn points for making purchases at the above-mentioned brands' stores and even elsewhere. You can redeem the earned points for any car-related services or purchases.
•    BMW company has two credit cards to offer. They are "My Mini" card giving customers a chance to design their own card and a BMW Platinum Visa card. Cardholders can accumulate bonus points and then redeem for different auto services including a car purchase. Besides, with My Mini card you can even make charity donations.
•    Mercedes owners can enjoy Mercedes-Benz Visa Signature Card that allows you to get 1.5 pints for each dollar spent. After spending $10,000 you will get a coupon for $150 coupon that you can apply for a Mercedes-Benz car or service. Moreover, this exclusive plastic offers a free concierge service for booking reservations or tickets.
•    For Audi and Subaru owners there are respective credit cards with quite similar rewards programs. Bonus points for service or car purchase, rewards coupons or auto maintenance.
•    Are you a VW fan? Then pay your attention to Volkswagen Platinum Visa. It offers 2 bonus points per each dollar spent on Volkswagen purchases and then redeeming them for different auto services.
However, if you don't wish to be attached to one brand you may easily find a credit card that is accepted at any car manufacturer. Different leading banks and credit card companies offer auto rewards plastics with various bonuses, such as gas purchase discounts, bonus points for a new car purchase or your auto maintenance.
So there are a lot offers on the credit market, you only have to choose the one that suits your needs perfectly well and save considerably on your car purchase or maintenance.

Defining and Understanding Bond Yields

A bond, simply defined, is a type of investment which is very similar to an IOU. It is a loan in the form of a security with two basic components, the face value (principle), and the coupons (interest rate). The bond is a contract between the issuer and the bondholder to pay certain amounts of money in the future. The issuer of the bond promises to pay the bondholder principle and interest according to the terms and conditions listing in the bond. Many cities and countries issue bonds to fund new highways and other such projects.

The definition of bond yield is the rate of return on the bond, which takes into account the sum of the interest payment, the redemption value at the bond's maturity, and the initial purchase price of the bond. Yield on the bond relates to the return on the capital you invest in the bond. You will hear the term yield a lot as it relates to investing in bonds. There are many types of yields you'll need to be aware of listed below.

* Current Yield
The current yield calculates the percentage of the return that the annual coupon payment provides to the investor. It calculates the percentage of the actual dollar coupon payment is of the price the investor pays for the bond. This can be easily found by dividing the bond's coupon yield by it's market price.

* Coupon Yield
The annual interest rate established when the bond is issued.

* Yield to Maturity
This is the return that the investor will receive from their entire investment in the bond.

* Yield to Call
Yield to call (YTC) is the interest rate that the bond holders would receive if they held the bond until the call date. The call date is the date on which a bond may be redeemed by the issuer before the bond's maturity. If this happens, the bond will be redeemed at par or a higher value.

* Yield to Worst
This is the lowest calculated rate that the bond holder will receive upon maturity or call date. It is typically calculated by conservative investors to determine the worst case scenario.

Be sure to remember that once a bond is issued, the coupon interest rate is fixed. Therefore, if the market interest rates rise, then the price of the bond will fall so that the bond yield will be consistent with current market rates.

Understanding Sms Marketing

Understanding SMS Marketing

Introduction

Short Message Service (SMS) is a wireless service available on digital mobile networks. It enables the transmission of text messages between mobile phones and other systems such as electronic mail, paging and voice mail. Up to 160 characters can be sent and received through the network operator's message system to the mobile phone (Gustafsson & Lenman 2007).

SMS is essentially similar to paging. Paging is the process of a message, which consists of a few digits typically a phone number that the user is then expected to call, to be received by a one-way numeric pager. A pager (sometimes called a beeper) is a simple personal telecommunications device for short messages. A one-way numeric pager can only receive a message (paging) consisting of a few digits, typically a phone number that the user is then expected to call. While paging requires the pager to be active and within range, SMS messages do not require the mobile phone to be active within the range as they will be held for a number of days until the phone is active and within range. SMS messages are transmitted within the same cell or to anyone with roaming capability. They can also be sent to digital phones from a web site equipped with a PC Link or from one digital phone to another. In addition to SMS gateway is a web site that lets the user enter an SMS message to someone within the cell served by that gateway or acts as an international gateway for users with roaming capability.

The SMS is a store and forward service. In other words, short messages are not sent directly from sender to recipient, but via an SMS Center. Therefore there is a need for a network operator. Each mobile telephone network that supports SMS has one or more messaging centers to handle and manage the short messages.

The SMS features confirmation of message delivery. This means that, unlike e-mailing users do not simply send a short message and trust and hope that it gets delivered. Instead the sender of the short message can receive a return message back notifying them whether the short message has been delivered or not.

Short messages can be sent and received simultaneously with GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) voice, data and fax calls. This is possible because whereas voice, data and fax calls take over a dedicated radio channel for the duration of the call, short messages travel over and above the radio channel using the signaling path. As such, users of SMS rarely, if ever, get a busy or engaged signal as they can do during peak network usage times (SPG Media Group PLC 2008).

According to the same study above ways of sending multiple short messages are available. SMS concatenation (stringing several short messages together) and SMS compression have been defined and incorporated in the GSM SMS standards.

The introduction of standardized protocols such as SIM (A small smart card type device that has details of the mobile subscriber including public telephone number and the numbers required by the network to recognise and authenticate the subscriber), Application Toolkit and the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) contribute to an increase in messaging usage by providing a standard service development and deployment environment for application developers and business partners. These protocols also make it easier for users to reply to and otherwise access messaging services through custom menus on the phone. While these protocols are only a means to an end and not new messaging destinations or services, they are likely to lead to a 10-15% uplift in total SMS volumes (SPG Media Group PLC, 2008). Some companies could reach more successful results if manage the SMS marketing processes successfully.

Today, for example, to use SMS, MMS, e-mail, instant messaging (IM), voice mail, and so on, end users must be aware of the underlying technology and their intended recipients' capabilities. Studies and market trends show that messaging solutions must be easier to use if they are to facilitate communication and increase traffic. This will form the base of a successful mobile marketing campaign constructed on SMS.

SMS Marketing under Marketing Overview

SMS has grown into a mainstream communication tool for consumers, reaching them via SMS marketing has become increasingly important strategy for businesses. Whether between two people planning to meet up or a broadcast message to thousands of users, more and more customers are becoming converts every day, and savvy marketers realize text messaging is a great way to quickly communicate with their audience. For this reason; text messaging is increasing at an enormous rate. One of the primary reasons behind this growth is that text messaging has become increasingly used as a business tool (mobilestorm.com/sms-marketing 2009).

The trend in Jupiter Research shows that SMS Marketing is quickly surpassing e-mail technology as a tool for marketers and also for customer relationship management. Moreover; Jupiter Research says three billion coupons issued to cell phone users will generate sales of almost $87 billion by 2011 (textsmsmarketing 2006).

Types of SMS Marketing

Types of SMS Marketing can be defined in three different contexts in general; Purchase Context, Technical Context and User Context. These contexts are mostly given preference while enterprises practising the SMS Marketing efforts.

Purchase Context defines SMS as a product based on the way it is purchased. On the other hand, technical context defines the types of SMS Marketing from the mobile operator point of view while user context defines it from the benefit the SMS provides to the target customer. The common point of these types is that the payment type of these SMS can be defined based on the request of the buyer (the sender). The company that wants to send SMS can chooses either to pay the price of the SMS itself or to charge the price to the target customer.

Purchase Context

In SMS marketing campaigns, there are two different SMS methods as a product; a company can either choose to make a deal with the carrier for a promised amount of SMS for a given time (mostly 1 year). This is called bulk SMS. On the other hand, the company can choose to buy SMS packages that are being sold by the carrier in specified amounts like 1.000 or 500.000 or it can be included on the standart price numbers of dispatch etc. This is called piece SMS.

Marketing strategy is obtained by making corporate SMS purchasing agreements either with Mobile operators or with the infrasturcture providers or different SMS reseller companies. The more amounts of SMS purchased, the less money is paid for an SMS. While it is more profitable to buy over million quantities directly from the GMS operator (bulk SMS), it can be a better decision to buy from the providers or resellers since they buy from the operators with over million quantites and resell them in small quantitities with better price (piece SMS). This also creates a new intermediate trade of SMS. In addition to this; wide extensive solution partnership agreements are available among company. At that time; more services are given in a lot of case such as SMS, logo, melody, conversation, entertainment, competition, game, etc.

Technical Context

There are three types of SMS from the technical perspective. These are one way, single shot and two way SMS's (see in Table 2).

One way SMS is an SMS that sent by the sender to the target customers. With this type of SMS an answer from the target customer is not expected and most of the time not allowed. So there is no customer interaction.

One way Fast SMS (Single Shot) is an SMS which is sent by the sender to the target customer and an answer from the target customer is not allowed. The most important feature of this type is that the SMS is valid for a defined time (mostly a short period like 3 minutes). Becuse of this feature, the SMS must be sent immediately after it is triggered. This type is mainly used to send passwords that are valid for the defined time (Like a password that will be used by the target customer to log in into his/her different accounts over the internet). This type of SMS is not blocked by the filters meaning that a customer can filter the SMS that is coming from a certain sender or number by sending that message to a special filter list of the mobile operator. But this filter is not used for single shot SMS.

Two Way SMS is an SMS sent by the sender to the target customer and an answer from the target customer is expected if he/she wants to join or use the services/benefits that are offered. Since there will be a client interaction, the SMS number that is used to sent this type of SMS must be configured to recieve SMS that will be sent by the customers.

User Context

Premium SMS gives clients the option to earn money on certain text messages and content for which consumers will pay to send or receive. Clients can hold voting contests, like those on many reality TV shows, daily horoscopes, a VIP program, or other instances where new information is time-sensitive, making that information valuable to the consumer.

Mobile Coupons will benefit businesses and customers alike-promoting spending while saving money for consumers. In addition, the convenience and "green" factor (no excess paper or ink needed to produce them) of digital coupons, such as mobile coupons, make them especially appealing to consumers today.

Text-To-Screen is a premium service that allows marketers to create polls and quizzes especially for a particular event.

Marketers have a way to ensure event attendees' interest while adding excitement to shows, parties, major sporting events or a regular evening at a movie theater. A marketer can use giant video screens that are traditionally at these places to advertise a poll or quiz, compel the crowd to participate and then post the results on that same screen in real time. (mobilestorm.com/sms-marketing 2009)

The SMS Campaign

The SMS system is a small piece of mobile communication and marketing system. For this purpose, like every marketing campaign, SMS campaign should be carefully planned. There are 3 processes that a campaign manager should plan in order to create a successful SMS campaign.

Every process has its own individual approaches. In step I, campaign manager should carefully plan the target segment, the message that will be addressed and configuring the body of the SMS based on this message.

In step II, the carrier must be chosen in order to reach the targeted segment based the technical and financial criterias. All the replies must be carefully viewed.

After sending the message, an analysis of the study must be made for performance measurement (mobilestorm.com/sms-marketing, mobilesmsmarketing.com 2009).

In order to create an SMS marketing campaign, a database must be created that consist of the phone numbers of the clients that are targeted. A member or commitment list is being constituted by the enterprises with the help of clients' needs. However; we cannot observe the same situation at the private sector. The companys, which can constitute their lists, can add new numbers to these lists by using different channels. The channels can be;

inside the company - the companies own database or affilitaions database
outside from the company - databases that can be provided from consulting firms, SMS operators, yellow pages etc.

This process is sensitive because of the requirements and outlines defined by the law. Both the individual numbers at the newspapers and the other numbers, which are used by institutional enterprises, help to increase the quantity of the numbers at these lists in the behalf of request or guidance.

SMS Marketing Implications

In the past; the companies, which want to communicate with their customers, were using postcards, celebration cards, fax and telephone. These ways were increasing the costs and were creating problems for transportation. Most of the cards were not arrived to the addresses and the companies were not controlling these limitations. By the use of corporate SMS service, the companies began to trace whether the SMS was received by the user. Furthermore; considerably higher profits were provided at the cost side. One of the most attractive sides of this application for the companies is the high returns of the customers, who are taken these messages.

Corporate SMS Working Process

Client applications have a speciality of working as internet-based environment and desktop execution with local database. The applications, which are served as free for customer usage, can be accumulated in three main titles: Desktop SMS application, web-based Web SMS application and Office SMS application, which can be provide sending SMS from directly Microsoft Excel. After controlling SMS sending offer from these applications out of institutional servers, SMSs are transferred on Internet at the same time to the related mobile operator. Then; these SMSs are transmitted to the mobile phones.

The corporate SMS system can be classified in 3 categories;

First one is the public enterprises, in which SMS application is an indispensible requirement for each company. For instance; small announcements can be transferred to the people by associations, labor unions, foundations, etc. By the way; it provides an opportunity to get lower costs and make the works rapidly.

The second one is the private sector institutions especially finance (banking), automotive, market, retailers, etc. They announce their campaigns to the related clients at the same time and this provides a returnable and customer fidelity.

The last category is about the education sector, in which corporate SMS was began to see as an essential requirement and called service by the guardians. A private class was began preference by giving the services of lack of continuity, examination results and other reports.

Efficiency of SMS

What could efficiency of SMS bring to companies? The most important issue is to get the transmission reports of the messagings. We can analyze these reports based on;

People & Responses
Total cost of Transmission
Results

In a recent study by Nielsen Mobile, 23% of U.S. mobile phone users remember seeing mobile advertising in the last month, and over 50% responded to the ad. (mobilestorm.com/sms-marketing 2009) When we compare this result to another marketing media like TV where the response rate is around 0,3%, it can be seen that SMS can be a very successful media for marketing.

Not only for the mobile advertising however it covers a lot of place in mobile marketing but also constitute a good relationship with the customers are very important subjects to the companies.

SMS Marketing System Analyses

The marketing concepts are changing while these new medias & technologies step into ourlives. An important factor to consider when selecting a marketing technique such as SMS marketing is that method's ability to reach a wide audience. This is why famous TV programs attract a lot of sponsors, famous celebrities get a lot of endorsements and popular websites get a lot of posted ads. Businessmen know that these programs, celebrities and websites will be garnering a lot of visitors; thence, more people will get to see their advertisements. The same equation applies to SMS marketing. Nearly every person in the world possesses a mobile phone. It's only natural that companies and businesses will want to compete in this new marketing arena. (sign-up.to 2008)

It is very important to understand the SMS Marketing system and to manage the system after sending messages to the customers even their target is advertising or relationship. Companies have to find out the most valuable customers by detecting the performance with so many analysis and then to decide and apply what are the following actions whether the companies want to succeed their functionality continuously for their success in marketing.

The companies naturally think about their current customers primarily, because they know their identities, personalities, conventions, pleasures, etc. There are two types of customers; the current customers and the potential customers, who are not available for the present and may be the candidates.

To create opportunities for the companies and satisfy the customers, companies should perform some endevours. Hereby these endevours undertake with marketing philosophy and to give some detailed conveyance for the SMS marketing efforts. Like every marketing concept, analyzing the result to measure the performance of system. In general before passing through to the analyses, suppose that a company determined their customers and sent them an advertising text message, in which the company's new products were recognized. Presume that the amount of these customers is 10,000 and just 1,000 of them have demanded the new products after receiving the SMS. However, since this is a cost for the company, cost - benefit ratio must be taken into account all the time. The other 9,000 people can be classified into two groups: the people, who erase the text messages without seeing; and the people, who erase the text messages after seeing. In this direction; these people may not be interested in these text messages for the reason of the improper time, unsuitable content, previous experiences, etc. In that case what should the company analyze to control the activities and the environment for benefitting from SMS Marketing?

From the strategical point of view the companies should be done below analysis for their safety and do the right things for the good marketing relations and satisfaction of the customers;

Basic Statistical Analysis

Statistical analysis is the first step of the success or failure of the system. It includes the response time of the respondents to the text messages, the percentage of the right arrivals, the percentage of the lost messages, etc. In addition to these; these performance results should be traced and understood effectively to take the precautions and determine the SMS strategy primarily. For instance; at Keynote Systems, the average performance for all carriers was 11.8 seconds to receive message and 94.7 percent of all messages arrived at their destination. While these numbers are an improvement over the prior three months, the 94.7 percent availability could represent a significant loss of information and business when the number of lost messages is calculated. (AT&T 2002)

In our example; the company can classify the customers, who have made commercial activities, in 3 groups: high level, mid-level and low level. By the way; the company should also trace these classifications to understand whether there are changes in high levels, mid-levels and low levels. There may be some quantitative changes such as the increase in high levels that also indicates the increase in the expenses or the reduction at all levels that indicates the demand in the market has been declined.

Tendency Analysis

Targeting the audience is one of the most important things that any advertiser should remember. Nowadays, businessmen are considering it more wise and practical to advertise to individuals who will likely become customers. For instance, if a company is selling video games and other hip electronics, then marketers would want to run your SMS marketing campaign on teenagers and other young people who might be interested. (sign-up.to 2002)

Since 80% or more of all cell phone users carry their phone all the time, a text message to their cell phones is the perfect way to alert your subscribers or clients of any urgent information, such as a change of appointment, or product ready for pickup. For this reason; the companies have to understand in which stores and/or products that the customers have paid money by finding out the location of these stores and/or products, what the ranges of these saves are, who these clients are by making data mining, etc. By the way; the company can make identification about the product characteristic and determine new marketing strategy related to the most popular products or services. In addition to this; the products can be served to the people individually.

Capacity Analysis

The main idea of detecting capacity is to answer the question of will the company maintain the investment of sending text messages to the customers. The company has to understand the signals of benefits with the usage of SMSs. Because of the company will produce the products or keep the inventory according to the demands. Whether the demand is low due to the expectations, the company will produce lower parties, keep lower inventories and may reduce or stop the usage of SMS marketing. Moreover; the company may change the marketing strategy. On the other hand; the company may support and increase the usage rate of text messaging by sending them to more people whether the demand is very high. At that time; the company will perform more aggressive role in the market and this will affect the investments of the company.

For this reason; the capacity analysis, which indicates the present situation to meet the present demand and the future situation to meet the following demand, should be investigated and taken into consideration by the companies.

Reviewing Marketing Performance

Mobile marketing can be used for a wide range of occasions like announcing new product, one-day specials, new store openings, special events...etc. Subscribers can be treated as a special group for offers and information that only they have access to, increasing loyalty, purchases, and speed of communications.

While mobile marketing can be used in a lot of areas that helps them customer loyalty, customer satisfaction and incremental sales; the companies should search the performance of their marketing activities to maintain the available situation and then to increase the market share by accessing more satisfied clients. To achieve this; some functions should be generated like market research, market modeling and market consulting.

Ø Marketing research - world-class qualitative and quantitative research, particularly market segmentation that gives the company growth-oriented insights.
Ø Marketing modeling - state-of-the-science, profit-focused modeling that offers the company invaluable information about the financial impact of different marketing decisions.
Ø Marketing consulting - continuously filtering what the statistics say through managerial, statistical, and financial criteria to provide the company with relevant and doable action steps.

In this regard; the company should determine some indicators to trace the performance of the marketing to understand whether the situation is going on the predetermined strategy or not. Some of these indicators are market share, new product, marketing return on investment (ROI), customer, brand, etc.

Furthermore; there are some criteria for selecting the targets of these performance indicators such as sales potential, growth potential, retention potential, common motivations, problem potential, responsiveness, findability, lifetime value, etc. These criteria should be investigated, considered and evaluated before targeting process. (Copernicus Marketing Consulting and Research n.d.)

Sales Analysis

In sales analysis, the goal is to provide accurate management information related to sales activity in order to improve sales profitability and provide facilities for sales forecasting and planning at customer and product class levels.

By sales analysis; we can make the following actions:

Ø Identify the most profitable customers
Ø Know which products are selling
Ø Analyze market trends and geographic market patterns
Ø Know the profit generated by each product
Ø Know which divisions of business are selling
Ø Identify which salespeople are performing
Ø Improve sales forecasting
Ø Measure actual performance against quantity or revenue forecasts
Ø Analyze tax collections
Ø Set targets against customers and / or products
Ø Compare against budgets per product group and/or salesperson

By the way; we can decide to maintain and admire the most profitable customers, continue to produce the most selling products, prompt the most valuable salespersons, get precautions according to the trend of the following months' sales, constitute the budget or make re-budgeting, determine the following targets that the marketing department should provide, etc.

In this regard; SMS marketing is perfect for local and national retailers wishing to promote products or services, provide incentives, and increase customer loyalty and retention. Retailers can send SMS messages to their opt-in subscribers with coupons code inserted directly into the message. Customers can come into the stores and present their coupons right on their cell phones for redemption. This application is very useful for consumers to sale any product in any time at any location, where it helps to increase the sales of the company.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

When consumers make purchases at market prices, they reveal that the things they buy are at least as beneficial to them as the money they relinquish. Consumers will increase their consumption of any commodity up to the point, where the benefit of an additional unit (marginal benefit) is equal to the marginal cost to them of that unit, the market price. The same idea can be used for the companies. A company, which directs its marketing strategy on SMS marketing, wants to get the financial benefit of the application including customer satisfaction. However; when the trend of the earned marginal benefit is going on a reducing direction, the company may decide to give up SMS marketing and consider another methods. On the other side; whether the marginal benefit is going on a positive direction, the company will begin to behave more aggressive way to use more text messages to arrive more customers.

Character Analysis of the Customers

The first step in SMS Marketing campaign is collecting and getting permission to gather cell phone numbers as stated before. Although it is perfectly acceptable to simply have a signup form on the company's website or retail store with the promise to send valuable offers in return for signup; it is much more effective to come up with a creative tactic that offers more like prizes, memberships, bonus and free stuff. As the comapny build its database of cell phone numbers, try to elicit more than just that one piece of information. Ask for the customers about their hobbies, conventions and then create special announcements based on niche interests. Find out demographics and customize the text messages campaign to that particular cell phone recipient.

In the character analysis; clear purpose and goal focusing, communication skills, time management prioritization and planning, conflict handling and mental attitudes' information should be gathered by the companies. For instance; a goal focused person, who understands the direction of the organization, makes plans and organizes resources, both of people and materials and plans ahead in a strategic manner; can be directed to the gifts of special days and the text messages can be sent to these customers like in this way. Because these people are living in perfect planning days and they do not forget the most important days in their lives. For this reason; the gifts, which emphasize the special days, should be chosen as a content of text messages in SMS marketing strategy at these companies. In a different example; there are also SMART people, who can be described as Specific, Measured, Achievable, Realistic, and with a definite Time deadline. That's why these people always calculate the time and the cost opportunity, in which the prices are lower at any location. In this regard; the shopping centers' activities such as discounting days or other kind of promotions may be announced to these kinds of people earlier by the help of text messages.

This needs to be new specialists that improve themselves of psychology and marketing.

Institutional Risk Analysis

"Most of the banks in the US are not broke, not in trouble, but they don't trust each other because they don't know which banks are bad. We've got to get the bad ones out."
William Seidman / American economist and financial commentator

The same situation can be considered for the commercial companies. The expectations will be seen clearly, whether the companies can determine which products are not sold enough, which salespersons are not successful enough, what are the actual and forecasting values of the market, etc. In the same direction; the main idea is to determine which products may not be sold in the following period and what are the actions that can be taken primarily. The methodology of risk analysis can be written as in the following:

Ø Identify risk assessment and prioritize risks
Ø Develop strategies to manage risks
Ø Develop tactics to mitigate risks
Ø Assign responsibility and implement
Ø Test effectiveness and evaluate results

Comparative Analysis

Comparative analysis is a tool that uses item by item comparison of two or more comparable issues like processes, products, qualifications, sets of data, systems, etc. For instance; in accounting, changes in a financial statement's items over several accounting periods may be presented together to detect the emerging trends in the firm's operations and results. The company, which uses text messages to arrive to their customers, sends SMSs to their available clients primarily. After a time of this application, there are some feedbacks that some of the clients have made trades against the others have not. The results in here should be recorded. In this regard of this situation, the company may change the content of the text messages and then wants to see the results. In this time; the company can take a photo of two different situations and make a comparative analysis by using the quantity of sales, the amount of saved money, the number of sold products, etc. to see the differences and the impact of the contents. After that; the company can determine the following marketing strategy due to the feedback of these results.

Environmental Factors Analysis

The last searching area is to reveal the environmental factors like the changes in interest rates; crisis surrounding in economical, social and political areas; the developments in the rivals; the sales in each product; the demands in the market; purchase power of the public, new investment areas, which are rising in recent period, etc. Furthermore; SWOT analysis, which takes the information as a result of these previous activities and separate them into internal issues (strengths and weaknesses) and external issues (opportunities and threats), is one of the best techniques to understand and evaluate all these activities together. In SWOT analysis, the knowledge is designed to help an organization an understanding how it relates to its external environment. In other words to act as a way of seeing whether the organization is aligned with the world going on around it.

As a result of these analyses, the company should evaluate the available situation and get some remarks for the future. Whether the situation is not good enough or the demands are not expected, the company can trace the following instructions:

a. Constituting an action plan
b. Differentiating text messages
c. Timing of the text messages
d. Differentiating of the product
e. Timing of the product
f. Determining new marketing strategies
g. Finding potential customers
h. Evaluating the channels for their potentials, capabilities and reliability conditions

CONCLUSION

Mobile marketing tools are offering easier and more convenient ways with evolving marketing strategies. SMS has been the pioneer in wireless data applications and SMS services were the first mobile data services with a serious impact on the operator's revenue. The industry has seen tremendous growth and, clearly, messaging will lead the way to profits in 3G as well. Inevitably, the way that revenues from mobile applications are currently shared out will change and become much more versatile.

We can admit that SMS Marketing is a very useful tool for the marketers and a competitive marketing strategy for the companies. However; the main issue is not just to apply text messages to the clients. The focal point is to send the right value of contents, at the right time, at the right location, to the right customers with the right effect. Also; after sending them to the clients; the enterprises should follow the marketing auditing like marketing statistics by applying some analysis whether the text messages are effective or not. If there are some problems with this type of marketing strategy, the enterprise should review its' all ongoing processes to understand where the problem is.

The reasons of failure/triumph should be investigated. After the determination of these, the cautions should be taken into a contingency plan, the actions should be revised and the new applications should be done. If all these processes such as taking pre-cautions, monitor the applications in an analysis approach, etc. are taken into consideration in a systematical approach, we think that SMS Marketing will become a very powerful and indispensible tool for the applicant enterprises. On the other hand, most of the forecasts show that data-related services are increasing its value especially in the means of revenue of the mobile operators. Moreover, picture messaging and visuality has taken off, and MMS is a natural progression of these facts. The fact that the consumer preferences are moving fast towards visuality especially with services like Youtube, Video Messaging Services can be the new concept for the mobile world and the mobile marketing strategies.

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is a new form of communication that combines rich content, such as audio and video clips, photographs and images, with text messaging. It is an end-to-end application for person-to-person mobile messaging, mobile-to-mobile, mobile-to-Internet and Internet-to-mobile. It is good news for service providers, as they can now improve their existing text-based services by adding rich visual content. MMS will be a key mass-market revenue generator for content providers, mobile operators, application developers and advertisers, while for users it will provide a way to capture a moment of time and share it with others.

From the users' perspective, a successful MMS launch needs the terminal to be set up ready to use from the minute he or she walks out of the store with it. An operator can meet this expectation by offering automatic terminal provisioning over the air through its own network and today, Turkcell, the leading operator in Turkey is offering this service over the air. In addition, operators need to educate end users, not only on how they can send and receive MMS messages but also how they can discover and subscribe to MMS content services. Operators can create service packs, set-up content service demos provide customer training and competitions in retail stores, as well as at relevant events such as festivals and concerts.

REFERENCES

Gustafsson, Å. & Lenman, AEricsson's enriched messaging architecture, Ericsson Review No. 2, 2007.

SMS (Short Message System) Mobile Technology, International, White Paper SPG Media Group PLC, 2008.

http://www.marketingpundit.com/MktgLessons_files/Introduction_to_Marketing_Planning.pdf

Piercy, N. & Giles, W "Making SWOT Analysis Work", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Volume: 7 Issue: 5/6, 1989

How to Conduct a SWOT Analysis, Dr. E.J.Keeley, Executive Director, Institutional Effectiveness and Research

Codling, S. Best Practice Benchmarking, gowerpub.com, 1995

Kotler, P Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and Control, Prentice-Hall, 1988

http://www.marketingteacher.com/Lessons/lesson_objectives.htm

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http://www.businesslink.gov.uk

http://www.mobilestorm.com/sms-marketing

http://www.textsmsmarketing.com

http://www.mobilesmsmarketing.com

http://www.plusone.com.au/smsstudies.php

http://www.mobiltim.com.tr/sms_cilginligi.pdf

MMS entering into the next phase, White Paper, Nokia Corporation, 2003

http://www.sign-up.to/0308.php?k=sms-marketing&PageID=8631

Copernicus Marketing Consulting and Research, Bringing Science to Marketing

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McDaniel, C.D. & Gates, R. H Marketing Research Essentials, Published by Taylor & Francis, 1997

5 Door Hanger Design Tips

Outside of a hotel, where door hangers are used to request or decline maid service, door hangers are often an overlooked form of marketing. However, they can be very effective, since the person must handle the door hanger to remove it from their door. They are also inexpensive, particularly if you have someone that can deliver them for you. Here are some tips to keep in mind when designing your door hangers.

Headlines

The headlines should stand out and be easy to read, as well as convey the main message quickly. Stay away from colors that will blend into the background of the door hanger or any fonts that can be hard to read. Remember, your target audience may only glance at the door hanger before throwing it in the garbage, so you need to make sure that they at least read the headline before they do so.

Use Both Sides

Remember that a door hanger does have two sides, and you should use both of them to help get your message across. The first side should be used to draw attention to the door hanger and capture the customer's interest, while the second side would give more information and contact details. While this will cost a little bit more in printing costs, it will create a better response to your door hanger and generate more business for you.

Bright Colors

The front of your door hanger should use bright, vivid colors that will attract attention. If your customer doesn't routinely use their front door, then you don't want the door hanger to hang for days or weeks going unnoticed. Come up with a design that will stand out and encourage them to go and remove it. And do not forget to include your company logo on the front in bold colors as well. Branding is an important part of company recognition, and you do not want to miss an opportunity to help establish your brand.

Contact Info

While this seems obvious, you do need to make sure that your contact information is displayed prominently on the door hanger. Remember, you want to make it easy for the customer to contact you, so make sure your address, website, or phone number is highlighted so that they will notice it. Even if they do not contact you right away, you want to make sure that they have the information handy when they do decide to contact you.

Coupons

Do you want to know how effective your door hangers really are for generating business? Add a coupon to the bottom of it. Not only will this give potential customers an added incentive to give you a call, but you will be able to track the number of redemptions compared to the number of door hangers you distributed. If you are not seeing the redemptions that you would like, then it may be time to change your marketing technique.

There are many ways that door hangers can help you to increase your business. The better designed your door hanger is, the more likely your target audience will be to take a look at it. Make sure that yours stands out from the competition!

Coupon Redemption