The terms Marketing Mix and 4Ps are the marketing buzz words. If you have ever researched how to position your market offering, then you have surely bumped into these definitions. The term Marketing Mix was coined by Neil Borden and the ideal was later refined by E.Jerome McCarthy with the concept of 4Ps. This concept…

JIT production, also known as JIT manufacturing, is a management philosophy for reducing times within production systems. In simpler words, it’s about producing what the customer wants, when they want it, where they want it and at the quantity they want. As a result, the JIT method ensures increased efficiency through the minimization of waste….

Corporate Social Responsibility, often referred as CSR, is an evolving business practice that encourages a company to be socially accountable towards its stakeholders and the public.  Within a CSR strategy, a company integrates environmental, social, economic and human rights concerns into its long term business strategy as well as its day-to-day operations. Why is CSR…

Six sigma is a data-driven approach for improving the capability of business processes within an organization. The concept was developed by Bill Smith in the 1989s and was later popularized as a management approach by GE in the early 1990s. Six sigma is principled on quality management fundamentals and it therefore aims to eliminate defects…

USP stands for Unique Selling Proposition and is one of the most important concepts within the marketing theory and practice. It has been defined as they key feature or the perceived benefit that differentiates a product from other competitors. In other words it is what your business stands out for. Why is it important? As…

Kaizen is a strategic approach based on the culture of continuous improvement within a company in order to proactively achieve small and incremental improvements to the manufacturing process. This approach is based on high cooperation and commitments levels and its efficient application can yield many benefits in the manufacturing process such as increased productivity, elimination…

The core idea of lean manufacturing, also known as “lean” is grounded on the notion of continuous elimination of waste from the manufacturing process. Lean was introduced in the 1990s by James Womack and has since then captivated the attention within the manufacturing industry. What is waste? Waste is considered any activity that does not…

The Ansoff Matrix is a marketing planning model developed by H.Igor, Ansoff (1957) and has been widely applied since then as a method to assess and evaluate the benefits and risks of company growth. The Ansoff Matrix is based on two dimensions, the market and the product, and correspondingly outlines four different strategic options that…

The concept of Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning Model (STP) has been one of the most frequently cited topics in the marketing literature and widely applied tools in the marketing practice for the last years. Considering that it is impossible to appeal to all buyers in the marketplace in the same manner, firms nowadays develop customer…

Just like humans, products go through different stages throughout their lives; progressing from introduction to decline. This means that long-established products eventually fade out, while new goods increase exponentially after their launch. This sequence is refereed as the Product Life Cycle and is composed by four stages which are defined by the respective product’s profit…