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Marketers of industrial and consumer goods can improve the management of their complex distribution channels by using various promotional techniques known as the "promotional mix". Marketers can use sales promotion to move merchandise through the distribution pipeline by carefully organizing the channels of distribution, selling through and not to distributors and dealers, and determining product objectives. This concept has a focused scope that is highly cost-effective and applicable to a wide range of products and situations.

Courts increasingly frown on companies' efforts to keep markets separate. To avoid conflicts and problems that can arise along the channel or in the laws under which a business operates, and understanding of the various possible combinations of markets, channels, and products is essential. Sellers sending their products through both captive and independent outlets may face the problem of discrimination during periods of supply shortages or a possible "price squeeze". A company that uses separate channels to sell the same product to different markets must often deal with price differentials and contracts. Suppliers using different types of channels when selling in different geographic regions are subject to government intervention through price controls and tax differences.

Poor communication can cause the breakdown of negotiations with foreign governments, and the multinational manager who deals with developing countries often needs guidelines. Negotiators must understand local economic and political problems. Negotiators should avoid self-praise, ensure equal safeguards for the foreign government and consider a variety of investment arrangement structures. Negotiators may not adequately represent their government or company and negotiating styles may vary due to cultural differences.

Computerized information systems do much more than save managers time and money. They also improve managerial effectiveness. Management decision support systems range from systems that retrieve and analyze data to systems that evaluate decisions using accounting, simulation, optimization, or actuarial models. Managers use these systems as tools of persuasion, as tools of communication, and as a means of increasing organizational control. A study of 56 systems shows that a system has a greater probability of being successful if the end users participate in its development and implementation.

For some time now, accountants, economists, and executives have been engaged in debate: Given the inflationary economy we are in, do balance sheets, income statements, and other financial statements based on historical-cost accounting give a valid picture of a company's operations and financial position? If not, what form of replacement-cost, or price-level-adjusted, accounting should be used instead? The United States' continued high rate of inflation has convinced many people that statements based on historical-dollar conventions are no longer realistic indicators of financial position or operating results. Mr. Anthony is not one of those people, and in this article he makes the case for keeping the traditional historical-cost method.

New products should be priced and repriced over their life cycle to fit the changing competitive environment. In the pioneer stage manufacturers must estimate demand, decide on market targets, design promotional strategies, and choose distribution channels. Manufacturers must decide between a high initial price which takes advantage of inelastic demand and helps bear the burden of financing and a low initial price which can penetrate mass markets early and raise entry barriers to competitors. Manufacturers must recognize when a product is entering its mature stage so that prices can be reduced promptly to forestall the entry of private-label competitors.

Good planning is the key to the creative management of supply and demand in service industries. The two extreme strategies for matching demand for services with capacity to supply them are "chase demand" and "level capacity." Service managers alter demand with the following demand-leveling options: pricing, developing nonpeak demand, developing complementary services, and creating reservation systems. They adjust capacity to fluctuating demand by using part-time employees, maximizing efficiency, increasing consumer participation, sharing capacity, and investing in expansion. The challenge to the service manager is to find the best fit between demand and capacity.

A case history illustrates how a supplier cut into the sales of his competitors' identical products by devising a new promotional strategy. Advertising expenditures should be directed toward helping the customer to sell his end products. Successful implementation requires: selection of the right product, product manager, and customer; careful marketing research; and an adequate budget based on new account and volume goals. By spending time and money to help customers sell finished products, managers effectively market even the most prosaic industrial commodities.

The introduction of hard, soft, or hybrid technologies into service areas is the beginning of the industrialization of service. The key point is to increase the volume of service to a magnitude sufficient to achieve efficiency and to employ systems and technologies which produce reliable, rapid, and low-cost service results. Various cases illustrate problems of paperwork, service repairs, selling, and specialization, when implementing this management rationality. Service industrialization requires a set of processes and management that is much different from that used in the functional production of goods.

A strategic planning system is a structured process that organizes and coordinates the activities of managers who plan. A strategic planning system develops an integrated, coordinated, and consistent long-term plan of action, and facilitates adaptation of the corporation to environmental change. The following six issues influence development of a strategic planning system: communication of corporate performance goals, the goal-setting process, environmental scanning, subordinate managers' forces, the corporate planner's role, and the linkage of planning and budgeting.

Family businesses frequently face an agonizing experience when the entrepreneur watches while others take over the business. While bitter power struggles peak, the fortunes of the company may slide downhill. To avoid problems a critical network of family managers, employees, relatives, and outsiders must focus upon facilitating family and business transitions through mediation, dialogue, and future role building. The healthiest transitions involve those old-versus-young struggles in which both the family managers and the business change partners.

Present performance appraisal techniques evaluate behavior by making subjective and impressionistic judgments rather than quantitative judgments and providing inadequate information about performances. Static job descriptions contribute to the inadequacy of appraisal systems as they do not define the subtleties of the relationships which will influence employees' roles and careers. Employees need to develop political skill in addition to professional competence and this need demands a dynamic job description, a critical incident process, and a psychological support system.

The left hemisphere of the brain controls logical thinking processes and the right hemisphere controls simultaneous processing. Human tasks often activate one side of the brain while leaving the other largely at rest. There may be a fundamental difference between formal planning and informal managing corresponding to differences in these two hemispheres of the brain. Educators will have to revise their notions regarding management education in order to bring about a balance between developing analytic and intuitive thought.

Test marketing should be conducted to provide a dress rehearsal for launching of a new product by a company. Test marketing gives information to improve marketing productivity and avoid disasters. It should be used in conjunction with other marketing information. Recent technological developments allow laboratory simulation of test marketing which can reduce test marketing costs significantly. Researchers may use mathematical market simulation models.

Successful meetings begin by identifying their objectives as information-digestive, constructive-originative, or legislative. A chairperson should draw up agenda items in advance. The purpose and definition of the items should be clear, and placed in order of urgency or in suitable association with other items. The greatest single barrier to successful meetings is the chairperson's self-indulgence. A chairperson is most effective when committed only to the goals of the group, and acting as a servant rather than master of the group. The best meetings are those that have two leaders, one a social leader, the other a project or task leader.

The use of organizational control systems may backfire easily on management. A system cannot control performance; it can only provide information to the manager and often the information is misleading. Two major approaches are usual for control strategies. The external control strategy stresses supervision and makes employee manipulation of results difficult. The internal motivation strategy develops participative goal setting and rewards overall job performance. When choosing either strategy, a manager should consider four issues: consistency between strategy and managerial style; organizational climate, structure, and reward system; reality of job performance measures; and individual differences among subordinates.

Although the product life cycle (PLC) concept has been the mainstay of marketing strategy for many years, its accuracy and empirical basis are both questionable. In many cases, products do not develop along the traditional stages. The possible variations are so unpredictable that the most effective system employs unique information systems for each product. Product class, product form, and brand are the three stages of PLC, however, the model has little validity for brand life cycles. An effective model predicts sales drops and rises, and it serves as an indicator of the short-term success of strategy. Market-communication models greatly improve product life code models because they quantitatively measure the influences on sales, evaluate different opinions, and provide advance warning signals.

Reliance on growth of sales to solve financial dilemmas indicates weakness. Standard accounting techniques such as marginal income and break-even accounting encourage growth, but do not consider how fixed and variable overhead expenses affect profits. Cost analysis is an inadequate system; simplifying and shrinking production is the best way to ensure return on investment. Simple actions like improving the efficiency of accounts receivable procedures and reducing useless inventory frees cash quickly. Liquidating fixed assets for capital also serves to shrink overhead and improve efficiency.

Despite the benefit of high profits, as well as the enjoyment of a position of leadership, a company that has a high market share is a tempting target for actual and potential competitors, consumer organizations and government agencies. Market-share management involves the determination of optimal market share in a given product/market. To achieve or maintain this optimum share, recommended marketing strategies include: sharebuilding, share maintenance, share reduction, and risk reduction.

The success of Crown Cork and Seal in the beer can and aerosol container markets is attributable to their concentration on specialized design and manufacturing for those two specific high growth markets. While competitors diversified and lost container market shares to former customers engaged in self manufacture, Crown Cork's careful market strategy paid off. Market choice demands a long range commitment in terms of customer base, competition and required resources. Horizontal and vertical product-market choices allow a company to concentrate marketing where it has an advantage over competitors. Choice of product/market position at the beginning or the end of the market depends on company commitment to manufacturing, quality control and service.