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A person who guarantees to pay the debt of a borrower in an event when the borrower defaults on a loan obligation is called as a guarantor. He acts as a co-signer as they pledge their own services or assets when the original debtor is not able to perform their obligations. A guarantor may also be depicted as a person who certifies the true likeness of an individual who applies for a product or service. He is also known as a Surety. Guarantor is usually someone above the age of 18 who is a resident of the country where the payment agreement applies. The guarantor is expected to maintain a good credit history with sufficient income to cover loan payments if any possible chances arise. Once they enter an agreement, the contract would remain as a binding force till the end of the repayment period. An individual can represent himself as his guarantor where he guarantees the loan with security like an asset he owns. However, in most of the cases, a third-party guarantor is requir...

A short term loan that is used until a person or company secures permanent financing or removes an obligation that is currently existing is called as a bridge loan. Bridge loans allow users to meet their current obligations by providing them with immediate cash flow. They are short-term loans that has relatively higher interest rates and are usually backed by a collateral like real estate or inventory. In UK, it is usually called as bridging loan, caveat loan or swing loan. They are typically more expensive than other conventional methods of financing. Also, they come with a higher rate of interest, points and other costs that are amortized over a shorter period, and various sweeteners like equity participation by lender in some loans. Bridge loans are arranged quickly in a short period of time with relatively less documentation. Bridge loans in real estate is used for quickly closing property purchases, to retrieve real estate from foreclosure or to take advantage of short-term ...

The process of buying an undervalued company with an intention to sell off its assets and generate profit for the shareholders is known as asset stripping. The individual assets of the company such as its equipment, real estate, intellectual property or brands, would be more valuable than the company as a whole due to certain factors like poor management or economic conditions. Its result is often a dividend payment for the investors and either a less-viable company or bankruptcy. Asset stripping is an action that is often engaged in by corporate raiders who buy undervalued companies to extract value out of them. This was very popular during 1970-1980s and is still seen in some of the investment activity conducted by private equity firms. This activity makes a company weak, especially one that has less collateral for borrowing and may have its value-producing assets stripped out, making it less able to support the debt the company has. The proceeds gained from asset stripping wou...

Cost advantages that are reaped by businesses when production becomes efficient is known as economies of scale. Businesses achieve it by increasing the production and lowering costs as costs are spread over a large number of goods which can be both fixed and variable. Generally, the size of the business matters when it comes to economies of scale as the larger the business is, more would be their cost savings. Economies of scale could be internal and external where internal is based on management decisions and external ones are based on outside factors. Considered to be an important concept for any business belonging to any industry, it represents the competitive advantages and cost savings held by larger businesses over smaller ones. There are various reasons why economies of scale mean lower per-unit costs. Firstly, the specialisation of labour and integration of technology helps in boosting production volumes. Secondly, lower per-unit costs comes from ...

Acqui-hiring or Acq-hiring or talent acquisition, a combination of the words acquisition and hiring, is referred to the process of acquiring a company to recruit its employees with or without showing interest in its current offerings or their continued operation. Those companies that engage in buying say it is talent acquisition and it typically comes with a per head price. The process also provides a relatively favourable exit strategies for employees with the prestige of being bought by a bigger company which is combined with the typical hiring process. Acqui-hiring has been increasingly becoming common in VC-based startup companies especially within the tech-sector. As of March 2013, Facebook was the largest performer of this process with over 12 in the last five fiscal quarters. Other brands like Twitter, Yahoo and Google are also ranked alongside Facebook for similar practices. This activity is facilitated by acqui-sourcing which is the process of identifying organiza...

A qualitative methodology that is used to describe consumers based on psychological attributes is called as psychographics. It has been applied in the study of personality, values, attitudes, opinions, interests and lifestyles. Though psychographics is often equated with lifestyle research, it has been argued that it should apply to the study of cognitive approaches including attitudes, interests, beliefs and opinions while lifestyle should apply to the study of overt behaviour.   As this research method focuses on interests, activities & opinions, they are sometimes abbreviated as ‘AIO variables’. The study of individuals or communities using psychographic can be valuable in marketing, demographics, opinion research, social research and prediction. Psychographic attributes can be contrasted with the variables of behaviour like purchase data and usage rate, along with organizational descriptors or firmographic variables like industry, number of employees and fu...

A management term linked to an element that is necessary to achieve an organization or project’s mission is called as Critical Success Factor (CSF). It is also known as the Key Result Area (KRA) or Key Success Factor (KSF). CSF is a critical factor/ activity required for ensuring an organization’s success. CSF term was initially used in data analysis and business analysis. For example, the critical success factor for a successful IT project is user involvement. It should not be confused with success criteria as they are outcomes of a project or achievements of an organization that is necessary to consider the project or organization as a successful one. Success criteria is defined with the objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) may be its quantifying unit. The concept of success factors for CSF was developed by D Ronald Daniel of McKinsey & Company in the year 1961. John F Rockart refined this process into critical success factors during 1979-81. And in...

Behavioral cues indicating a prospective or existing customer’s intentions in terms of their readiness to buy is called as Buying Signal. This helps in making sales process more efficient and high-yielding than before. Companies often rely on tolls like leading scoring, predictive analytics and account-based marketing (ABM) technologies to identify buying signals. It is often triggered by a change in a customer’s attitude or behavior. For example, a company which signed a lease just now to rent office space in a building and hired a CIO may demonstrate the right buying signals to show that t is ready to buy server hardware or networking gear. In this example, buying signals may not be directly related to the product or service but indicates the prospect’s readiness based on secondary factors. While companies might have enlisted tools previously like direct mail or cold-calling to identify new prospects, other tools like analytics and ABM can be used to identify a more ta...

Account-based marketing or in short ABM, known as key account marketing also, is referred to a strategic approach to market business based on account awareness. Here, the organization considers and communicates as markets of one to its individual prospect or customer accounts. It is typically employed in sales organizations belonging to the enterprise level. ABM helps companies to increase their account relevance; engage in deals earlier and higher; align the marketing activities with the strategies of the sales team; get the best value out of marketing; inspire customers with compelling content and to identify specific contact areas at specific markets belonging to a specific market. ABM brings together industry, product/service or channels like direct, social or PR to focus on individual accounts. As the market becomes more commoditized, customers can only see little or no difference between the suppliers and its competitors regarding price as the only obvious differen...

Top-of-mind awareness (TOMA) refers to a technique to measure how well brands rank in the minds of consumers. It is an important concept in consumer behavior, marketing communications and research. In Marketing Metrics, it is defined as the first brand that comes to the mind when a customer is asked an unprompted question about a category. The percentage of customers for whom a given brand is in their top of the mind can be measured. Top-of-mind awareness is more often defined as the most remembered or recalled brand names. It is a special form of brand awareness built by companies through media exposure via media like Internet, radio, newspapers, magazines, television and social media. In a survey conducted among nearly 200 senior marketing managers, 50% from the total responded that they found top-of-mind metric very useful. Top-of-mind can be achieved through social media by targeting a niche group of customers and then building brand awareness with regular ...

Solution selling is a methodology used in sales where a salesperson focuses on the customer’s problems to address it with appropriate offerings of the company rather than just promoting it. Here, the solution for the problem is linked to the product and its benefits received from using it. Solution selling is usually used in sales where products are a part of the elements making a solution to a customer’s problem. The term was developed by Frank Watts in the year 1975. He began teaching “solution selling” as an independent consultant and then presented his sales process to Xerox Corporation as a one-day workshop in the year 1982. Next year, Electronics magazine portrayed his method as an unmistakable trend in the distribution of systems-related products. Solution selling has become somewhat a generic topic in the marketplace with its core brand carrying distinct characteristics. Those brands that follow this method generally apply an approach like that of consultative sa...

Bargain bin refers to the unsorted selection of merchandise that has been discounted in price like software, CDs and tools. The major reasons for providing discounts can be the due to the closure of a production company, a steep decline in the popularity of an item in the aftermath of a scandal or a fad, or because a particular product line being discontinued. The term bargain bin originates from the fact that such items would be found in an isolated bin and not on store shelves. A similar term, “Bargain basement”, is now used as a synonym which means a basement in downtown department stores. Here, merchandise for clearance are placed regardless of which section of the store it came from. If a seller wants to sell different types of products as soon as possible, which may be due to various reasons, he keeps all the products in a single box rather than keeping it at their designated shelves and sells at a heavy discount rate so as to attract more customers. The reaso...

Attack marketing or guerrilla marketing or ambush marketing is a type of marketing that incorporates a set of creative and strategic techniques which are used to build and raise public awareness that surrounds a person, place,  b schools in kerala event or a product. It utilizes the strength of social interactions to execute non-traditional marketing campaigns so as to drive sales, increase brand awareness and to create a long term buzz for a specific business. This marketing strategy is used by various marketing, advertising, public relations, and promotional event marketing agencies to promote products and services of popular brands and events all around the world. It can be altered to fit the marketing programs for all budgets be it small or large. For example, Coca-Cola’s “Happiness” campaign is one of the best examples of a successful attack-style marketing campaign. Filmed and released on YouTube along with a tag “where will happiness strike next?” this campaign ...

Blue Ocean Strategy is referred to a market with no or less competition for a product. This strategy is centred on searching for business where only a few firms function and with less or no pricing pressure. It can be applied across different sectors or businesses and is not limited to any one. The term Blue Ocean Strategy is coined by professors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne and used in their book “Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant” in the year 2005. With intense competition among businesses, firms try their best to gain market share and with pricing pressure influencing their functioning, their existence in the market in under threat. This situation arises when a business is operating in a saturated market, referred to as Red Ocean. When there is limited scope for growth, firms look out for verticals or avenues to find new business where they can capture a market and enjoy uncontested market share...

Break even pricing is a practice in accounting pricing where the price point at which a business’ offerings will earn zero profits on a sale i.e., cost is equal to revenue. Break even pricing is a common accounting tool that is used by businesses to set a strategy for pricing for their product portfolio. It is calculated by the management of a company to make informed decisions if in case it wants to put a check on costs or increase production. The business can choose to set a price that is lower than the break even point. But, here, the business would be gaining revenues and would not be earning profits. The main motive of businesses in this case is to increase its market share rather than increasing their profits earned. Mainly, ecommerce firms are operating with this method but they have been able to tap into the market share. Break even pricing helps a company to set the lowest acceptable price and it is calculated by using the formula: (Total fixed ...

Customer churn rate is the percentage of the subscribers or customers who have canceled or has not renewed their subscriptions during a certain period of time. It is an important metric for businesses whose customers pay on a recurring basis like that of SaaS or other subscription-based businesses. If your customer does not stick around your business long enough for you to regain your average acquisition cost of customers i.e., CAC, regardless of your monthly revenue, then the firm is in trouble. Customer churn rate can be reduced by starting the customers off on the right foot by giving them a welcome email, dedicated 1:1 and online customer onboarding or by creating educational content on blogs, social media, etc. This educates the customers and gives a feeling of optimal value for your product or service. Then, ask the customers for feedbacks at key moments to re-engage with them. Build a good rapport and faith with customers through proactive communication. And fin...

Smarketing is referred to the process of integrating sales with marketing processes of a company. Its objective is focused on the sales and marketing functions to have a common integrated approach or targets. This process can lead to an annual growth in revenue of up to 20%, as per a study conducted in 2010. The objective of smarketing is to promote a product or service offered by a company to its potential buyers and also integrates this process with the activities of the sales department. Sales and marketing departments of a firm should be able to meet frequently to agree on a common terminology and should use data throughout the entire process in sales and marketing to identify good prospects and to follow up on how well they are being followed up. Smarketing works to its best levels when a business follows closed-loop reporting by tracking its success with particular prospective customers from the marketing stage through direct sales efforts. It is believed...