Creation and support of presentations (technical aspects)

Presentations

Presentations PRESENTATION (from Lat. Praesentatio) is a means of communication which can be adapted to various speaking situations, such as talking to a group, addressing a meeting or briefing a team. It is the event that includes the demonstration and the provision of information about the object, followed by videos, slides, and distribution of information and advertising materials. A presentation is an independent action, which may be in the form of an official reception or it can be a presentation of a company or of new products and so on. As a rule, things that are presented are those you can see, touch, try or read. A presentation differs from a press conference by a large number of guests from various sections of society, by a greater emphasis on the cultural program, and the most important thing by a subject-matter. Presentations are held for potential consumers, customers, partners, investors, and of course for media representatives. The duration of a presentation in a particular case depends on the material presented. The particularity of any presentation is its limited duration.

There are the following types of presentations:

- a presentation of goods. The aims of this presentation are getting to know a new brand, product or service in the market.

- a presentation of organizations. The aims of this presentation are: the creation of an organization's image among the public.

- a presentation of the project. The aim of this type of a presentation is to inform people about a project, to define the feedback, and to search people who are interested in the project supporting.

- a presentation of the content of work performed (a report). The goal is to introduce and to provide results to a certain group of people.

- a presentation of a plan for future work. This type of a presentation is similar to the previous one, but the only difference is that its object is future work presented. Its objectives may include informing certain circle of people about planned work.

Holding a presentation includes the following steps:

1. Outlining of the objectives and priorities for attracting new customers, for the formation of the company's image, for attraction of new partners, including new suppliers, investors, and improving relations with the local authorities and certain sections of the society.

2. Giving reasons of the concept of the presentation by an idea formation, by the determining of the time and place, by the composition of participants and the size of the total cost.

3. Development of the presentation program. The presenter is a senior official of the company.

The presentation script is following:

- the presenter takes a roll call at the beginning so that everyone knows who is involved and listening.

- Flip charts and OHPs, PowerPoint or similar presentation software and visuals are presented which show the idea of the presentation for about 7-12 minutes;

- after that the executives have short reports for 2-3 minutes with a demonstration of the samples;

- then it is time for questions and answers;

- then the presenter calls on guests with suggestions, comments, congratulations and compliments;

- the final part involves holding banquets, informal exchange of information, contacts, and other forms of business PR-communication.

Presentation is an effective way to introduce the company, the product, the service, new achievements, results, etc. to the public. While organizing the presentation a lot of attention should be given to working with the media, as one of the main goals of it is to get a maximum number of publications about the represented object.

The major marketing concepts

NEEDS

The core concept of marketing is to understand or feel the “human needs” that denotes the state of felt deprivation. The needs are in-built in human nature itself and thus naturally existed in the composition of human biology and human condition. When the needs are not satisfied, a person will try to either reduce the need or look for a substitute object that has the ability to satisfy the need.

The need for food, clothing, shelter and safety are the basic physical needs and the needs of belongingness and affection are the social needs. The individual needs include the need for knowledge and self-expression.

WANTS

Human wants are desires for specific satisfaction of deeper needs that means the needs become wants when they are directed to specific object that might satisfy the need. Human needs may be few, but their wants are numerous. These wants are continually shaped and re-shaped by social forces and institutions such as families, collogues. Marketers need not to create needs because these needs pre-exist in the market. But they can influence the wants and suggest and inform the consumers about certain products and persuade them to purchase these by stressing the benefits of such products.

DEMANDS

People may have almost unlimited wants. But resources are limited in compare to the wants they have. Therefore they have to choose the products that are likely to provide the most value and satisfaction for their money. When backed by purchasing power, wants become demand. Thus, demands are basically wants for specific products that are linked /associated with the ability and willingness to pay for these products. For example, many desire a car such as Mercedes Benz, Toyota, BMW, Honda etc. but only a few are really willing and able to buy one. Therefore being a marketing executive you must measure how many people would actually be willing and able to buy your company’s products than how many of them want the products.

PRODUCTS

To satisfy the wants and needs of people the company must offer their products in the market. That means people purchase the products to satisfy their needs and wants. Specifically, a product can be defined as an object, service, activity, person, place, organization or idea. For example a lipstick is bought to supply service (beautify); toothpaste for whiter teeth – prevent germs or give fresh breath etc. Therefore it is the job of marketer to sell the service packages associated with the physical products. If you give a thought, you will realize that the importance of a product does not lay not so much in owning them than to use them to satisfy our wants. For example, we do not buy a bed just to admire it, but because it aids resting better.

EXCHANGE

We have already got that marketing takes place only when people decide to satisfy needs and wants through exchange. So in the process of marketing there is exchange value between the two party’s i.e. buyer and seller. The value for buyer is to obtain the desired object to satisfy its needs and wants while the value for the seller is generally the profit or the money. Kotler (1984) states that for exchange to take place, it must satisfy five conditions, namely:

There are at least two parties.

Each party has something that might be of value to the other party.

Each party is capable of communication and delivery.

Each party is free to accept or reject the offer.

Each party believes it is appropriate or desirable to deal with the other party.             

 

 

Reluctance to delegate

Some managers are reluctant to delegate authority to subordinates. They believe that they can make a better decision than their subordinates.

Fear of losing importance

Managers who feel comfortable with authority, fear to delegate authority. They feel that it will reduce their importance.

Loss of control

Some managers consider that they will lose control by delegating authority to their subordinates. They feel that if they delegate authority to their subordinates, they won’t be sure to achieve assigned responsibilities from subordinates.

Mutual distrust

Managers are often reluctant to delegate authority to subordinates if there is an environment of distrust in the organization. A manager must have confidence in his own ability to help, guide and control his subordinates before delegating authority. If a manager does not have the ability to make a sound decision he does not believe in his subordinates. He does not want to take risk to get jobs done from others.

Fear of subordinates

Managers are reluctant to delegate authority if they fear that it will reveal their downsides. They feel that their subordinates will perform better and may create problems in their own career.

From subordinate’s side:

Required information for making decision may not be available.

The subordinate may already have too much with work.

Subordinate may lack the skill and knowledge for effective decision making.

The subordinate has no motivation for accepting the additional responsibility that goes with the authority.

Authority delegated without matching responsibilities.

Lack of self-confidence.

Existence of element of fear and frustration.

No independence in thinking.

Ways to make delegation effective:

Let employees know you believe in their ability to carry out the task.

Clearly define the employees' authority and responsibility.

Monitor progress and establish feedback mechanisms.

Reward employees for the positive results they produce.

Create an accurate control system to prevent abuse of authority among subordinates.

Define your problems and improve your leadership skills.

Try not to criticize subordinates without serious reason.

Keep the matching concept: a set of someone's tasks should match with his level of responsibility.

 

Presentations

Presentations PRESENTATION (from Lat. Praesentatio) is a means of communication which can be adapted to various speaking situations, such as talking to a group, addressing a meeting or briefing a team. It is the event that includes the demonstration and the provision of information about the object, followed by videos, slides, and distribution of information and advertising materials. A presentation is an independent action, which may be in the form of an official reception or it can be a presentation of a company or of new products and so on. As a rule, things that are presented are those you can see, touch, try or read. A presentation differs from a press conference by a large number of guests from various sections of society, by a greater emphasis on the cultural program, and the most important thing by a subject-matter. Presentations are held for potential consumers, customers, partners, investors, and of course for media representatives. The duration of a presentation in a particular case depends on the material presented. The particularity of any presentation is its limited duration.

There are the following types of presentations:

- a presentation of goods. The aims of this presentation are getting to know a new brand, product or service in the market.

- a presentation of organizations. The aims of this presentation are: the creation of an organization's image among the public.

- a presentation of the project. The aim of this type of a presentation is to inform people about a project, to define the feedback, and to search people who are interested in the project supporting.

- a presentation of the content of work performed (a report). The goal is to introduce and to provide results to a certain group of people.

- a presentation of a plan for future work. This type of a presentation is similar to the previous one, but the only difference is that its object is future work presented. Its objectives may include informing certain circle of people about planned work.

Holding a presentation includes the following steps:

1. Outlining of the objectives and priorities for attracting new customers, for the formation of the company's image, for attraction of new partners, including new suppliers, investors, and improving relations with the local authorities and certain sections of the society.

2. Giving reasons of the concept of the presentation by an idea formation, by the determining of the time and place, by the composition of participants and the size of the total cost.

3. Development of the presentation program. The presenter is a senior official of the company.

The presentation script is following:

- the presenter takes a roll call at the beginning so that everyone knows who is involved and listening.

- Flip charts and OHPs, PowerPoint or similar presentation software and visuals are presented which show the idea of the presentation for about 7-12 minutes;

- after that the executives have short reports for 2-3 minutes with a demonstration of the samples;

- then it is time for questions and answers;

- then the presenter calls on guests with suggestions, comments, congratulations and compliments;

- the final part involves holding banquets, informal exchange of information, contacts, and other forms of business PR-communication.

Presentation is an effective way to introduce the company, the product, the service, new achievements, results, etc. to the public. While organizing the presentation a lot of attention should be given to working with the media, as one of the main goals of it is to get a maximum number of publications about the represented object.

Creation and support of presentations (technical aspects)

Presentations can be divided into two major groups, the printed presentation and electronic presentations.

A printed presentation. This is the simplest option of using a presentation as a handout or a printed supplement to the performance or the promotion action. Most of the printed presentations are brochures, catalogs.

A computer (electronic) presentation. There are also computer (electronic) presentations that allow to go beyond the printed catalogs and brochures. Electronic presentations can be placed on the Internet that is on the website of a company, or could be sent by an e-mail (PDF-presentation) or used at conferences and seminars. Such presentations may differ from any other presentations by their animation (animated presentation), original introduction of the information, the ability to add sound, music, and so forth. PowerPoint presentations can also be divided into several types, depending on the program and the creation of technology (PowerPoint, PDF, 3D, Flash, CD / DVD-presentations, etc.).