Today's ever-changing marketing environment, accompanied by unpredictable competitive actions, creates uncertainty for enterprises and presents dilemmas, challenges and problem situations that necessitate planning ahead in order to survive. Directional/strategic marketing planning presents a step-by-step approach to developing plans that give direction to future marketing actions. Directional/strategic marketing planning begins with the marketing audit, which provides a clear understanding of the enterprise's current position in the market, the nature of the opportunities and threats in the external environment, and the enterprise's internal strengths and weaknesses. Once the basic directional market options available in the future have been determined, specific decisions that the marketer needs to make given a range of specific plans are discussed. Directional/strategic marketing planning is aimed at third and fourth year marketing students.

Avoid costly mistakes and create more profit by writing a strategic book. A strategic book acts like a brochure or business card on steroids. So don't waste time selling your book, let your book sell you The Seven Secrets of Successful Authors is the first step towards planning, publishing, and productising your strategic book correctly, so that it becomes a laser-focussed marketing tool that gives you more clarity, credibility, and collateral. The book describes a simple foolproof system for writing a book, with every step already planned and mapped out in detail for you to follow? The Seven Secrets of Successful Authors exposes a simple process to get your knowledge, skills and expertise out of your head and into print sooner than you ever imagined possible. The author has worked with many business-owners, entrepreneurs and specialists who aspired to become successful authors in their fields of expertise. They're people who wanted to increase their credibility FAST and stand head and shoulders above their competitors. Successful authors use a simple ABC framework to write a Strategic Book: Achieve Strategic Clarity. Planning a clear strategic direction gives focus. Boost Personal Credibility. Publishing a Strategic Book enhances your personal reputation. Create Profitable Collateral. Productising creates profit from your existing skills and knowledge by creating collateral that attracts pre-sold prospects who want to become customers. The Seven Secrets of Successful Authors was written to support authors through the first part of the ABC framework. Here is what you'll discover inside: Secret 1: WHAT to write about Secret 2: WHO to write for Secret 3: WHY your readers buy books Secret 4: HOW to design your book Secret 5: WHEN to finish writing Secret 6: WHERE to promote your book Secret 7: WHICH specialists to use

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world’s leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas.

The Advanced Introduction to Digital Marketing identifies the core concepts of research on digital marketing and provides theoretical frameworks and empirical findings. Topics such as digital product evolution, marketing strategy, and research on place, price, and promotion are thoroughly reviewed alongside controversial areas such as the harmful effects of technology on consumers. It also suggests research opportunities for those wishing to explore a particular area in greater depth.

Key Features:

• Builds upon influential articles to advance knowledge
• Provides a state-of-the-art review for each area of digital marketing
• Showcases an original Customer-Centric Digital Marketing Framework to effectively organise digital marketing research

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, this timely Handbook builds upon research and practice to discuss and assess what is currently known about virtual work and its evolution, given the increasing numbers of those working virtually.

Taking a holistic approach to the subject, the expert contributors review the critical areas of virtual work split into five thematic parts. Firstly technology, the foundation of virtual work, is thoroughly discussed focussing on new forms of technology and the use of AI. Working practices of both the individual and virtual teams are then fully reviewed alongside the organisation, context and emerging systems that support virtual work in practice. Forward-thinking, this Handbook, looks at the future direction and where we go from here towards the next decade of virtual work.

Managers and practitioners who are moving towards virtual or hybrid working or continuing to work remotely will find this an excellent resource for ongoing and future guidance. Scholars and researchers interested in this expanding subject will find this illuminating and informative.

Strategic communication as a research field and a professional practice is becoming increasingly relevant for organizations. Bringing together contributions from almost 60 leading international scholars, this dynamic Research Handbook on Strategic Communication is a timely contribution to a vivid and developing academic field.

Divided into three key parts – fundamentals, perspectives, and processes – the Research Handbook provides a holistic overview of target-oriented communication in and between organizations and society. The Handbook begins by addressing core issues in the discipline, introducing theories of communication, strategy, propaganda, and the public sphere. Chapters further explore strategic communication from a range of institutional, democratic, spatial, gendered, professional, and technological perspectives. The final section covers an extensive array of strategic communication processes, from corporate branding, communication management, and public diplomacy to corporate social responsibility, political communication, and social media.

Offering an advanced overview of relevant theories, concepts, and methods in strategic communication, this comprehensive Research Handbook will be an essential resource for graduate students and scholars of communication studies, sociology, social psychology, organizational theory, marketing, and public relations. Practitioners will benefit from its combination of theoretical and practical insights.

Digital evolution has become increasingly present in our lives, whether on cellphones, computers, watches, or other appliances. As a result of the wide access we have to the digital world, the amount of data generated daily is vast. This density of information generated at every moment can be the insight needed for the success of an organization. Much is said about data-based decision-making to generate the best results. The new capabilities of data intelligence unleashed by the emergence of cloud computing and artificial intelligence make it one of the most promising areas of digital transformation change management. Enhancing Business Communications and Collaboration Through Data Science Applications provides relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings in the area. It is written for professionals who wish to improve their understanding of the strategic role of trust at different levels of the information and knowledge society. Covering topics such as data science, online business communication, and user-centered design, this premier reference source is an ideal resource for business managers and leaders, entrepreneurs, data scientists, data analysts, sociologists, students and educators of higher education, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

Understand what mentoring really is and how to do it well The Mentoring Manual is based on methods developed - and proven - in business, this highly practical book will show you how mentoring works, take you step-by-step through everything you need to know and do, and show you how both parties can get the best from the relationship. Get the most from mentoring: help your mentee, develop your skills and make a positive difference.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world’s leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas.

The Advanced Introduction to Digital Marketing identifies the core concepts of research on digital marketing and provides theoretical frameworks and empirical findings. Topics such as digital product evolution, marketing strategy, and research on place, price, and promotion are thoroughly reviewed alongside controversial areas such as the harmful effects of technology on consumers. It also suggests research opportunities for those wishing to explore a particular area in greater depth.

Key Features:

• Builds upon influential articles to advance knowledge
• Provides a state-of-the-art review for each area of digital marketing
• Showcases an original Customer-Centric Digital Marketing Framework to effectively organise digital marketing research

Corporate communication - Getting the message across in business is not a textbook; it is a practical guide to successful business communication in the South African context. It caters for the needs of students in Business communication at universities, universities of technology, comprehensive institutions, and business professionals in large organisations, small business owners and entrepreneurs. A few of the important topics addressed in this title are: Effective interpersonal business communication; dealing effectively with clients; persuasion and negotiation; the role of culture in business communication.

Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs provides quick-fire, practical advice and real-life examples and success stories to help entrepreneurs build and market their own personal brands.

In today’s fast-paced, interconnected world, you need to have a personal brand, apart from that of your company. If you haven’t already got one, you need to start cultivating it into something of your choosing before it becomes defined by those around you. Learn what your personal brand is, why it’s critical to your success as an entrepreneur and what you need to do to grow, maintain and nurture it.

Donna Rachelson, a specialist in branding and marketing, and the author of three books, distils and shares her insights from years of experience in helping entrepreneurs grow and scale their businesses through the building of their authentic personal brands. Jam-packed with easily digestible nuggets of information and easy-to-apply actions, and with contributions from seven other entrepreneurs from different industries and at different stages of their personal branding journeys, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs is a must-have in any entrepreneur’s personal development toolkit.

For undergraduate courses in business communication. Develop business students' professional communication skills Following in the wake of the digital revolution and the advent ofsocial media, business communication has been hit by yet another revolutionarychange: the rise of intelligent communication technology. In this 13thEdition of Bovee and Thill's Excellence in BusinessCommunication, the most significant and recent technology-related changesaffecting the business world are thoroughly discussed. Not to be forgotten, thetext continues to emphasize the fundamental skills and principles of businesscommunication. Featuring practical advice, time-tested processes, andreal-world examples, Excellence in Business Communication isthe premier text for honing and developing business students' essentialcommunication skills.

The big idea: If you want to get heard in the information age, you need to change the way you write. Now. Smart Brevity will teach you how. Brevity is confidence. Length is fear. This is the guiding principle of Smart Brevity, a communication formula built by Axios journalists to prioritize essential news and information, explain its impact and deliver it in a concise and visual format. Now, the co-founders of Axios have created an essential guide for communicating effectively and efficiently using Smart Brevity - think Strunk and White's Elements of Style for the digital age. In SMART BREVITY: Write Less. Say More. Be Heard, Axios co-founders Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz teach readers how to say more with less in virtually any format. They also share communications lessons learned from their decades of experience in media, business and communications.

Charming, charismatic, and delightful or manipulative, self-serving, and cunning? Psychopaths are both and that's exactly what makes them dangerous. Bestselling author of the international phenomenon Surrounded by Idiots, Thomas Erikson reveals how to identify the psychopaths in your life and combat their efforts to control and manipulate.

Using the same simple four-color system of behavior classification that made Surrounded by Idiots so popular, Surrounded by Psychopaths teaches readers how to deal with psychopaths in their lives by becoming aware of their own behavior and their weaknesses. Vivid example stories illustrate ways that psychopaths can take advantage of various behavior types, helping readers identify their own weaknesses and be proactive about protecting themselves. Erikson outlines some of the most common forms of manipulation used by psychopaths--and others--to influence those around them. Since manipulation can often be a feature of ordinary, non-psychopathic relationships, the book also includes practical methods and techniques to help readers confront controlling people and rehabilitate negative relationships into mutually respectful ones.

By understanding your behavior as well as the tendencies and strategies of psychopaths, Surrounded by Psychopaths will teach you to protect yourself from manipulative influence in your workplace, social life, and family.