Promotional Strategy Essay Example for Free

Promotional Strategy Essay There are various ways to communicate with potential customers. Promotional strategy includes a mix of advertising, publicity, sales promotions, personal selling, and public relations. Each component of the promotional mix plays a role in your effort to have potential customers learn about your business and buy your goods or services. Your promotional strategy must address the who, what, when, where, and how much money to spend. The Who of Your Promotional Strategy No business can be all things to all people, and no business has an unlimited amount of money to spend on its promotions. You will need to be sure you direct your effort and money to your target market. The better you can identify who is in your target market, where they live, what magazines and newspapers they read, what television stations they watch, and what radio stations they listen to, the higher the probability that you will be able to get their attention and influence their behavior. If you can identify your target markets demographics, then you can check the listenership, viewership, and readership profiles for various media, including local radio stations, newspapers, magazines, and television stations. For example, if you are opening a clothing store and the primary target market is teenage girls, then you should review the rating of radio listenership in your geographic area. Most radio stations have a copy of the ratings. You will be able to determine which radio station has the highest listenership in that age category. The A. C. Nielsen rating service does the same for television viewership. The What of Your Promotional Strategy The what involves determining the message you should communicate to your target market. Your promotional strategy is intended to take people who may have varying degrees of interest in your type of goods and services and get them to become your customers. You will need to know who they are, who they are currently buying from, why they are buying the goods and services, and to what extent they are still customers in search of a business. Your promotional strategy is intended to get the people in your target market to modify their behavior. The message you send to the people in your target market must be tailored to their mental frameworks. Your message must also provide the incentive for them to do business with you. Your promotional strategy should be based on: (1) Who do you want to influence? (2) What do you have to offer them that is better than the competition? and (3) What do I need to communicate to them to get them to become my customers? Your promotional strategy should emphasize your competitive advantage(s). Successful promotional strategies are based on the concept, If everyone is offering a steak, then you must sell your sizzle! You must know what your target market values. Your strategy should highlight your businesss unique selling points/propositions. The When of Your Promotional Strategy There are four major intervals for promoting your business. The first is preening promotion. It is very important for a new business to generate customer interest before your business opens its doors. You want your target market to be anxious for your business to open. Some businesses do teaser advertising. A teaser ad may be, the countdown has begun; there are only 60 days until Company of Miami opens. This business may do teaser advertising by erecting a sign where the business will be located. Your business will also need to provide ongoing promotions. Your existing customers will need to be kept informed about developments in your business. You will also need to let potential customers learn about your business and its sizzle. Most new businesses tend to have a token grand opening promotion and do little after that. You need to develop an ongoing promotional program that will keep your business in your target markets minds. If the world doesnt know about your mousetraps advantages and the market doesnt know where your door is, then you will not sell a single mousetrap. The Where of Your Promotional Strategy Your promotional strategy will only be effective if its message gets to your target audience at the appropriate time. The where of promotional strategy involves the media you use to communicate with your target market. There are numerous avenues or media available for promoting your business. The key is to know which media will produce the best results. The media to be used will depend on to whom you want to direct your message, the nature of the message, and when it needs to be presented. Each type of media has advantages and disadvantages. Television offers color, movement, sound, and broad geographic coverage. Radio offers a means to get to a large number of people at various times of the day and night. Newspapers offer daily coverage to a large percentage of an areas households. Direct mail permits you to send your message to a specific group of people. Billboards take advantage of a captive audience while people are in their automobiles. There is no one best medium for all businesses. There is no one best medium for every type of message. When asked which medium is the best, the answer can only be, The one that does the best job of attracting customers per dollar cost. Your promotion budget also influences media selection. You want to get the best return per dollar invested in promotion. One medium may cost less than another, but you need to determine which one will do the most effective job of getting your message to your target market. businesses frequently evaluate media in terms of the cost of reaching each 1000 potential customers. The How Much to Spend Part of Your Promotional Strategy The question of how much money to spend on promoting your business is very difficult to answer. Some businesses spend a certain percentage of projected sales on promotion-related activities. If, for example, you are trying to generate sales of $ 100,000 for the first year, then you may want to review trade data on your type of business to learn what percentage of sales you should spend on advertising. Bank of America reports that the average ad expenses for apparel stores is 2 to 3 percent of sales; for bookstores, 1.5 to 2.5 percent of sales; and for gift stores, 1.5 to 2.5 percent of sales. These figures reflect annual budgets for existing businesses. Your first years promotional budget will need to be a larger percentage of sales because your business will be unknown and you will be trying to divert customers from other businesses. The percentage-of-sales method may provide a general idea of how much to spend, but spending a certain percentage of sales on promotion does not guaran tee that you will generate that level of sales. The best way to determine your promotional budget is to identify what you want to accomplish. This is known as the target approach. If you want to have 8 people come to you each week, then you need to determine what type and amount of promotion you will need to do to achieve that goal. You may find it will take 3 primetime radio spots per day on two different radio stations; a two column, 3inch ad in the local newspaper on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; 2 billboards located on two major thoroughfares; and 1000 direct mail promotions per month to achieve your goal. The target approach recognizes that you must reach a critical mass before your promotions will have an effect on the market. The percentage-of-sales approach indicates what businesses spent. The target approach determines what you think it will take to achieve your sales goal. The target approach is particularly appropriate for a new venture. There are two other approaches businesses may use to determine their promotional budgets. Some businesses simply try to match their competition. They monitor the number of radio spots aired and the amount of ad space in the newspaper. The businesses then match their major competitors promotional program. This approach has two flaws. First, it assumes that your competitors are doing the right type and amount of advertising. Second, if you dont do a better job of promoting your business than your competition, why should your target market do business with you? The other approach to developing a promotional budget is based on how much you can afford to spend. This may be the least effective approach. It assumes that you have allocated money to all of the other aspects of your business. Any money that is left is what you can spend on promoting your business. You must recognize that you need to do promotions to generate sales. If you hope to have enough sales to leave you with enough money to do promotions, then you have things backwards. It is interesting to note that most people are reluctant to spend much money promoting their business. This reluctance is quite natural. Money spent on promotions offers no assurance that it will bring in enough customers to justify the expense. One of the sayings about advertising is, Only one-half of advertising works. The problem is that you dont know in advance which half it will be! However, promotions should be viewed as an investment that is necessary to generate the level of sales needed to produce your targeted level of profit. The Promotional Mix Most of the discussion of promotional strategy has been focused on advertising. Promotion also includes the name you choose for your business, its sign, personal selling techniques, point-of-purchase displays, special sales promotions, public relations, and publicity. Publicity may be particularly important for a new business. Publicity is defined as media coverage for which you dont pay. Many radio stations, newspapers, and television stations do features on new businesses when they open. If your business is the first of its kind in your area or if it has some special sizzle, you may be able to get the media to do a special feature on it. You should make every effort to get in touch with the media before your business opens. Publicity can be equivalent to thousands of dollars of free advertising. Publicity is also valuable because potential customers tend to pay more attention to features than to advertisements.

Essay --

Phoenix Jackson’s Journey The character of Phoenix is the protagonist in the â€Å"A Worn Path,† written by Eudora Welty. She is proud, loving, and determined. You see Phoenix Jackson on her long and difficult journey to get medicine for her sick grandson. The story is told from the third-person point of view. Though she was faced with many obstacles on her journey to the city, through the devotion and love she had for her grandson we see what type of person she really is. Phoenix Jackson survives the great depression, which tells us that she is an older woman who is very wise, and maybe a little scattered. In the beginning of the story, Phoenix is on a journey, she walks slowly in the dark pine shadows through the pinewoods. The author introduces Phoenix, as an old black woman and the author writes, â€Å"Far out in the country there was an old Negro woman with her head tied in a red rag, coming along the path through the pinewoods† (183). The reason why she is taking such a long trip into town is because her grandson is very sick, and she needs to get medication for his throat. Despite P... Essay -- Phoenix Jackson’s Journey The character of Phoenix is the protagonist in the â€Å"A Worn Path,† written by Eudora Welty. She is proud, loving, and determined. You see Phoenix Jackson on her long and difficult journey to get medicine for her sick grandson. The story is told from the third-person point of view. Though she was faced with many obstacles on her journey to the city, through the devotion and love she had for her grandson we see what type of person she really is. Phoenix Jackson survives the great depression, which tells us that she is an older woman who is very wise, and maybe a little scattered. In the beginning of the story, Phoenix is on a journey, she walks slowly in the dark pine shadows through the pinewoods. The author introduces Phoenix, as an old black woman and the author writes, â€Å"Far out in the country there was an old Negro woman with her head tied in a red rag, coming along the path through the pinewoods† (183). The reason why she is taking such a long trip into town is because her grandson is very sick, and she needs to get medication for his throat. Despite P...

Tort Law

In any given situation, it is evidently clear that the company should remain responsible and legally liable to their people or employe and among the consumers that patronize their product. Thus, should there be any accident and/or damages that badly harm these people in the course of exercising their duties, as employees and workers, the company could be held liable and sue to settle their legal obligations in shouldering the damages and lost of these people.As for the case of The Bug Plant located in Shady Town, USA, the employees and the vendor that have been attacked and robbed in the parking lot of the company could possibly file a law suit against the The Bug Plant under the legal offense of Negligence, as written in the Tort Law.Given the fact that the incidents of robbery against these people have happened within the premises of the company's grounds, wherein these people are working as the company's workers, both of the employees and the vendor could sue the company under the Tort Law, as it is evident that The Bug Plant has failed to ensure the safety and security of these people while staying and performing their duties and responsibilities for the company.More so, with the prior information that the Shady Town has been plagued with a recent crime wave, the case of Negligence could be filed against The Bug Plant, as the company failed to do the necessary adjustment to strengthen their company security and ensure the welfare of their people.Thus, The Bug Plant could be sued under the Tort Law, as they failed to exercise and meet the required standard of care in doing business. Lastly, The Bug Plant could use the notion that the incidents of robbery in the parking lot against the second shift employees have happened after their shift and/or beyond their official work hours, as the BUG's potential defense.On the other hand, The BUG Plant could also use the fact, as their defense, that the vendor who has been robbed, while waiting for the dock manager, is not their legal employee and that they do not have direct employment connection with this person and they should not be held liable for any damages. References Definition of Tort. (n. d. ). Retrieved June 12, 2009, from http://www. personal-injury-info. net/definition-of-tort. htm Product Liability. (n. d. ). Retrieved June 12, 2009, from http://www. personal-injury-info. net/product-liability. htm

Definition and Examples of Logical Fallacies

A Fallacy is an error in reasoning that renders an argument invalid: A fallacious argument is a defective argument, says Michael F. Goodman, and  a fallacy is  the defect in the argument itself. . . . Any argument committing one of the informal fallacies is an argument in which the conclusion does not follow conclusively from the premise(s) (First Logic, 1993). Observations on Fallacy In logic and the generalized study of reasoning, there are generally understood to be such things as good reasoning and bad reasoning. Typically, bad reasoning is characterized by falling into one or more of the classically compiled logical fallacies. A logical fallacy is simply a failure of logic. Arguments that are said to be fallacious have gaping holes or misleading leaps in their structure and reasoning.(J. Meany and K. Shuster, Art, Argument, and Advocacy. IDEA, 2002)An informal fallacy is an attempt at making a logical argument where there’s a failure in the reasoning itself. This can stem from a number of causes, such as the misapplication of words and phrases, or misunderstandings based on inappropriate assumptions. Illogical sequences in an argument can also cause informal fallacies. While informal fallacies can result in inaccurate arguments and false conclusions, that doesn’t mean they can’t be very persuasive.(Russ Alan Prince, How To Bolster Your Ne gotiations With Informal  Fallacies. Forbes, June 7, 2015) Deceptions A fallacy is so conceived that if an argument exhibits a fallacy, it is probably a bad one, but if the argument exhibits no such violation, it is a good one.Fallacies are mistakes in reasoning that do not seem to be mistakes. Indeed, part of the etymology of the word fallacy comes from the notion of deception. Fallacious arguments usually have the deceptive appearance of being good arguments. That perhaps explains why we are so often misled by them.(T. Edward Damer, Attacking Faulty Reasoning, 2001) Violations [O]ne clear sense of fallacy that we will encounter will involve a shift away from the correct direction in which an argumentative dialogue is progressing. By various means, an arguer may impede the other party from making her point or may attempt to draw the discussion off track. In fact, one popular modern approach to understanding fallacious reasoning is to see it as involving violations of rules that should govern disputes so as to ensure that they are well conducted and resolved. This approach, put forward by [Frans] van Eemeren and [Rob] Grootendorst in several works, goes by the name of pragma-dialectics. Not only is each of the traditional fallacies understood as a violation of a discussion rule, but new fallacies emerge to correspond to other violations once we focus on this way of conducting arguments.(Christopher W. Tindale, Fallacies and Argument Appraisal. Cambridge University Press, 2007) Pronunciation: FAL-eh-see Also Known As: logical fallacy, informal fallacy Etymology:From the Latin, deceive Etymology:From the Latin, deceive