Promoting Sales

First stage marketing strategies should focus on sales promotions that will attract immediate customers and selling methods that will ensure repeat business. First stage companies can also benefit from sales and promotion activities, but with a focus on short term rather than long term benefits. Ideas include:

1. Invite a local newspaper to write an article on some unique aspect of the company.
2. Invite television reporters to cover a special event sponsored by the company (fund raising drive, a banquet honoring an employee, or the introduction of snappy new product).
3. Start a charity book collection drive at local schools.
4. Sponsor a young people’s athletic team.
5. Sponsor a civic band or float in a local parade.
6. Donate materials, space, or services to community theater groups.
7. Sponsor a paper, glass, aluminum, or plastic recycling drive.
8. Get behind a social cause.
9. Donate used computers, office equipment, etc., to local schools, hospitals, or welfare agencies.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Constitution of Service Sector

Service sector comprises following services:

Lodging Services

Hotels, rooming houses, and other lodging places

Sporting and recreation camps

Trailering parks and camp sites for transients

Personal Services

Laundries

Childcare

Linen supply

Shoe repair

Diaper service

Funeral homes

Carpet cleaning

Tax preparation

Photographic studios

Beauty shops

Health clubs

Business Services

Accounting

Exterminating

Agencies

Employment agencies

Collection agencies

Computer programming

Commercial photography

R&D labs

Commercial art

Secretarial services

Management services

Window cleaning

Public relations

Consulting

Detective agencies

Equipment rental

Interior design

Automotive Repair Services and Garages

Auto rental

Tire retreading

Truck rental

Exhaust system shops

Parking lots

Car washes

Paint shops

Transmission repair

Motion Picture Industry

Production

Theaters

Distribution

Drive-ins

Amusement and Recreation Services

Dance halls

Race tracks

Orchestras

Golf courses

Pool halls

Amusement parks

Carnivals

Fairs

Ice-skating rinks

Botanical gardens

Circuses

Swimming pools

Health Services

Physicians

Nursery care

Dentists

Medical labs

Chiropractors

Dental labs

Legal Services

Educational Services

Libraries

Correspondence schools

Schools

Data processing schools

Social Services

Child care

Family services

Job training

Non-commercial Museums, Art Galleries, and Botanical & Zoological Gardens

Selected Membership Organizations

Business associations

Civic associations

Financial Services

Banking

Investment firms

Insurance

Real estate agencies

Miscellaneous Repair Services

Radio and television

Welding

Watch

Sharpening

Reuphoistery

Septic tank cleaning

Architectural

Surveying

Engineering

Utilities

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Public Relations (PR)

Public Relations is the management function that evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an individual or an organization with the public interest, and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance. In other words a good public relations program has three steps:

1. Listen to the public: Public relations starts with good marketing research (evaluates public attitudes).
2. Develops policies and procedures that are in the public interest: One does not earn understanding by bombarding the public with propaganda; one earns understanding by having programs and practices in the public interest.
3. Inform people of the fact that you are being responsive to their needs: It is not enough to simply have programs that are in the public interest. You have to tell the public about those programs so that they know you are being responsive.

Publicity is one of the major functions of the public relations department. Publicity is any information about an individual, a product, or an organization that is distributed to the public through the media and that is not paid for, or controlled by, the sponsor.

Other activities include:

• Establishing contact with civic groups, consumer organizations, and other concerned citizens to learn their views of the organization, to answer their questions, and to provide information (or education).
• Opening lines of communication with customers, suppliers, distributors, retailers, stockholders, government agencies, educators, and community leaders.
• Conducting studies to find the economic, environmental, and social consequences of organizational practices and to learn how to make a more positive contribution to customers, stakeholders, and society.
• Providing any assistance needed to adjust the goals, policies, practices, personnel policies, products, and programs of the organization to meet the needs of changing markets.
• Assisting all members of the firm in developing effective programs of consumer information and education.
• Sending speakers to schools, clubs, and other such groups to maintain an open dialogue with students and other socially active members of society.
• Creating incentives for employees to participate in public-affairs activities such as raising funds for charitable groups.
• Answering consumer and other complaints promptly and correcting whatever it was that caused the complint.
• Training employees or volunteers to provide prompt, friendly, courteous, and helpful service to anyone who contacts the organization in person, by phone, or written correspondence.
• Demonstrating to society the organization is listening, reacting, adjusting, and progressing in its attempt to satisfy its diverse publics.
• Opening two-way communications with employees to generate favorable employee opinion and to motivate employees to speak well of the organization to others.

This is an incomplete description of all the activities and responsibilities of the PR people, but it at least gives some feeling for what they do.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.