Deck 10: Small Business Promotion: Capturing the Eyes of Your Market

Question 1

Focus on Small Business: Addie Swartz and Accessories for Girls Who Are "between Toys and Boys " 1
As Addie Swartz's two daughters approached the pivotal "tween" years, she-like many mothers-struggled to find something to help her girls bridge the gap between Barbie and Britney. Frustration stoked her entrepreneurial spirit, and the Beacon Street Girls, a new lifestyle brand for girls ages 9 to 13, was born.
NO DOLLS OR ICONS
The Beacon Street Girls invites tweens into a rich and exciting contemporary world in which values matter, friendships are everything, and community service is important.
In promoting the brand, Swartz comments that all of Beacon Street Girls's marketing initiatives need to understand and speak to two audiences: tween girls and their parents/older gift-buying relatives. Their goals are to:
• Build awareness among stakeholders.
• Create interest and desire in tweens to engage with the brand and share with their peers.
• Drive customers into the stores to seek and purchase Beacon Street Girls products.
• Encourage tweens and their parents to come to the website.
Marketing programs are aimed to promote retailer presence, push to the web, and leverage the tween consumer to promote the brand via web-based viral marketing programs. In describing her market further, Swartz divides the market into two segments, the primary and secondary. The primary market consists of girls ages 9-13 years, with the "sweet spot" being the older 11- to 12-year-old tween. These girls are entering middle school, a time of new friendships, body changes, and growing-up experiences. They are media-savvy, looking for fun and possibilities, admiring of teenagers, but still want to be kids. They are in the early stages of navigating the often rocky waters of adolescence and desperately want to fit in. The secondary market consists of their mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, and grandmothers who seek positive role models and messages for their daughters/relatives.
What ways can Beacon Street Girls market to the tween girls

Answer 1

Tween girls are the girls in the age group of 9 to 12 years. These girls are on the verge of adolescence stage. They are open to friendships, love to roam, and media-savvy and on the other side they still like to be treated as kids. This is the age when they like to be made feel special. These girls rely on their parents and guardians for decision-making process of their lives.
Convincing tweens is easy and approachable. The following ways can be adopted by BS Girls to market its products to tweens:
• Guerilla marketing wherein compact brochures can be provided with an attractive heading like 'tweens exclusive store'.
• A webpage highlighting some points on the tweens behavioral problems and promising solution can be displayed on various social media platforms.
• TV and social media advertising can be fruitful as tweens are more of media-savvy, cool and stylish products with attractive colors can be displayed on the website to attract them.
• Word-of-mouth is very common and productive strategy for this age group. Girls have the habit of passing information in a quick manner. Since, this age convinces girls to keep friends as priority; word-of-mouth will be an effective approach.
Above-mentioned strategies can be used to market B S Girls products. The concept is unique and fascinating. To aware parents about the tweens' need would also be very productive. Tweens prepare themselves to get fit in the adolescence and hence they would love the concept of having the store exclusively for their needs.

Question 2

BUSINESS DEMISE
When you look at a page of a textbook chapter, you see a carefully organized grouping of body matter text lines, text boxes, photos with captions, and figures. For more than 200 years, the process of arranging material to be printed (called typesetting) was the same, with hundreds of small mom-and-pop businesses doing this type of work under contract for major publishers. Often, the shops were near the publisher's major installations, and the business relationships were based on personal contacts between publishers and typesetters. By the 1980s, Asian companies (primarily in India and China) came into the business, seeking work from the large American and British publishers.
Donald Sontag was a 32-year-old New Yorker who had been in the business and had the idea to buy a large number of the small mom-and-pop typesetting shops (called a rollup ). He started by buying the 100-employee Carter Typesetting Company, an Iowa typesetter and one of the larger such companies, as a basis for the rollup. He had roughly 70 people employed in small shops in the Northeast. He also bought a 30-person Manila, Philippines typesetter to take advantage of the lower costs of Asian typesetting shops. His vision was on target. Carter soared to $10,000,000 in annual sales and profits of $1,000,000. His own bank account grew to over $2,000,000.
In the world economy of the 1990s, outsourcing from the United States to Asia was a growing phenomenon, and one from which Donald thought he was positioned to benefit. But even as he was taking the lead in this, and promoting this approach to his customers as a competitive advantage, his customers were themselves looking for Asian typesetters to forge direct business relations.
Ironically, the growth of the Internet made outsourcing easier for the large publishers. Originally, the graphic transfer machine needed for remote typesetting cost $45,000 and the slow data line cost $10,000 a year at least. Since typesetting was an industry composed of many small shops, it was uneconomical to try and equip all of them with the equipment. However, with the advent of digital typesetting programs and the growth of personal computers and the Internet, the graphic equipment dropped to a cost of $200, while a fast data line cost $1800 a year. Suddenly it was cost-effective for the major publishers and all typesetters to have the equipment and fast Internet hookups that made worldwide outsourcing feasible.
While the American typesetters like Carter originally had an edge on quality, the Asian shops were faster at adopting the new lower-cost technologies, which decreased their costs. As the Asian typesetters got more opportunities for business from the major publishers, they quickly improved their quality to keep these lucrative customers. Soon the American typesetting industry was losing market share to their Asian competitors.
At Carter, the employees were resisting the new technologies and were very protective of their good pay and perks. The workers (mostly women who were second breadwinners in their families) were more interested in protecting a lifestyle they valued than in meeting the economic and technological challenges of a newly competitive industry. In addition, they had trouble letting work go overseas, keeping it in Carter even when it made financial sense to send it overseas. The company's profitability was dropping quickly. Donald's partner Dan believed in "benevolent capitalism" (an idea about treating employees in as fair and considerate a way possible pioneered at IBM in the 1950s and 1960s) and was reluctant to press the employees for faster changes or cost-cutting activities.
Donald could see business moving overseas at an even faster rate. He could see the quality of the Asian typesetting improving dramatically and quickly. He saw the costs of the technology for outsourcing (and managing outsourced projects) improve in completeness and drop in cost at the same time. The all important question was, what should he do about this and what could he get the Carter Company to do
What strategy would you recommend Donald take to solve this business problem Why

Answer 2

For international competition (from Indian and Chinese typesetters) - Donald already started going overseas. It makes sense to do this even faster to try and benefit from his greater knowledge of handling the Asian typesetters. He shouldn't try to beat them on price using his locations.
For elimination of the middleman (because of his customers going directly to Asian typesetters) - If he can do a better job of negotiating or managing than his clients can when they deal direct, he could still show his value as a middleman. He can also look for firms who do a poorer job of managing their direct contacts and target them for increased sales, with the middleman activities offsetting their own weaknesses in managing the outsourcing.
For slow adoption of innovation (because his US employees were not as willing to quickly adopt the latest technologies) or self-interest (the US employees were protecting their perks, even as they were ruining the business' competitiveness and eventual survival) - He could try and explain the problem to his staff and show how short-term self-interest will ultimately hurt the firm and their jobs. He could create new incentives tied to adopting innovation. He could try attaching innovation outcomes to existing perks (although folks might protest this). He could bring in a customer who is electing to outsource through others so the staff could see what they're up against. He could create an early retirement program, or fire the staff and hire more adaptable people or outsource everything himself.

Question 3

In your opinion, what do you think is the most effective and efficient way or method for small business owners to promote and market their products/services Why

Answer 3

Selection of ways of promoting products and services depends upon the business owners. They analyze different things, market trends and budget before choosing any promotional way. They try to invest their advertisement money in a proper channel so that the result can be in their favor. Each step in entrepreneurial process consists of some amount of risk, the entrepreneurs choose the way as per their risk-bearing capacity.
The most effective and efficient way for small businesses to promote and market their products or services is social media platform. Small businesses do have limited budgets for the advertisement and promotional process. They wish to reach to a large target market at a low expense. Social media platforms fulfill all their wishes. It has the concept of both free marketing and paid marketing. Though paid marketing is given priority in listing out the names, it can't suppress those who are promoting their channels through free approaches.
There are various advantages of using social media marketing. They are as follows:
• If the promotion starts at a proper time, the people become known of the business before it comes into existence. The grand networking of social media makes it possible to reach a variety of customers in a short time.
• If the products and services are qualitatively relevant and good, search engines keep the business website or information at the top in the list.
• It provides a column of reviews also, which gives the entrepreneurs the real view of their businesses from an outsider's point of view. If any glitches are observed, the owners can improve their offerings.
• The search engines use analytical tools to target the right audience which results in high conversion rates.
• These platforms are successful in creating a brand name of the business in the market. Since, the people get to identify the business (if quality of the product is good) this helps in creating a separate identity of the business in the market.
• Most importantly, this sort of promotion is very cost-effective. This is the unique platform from where the information can be circulated throughout the world that too without costing too much.
All the ways of promotion have some pros and cons. Many business owners are still doing the business offline without providing any facility of the online transactions. If real expansion is to be done, the entrepreneurs have to walk with the pace at which the society is walking. Innovation and creativity are two essential tools which are to be used in a business from time to time.

Question 4

BUSINESS DEMISE
When you look at a page of a textbook chapter, you see a carefully organized grouping of body matter text lines, text boxes, photos with captions, and figures. For more than 200 years, the process of arranging material to be printed (called typesetting) was the same, with hundreds of small mom-and-pop businesses doing this type of work under contract for major publishers. Often, the shops were near the publisher's major installations, and the business relationships were based on personal contacts between publishers and typesetters. By the 1980s, Asian companies (primarily in India and China) came into the business, seeking work from the large American and British publishers.
Donald Sontag was a 32-year-old New Yorker who had been in the business and had the idea to buy a large number of the small mom-and-pop typesetting shops (called a rollup ). He started by buying the 100-employee Carter Typesetting Company, an Iowa typesetter and one of the larger such companies, as a basis for the rollup. He had roughly 70 people employed in small shops in the Northeast. He also bought a 30-person Manila, Philippines typesetter to take advantage of the lower costs of Asian typesetting shops. His vision was on target. Carter soared to $10,000,000 in annual sales and profits of $1,000,000. His own bank account grew to over $2,000,000.
In the world economy of the 1990s, outsourcing from the United States to Asia was a growing phenomenon, and one from which Donald thought he was positioned to benefit. But even as he was taking the lead in this, and promoting this approach to his customers as a competitive advantage, his customers were themselves looking for Asian typesetters to forge direct business relations.
Ironically, the growth of the Internet made outsourcing easier for the large publishers. Originally, the graphic transfer machine needed for remote typesetting cost $45,000 and the slow data line cost $10,000 a year at least. Since typesetting was an industry composed of many small shops, it was uneconomical to try and equip all of them with the equipment. However, with the advent of digital typesetting programs and the growth of personal computers and the Internet, the graphic equipment dropped to a cost of $200, while a fast data line cost $1800 a year. Suddenly it was cost-effective for the major publishers and all typesetters to have the equipment and fast Internet hookups that made worldwide outsourcing feasible.
While the American typesetters like Carter originally had an edge on quality, the Asian shops were faster at adopting the new lower-cost technologies, which decreased their costs. As the Asian typesetters got more opportunities for business from the major publishers, they quickly improved their quality to keep these lucrative customers. Soon the American typesetting industry was losing market share to their Asian competitors.
At Carter, the employees were resisting the new technologies and were very protective of their good pay and perks. The workers (mostly women who were second breadwinners in their families) were more interested in protecting a lifestyle they valued than in meeting the economic and technological challenges of a newly competitive industry. In addition, they had trouble letting work go overseas, keeping it in Carter even when it made financial sense to send it overseas. The company's profitability was dropping quickly. Donald's partner Dan believed in "benevolent capitalism" (an idea about treating employees in as fair and considerate a way possible pioneered at IBM in the 1950s and 1960s) and was reluctant to press the employees for faster changes or cost-cutting activities.
Donald could see business moving overseas at an even faster rate. He could see the quality of the Asian typesetting improving dramatically and quickly. He saw the costs of the technology for outsourcing (and managing outsourced projects) improve in completeness and drop in cost at the same time. The all important question was, what should he do about this and what could he get the Carter Company to do
How can Donald entice his customers at the big textbook publishers to use Carter instead of cutting their own deals with Asian typesetters

Question 5

Compare the promotional materials from two competitive (small) businesses. What are the goals and objectives of the promotions How well do you think they fulfill these objectives

Question 6

GOING VIRAL MAKES FOR A HEALTHIER FIRM 70
Dr. Bob Wagstaff (a biochemist and nutritionist) developed the Orabrush to scrape bad breath-causing particles off the tongue. He got the Orabrush patented and approved by the FDA. He got it manufactured and worked hard to get it onto the shelves of drugstores and supermarkets. He had some success with smaller chains, but sales were below his expectations. He tried making an infomercial, which cost him around $40,000, but it produced only a few hundred more Orabrush sales. Thinking bigger marketing clout would make the product into a success, he tried marketing the patent to oral hygiene companies, but no one took him up on his offer.
He went to a marketing class at Brigham Young University and received advice from students in the class. He hoped that the young people could tell him how to sell more Orabrushes over the Internet. A survey a class team conducted showed 92 percent of the respondents wouldn't buy an Orabrush online, and the students on the team concluded that the Internet approach was not workable. However, another student in the class, Jeffrey Harmon, had a different interpretation. Jeffrey suggested that with millions of people watching videos on the Internet every day, getting 8 percent of that group to buy an Orabrush would still be an enormous market. After class "Dr. Bob" asked Jeffrey to help him market Orabrush on the web, giving Jeffrey his old motorcycle as payment. Jeffrey recruited a co-worker named Austin Craig to be the video's pitchman for $100. He got scriptwriter friend Joel Ackerman to write the script and film major Devin Graham to film the video. Total cost About $500. It was actually recorded in the back room of a pool hall-so that really is a clinking sound in the background of the video. The video went viral on YouTube, racking up millions of views and igniting sales of the Orabrush, with close to 1 million brushes sold over the next two years.
Note: Videos related to the case include Story of Orabrush, www.youtube.com/watch v=p4tuTi8_z6Q; original YouTube video: www.youtube.com/watch v=nFeb6YBftHE feature=list related playnext=1 list=SPB73276F91DD26C78.
Dr. Bob had tried traditional media and pursuing traditional outlets for the Orabrush. Why do you think his sales were not up to his expectations

Question 7

Focus on Small Business: Addie Swartz and Accessories for Girls Who Are "between Toys and Boys " 1
As Addie Swartz's two daughters approached the pivotal "tween" years, she-like many mothers-struggled to find something to help her girls bridge the gap between Barbie and Britney. Frustration stoked her entrepreneurial spirit, and the Beacon Street Girls, a new lifestyle brand for girls ages 9 to 13, was born.
NO DOLLS OR ICONS
The Beacon Street Girls invites tweens into a rich and exciting contemporary world in which values matter, friendships are everything, and community service is important.
In promoting the brand, Swartz comments that all of Beacon Street Girls's marketing initiatives need to understand and speak to two audiences: tween girls and their parents/older gift-buying relatives. Their goals are to:
• Build awareness among stakeholders.
• Create interest and desire in tweens to engage with the brand and share with their peers.
• Drive customers into the stores to seek and purchase Beacon Street Girls products.
• Encourage tweens and their parents to come to the website.
Marketing programs are aimed to promote retailer presence, push to the web, and leverage the tween consumer to promote the brand via web-based viral marketing programs. In describing her market further, Swartz divides the market into two segments, the primary and secondary. The primary market consists of girls ages 9-13 years, with the "sweet spot" being the older 11- to 12-year-old tween. These girls are entering middle school, a time of new friendships, body changes, and growing-up experiences. They are media-savvy, looking for fun and possibilities, admiring of teenagers, but still want to be kids. They are in the early stages of navigating the often rocky waters of adolescence and desperately want to fit in. The secondary market consists of their mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, and grandmothers who seek positive role models and messages for their daughters/relatives.
How can it also reach the parents of the tweens In what ways is the marketing message different or the same

Question 8

How have you seen the use of referrals and word of mouth advertising work to the benefit of a small business owner Provide examples. How have these methods worked in reverse (to the disadvantage of the owner but possibly benefit the competition )

Question 9

Visit three independently owned small retail establishments in the same industry or business. What target market(s) does each appeal to How are they different If you were a member of their target market, why should you shop there Using some of the resources in our secondary research area, what new information from your research about the industry that the small business owners can use to improve and enhance what they are currently offering Or how they are promoting their business based on the latest trends within the industry

Question 10

GOING VIRAL MAKES FOR A HEALTHIER FIRM 70
Dr. Bob Wagstaff (a biochemist and nutritionist) developed the Orabrush to scrape bad breath-causing particles off the tongue. He got the Orabrush patented and approved by the FDA. He got it manufactured and worked hard to get it onto the shelves of drugstores and supermarkets. He had some success with smaller chains, but sales were below his expectations. He tried making an infomercial, which cost him around $40,000, but it produced only a few hundred more Orabrush sales. Thinking bigger marketing clout would make the product into a success, he tried marketing the patent to oral hygiene companies, but no one took him up on his offer.
He went to a marketing class at Brigham Young University and received advice from students in the class. He hoped that the young people could tell him how to sell more Orabrushes over the Internet. A survey a class team conducted showed 92 percent of the respondents wouldn't buy an Orabrush online, and the students on the team concluded that the Internet approach was not workable. However, another student in the class, Jeffrey Harmon, had a different interpretation. Jeffrey suggested that with millions of people watching videos on the Internet every day, getting 8 percent of that group to buy an Orabrush would still be an enormous market. After class "Dr. Bob" asked Jeffrey to help him market Orabrush on the web, giving Jeffrey his old motorcycle as payment. Jeffrey recruited a co-worker named Austin Craig to be the video's pitchman for $100. He got scriptwriter friend Joel Ackerman to write the script and film major Devin Graham to film the video. Total cost About $500. It was actually recorded in the back room of a pool hall-so that really is a clinking sound in the background of the video. The video went viral on YouTube, racking up millions of views and igniting sales of the Orabrush, with close to 1 million brushes sold over the next two years.
Note: Videos related to the case include Story of Orabrush, www.youtube.com/watch v=p4tuTi8_z6Q; original YouTube video: www.youtube.com/watch v=nFeb6YBftHE feature=list related playnext=1 list=SPB73276F91DD26C78.
Explain how having 8 percent of the potential market to draw from could still be a worthwhile strategy for a small business.

Question 11

Focus on Small Business: Addie Swartz and Accessories for Girls Who Are "between Toys and Boys"
As Addie Swartz's two daughters approached the pivotal "tween" years, she-like many mothers-struggled to find something to help her girls bridge the gap between Barbie and Britney. Frustration stoked her entrepreneurial spirit, and the Beacon Street Girls, a new lifestyle brand for girls ages 9 to 13, was born.
NO DOLLS OR ICONS
The Beacon Street Girls invites tweens into a rich and exciting contemporary world in which values matter, friendships are everything, and community service is important.
In promoting the brand, Swartz comments that all of Beacon Street Girls's marketing initiatives need to understand and speak to two audiences: tween girls and their parents/older gift-buying relatives. Their goals are to:
• Build awareness among stakeholders.
• Create interest and desire in tweens to engage with the brand and share with their peers.
• Drive customers into the stores to seek and purchase Beacon Street Girls products.
• Encourage tweens and their parents to come to the website.
Marketing programs are aimed to promote retailer presence, push to the web, and leverage the tween consumer to promote the brand via web-based viral marketing programs. In describing her market further, Swartz divides the market into two segments, the primary and secondary. The primary market consists of girls ages 9-13 years, with the "sweet spot" being the older 11- to 12-year-old tween. These girls are entering middle school, a time of new friendships, body changes, and growing-up experiences. They are media-savvy, looking for fun and possibilities, admiring of teenagers, but still want to be kids. They are in the early stages of navigating the often rocky waters of adolescence and desperately want to fit in. The secondary market consists of their mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, and grandmothers who seek positive role models and messages for their daughters/relatives.
How can Addie Swartz continually develop and promote the brand that has meaningful, value-driven tween girl properties that are also relevant, cool, and realistic

Question 12

Recall the last time you purchased a product or service from a small firm. Did they use any of the techniques or skills involved in personal selling How did they close the sale with you

Question 13

GOING VIRAL MAKES FOR A HEALTHIER FIRM 52
Dr. Bob Wagstaff (a biochemist and nutritionist) developed the Orabrush to scrape bad breath-causing particles off of our tongue. He got the Orabrush patented and approved by the FDA. He got it manufactured and worked hard to get it onto the shelves of drugstores and supermarkets. He had some success with smaller chains, but sales were below his expectations. He tried making an infomercial, which cost him around $40,000, but it produced only a few hundred more Orabrush sales. Thinking bigger marketing clout would make the product into a success, he tried marketing the patent to oral hygiene companies, but no one took him up on his offer.
He went to a marketing class at Brigham Young University and received advice from students in the class. He hoped that the young people could tell him how to sell more Orabrushes over the Internet. A survey a class team conducted showed 92 percent of the respondents wouldn't buy an Orabrush online, and the students on the team concluded that the Internet approach was not workable. However, another student in the class, Jeffrey Harmon, had a different interpretation. Jeffrey suggested that with millions of people watching videos on the Internet every day, getting 8 percent of that group to buy an Orabrush would still be an enormous market. After class "Dr. Bob" asked Jeffrey to help him market Orabrush on the web, giving Jeffrey his old motorcycle as payment. Jeffrey recruited a coworker named Austin Craig to be the video's pitchman for $100. He got scriptwriter friend Joel Ackerman to write the script and film major Devin Graham to film the video. Total cost About $500. It was actually recorded in the back room of a pool hall-so that really is a clinking sound in the background of the video. The video went viral on YouTube, racking up millions of views and igniting sales of the Orabrush, with close to 1 million brushes sold over the next 2 years.
Note: Videos related to the case:
Story of Orabrush: www.youtube.com/watch v=p4tuTi8_z6Q feature=relmfu Original YouTube Video: www.youtube.com/watch v=nFeb6YBftHE feature=list_related playnext=1 list=SPB73276F 91DD26C78
CASE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Why do you think a YouTube video worked better than a professionally done infomercial
2. How were Dr. Bob and Jeffrey able to get so much done for so little money How could you apply this in starting your own business
3. Dr. Bob had tried traditional media and pursuing traditional outlets for the Orabrush. Why do you think his sales were not up to his expectations
4. Explain how having 8 percent of the potential market to draw from could still be a worthwhile strategy for a small business.

Question 14

Read your local newspaper for information about a small business that you think stems from a publicity effort (e.g., new location or management, product line shift or expansion, special events or promotions….). Compare the information in the article to website information and to business advertisements. What are the differences/similarities Advantages/disadvantages (for the business and for the customer).

Question 15

GOING VIRAL MAKES FOR A HEALTHIER FIRM 70
Dr. Bob Wagstaff (a biochemist and nutritionist) developed the Orabrush to scrape bad breath-causing particles off the tongue. He got the Orabrush patented and approved by the FDA. He got it manufactured and worked hard to get it onto the shelves of drugstores and supermarkets. He had some success with smaller chains, but sales were below his expectations. He tried making an infomercial, which cost him around $40,000, but it produced only a few hundred more Orabrush sales. Thinking bigger marketing clout would make the product into a success, he tried marketing the patent to oral hygiene companies, but no one took him up on his offer.
He went to a marketing class at Brigham Young University and received advice from students in the class. He hoped that the young people could tell him how to sell more Orabrushes over the Internet. A survey a class team conducted showed 92 percent of the respondents wouldn't buy an Orabrush online, and the students on the team concluded that the Internet approach was not workable. However, another student in the class, Jeffrey Harmon, had a different interpretation. Jeffrey suggested that with millions of people watching videos on the Internet every day, getting 8 percent of that group to buy an Orabrush would still be an enormous market. After class "Dr. Bob" asked Jeffrey to help him market Orabrush on the web, giving Jeffrey his old motorcycle as payment. Jeffrey recruited a co-worker named Austin Craig to be the video's pitchman for $100. He got scriptwriter friend Joel Ackerman to write the script and film major Devin Graham to film the video. Total cost About $500. It was actually recorded in the back room of a pool hall-so that really is a clinking sound in the background of the video. The video went viral on YouTube, racking up millions of views and igniting sales of the Orabrush, with close to 1 million brushes sold over the next two years.
Note: Videos related to the case include Story of Orabrush, www.youtube.com/watch v=p4tuTi8_z6Q; original YouTube video: www.youtube.com/watch v=nFeb6YBftHE feature=list related playnext=1 list=SPB73276F91DD26C78.
Why do you think a YouTube video worked better than a professionally done infomercial

Question 16

If you were consulting with a small firm, what advice would you give to the owner on how to write a press release What specific tips would you give him or her on ways that they can generate publicity for the small business

Question 17

Focus on Small Business: Addie Swartz and Accessories for Girls Who Are "between Toys and Boys " 1
As Addie Swartz's two daughters approached the pivotal "tween" years, she-like many mothers-struggled to find something to help her girls bridge the gap between Barbie and Britney. Frustration stoked her entrepreneurial spirit, and the Beacon Street Girls, a new lifestyle brand for girls ages 9 to 13, was born.
NO DOLLS OR ICONS
The Beacon Street Girls invites tweens into a rich and exciting contemporary world in which values matter, friendships are everything, and community service is important.
In promoting the brand, Swartz comments that all of Beacon Street Girls's marketing initiatives need to understand and speak to two audiences: tween girls and their parents/older gift-buying relatives. Their goals are to:
• Build awareness among stakeholders.
• Create interest and desire in tweens to engage with the brand and share with their peers.
• Drive customers into the stores to seek and purchase Beacon Street Girls products.
• Encourage tweens and their parents to come to the website.
Marketing programs are aimed to promote retailer presence, push to the web, and leverage the tween consumer to promote the brand via web-based viral marketing programs. In describing her market further, Swartz divides the market into two segments, the primary and secondary. The primary market consists of girls ages 9-13 years, with the "sweet spot" being the older 11- to 12-year-old tween. These girls are entering middle school, a time of new friendships, body changes, and growing-up experiences. They are media-savvy, looking for fun and possibilities, admiring of teenagers, but still want to be kids. They are in the early stages of navigating the often rocky waters of adolescence and desperately want to fit in. The secondary market consists of their mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, and grandmothers who seek positive role models and messages for their daughters/relatives.
What are some ways that Beacon Street Girls can promote its brand in order to meet the company's goals

Question 18

Go to the Better Business Bureau's Dispute Resolution Web page at http://www.dr.bbb.org and look at the rules for the hotlink for "The Commonsense Alternative." Put together a chart comparing BBB's "Informal Dispute Settlement" program and their conciliation and mediation programs in terms of costs, who is the third party, what do you as the owner have to do to use the service, and what you need to do if the BBB calls you because a customer's complained about you to the BBB. (There's a fourth approach called arbitration, which is significantly more elaborate, so don't worry about that one.) Add one more row comparing what steps you would take from the start to be ready to use each of these BBB services if you needed them.

Question 19

What are some ways that you see small business owners promote their products/and or services Provide examples of your perception of their value proposition to each of the markets they are currently targeting. In your opinion, how effective do you think some of their messages are

Question 20

Imagine you sold someone a new movie DVD in a factory-sealed package, and a day later they bring it in for a refund, saying the movie does not play, and they no longer want to see it. It works fine on the DVD players in your store. You suspect they just pirated the DVD and want their money back. How would you resolve their complaint If the DVD had an obvious scratch on its playing surface, would it make any difference in how you resolve the complaint

Question 21

Collect promotional materials for a small business in your area. These can include coupons, loyalty programs, special tie-ins, special events, advertisements or any other promotional materials. Using these materials, answer the following questions:
a. What is the owner trying to achieve with these promotions What are the goals and objectives of each If you take the various promotions as a portfolio, what overall goal do they have
b. What incentives (for the customer) are embedded in the promotion materials
c. What business image and/or business characteristics do these promotions convey or imply
d. Assuming limited funds, how would you improve the promotions for this business Be sure to tie your ideas to specific goals.

Question 22

Imagine that a small independent bookstore in your neighborhood is holding a special reading and book signing by a well-known author.
a. Describe what your goal(s) might be in arranging this event.
b. Write a press release for the event.
c. What other events might support the same goal(s)
d. Describe how you might use this information in crafting a newspaper advertisement for the store.
e. Compare the press release, the ad and any other events arranged in terms of overall promotional strategy for the store.

Question 23

GOING VIRAL MAKES FOR A HEALTHIER FIRM 70
Dr. Bob Wagstaff (a biochemist and nutritionist) developed the Orabrush to scrape bad breath-causing particles off the tongue. He got the Orabrush patented and approved by the FDA. He got it manufactured and worked hard to get it onto the shelves of drugstores and supermarkets. He had some success with smaller chains, but sales were below his expectations. He tried making an infomercial, which cost him around $40,000, but it produced only a few hundred more Orabrush sales. Thinking bigger marketing clout would make the product into a success, he tried marketing the patent to oral hygiene companies, but no one took him up on his offer.
He went to a marketing class at Brigham Young University and received advice from students in the class. He hoped that the young people could tell him how to sell more Orabrushes over the Internet. A survey a class team conducted showed 92 percent of the respondents wouldn't buy an Orabrush online, and the students on the team concluded that the Internet approach was not workable. However, another student in the class, Jeffrey Harmon, had a different interpretation. Jeffrey suggested that with millions of people watching videos on the Internet every day, getting 8 percent of that group to buy an Orabrush would still be an enormous market. After class "Dr. Bob" asked Jeffrey to help him market Orabrush on the web, giving Jeffrey his old motorcycle as payment. Jeffrey recruited a co-worker named Austin Craig to be the video's pitchman for $100. He got scriptwriter friend Joel Ackerman to write the script and film major Devin Graham to film the video. Total cost About $500. It was actually recorded in the back room of a pool hall-so that really is a clinking sound in the background of the video. The video went viral on YouTube, racking up millions of views and igniting sales of the Orabrush, with close to 1 million brushes sold over the next two years.
Note: Videos related to the case include Story of Orabrush, www.youtube.com/watch v=p4tuTi8_z6Q; original YouTube video: www.youtube.com/watch v=nFeb6YBftHE feature=list related playnext=1 list=SPB73276F91DD26C78.
How were Dr. Bob and Jeffrey able to get so much done for so little money How could you appf this in starting your own business

Question 24

BUSINESS DEMISE
When you look at a page of a textbook chapter, you see a carefully organized grouping of body matter text lines, text boxes, photos with captions, and figures. For more than 200 years, the process of arranging material to be printed (called typesetting) was the same, with hundreds of small mom-and-pop businesses doing this type of work under contract for major publishers. Often, the shops were near the publisher's major installations, and the business relationships were based on personal contacts between publishers and typesetters. By the 1980s, Asian companies (primarily in India and China) came into the business, seeking work from the large American and British publishers.
Donald Sontag was a 32-year-old New Yorker who had been in the business and had the idea to buy a large number of the small mom-and-pop typesetting shops (called a rollup ). He started by buying the 100-employee Carter Typesetting Company, an Iowa typesetter and one of the larger such companies, as a basis for the rollup. He had roughly 70 people employed in small shops in the Northeast. He also bought a 30-person Manila, Philippines typesetter to take advantage of the lower costs of Asian typesetting shops. His vision was on target. Carter soared to $10,000,000 in annual sales and profits of $1,000,000. His own bank account grew to over $2,000,000.
In the world economy of the 1990s, outsourcing from the United States to Asia was a growing phenomenon, and one from which Donald thought he was positioned to benefit. But even as he was taking the lead in this, and promoting this approach to his customers as a competitive advantage, his customers were themselves looking for Asian typesetters to forge direct business relations.
Ironically, the growth of the Internet made outsourcing easier for the large publishers. Originally, the graphic transfer machine needed for remote typesetting cost $45,000 and the slow data line cost $10,000 a year at least. Since typesetting was an industry composed of many small shops, it was uneconomical to try and equip all of them with the equipment. However, with the advent of digital typesetting programs and the growth of personal computers and the Internet, the graphic equipment dropped to a cost of $200, while a fast data line cost $1800 a year. Suddenly it was cost-effective for the major publishers and all typesetters to have the equipment and fast Internet hookups that made worldwide outsourcing feasible.
While the American typesetters like Carter originally had an edge on quality, the Asian shops were faster at adopting the new lower-cost technologies, which decreased their costs. As the Asian typesetters got more opportunities for business from the major publishers, they quickly improved their quality to keep these lucrative customers. Soon the American typesetting industry was losing market share to their Asian competitors.
At Carter, the employees were resisting the new technologies and were very protective of their good pay and perks. The workers (mostly women who were second breadwinners in their families) were more interested in protecting a lifestyle they valued than in meeting the economic and technological challenges of a newly competitive industry. In addition, they had trouble letting work go overseas, keeping it in Carter even when it made financial sense to send it overseas. The company's profitability was dropping quickly. Donald's partner Dan believed in "benevolent capitalism" (an idea about treating employees in as fair and considerate a way possible pioneered at IBM in the 1950s and 1960s) and was reluctant to press the employees for faster changes or cost-cutting activities.
Donald could see business moving overseas at an even faster rate. He could see the quality of the Asian typesetting improving dramatically and quickly. He saw the costs of the technology for outsourcing (and managing outsourced projects) improve in completeness and drop in cost at the same time. The all important question was, what should he do about this and what could he get the Carter Company to do
How would you describe the problem the Carter Company is facing What is causing it