Place
Fig belongs 2 branches which are situated in Dartford and Blackheath. Both branches are located at the centre of the town, this is vital for the business as their target audience will be in the town most of the time resulting a lot of potential customers for the business. Customers will be travelling across the branch several times to get to places as it is also known as a short cut for the general public therefore it would be a great way of getting the business noticed and well known, and could imply more sales than if it was situated somewhere else. The other businesses are also quite near to the centre of town, but Fig still has a major advantage over them, as it is on a demanding main road, whereas the other restaurants are on more calm roads which interprets that it is less likely that people will walk past them. This makes it easier for Fig to attract new customers. (See Appendix 3 for a navigation of the branches Fig’s belongs on the Google Map)
Promotion
Fig is a growing business but which element of the promotional mix is most important in its success? In order to find out, I have gathered secondary and primary research making the research more reliable as most of the results are up to date which was produced by me. For my primary research I interviewed Maria Zoumides (the owner of Fig), while I was accompanied by my friends. Throughout the interview I used a questionnaire to give me guidance, which was given by my teacher (See Appendix 1 for transcript of interview). In addition to the interview, the owner agreed for me to do face- to- face surveys with their consumers outside their retail shop in Dartford (See Appendix 2 for survey and results). I questioned 20 consumers of any age and gender as long they were a consumer of Fig, in order to analyse the effects of the promotions they had, for me to interpret whether they have been successful and to mention any improvements that could be made towards the promotions they do. I have decided to use all the data I have gathered except the primary research I have contributed in class, whereby the whole contributed in a questionnaire on the most effective method of promotion for a hairdresser, because It wasn’t very reliable as the majority faked their opinion just to speed the process up and more over, the hairdresser I have chosen (Fig) doesn’t target their services and products to the audience my class were which in fact are female teenagers. So therefore this data was irrelevant with my hairdresser.
Before I select which promotions to improve and suggest, I am going to indentify the different types of promotions a local hairdressing business might use, which are listed below;
Advantage- Highly Targeted, 24-Hour Coverage
Disadvantage- Costly, One-Time shot, Declining Sales
Advantage- Can cut advertising costs, can promote multiple products
Disadvantages- Needs high responsibility, Maintenance
Advantage- Effective marketing technique, targets the right audience, it is cost effective
Disadvantage- Competition, Gestation period is long
Advantage- the audience is wider, have the flexibility in deciding the size and placement of the Ad, exposure to your ad is not limited, Free help in creating and producing ad copy,
Disadvantage- Can be expensive, high competition, poor photo reproduction limits creativity, short shelf life, newspapers are highly visible medium, faces declining readership caused by the increasing popularity of the internet
Advantage- More stable, portable, easy to produce, its touchable and has a physical presence
Disadvantage- Hard time leveraging commerce, aims for one particular target, reaches far less customers
Advantage- eye catching, Informative, handy, distributed in many ways, easy to produce, very cost effective, consumer friendly,
Disadvantage- they have space constraints, limited space, message should be well expressed
Advantage- Has a captured audience, the message is frequently seen by the audience, its an excellent adjunction to other types of advertising
Disadvantage- It’s a glance medium, the message should be brief
Advantage-Cheap, Easy to create, grabs attention, basic
Disadvantage- limited, contain little information, tend to be ignored
Advantage- a universal medium, permits to target the market, permits you to create a personality for your business, free creative help is available, rates are negotiated, least inflated medium
Disadvantage- have to advertise simultaneously, listeners cannot refer back to your ads, are an interruption to the entertainment, it’s a background medium, the line could be not clear
Advantage- the advert will gain 100% of the viewers attention, target audience can be decided which leads to broadcasting to the right people
Disadvantage- High in cost, people try to ignore adverts by doing various tasks such as buy popcorn
Advantage- Fast way of getting a point across, cheap, very effective depending on the layout
Disadvantage- limited amount of information and image
Advantage- Reaches a very large audience, more diverse audience, it has the ability to convey your message with sight, easy to reach target audience
Disadvantage- limited length of exposure, the ads are usually ignored, the relative cost is high
Advantage- Save time and money, attracts better qualified prospects, makes use of social proof, offers loyalty, offers greater flexibility
Disadvantage- Negative customer feedback, Untraceable results, permanent internet footprint, bad referrals
After narrowing all the different types of promotions, I have elected two new ways that Fig’s could promote their business which are:
- Yellow pages (Online & Paper directory)
"Now buyers" are simply looking for the right place from which to obtain what they want. Very often their decisions are based largely upon what they see in the yellow pages. Virtually every business and every home has a telephone directory. Therefore, nearly everyone has immediate access to the ad in the Yellow pages. Over 85% of adults consult the yellow pages at one time or another. They follow up with a phone call, a visit, or a letter 93% of the time. About 75% of those who use the yellow pages do so at least once a month (statistics from BellSouth). There are several disadvantages to advertising in the yellow pages. First, the ads can be expensive. Second, once a business has signed the contract, you are locked in for an entire year. Third, the effectiveness of yellow pages ads can be difficult to test and track. Since the yellow pages are printed only once a year, you have infrequent opportunities to experiment with different copy text and designs. Fourth, the business will be displayed alongside all their competitors' ads.
Since it is in the public domain, Outdoor Advertising assuredly reaches its audience. People can't "switch it off" or "throw it out." People are exposed to it whether they like it or not. In this sense, outdoor advertising truly has a "captured audience". Its messages work on the advertising principle of "frequency." Since most messages stay in the same place for a period of a month or more, people who drive by or walk past see the same message a number of times. Outdoor advertising is an excellent adjunct to other types of advertising you are doing. In fact, it is most effective when coupled with other media. At best, it only draws 2-3 seconds of a reader's time. Messages must be brief to fit in that 2-3 second time frame. 95% percent of the time, either the message or the audience is in motion. The nature of the way you have to buy outdoor advertising is not conducive to a very short, week-long campaign.
In conclusion, my research evokes that Figs should start using both of these promotional methods because both methods are very effective as they are a small business with professional services I suggest that they should develop to a more known and wider business leading an increase in sales and more experience in using different promotions for future projects.