Download what is management

BONUS CASES
BONUS CASE 10-5
Night Agency (Video Case)
(NOTE: This case can be used with the Video on DVD for this chapter.)
Students today are witnessing a major revolution in promotion. They have seen radio change
from standard broadcasting to commercial-free satellite radio. They have watched families blank out TV
commercials with TiVo and other DVR recording devices. Students spend less time reading newspapers
and magazines and more time talking on the phone, playing video games, and listening to their iPods.
There are more entertainment options available today and more distractions from traditional promotional
tools.
Today’s students also have a wonderful opportunity to reinvent promotion, changing it from a
one-way stream of sales pitches to an interactive dialogue among promoters and consumers. Traditional
promotional tools—selling, advertising, public relations, and sales promotion—have always provided fun
and interesting careers. Creating funny and captivating ads for TV has been a real challenge. Selling to
businesses and consumers has always been challenging and interesting to those with the needed skills and
desire. Public relations has been critical to all kinds of organizations and individuals (think of politicians,
Hollywood stars, sports stars and others). And who has not been tempted by cents-off coupons and other
sales promotion tools?
The challenge today is to create promotions for the new realities of the marketplace. That means,
for one thing, creating advertising and other promotions on the Internet. One of the cutting edge advertising agencies in this regard is Night Agency. The Night Agency has become an integral part of the marketing process for the firms it serves. It does everything from helping in the design of the product to working
with the company to develop a winning brand name, effective packaging, and fast distribution.
A company like Night Agency has to promote itself to other businesses. Like most firms, Night
Agency relies heavily on word-of-mouth to spread its name. Word-of-mouth and other promotional efforts have succeeded in making this agency stand out from the others. Publicity in the form of articles
written about the company is another powerful promotional tool. Night Agency teaches other firms how
to use public relations and publicity to educate the public about the good that the firms do and to give the
firm’s side of controversies. Think of the public relations challenge that oil companies have had over high
gas prices at the pump.
Often promotional efforts begin inside of a company. Salespeople, clerks, and other customercontact people (and that means almost everyone in the firm because they all contact other people) often
don’t understand everything they need to know about the products they make and sell. A worker in a firm
making watches, for example, should be able to talk with people on the street about the quality and value
the watches provide. That means using internal promotions to keep employees informed. That may take
the form of videos, brochures, meetings, charts, and more. Full function advertising agencies get involved
in such internal promotions as well as the more traditional external promotions you and I are more used to
seeing.
One of the more innovative products from Night Agency is interactive Web games and demonstrations. Such promotions get potential customers more deeply involved in promotions than they have
been in the past. But such promotions need to be measured like any other promotional tools to make sure
they are seen, remembered, and followed.
CHAPTER 10: Marketing: Place and Promotion
10.1
The Darfur Digital Activist Contest is one of the more memorable of their efforts. It was designed
to increase awareness of the desperate need for aid among the people in Darfur, Sudan. It is exciting and
rewarding to use promotional tools to make a difference in the world, and doing what you can to end
world hunger, poverty, disease, and war is part of that challenge.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR BONUS CASE 10-5
1.
What kind of promotions have led to you to buy the things that you have purchased lately? That
includes the school you attend (what prompted you to go there?), the clothes you have bought, the
music you listen to, the restaurants you go to, and so on.
2.
What differences did you notice between what Night Agency does and what you are used to seeing in promotions, if anything?
3.
What has been your reaction thus far to Internet promotions? Do you pay any attention to them?
Are they getting better? If so, in what way?
ANSWERS TO DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR BONUS CASE 10-5
1.
What kinds of promotions have led you to buy the things that you have purchased lately? That includes the school you attend (what prompted you to go there), the clothes you have bought, the
music you listen to, the restaurants you go to, and so on.
This question gets at the heart of promotion: what works and why. Students should have much to
contribute to the discussion. Different promotional efforts are effective in selling different products. For
example, publicity is often effective in political campaigns. Students can provide the examples. The same
is true in promoting music videos, TV shows, clothes, shoes, and everything else students buy.
2.
What differences did you notice between what Night Agency does and what you are used to seeing
in promotions, if anything?
The promotions that your students remember have broken through the advertising clutter. The
fact that students notice them means the ads are achieving a key objective—getting the audience’s attention.
3.
What has been your reaction thus far to Internet promotions? Do you pay any attention to them?
Are they getting better? If so, in what way?
The most effective Internet promotions are often those that students are not even aware of. How
much time do they spend online? Are they aware of the advertisements on the various websites? This is a
chance not only to discuss what is, but what could be with Internet advertising.
10.2
INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS: Instructor’s Resource Manual