All of the above media have a common problem in that they are all one-way communication, not requiring the audience to respond or generate the interest or motivating the public to pay attention in the same way required of two-way communication. I think that I will be using the local newspapers to advertise CarverSports. This is good because we can then use the ‘coffee table’ effect where people can look at the advertisement again and again.
This cannot be done on television where you have to watch for a long time before the advert comes on again or people start remembering the message. In addition the cost of television is very high for just a few seconds. It costs about 10,000 for less than a minute of advertising which my company cannot really afford as it is just starting out. The radio is a lot cheaper alternative, but again it does not have the ‘coffee table’ effect and does not have the visual impact the television or newspaper advertisements have.
Magazines are also a good alternative and in some way are better than newspapers as they are often in colour and can be targeted to the people you want to reach. If my shop is advertised in a sports magazine, then more people are going to read it if they are interested in sport. These also have the ‘coffee table’ effect. The price is also a lot cheaper than radio or television. I have chosen local newspapers as well as magazines for my advertising. Newspapers have a high level of market coverage. They have the ‘coffee table’ effect and are locally read because it is pointless if people in London read the advertisement because they are not going to go all the way to York just to go to my shop.
I will try to think of a slogan or catchphrase to put in the advertisements. It would probably be worth paying someone or running a competition e.g. “CarverSports is a great place to shop because…” (In no more than 10 words) The winner could get some free American Football sports wear. We could also get some good publicity and have the newspapers do an article with a picture of the winner getting their prize. This is good publicity and at no cost other than the prize and printing the competition leaflets.
Effects of our business on the Environment Our business will use recycled packaging on some of our own brands to help save the environment, keep the costs down and be a good publicity stunt and hopefully attract a few of our environmentally aware customers into our shop. If we are selling our stock quite well then we will give some of our profits to charities. This helps to increase our reputation as a good caring company to trade with. I think that this is a very nice thing to do and it will gain the respect of some of our customers and as we are a local shop , helping local charities will bring our name to more local people.
We will be buying raw materials off other local companies which will mean that they will be able to make money on the deals helping to make York a more prosperous area. We will also have to hire a few local workers in the shop which will give them the chance to spend more and give them job security. Will also buy from overseas as often the stock is cheaper as the workers are paid a lot less. It is important that the do not work in ‘sweat shops’ to make the goods. I would make sure this is the case and they get good pay for the work they do.
Our company has also a few policies which include laws that have to be obeyed in our business. I feel the JJB Sports policy are a good example and would base the CarverSport polices on theirs which are shown on the next page. JJB are the UK’s leading sports retailer and a prominent FTSE quoted company. Furthermore, given the nature of our supply chain, JJB is also part of an international business.
This fact, along with the ongoing globalisation of the world economy, brings with it exciting opportunities for the future of JJB, but it also raises genuine concerns over the conditions in which the goods we sell through our stores are produced. These concerns are real and important to JJB because they are important to our customers. Furthermore, we also recognise our responsibility as a business for working closely with our suppliers to ensure that decent working conditions are upheld across the supply chain. We also share our suppliers’ beliefs that better working conditions result in better productivity and better quality of output and therefore socially responsible trading is in the interests of employees, suppliers, retailers and consumers.
It must be stressed that JJB itself sources almost no product directly from the factories where its products are manufactured. Subsequently, the vast majority of products are purchased direct from UK companies who themselves source the product from the manufacturers and therefore JJB’s Code of Practice has to be initially discussed with JJB’s UK suppliers. This Code of Practice on Socially Responsible Trading clearly sets out what we expect from our suppliers in terms of labour conditions. The Code of Practice will be distributed to all of our suppliers.
JJB will also work closely with key suppliers to monitor and review their processes for ensuring ongoing compliance with their own Codes of Practice and internationally accepted best practice principles of labour standards (for example, the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) ‘Base Code’ and the ‘Model Code of Conduct’ devised by the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry). We believe that this process, along with our suppliers’ own processes and controls, will help to ensure that labour standards continue to improve across the global sports and leisure industry supply chains.
