In his objective of promoting the volunteer section of RVVFD firefighting department, Rick Wyat has several aspects to consider: target audience, budget for promotional activities, communication channels, message that he needs to diffuse, to transmit to the targeted audience.
The targeted audience appears from the case study: it is represented by Ralston Valley population. They must understand the importance of their local firefighting department and also the needs that the department is confronting with, in terms of personal or staff motivation. This implies an awareness campaign, in order to determine the people from Ralston Valley to react to firefighters’ needs: find more volunteers to join the team and find financial resources, from the population of the city, to support the RVVFD in promoting its volunteers to staff members, with salaries.
As there are not sufficient funds to sustain the financial needs of the volunteer, the fire department cannot invest a lot of money on the communication campaign either. This is why, its promotion strategy should focus more on social networks (Facebook, Tweeter, etc.), but also on special events, unconventional, beyond – the – line (BTL) activities, as part of a Public Relations plan (Levinson & Lautenslager 55). In fact, Rick should plan an integrated approach, by linking the social media with the special events.
How? The RVVFD should organize town demonstration, gathering the city’s population to a public meeting. There, the members of the team, staff and volunteer, should exhibit their daily work and visually explain what they do: putting off fires, rescuing people from car accidents, acting upon bomb threats, and so on. These can be done in public squares, or in school yards, with the help of the local community: school, educators, churches, priests, hospitals, so on. They should help the fire department to raise awareness by indicating to the people they usually get in touch with (parents, parishioners, patients) about the events that will be organized in the city, in order for them to be present at the demonstration.
Further, there should be made photos and films from the events and be posted on Facebook and tweets should be given at each important moment of each activity, summarizing what is happening during the demonstration. People who participate in the event should be tagged. For this aspect, some fighter volunteers should interact with people, asking for their Facebook ID, in order to tag them immediately. A personal interaction with a cause, might determine people to react better in such cases.
The message that the firefighting department should diffuse should be thoroughly sustained during the demonstrations: “RVVFD needs you to stop the fires” and should be clearly stated by involving people in the action. On the Facebook page, there should be more focused on this message, asking people to join in a discussion about becoming volunteers within RVVFD and by promoting the idea that the department needs funds to pay its volunteer staff.
Such action could enjoy media attention, as the event would generate a big interest in the proximity of the city. As well, this could be an good practice example of citizenship and media institutions will be interested in promoting such cases.
OSI – Case Analysis
Selling a service line to a client could represent a two sided sword for Office Supplies Inc. (OSI) and Shahla Vasquez, the marketing manager of the company understands this aspect. On one hand, it would bring the company high earnings, because the service line that its client, Business Center wants to purchase (some of the company’s commonly used file folders) would generate much profitability if sold to this customer, considering that the production cost is limited. On the other hand, by purchasing this line, Business Center will not be using the FILEX brand, which is the brand under which OSI operates for this service, and might become a direct competitor of OSI, on this segment market.
This decision requires a strategic approach, customized on the company’s objectives (Botten 17). OSI is the leader on its market, having the biggest diversity of products. In addition, the company is also focused on quality, and not on price. Its business strategy is quality concerned, and not price concerned. Its competitors are small companies that are mostly practicing the price concern business strategy. OSI’s president, Ramon Torres, knows that his clients are looking for quality and that on a long run his business will be their first choice.
Considering this business objective, OSI should evaluate the offer that Business Center made, by forecasting that its clients might get the file folders, bought from OSI at a lower price on a market, changing the market’s prices. This would directly impact OSI, as it would have to adjust its market on these prices, because the quality of Business Center’s products would be the same with OSI’s quality of products.
This argument would incline the balance towards not selling the products to Business Center. On the other hand, this client might just purchase from somebody else, and this is the counter argument for not selling. However, considering that OSI has the best quality products and that Business Center solely works with the best products, it would be hard for this client to give up working with OSI. Or, after buying from one of the small competitors of OSI, Business Center will realize that those products are not as qualitative as OSI’s, and will return to OSI.
In conclusion, Shahla Vasquez should present the business offer the Ramon Torres and explain her concerns regarding this matter, and also her strategic thinking, with pro and con arguments for the sell to happen or not. In her presentation, it should prevail the decision of not selling, from the reasons mentioned above.
Works Cited
Botten, Neil. CIMA Official Learning System Management Accounting Business Strategy. Oxford, CIMA Publishing. 2007. Print.
Levinson, Jay, Conrad & Lautenslager, Al. Guerilla Marketing in 30 Days. United States, Jere L. Calmes, Publisher. 2009. Print.
