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Business Communication Diana Leow Siew Chin

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Family Name LEOW Given Names SIEW CHIN DIANA

Program/Intake ADipMgt 10 Student No. 1024

Module’s Name Business Communication Lecturer’s Name Robin Peter Lange

Assignment No. 1 Assignment Due Date 01-July-10

DECLARATION: I hereby declare that the attached assignment is my own work. I understand that if I am suspected of
plagiarism or another form of cheating, my work will be referred to the Academic Review Committee/Registrar, which
may result in me being expelled from the program. My grade will be affected by the level of plagiarism detected in my
assignment.

Signature Submission Date 01-July-10

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Jacinta Tan
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Assignment Page 1
Business Communication Diana Leow Siew Chin

CONTENTS PAGE

- Strategic Plans –

Introduction page 2

Methods of Launch page 3

Methods of Launch page 4

Methods of Launch pages 5

Methods of Launch page 6

Methods of Launch page 7

Strategic Plan to Reduce cost page 8

Conclusion page 9

Referencing page 10

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Introduction
ABC dog food is going to launch a series of dry healthy and nutrition foods for dogs. The
increasing trend of “humanization" of pets by their owners led to a potential market. The
main factor of launching this product is a switching demand from heavier wet food to
lighter dry food and which is less messy and also add a touch to convenience. We are
targeting from different sizes of dog like toy dog to large dog and also special weight
maintenance. Our series of dog food have contained DHA for healthy brain development.
The antioxidant recipe (including Vitamins C & E) plus taurine, is proven to help
promote the development of healthy cells and support the immune system to help your
dog live a long, healthy life. ABC dog food had a deep understanding of local market and
the needs of consumer. With the information ABC dog food had served a great deal to
which to be served, what is their specific need are, and how ABC dog food can
communicate with them.

Target Markets
• Life cycle
• Added convenience
• Lower maintenance
• Health claims

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Business Communication Diana Leow Siew Chin

Methods of Launch
• Advertising
Advertising is one of the best ways of selling goods. Some people believe that it is an
integral part of modern life and they couldn’t imagine their every-day existence without
it. We treat advertising as a service to the community and as a kind of guide in the mass
market.Various types of advertising can be more or less advantageous to a business
depending on geographic area, target customer demographics, the product and services
being sold, and the competition. In all cases, we should carefully track and evaluate all
advertising to ensure that the benefit is worth the expense.
• Advantages
Radio: Radio advertisements are relatively inexpensive ways to inform potential local
customers about your business. Radio is a universal medium enjoyed by people at one
time or another during the day, at home, at work, and even in the car.
Television: Television allows access to mass audiences but may be more expensive than
other options. Television being an image-building and visual medium, it offers the ability
to convey your message with sight, sound and motion
Print: Materials printed in newspapers, consumer and trade magazines, or flyers allow us
to explain in a little more detail what, when, where, and why people should buy from us.
Flyer is a graphical piece of paper that any business would give out for free. The purpose
of these flyers is to promote the business and to create image between the people of its
existence. They are distributed to different people and to the present clients in order to
make them more aware about the company. They are distributed on the streets, left in
postboxes or sent by mail. They hold information about the company, its business,
products and services and contact details.
Direct mail: We can send letters, fact sheets, contests, coupons, and brochures directly to
new or old customers on mass market. Our advertising message is targeted to those most
likely to buy our product or service. Marketing message can be personalized, thus
helping increase positive response.
Word of mouth: Word of mouth depends on satisfied or dissatisfied customers telling
their acquaintances about the effectiveness of our products.
• Disadvantages

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Business Communication Diana Leow Siew Chin

Print: Our ad has to compete against the clutter of other advertisers, including the giant’s
ads run by supermarkets and department stores as well as the ads of your competitors.
Poor photo reproduction limits creativity as consumer does not see clearly what we are
selling. Long lead times mean that we have to make plans weeks or months in advance.
Flyers do not have a long-term impact as it required some strategies to make people
observe these flyers are important .There is a lot of chance that the reader might miss out
the messages as flyers are barely considered as important
Radio: Because radio listeners are spread over many stations, we may have to advertise
simultaneously on several stations to reach our target audience. Listeners cannot go back
to our ads to go over important points.
Direct mail: Some consumer do not like receiving offers in their mail, and throw them
immediately without even opening the mail. Resources need to be allocated in the
maintenance of lists, as the success of this kind of promotional campaign depends on the
quality of our mailing list.
Television: Limited length of exposure, as most ads are only thirty seconds long or less,
which limits the amount of information we can communicate. It is relatively expensive in
terms of creative, production and airtime costs.

• Press Released

A press release can be distributed either to print media or the Internet. Press releases can
be published in newspapers, magazines and websites. They are written to acquire interest,
increase readership and promote the company of the business owner. Writing press
releases and submitting them online is becoming more and more common among
business owners. It is not surprising because the number of online browsers is increasing
every day.

• Advantages

Publishing a press release online gives us a better chance of updating our article on a
regular basis. Unlike newspapers that are distributed at a set time every day, web content
can be added at any time. Web press releases also tend to be posted for a longer period of

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Business Communication Diana Leow Siew Chin

time. Some websites archive their past press releases so readers can still access them at
any time. When publishing web press releases is that they often get distributed to other
websites. So if you make our press release material very interesting, then there is a good
chance that it may be re-posted in other sites or even linked to. This means enhanced
visibility and a wider audience.

• Disadvantages

Posting our press release on the Web is the fact that not all of our potential clients may be
net-savvy. Even if they are, this is not a guarantee that they like to read online press
releases. The best way to deal with this is to carefully evaluate our market—age group,
location, lifestyle, gender, educational background, etc.

• Letter Introduction

Letters can be used for internal communication but are mainly used for external
communication. The personnel departments to inform workers of wage rises, promotion
or redundancy and disciplinary procedures will often use them. To introduce any new
product or service often required the letter of introduction. They provide written means of
communication and can also include diagrams.

• Advantages

It provides written communication and visual information is included and can range from
one to many pages .It doesn’t use any electronic means so is a lot cheaper .It allows us to
place it at vet clinic, pet shop, SPCA and let them know more about our product.

• Disadvantages

Letters can take time to deliver and can be lost is also not 100% sure of security , can
easily be opened and read or sent to the wrong address .It require time to produce letter
and can be inconvenient if an urgent message has to be delivered .It does not guarantee or
assurance that message has been received unless feedback has occurred .If recipient does

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Business Communication Diana Leow Siew Chin

not understand any information, then we have to reply to the message stating the problem
and then wait for another message reply from the sender.

• Trade Show

Trade shows provide a unique venue for people with common interests to connect with
one another, live and in person. Attendees can learn from experts in their field at a
fraction of the cost for a seminar or personal consultation. Exhibitions provide them with
a one-stop shop to check out the latest innovations in their industry, compare products
and make purchasing decisions. They are also a great place to view the product lines of
competitors and network with others. These attractions give exhibitors a highly targeted
market of prospects that have pre-screened themselves as interested buyers.

• Advantages

A message delivered to a large number of qualified interested people who get influenced
and generate interest in a specific exhibited product or service. It enables us to
introduction of new products to a large number of people and exposing promising
customer. By giving away sample of our product and providing services like free dog
grooming and free health check at trade show will enhance goodwill of our company and
at the same time gaining company publicity thus improving corporate image. It allows us
to analyze and gather competitor information about their product and service.

• Disadvantages

Trade shows are expensive and very time consuming. The products and service offers at
trade show is very competitive among the exhibitior.It may not be cost-effective and
takes time to become established at a show. It does not show instant results or guarantees.

• E-Commerce

With the rapid increase and development of technology, information systems are no
longer a novelty. They have become an ordinary component of our everyday life,

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Business Communication Diana Leow Siew Chin

varying from private every day use (such as emailing friends, chatting on MSN, etc)
to corporate use, by facilitating business processes and transactions. In the modern
days, an office is practically inexistent without the use of some kind of information
systems. The old office, where people used only pens, paper, calculators and
envelopes is quickly ceasing to exist in that particular form. Today we are moving
into an era of “intangible” business processes, where business communication and
transactions can be conducted anywhere, anytime, and with a simple mouse click.
The phenomenal growth of the Internet has lead to the emergence of a great number
of new technologies. One of the most important ones is the ability to conduct
business over the Internet. E-Commerce is often described as the buying and selling
of information, products and services with the assistance of computer technology
and the Internet (Raman & Mahesh: 2000). This definition implies business to
business transactions, as well as customer to customer transactions. Other variants
such as customer to business and business to customer also apply, with the Internet
as the main medium of communication.

• Advantages

The main advantage of e-commerce is its ability to reduce transactions costs, such as
brokerage fees, fees of holding stock, sales commissions, and the benefits of browsing of
the website with visual and audio aspect can be enjoyed both by the customers and the
business at 24/7 all over the world. By shopping online, customers save on expenses such
as petrol fees, parking fees and even on the actual cost of the product they are buying.
They do not need to build, staff, or maintain a physical store or print and distribute mail
order catalogs. Automated order tracking and billing systems cut additional labor costs,
and if the product or service can be downloaded then e-commerce firms have no
distribution costs involved. Businesses cut down on costs (e.g. of rent, utilities, insurance,
etc) by not having a physical shop and by connecting directly to factories, distributors,
suppliers and customers (Kotler & Armstrong 2004). Because the products can be sold
sell over the global Internet, we have the potential to market their products or services
globally and are not limited by the physical location of a store. Internet technologies also

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Business Communication Diana Leow Siew Chin

permit sellers to track the interests and preferences of their customers with the customer’s
permission and then use this information to build an ongoing relationship with the
customer by customizing products and services to meet the customer’s needs.

• Disadvantages

Consumers are hesitant to buy some products online. Food product launch, for
example, have failed for the most part because customers want to test the taste of the
food as in supermarket always allow to test new product and was given sample
before they purchase it. Consumers might look into website about how good the
company credentials and customer testimonial about our product and services before
purchase. Many people also consider shopping a social experience. For instance,
they may enjoy going to a store or a shopping mall with friends or family, an
experience that they cannot duplicate online. Consumers also need to be reassured
that credit card transactions are secure and that their privacy is respected. Having a
SSL or Secure Socket Layer ensures that data between the customer and the website
owner is encrypted and secure. It is also important to store the data correctly, so
employees and hackers from outside the company cannot access it and it can cause a
consider amount for it.

Strategic Plan to reduce cost

Cost reduction is usually the top priority of every business, especially in today's
economic recession. Many companies are looking in various areas of their business and
asking their teams to come up with ideas on how to reduce costs within their respective
areas thru the following plan

• Event & Corporate sponsorship - getting vets clinic, pet shop or and dog
lover organization to sponsored resources to reduced cost.
• Network - Try networking your business with other businesses. We could trade
leads or mailing lists. This will cut down on our marketing and advertising costs.
We may also try bartering goods and services with them.

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Business Communication Diana Leow Siew Chin

• Website advertising - putting blog or advertising banner on social


networking site like twitter, facesbook and friendster etc. Using of ebay to
sell our product or service.

Conclusion

My recommendation of method of launch are advertisement such as using inexpensive


flyers ,letter of introduction to place at island wide pet shop and vets clinic. Launching
our dog food thru radio station like 93.3 and 98.7 .Using internet to launch and sell our
product is the most effective and cost saving way start off with our New ABC Dog
Food.

Referencing

http://www.articlealley.com/article_138874_15.html

http://www.businessballs.com/market.htm#Types of advertising media

http://www.trade-show-advisor.com/trade-show-promotions.html

http://www.blurtit.com/q424283.html

http://www.petfoodindustry.com/ViewArticle.aspx?
id=22160&terms=trends+and+predictions

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-electronic-commerce-
e-commerce.html

Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G. “Marketing in the Digital Age: Making new customer
connections” Principles of Marketing. Pearson Prentice Hall: New Jersey.

Schneider, G. 2002.New Perspectives on E-Commerce. Course Technology: Boston.

Rahman, M. & Mahesh, S. Electronic Commerce: Opportunity and Challenges. Idea


Group Publishing: London.

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