and bunting can be displayed at racecourses, sports stadiums, motor-racing
circuits and other venues so that they are inevitably picked up by the TV
cameras covering the event, apart from being seen by spectators on the
spot.
Public relations objective:
Public relations objectives do not seek to advertise in order to persuade
and sell, but aim to develop knowledge and understanding of the
organisation. An important public relations objective may be to create
goodwill towards the company, locally, nationally or internationally. A
large corporation, making big profits, may adopt a social conscience by
donating funds or gifts to society. It might give financial aid to a
library, college, theatre, hospital or medical research fund. When a
foreign company enters export markets, where it may be unknown or greeted
with prejudice or suspicion, sponsorship can help create a friendly
attitude without which it would be impossible to sell.
Very popular is the presenting the awards to journalists for their skill
and knowledge when writing about the sponsor's subject or industry. At to
marketing objectives sponsorship helps to position a product, to support
dealers, to establish a change in marketing policy, to launch a new
product, to establish the product in international markets.
Types of stores
Retailers can be classified by the length and breadth of their product
assortment. Among the most important types are specialty stores, department
stores, supermarkets, convenience stores and superstores.
A specialty store carries a narrow product line with a deep assortment
within that line. Examples include stores selling sporting goods,
furniture, books, electronics, flowers or toys. Today, specialty stores are
flourishing for several reasons. The increasing use of market segmentation,
market targeting, and product specialization has resulted in a greater need
for stores that focus on specific products and segments. And because of
changing consumer life styles and the increasing number of 2-income
households, many consumers have greater incomes but less time to spend
shopping. They are attracted to specialty stores which provide high quality
products, nearly locations, good store hours, excellent service and quick
entry and exit. The shopping centre boom has also contributed to the recent
growth of specialty stores, which occupy 60 to 70% of the total shopping
centre space.
A department store carries a wide variety of product lines-typically
clothing, home furnishing, and household goods. Each line is operated as a
separate department. The first department stores appeared and grew rapidly
through the first half of the century. But after World War II, they began
to lose ground to a growing list of other types of retailers, including
discount stores, specialty stores, and *off-price* retailers.
Department stores are today waging a *comeback war*. Most have opened
suburban stores, and many have added "bargain basements" to meet the
discount threat still others have remodelled their stores or set up
"boutiques" that compete with specialty stores. Many are trying mail order
and telephone selling.
Supermarkets are large, low-cost, low-margin, high-volume, self-service
stores that carry a wide variety of food, laundry, and household products.
Most US supermarkets are owned by supermarket chains like Safeway, Kroger,
A&P, Winn-Dixie & fewel. Chains account for almost 70% of all supermarket
sales. Most supermarkets today are facing slow sales growth because of
proliferation of stores, slower population growth, & the appearance of
innovative competitors such as convenience stores, discount food stores &
superstores. They have also been hit hard by the rapid growth of out-of-
home eating. Thus, supermarkets are looking for new ways to build their
sales. They practice "scrambled merchandising", carrying many non-food
items-beauty aids, toys, house wares, prescriptions, appliances,
videocassettes, sporting goods, garden supplies - hoping to find high -
margin lines to improve profits. Many supermarkets are moving "upscale"
with the market. Retailers are adding such amenities as full-service
seafood departments, "from scratch" bakeries, gourmet prepared foods & in
store restaurants complete with bars, jazz pianists, & wine stewards.
Finally, to attract more customers, large supermarket chains are starting
to customize their stores for individual neighbourhoods. They are tailoring
store size, product assortment, prices & promotions to the economic &
ethnic needs of local markets.
Convenience stores are small store that carry a limited line of high-
turnover convenience goods. Examples include 7-Eleven, Circle K, & Open
Pantry. These stores locate near residential areas & remain open long hours
& seven days a week. Convenience stores charge high prices to make up for
higher operating costs & lower sales volume. But they satisfy an important
consumer need. Consumers use convenience stores for "fill-in" purchases at
off hours or when time is short, & they are willing to pay for the
convenience.
Superstores are almost twice the size of regular supermarkets & carry a
large assortment of routinely purchased food & non-food items. They offer
such services as laundry, dry cleaning, shoe-repair, check cashing, bill
paying & lunch counters. Because of their wide assortment, superstore
prices are 5 to 6% higher than those of conventional supermarkets. Many
leading chains are moving towards superstores.
Hypermarkets are in size up to about 6 football fields. The hypermarket
combines supermarket, discount & warehouse retailing. It carries more than
routinely purchased goods, also selling furniture, appliances, clothing, &
many other things. The hypermarket offers discount prices & operates like a
warehouse. Customers select items from bulk displays, & the store gives
discounts to customers who carry their own heavy appliances & furniture out
of the store.
Most stores today cluster together to increase their customer pulling power
& to give customers the convenience of on-stop shopping. A shopping centre
is a group or retail businesses planned, developed, owned & managed as a
unit. A regional shopping centre is like a mini downtown. At contains from
40 to 100 store & pulls customers from a wide area.
Public Relations
PR is often confused with advertising, and sometimes wrongly termed
"publicity". PR is wrongly regarded as "free advertising". The two are very
different forms of communication, but advertising is likely to be more
effective if PR is well carried out.
Briefly, PR aims to create understanding through knowledge, it must be
factual, credible and impartial. Advertising has to be persuasive in order
to sell and it may be emotional, dramatic and certainly partial. Thus, a
basic difference is that in order to succeed PR must be unbiased while
advertising has to be biased. PR may be thought to consist only of press
relations, or rather media relations since radio and television are also
involved. Modem PR extends into all the functions of commercial and
noncommercial, public and private organisations. It deals with matters far
removed from marketing and advertising to mention only community, employee,
share holder and political relations. A major area of public relations in
recent years has been the handling of crisis situations such as strikes,
disasters and take over bids. The creation of understanding is best
explained by the "PR transfer process". A company, product or service may
be subject to some negative states as hostility, prejudice, apathy,
ignorance. PR is concerned with changing them into positive attitudes such
as sympathy, acceptance, interest, knowledge. There may be hostility
towards a company because its behaviour has been criticised, a product has
performed badly, a company personality has received bad publicity , the
company is of foreign origin or simply because it is very big. There may
also be hostility towards the industry because it is believed to be
hazardous or endangers the environment. Prejudice is a more difficult
obstacle to overcome, and is usually long-standing and derived from family,
education, ethnic or even geographical influences. Many people are still
prejudiced about flying, holidays abroad, foreign foods, computers, etc.
Disinterest and apathy is very hard to overcome. People tend to be
conservative, set in their ways and unwilling to try new things. They may
be apathetic about things that could benefit them such as banking
insurance, savings, diet, holidays or different kinds of clothes. In a
complex world everyone is ignorant about many things. It is inevitable.
There was a time when most people were ignorant about detergents, air
conditioning, video-cassettes, all of which large number of people take for
granted today. These are all negative attitudes which PR has to change into
positive ones. From what has been described it is seen that PR concerns the
total communications of the total organisation. It is not confined to
marketing nor it is a form of advertising. Nevertheless, advertising can
benefit from PR activity. In fact advertising may well fail because of lack
of PR. PR has its own communication techniques and it can contribute to the
success of advertising just as it can contribute to good management-
employee relations or good financial relations. The chief benefit lies in
the creation of understanding.
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