In this assignment, you will use information from Assignment 2, and pricing and promotional information, to create a PowerPoint presentation. Imagine that you are creating this presentation to promote your new business idea to investors to help fund your business.
Create a PowerPoint presentation:
- Provide an introduction to your presentation.
- Summarize your response to each of the criteria in Assignment 2 — one slide per criterion, for a total of six slides. Specify how you used feedback from your instructor for Assignment 2.
- Include one slide that summarizes your pricing strategy.
- Include one slide that summarizes your promotional strategy.
- Prepare a conclusion slide, which addresses key points.
- Narrate each slide using a microphone.
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
- Format the PowerPoint presentation with headings on each slide and three to four relevant graphics (photographs, graphs, clip art, etc.), ensuring that the presentation is visually appealing and readable from 18 feet away. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
- Include a title slide containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date.
The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:
- Assess the retailing consumer and database management in retailing.
- Analyze human resource management and financial aspects of operation management in retail organizations.
- Examine the dimensions of operating a retail business and the development of merchandise plans.
RETAIL BUSINESS 9
Developing, Managing, and Operating A Retail Business
Retail Management
Question 1:
Feedback from Assignment 1 and how to leverage trends in retailing for our business
After assignment one, it is fair to say that I have had the most valuable feedback that I can incorporate in my retailing business. The assignment got a positive reception and I plan to use this feedback to shape my research on this assignment for even a better look.
Away from this, I am aware of the many trends in retailing that have helped many companies reach a large market base to sell their products and services. To have a successful business, firm owners need to remain agile too keep up with the changes in technology and be at par with the customers. Businesses that thrive in a continuously changing environment are the ones that will withstand tumultuous times and continue making a profit in the market. The trends in retailing that I will leverage for my company include
Multichannel selling
Over time, we have seen people alternate between sales done online and those done through brick-and-motor. These methods in most cases present problems as they do not represent how people wanted to shop. In today’s environment, a client searches the internet for the prices of the products and later decides to buy the product. This approach is referred to as a multichannel approach and it is growing by the day to become a key trend in the market (Rust, 2019). I plan to leverage this trend by hosting a website for the company and market it to let many people get to it. This will increase company sales.
Social media shopping
Integra, Snapchat among many other social media networks are a rich source of motivation for bloggers in fashion, experts of lifestyle and other forms of online influencers. Social media marketing is made possible by this social media marketing by directly advertising on social media and the clickable link takes one to the company’s website where they can buy what was being advertised.
Penalization and experiential shopping
Through eCommerce, brands have been made accessible to people than they were before. Many retailers are taking advantage of personalization and customization to create awesome experiences for their customers in the specific ways they want them. I plan to leverage this trend by making sure that I get the tastes of our different clients and try to custom-make some products to their specific needs through personalization and customization.
Question 2:
Three strategies for targeting customers and information gathering to develop customer-base
Siebert et al., (2019) agree that targeting customers plays a significant role in ensuring a firm does not waste resources trying to find the customers for their products and services. Carrying out a brainstorming activity for customer targeting is not always a walk in the park. The activity is convoluted and the firm must carry out activities that aimed at directly targeting the potential customers for the company. To do this, the firm must be engaged in acts involving data collection, analysis and putting this analyzed information into practice. There are various strategies for targeting customers and information gathering that a firm can use to develop their customer base. They include
Researching the competitors and identifying the customers they are serving
One of the easiest ways to target potential customers is by closely observing the customers served by the competitors and what kind of information gathering skills they use to gain their customers and retain them. The idea of researching the competitors not only helps the company understand the strongholds of the rival company, but also exposes their weak points which are then exploited by the company for their benefit.
Come up with effective criteria to reach the potential customers
Target customers for accompanying can be stratified according to their economic, social and political differences. To reach their intended customers within their set time frames, a company needs to understand the criteria they can use to reach this stratified customer base. For instance, demographics such as age, sex, gender, and geography can be used to identify the different customer groups that a company can use to innovatively custom-made products and services according to the different groups. Through the demographics, the company can understand its best target groups and therefore invest more in these cash cows for the company. The main aim of this strategy is to ensure that a company does not waste its resources following a market niche that will never be profitable for them.
Identify the most intricate needs of the customers
One mistake that is oftentimes witnessed with the corporates is that they focus on developing their brand without knowing that the needs of the customers are the very first thing they should be concerned about. While doing target campaigns to promote products and services to the clients, the firm also needs to understand the intricate needs of the important customers as they are the individuals that keep the business going. What the company needs to do achieve this is by putting themselves in the shoes of the clients. Through this, they can be able to see the brand through the lenses of the customers and hence understand what they need.
Question 3:
Plan for the approach of recruiting staff, training and employee management
Developing a competent workforce is the key to the success of any firm. A company that does not have competent employees working very hard each day may end up becoming unsuccessful. The best approach to attaining a competent employee is by undertaking a robust recruiting and training process. Effective recruitment strategies put more emphasis on the need to find the best-qualified individual for the job with all the traits for the job (Jones & Murphy, 2019).
Recruitment strategies
Do a review of the practices of the company- before undertaking the recruitment of individuals, the firm needs to do a recap of their quality practices so they can find the candidates whose qualifications meet these practices.
Look for competent candidates through professional platforms- Competent Candidates know the best professional platforms to market their competencies. Therefore, the firm needs to embark their search strategies incompetent professional platforms to have a large pool potential employees who will add value to the company’s brand.
Do a thorough assessment of the professional resumes of the candidates- there is no sure way to find a professional than having a detailed look at their professional resume. Candidates whose qualifications, as explained by their resume, meet the required standards are recruited while those who do not qualify should be dismissed.
Carry out detailed and thorough interviews- during the interviews, make the questions as open-ended as possible to ensure that the candidates have a chance to explicitly describe themselves. This makes the company determine if the individual candidates have the desired skills for the job.
Training strategies
1. The company can print employee manuals showing all the job descriptions for the specific positions in which the recruits have been selected. This helps them keep track of their job responsibilities in the new position.
2. Carry out hands-on training to the new employees to ensure that they adapt to their new working environment smoothly. The training will teach them about the basic concepts of their work so that they cannot make a petty mistake that could have been prevented.
3. Place the responsibility of training to more competent and vocal employees of the company. These individuals will be pivotal in making sure that the new set of employees are tuned to their new organizational culture in a way that they understand better.
4. Give out promotions for individuals embracing self-training. Employees who like to explore more effective ways to conduct their assigned duties should be promoted as these individuals may come up with innovative ideas that can help other employees and hence the company as a whole.
Question 4:
Strategic Plan for the operational management of the company
The strategic business plan entails several steps that show how the company will be working step by step to achieve its set out objectives. In our company, the following strategies will be applied to ensure effective operational management of the business for more profit-making in the industry.
Effective budget allocations and management
The first link between the strategic plan and operational plan is an effective and working budget. A strategic plan ensures that strategic budget estimates are drawn and all finances are utilized in an intended manner. A strategic budget gives out the exact figures removing the possibilities of guesswork that result in errors.
Effective resource allocation
A strategic plan for the operational management of our organization will be based on equitable resource allocation. All the areas of the business will have enough resources to ensure their smooth working to contribute to the overall effect of making the firm successful in its endeavors. The strategic plan will require that no department of the firm is understaffed with limited employees or fewer resources as this will ensure that all the goals set by the firm are likely to be achieved.
Effective management of performance
Our strategic plan will take into consideration the need for effective management of performance. The employees in the company both new and old need to be evaluated for their performance so that the company can be sure that all of them are contributing positively to its success.
Question 5:
Mission, philosophy and a location of the retail store
Mission- To become world-class retail store, providing our products across America and beyond.
Philosophy- Quality products in the society makes people quality.
Location of the retail store- New York City.
Question 6:
Plan for developing an inviting store atmosphere
We understand the message that our appearance have on our customers’ perception on the brand. We plan to have an interior and external décor that is consistent with the company’s chosen color codes. We will try as much as possible to make the store navigable by having proper aligning of the products we are selling.
References
Rust, R. T. (2019). The future of marketing. International Journal of Research in Marketing.
Siebert, L. C., Aoki, A. R., Fernandes, T. S., & Lambert‐Torres, G. (2019). Customer targeting optimization system for price‐based demand response programs. International Transactions on Electrical Energy Systems, 29(2), e2709.
Jones, S. D., & Murphy, B. (2019). Recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce. Diversity and inclusion in libraries: A call to action and strategies for success, 75-88.