Chloebhalley.files.wordpress.com



The Mean Green Promotions Agency's Promotional Proposal for the CMHT Sample SaleChloé HalleyCarolina Hernandez Tiffany HopperThien NguyenMelanie WaldronUniversity of North TexasIntroductionEach year the College of Merchandising, Hospitality and Tourism holds the Sample Sale event. The annual event is held at the University Union on the University of North Texas campus. The sale brings various products and brands that are donated and partnered by the members of the Merchandising Board of Governors. Some of the companies involved are Fossil Incorporated, Toys R Us, Pier One Imports, Global Views, Sheplers, The Apparel Group, M&M, Zales, Tuesday Morning, and Harley Davidson. The merchandise available is open to UNT students, faculty, and staff members. They have the chance to purchase apparel, accessories, and home décor items. Nothing is priced over $50, and the requirement is “cash” transactions only. This year, on Thursday October 31st will bring forth the 4th Annual CMHT Sample Sale. The proceeds from the event benefit the Merchandising and Digital Retailing department, and help sponsor students to travel to specialized events. It also gives students experience to interact with customers and work with the merchandise. Getting the opportunity to stock, count inventory and price the items. Merchandising students also arrange promotional tools to publicize the sale and create campus widespread awareness.The Mean Green Promotion Agency aims to provide effective promotional tools to help the CMHT Sample Sale become more successful and to effectively communicate the sale's purpose and benefits to the public so that it can attract and satisfy as many consumers as possible. Situational AnalysisStrengthsA huge strength for the fall sample sale is that the featured products are provided for free to the Merchandising Department. The department makes 100% of a profit off of the merchandise. The rest of the department's spending only needs to go towards advertising and setting up the location. Profits from the sample sale support the merchandising department and go towards scholarships for students. Since the merchandise is donated to the department, the products are to have low prices. This gives students, who we already know may not have much money, the opportunity to shop for quality clothes and other items. Since the sale is held just before the holiday shopping season, it is also a good chance for students and other shoppers to find inexpensive gifts.Another strength of the sale is the hype provided by the Fossil watch sale. Even though most of the better watches are sold to people who have acquired a ticket in line before the sale even begins, other shoppers may believe they have a chance to find a nice watch and attend the sale anyway.The sample sale provides a very valuable experience to merchandising students involved in running and setting it up. It gives those students a chance to gain experience in merchandising and running a sale, and it teaches them the kind of hard work required to set it up. WeaknessesOne big weakness of the Fall sample sale is that the merchandising department has a lack of a choice over what products can be provided in the sale since all of the merchandise is donated. Products like children's toys, home furnishing items, and some of the clothing may not appeal to college students and others who shop at the sale. This limits the way the sale can be advertised because the merchandise is so different. This also affects how well-defined the target market can be.The sample sale gets little advertising around the campus, and many students are not even aware of the sale. Knowledge of the sample sale appears to be limited to CMHT students. The sale itself is held in a small area of the union, making a crowded shopping experience. The experience is also made much slower because only cash is accepted. People may be discouraged to come to the sale if they see the small area filled with people and if they are told they will only be able to purchase products if they have cash.OpportunitiesSomething that could be done to improve the sample sale is to implement credit and debit card readers. This would make the purchasing process move along much quicker and more smoothly, and no customers would have to be driven away by the cash-only policy.CMHT could find more companies to donate their products, increasing the amount and variety of merchandise sold at the sale. A larger selection would undoubtedly bring in more customers. If a certain brand donated its products, it might bring in more customers who are loyal to that particular brand.Social media could be utilized more efficiently. Although the CMHT sample sale has used social media in the past, it has not done the best job. The people in charge of the social media accounts could more diligently post updates and get its potential customers more involved through contests, drawings, and coupons. It could also give people an idea of what to expect at the sale and provide photograph examples of merchandise. Campus-wide emails could also be sent out to get word out about the different social media accounts and the sample sale.ThreatsA threat to the sample sale is the conflict of many classes being held around the same time the sale occurs. The sale is also held on one day, so some students that want to shop at the sale may not have a chance to on that particular day. Some customers may get to the sale and realize they don't have cash. If any flyers are posted, there could potentially be people who rip them down because they may not think they belong there. Market SegmentThe Sample Sale offers a variety of products that appeal to different groups of consumers. Although clothes are general items that could appeal to anyone, there is also merchandise that may have more specific target consumers. Toys donated from Toys R Us may not appeal to the average college student and other customers who do not have children, and may appeal more to parents. Many students may not have a use for home furnishings as they live in cramped dorms, but others may have the living space to accommodate such items.The target market that The Mean Green Promotions Agency chose to focus on are CMHT college students, because they are the largest group of people that shop at the sample sale, have similar needs and desires, and will all visit campus frequently. The easiest way to market to this group is to place information throughout campus and to make use of apps and an online presence to spread the word. Females will be easiest to market to as they are more likely to be drawn to opportunities for shopping for home furnishings, fashionable clothing, jewelry & watches, and beauty products. An age range to pay attention to would be anywhere from 18 to 30 years of age as this is most likely the age group the majority of college students will fall under. Promotional ToolsCommercialThe Mean Green Promotions Agency believes that a commercial would be a great form of a promotional campaign. The commercial would capture a wide audience and it is completely free on ntTV. Not only could the commercial be aired on ntTV, but the commercial could also be aired on the TVs within dorms and UNT buildings. The commercial would be easy and free to make for the CMHT Department. The commercial could also be distributed throughout the campus for free via email and social media. Since the CMHT advertising budget is only $50, a commercial would be a great way to get the CMHT Sample Sale event out to the public quickly and easily. Our group created our own mock commercial, edited it, and published it to YouTube within a couple of hours. Our commercial ideas consisted of product placement of items from the Sample Sale and a “sneak peak” of our Sample Sale fashion show idea. The commercial featured a girl with a Fossil Michael Kors watch on. As she walked through the Business Leadership Building, a group of fashion forward girls stopped her to compliment her on her watch. The group of girls asked her where she bought the watch and she replied with, “At the CMHT Sample Sale last fall.” The girls continued to talk amongst themselves about the CMHT Sample Sale, when the CMHT Sample Sale will take place this year, and about how the CMHT Sample Sale benefits students and the department. The main thing that the audience will take away from the commercial is how the Sample Sale sells great name brand products at a reduced price and the date of the next Sample Sale during fall 2013. The commercial will create word-of-mouth and hype when students and staff see the commercial and realize how great the Sample Sale will be during the fall 2013.Our other commercial was more of an idea of what could happen if the CMHT Sample Sale has a fashion show the day before the Sample Sale event. The commercial was also filmed in the Business Leadership Building, but that is not where the fashion show has to take place. Anywhere on campus would be a great place for a fashion show and outside would be a great place as well. Basically, the commercial presented a few girls strutting down the runway in their newly bought merchandise from the CMHT Sample Sale. In the background, two people have a conversation about the fashion show and why they are having a fashion show. Someone mentions that it is for the CMHT Sample Sale event the next day. The other person mentions how they must go to the event the next day to check out all of the wonderful merchandise. This commercial not only gives the CMHT Department an idea of how a fashion show could go, but also displays how important a fashion show could be in word-of-mouth and creating hype about the event the next day. Also, the commercial could be aired as a unique way to attract a more fashion-forward consumer. Website and Mobile AppMany students cannot make it to the Sample Sale so a website or mobile application would be a great idea for the CMHT Department to sell items online. It would be completely free and it would help in more sales made. Plus, the CMHT Department has a digital retailing program that would be happy to have the experience to create a website online and sell items online. The website could be as simple as having a top navigation tool bar and a main content page. The website could have “Home, About, Shop” and etc. The website could be up for an entire month and the shop could open up the day of the event and stay open for a week after the event to continue making sales. The mobile application would also be another great idea for making sales. If the CMHT Department makes a mobile app and uploads it to the Apple Market and Android Market, then students/staff could also shop via their mobile device, which would create consumer efficiency. UNT has a computer science department that could easily make a mobile application. PayPal Here or SquareThe CMHT Sample Sale should also include PayPal Here or Square for payments at the Sample Sale. Many students do not shop at the Sample Sale because they do not want to bother paying with cash. Plus, it is always crowded in the Union at the ATMs during the Sample Sale so some students/staff do not want to wait in line just to get cash. If the CMHT Sample Sale had an easier way for students to pay, then the department would definitely make more sales because most consumers own a debit/credit card.FlyersEven though in the age where most retailers can connect to consumers easier through technology, the classic style of direct marketing is still effective. For instance, a consumer can just ignore and/or delete texts, emails and/or any other ads they see on their computers, cell phone and emails. However, combining traditional direct marketing and technology, direct marketing will help increase exposure and provide a repetition in the subconscious mind. For the Sample Sale, along with texts and emails, there should be posters and flyers around the main campus as well as the DCTA/UNT shuttle bus stop. The main area that should have at least one big poster (around 24 in. by 36 in.) in front and back side of the Union and in the main bus stop in front of the Business Leadership Building and the Library Mall area. Those places have the most traffic and can gain more exposure for students and non-students that would walk or drive around those areas. Each poster would cost about $15 each, a total of $60 for all four. However, a cheaper alternative would only cost $10 for paper if the student would hand draw and create the poster. Other direct marketing can be handing regular letter size flyers and a mini flyer the size of half a letter size in different area of the UNT campus area. The main area listed before is included along with less traffic area as well. The flyers will cost less than the poster at around $15 for five stacks of paper and printing from the UNT printing lab. The flyers can be handed out before and during the events to provide exposure and traffic. Also, the person who is handling out the flyers can also play the role of a personal seller. They can inform those who are interested more details about he Sample Sale that was not included in the print ads. It can drive motivation as well as spreading of Word of Mouth Marketing.BudgetThe Mean Green Promotions Agency recently found out that the CMHT advertising budget is only $50. Of course, we have our ideas for things that cost money, but it is up to the CMHT Department to choose if they want to spend more money to make more money. The reason our group believes more than $50 should be spent on advertising costs is because we realized none of our non-CMHT friends have ever heard of the CMHT Sample Sale. They have never been to the event, heard of the event, or even knew anyone who had been to the event. For example, before Chloé Halley, group member, was a Merchandising and Digital Retailing major she had never heard of the Sample Sale and when she was starting her education through the CMHT Department she still had not heard about what the Sample Sale was exactly. Not many teachers talked about the event and she had not seen any flyers or posters about the event. The next year there was improvement. She had seen something on Twitter, a few professors talked about the event in class, and students discussed the event. She then found out about the line for a spot to buy a Fossil Watch. She was number one in line! Since not many students within the entire school have heard about the event, we decided we should put more emphasis on flyers, posters, banners, commercials, and other eye-catching forms of promotion. We also believe a website and mobile application should be considered as well. For the “free costs,” the cost of creating social media is for free, the CMHT Sample Sale can create a free website, cost of hosting or creating a website on Storenvy to sell items on is also completely free, airing a commercial through ntTV is free, emails are free, the fashion show the day before the even will be free, ordering Square or PayPal Here technology for mobile devices is completely free, and all of the word-of-mouth created from the promotions is completely free.The potential spending of the CMHT Department budget has the possibility of going towards buying advertisement space on a website or in a printed publication, purchasing a domain name to set up a website, printing flyers & posters, or the development of an app to help promote the sale. Advertising through Facebook can cost anywhere from $10 per day to $20 a day depending on how many 'likes' the CMHT Department was to get on the CMHT Sample Sale page. An advertisement in Method Seven Magazine would cost anywhere from $1,000 to $9,999. Additionally, an advertisement in NT Daily would cost around $8.50 per square inch. For a 3” x 4” ad the price will be $102. The cost of a customer domain name like '' would cost around $8 to $10. If the CMHT Department decided to use WordPress to sell items it would cost around $99 a month. The cost of 8” x 11” flyers could be $200 for 5,000 flyers or $250 for 10,000 flyers or $500 for 20,000 flyers. For a 24” x 63” banner, Eagle Images would charge $69 each. The cost of uploading a mobile application to the Apple Store would be $199 and $25 to the Android Market. Overall, the average cost of what the CMHT Department could spend if they use every possible item from the Mean Green Promotions Agency would be a total of $1,336. AppendixFigure A: BudgetFigure B: WebsiteFigure C: Flyers & PostersFigure D: Commercials ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download