U.S. Small Business Administration                          EB-2


          MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR THE GROWING BUSINESS



Frederick H. Rice
Director
Kansas State University
Small Business Development Center (SBDC)
Manhattan, Kansas


                      Emerging Business Series

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Copyright 1991, Frederick H. Rice. All rights reserved.  No part
may be reproduced, transmitted or transcribed without the
permission of the author.  SBA retains an irrevocable, worldwide,
nonexclusive, royalty-free, unlimited license to use this
copyrighted material.

While we consider the contents of this publication to be of general
merit, its sponsorship by the U.S. Small Business Administration
does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the views and
opinions of the authors or the products and services of the
companies with which they are affiliated.

All of SBA's programs and services are extended to the public on a
nondiscriminatory basis.
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                         TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

THE MARKETING CONCEPT

SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONNAIRE

MARKET RESEARCH

EXPANDING YOUR MARKET

THE MARKETING PLAN
     Market Segmentation
     Market Positioning

THE MARKETING BUDGET
     The Product (or Service)
     Price
     Place
     Promotion
     Persuasion

THE ADVERTISING BUDGET
     How Much Should I Spend?
     When Should I Spend it?
     Where Should I Spend it"
     What Media Should I Use/

MAKING ADVERTISING WORK FOR YOU
     Appeal to Consumers' Needs
     Techniques in Presenting the Advertising Message
     Strengthening the Elements of Your Advertisement

MEDIA AVAILABLE TO ADVERTISERS
     Paid-circulation Newspapers
     Free-distribution Newspapers
     Direct Mail
     Magazines
     Brochures
     Other Local Print Media
     Radio
     Television
     Outdoor Media
     Other Media for Advertising

REFINING YOUR ADVERTISING FOR GREATER RESULTS
     Timing Each Ad For Impact
     Using Color
     Critiquing Your Ads

REFERENCES

APPENDIXES
     A. Customer Survey
     B. Annual Sales by Store Type
     C. Share of Annual Sales by Month
     D. Projected Sales and Planned Ad Volume -- Worksheet
     E. Average Advertising Investments of Retail Stores
     F. Determination of Advertising Media Budget -- Worksheet
     G. Media Budget Allocation Form -- Worksheet
     H. Advertising Layout Guide
     I. Type Styles
     J. Information Resources
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INTRODUCTION

Marketing continues to be a mystery . . . to those who create it
and to those who sponsor it. Often, the ad that generates
record-breaking volume for a retail store one month is repeated
the following month and bombs. A campaign designed by the best
Madison Avenue ad agency may elicit a mediocre response. The same
item sells like hotcakes after a 30-word classified ad, with
abominable grammar, appears on page 35 of an all-advertising
shopper tossed on the front stoops of homes during a rainstorm!
The mystery eludes solution but demands attention.

This publication is devoted to the idea that your marketing
results can be improved through a better understanding of your
customers. This approach usually is referred to as the marketing
concept.

Putting the customer first is probably the most popular phrase
used by firms ranging from giant conglomerates to the corner
barber shop, but the sloganizing is often just lip service. The
business continues to operate under the classic approach -- "Come
buy this great product we have created or this fantastic service 
we are offering." The giveaway, of course, is the word we. In 
other words, most business activities, including advertising, are
dedicated to solving the firm's problems. Success, however, is
more likely if you dedicate your activities exclusively to
solving your customer's problems.

Any marketing program has a better chance of being productive if
it is timed, designed and written to solve a problem for
potential customers and is carried out in a way that the customer
understands and trusts. The pages that follow will present the
marketing concept of putting the customer first. Marketing is a
very complex subject; it deals with all the steps between
determining customer needs and supplying them at a profit. In
addition to some introductory material on marketing, this
publication includes practical material on the marketing
approaches to budgeting, layout design, headline writing,
copywriting and media analysis. You have to spend money on
marketing; the purpose of this publication is to help you get the
most for your money, or the most bang for the buck.
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THE MARKETING CONCEPT

Unfortunately, there is still a misunderstanding about the word
marketing. Many people, including top executives, use it as a
sophisticated term for selling. Marketing representative is
commonly used in ads to recruit salespeople. Actually, marketing
is a way of managing a business so that each critical business
decision is made with full knowledge of the impact it will have
on the customer.

Here are some specific ways in which the marketing approach
differs from the classic, or sales, approach to managing a
business.

1.   In the classic approach, engineers and designers create a
     product, which is then given to salespeople who are told to
     find customers and sell the product. In the marketing 
     approach, the first step is to determine what the customer
     needs or wants. That information is given to designers who
     develop the product and finally to engineers who produce it.
     Thus, the sales approach only ends with the customer, while
     the marketing approach begins and ends with the customer.

2.   The second major difference between the sales and marketing
     approaches is the focus of management. The sales approach
     almost always focuses on volume while the marketing approach
     focuses on profit.

In short, under the classic (sales) approach the customer exists
for the business, while under the marketing approach the business
exists for the customer.

The marketing concept is a management plan that views all
marketing components as part of a total system that requires
effective planning, organization, leadership and control. It is
based on the importance of customers to a firm, and states that

    *  All company policies and activities should be aimed at
       satisfying customer needs.

    *  Profitable sales volume is a better company goal than 
       maximum sales volume.
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SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONNAIRE

In order to conduct a successful marketing program you must be
able to answer the following questions:

1.  What type of business are you in (manufacturing, 
    merchandising or service)?
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2.  What is the nature of your product(s) or service(s)?
 
_________________________________________________________________
 
3.  What market segments do you intend to serve? (Describe the
    age, sex, income level and life-style characteristics of each
    market segment.)
_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________
 
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4.  What strategies will you use to attract and keep customers?

    Product _____________________________________________________
 
    Price _______________________________________________________
 
    Place _______________________________________________________
 
    Promotion ___________________________________________________
  
    Persuasion (personal selling)  ______________________________
 
5. What is your unique selling proposition (USP)?
 
_________________________________________________________________
 
6. Who is your competition,, and what will you do to control your
share of the market?
_________________________________________________________________
 
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MARKET RESEARCH

To use the marketing concept effectively in a growing business,
you should

   *  Analyze your firm's competitive advantage. What do you do
      best?

   *  Identify specific markets you now serve.

   *  Determine the wants and needs of your present customers.

   *  Determine what you are now doing to satisfy those wants and
      needs.

   *  Prepare a marketing plan that allows you to reach out to 
      new customers or to sell more to your present customers.

   *  Test the results to see if your new strategies are yielding
      the desired results.

Market research must be used in each of these six steps to help
define your business for your customer's interests, not your own.
It is the process of learning what customers want or need and
determining how to satisfy those wants or needs. It is also used
to confirm whether the customer reacted to a marketing program as
expected. The benefits of market research include

   *  Learning who your customers are and what they want.

   *  Learning how to reach your customers and how frequently you
      should try to communicate with them.

   *  Learning which advertising appeals are most effective and
      which ones get no response.

   *  Learning the relative success of different marketing
      strategies, thus improving return on investment.

   *  Learning how not to repeat your mistakes.

The dilemma for the small business owner is that, properly done,
market research is quite expensive, takes time and requires
professional expertise. Acquiring all the necessary data to
reduce the risk to your venture may cost so much and take so long
that you may go out of business. The answer is to find a quick
and inexpensive way of getting enough data to help you make the
right decision most of the time. Some obvious pitfalls are

   *  Using a sample that does not represent the total market.

   *  Asking the wrong questions.

   *  Not listening to the responses.

   *  Building in biases or predispositions that distort the
      reliability of information.

   *  Letting arrogance or hostility cut off communication at 
      some point in the marketing process.

If you have a limited budget, develop the skills to hear what
your customers and potential customers are telling you. Some
techniques worthy of consideration are

   *  Advisory board -- Occasionally convene a group of local
      people, whose opinions you respect, to act as a sounding
      board for new ideas. Choose your group with extreme care; 
      one or two negative thinkers can distort the thought 
      process of the entire group.

   *  User group -- Gather customers together to discuss new 
      ideas. Their opinions can help you keep your business on
      track. Pick a neutral setting where the people will talk. 
      Be sure to reward the participants and share the credit for
      good ideas.

   *  Informal survey -- If you seek feedback from customers by
      simply asking, How was everything? you can be seriously
      misled. Most people, even those with legitimate complaints,
      are reluctant to speak out because they are afraid of
      appearing foolish. This tendency is probably more 
      widespread in smaller communities, where friendships often
      stand in the way of critical review. Also, if your attitude
      is such that customers feel complaining will not do any 
      good, you may be antagonizing customers without even 
      knowing it. One solution is to take a few customers aside
      and ask them some sincere questions about how your business
      met their expectations and where it fell short. If the  
      customer appears uneasy, do not press the issue -- you will 
      only force him or her to give you pat answers to escape the
      situation. If you get a good response, take notes. Follow-
      up letters thanking the customers and telling them what you
      plan to do with their suggestions will bring you friends for
      life.

      Suggestion box -- A suggestion box is a simple idea that
      works, but only if you do the following:

      -- Read the suggestions on a regular basis.

      -- Do something about the suggestions you receive.

      -- Reward those who give you good ideas by posting their
         names, writing letters to them or rewarding them with
         money or other things of value.

      The principle at work is: If you reward good results, you
      will get more good results. If you do not reward them, you
      will end up with an empty suggestion box and the mistaken
      idea that everything is fine.

   *  Sample survey -- Canvass the neighborhood to gather data. 
      If you wish to remain anonymous, line up some marketing
      students to perform the survey or engage a local marketing
      agency. Be sure you establish a technique for getting a
      random sample as most people naturally attempt to attract
      respondents with whom they feel comfortable. Be sure to 
      test your questionnaire to see that the questions are 
      easily understood and are meaningful (see Appendix A for a
      sample survey).

   *  Focus group interview -- Get 10 to 15 people together in a
      relaxed setting and encourage them to talk about products 
      or services they like or dislike. Use a moderator who can
      lead the group discussion without inhibiting the thought
      processes or limiting the expression of ideas and opinions.
      Tape record the session for later analysis.

   *  Brainstorming -- This is a variation of the focus group, in
      which participants are encouraged to freewheel in their
      thinking to produce as many suggestions as possible without
      analyzing them. Again, a trained moderator will obtain the
      best results.

   *  Complaint analysis -- Encourage your customers to contact 
      you directly if they have complaints. Respond to every
      complaint with a courteous letter assuring that you will
      correct the situation. A few disgruntled customers can be
      harmful. If your customers feel that they can work with you
      to solve their problems, you are sure to be successful.

   *  Comparison shopping -- Arrange with someone in a similar
      business located out of town to come to your town to shop
      your business and several of your competitors. Then return
      the favor and compare notes. This will avoid the danger of
      your becoming complacent about your premises and 
      overlooking things that may be annoying or confusing to 
      your customers.

   *  Customer analysis -- Tabulate information about customers
      regularly to determine such data as 

      -- Age.

      -- Size of buying group (family, household, etc.).

      -- Sex of the decision maker in the group.

      -- Geographic location -- Sort checks and sales slips by 
         ZIP code, or ask customers to mark their home on a map
         with a colored pencil. Tabulate visitors versus local
         residents.

      -- Average amount of purchase.

      -- Coupon usage.

      -- Response to recent advertising.

      -- Radio station listened to.

      -- Newspapers read.

      -- Response to mailings.

      -- Full price buyers versus those who respond to sales or
         specials.

      -- Special populations in your area, such as college
         students, military personnel, senior citizens, hospital
         visitors, convention attendees, sports spectators, fair
         attendees, farmers, seasonal workers, car pools, pet
         owners, home owners, boat or recreational vehicle owners
         and athletic participants. The more you know about your
         customers the better you will be able to satisfy and 
         even anticipate their needs.

    *  Customer want list -- Keep a notebook at your cash 
       register and write down every request you receive for 
       items you do not carry or have in stock. Periodic review
       of the list will give valuable clues about sales you are
       losing or new products and services you should consider
       carrying. You may learn of fad items, products being 
       heavily advertised or items and services your competitors
       have dropped. Your customers may be telling you they are
       dissatisfied with your competition and would prefer buying
       from you. You will be able to tell if other businesses in
       the area are in trouble, even before they know it
       themselves. You may also discover ways to make additional
       income by adding new departments or product lines or by
       developing a special-order business if your customers are
       willing to pay the added shipping costs and wait for
       delivery.

    *  Industry analysis -- On business trips or vacations, visit
       businesses similar to yours. Take pictures of signs,
       storefronts and displays, and talk to the owners to compare
       notes on new products, services and marketing techniques.
       Subscribe to trade journals and attend trade shows to keep
       current on marketing developments in your industry.

    *  Sales representatives -- Representatives who call on other
       similar businesses in your area can provide valuable
       information on business trends, new items and changes in 
       the industry. Be sure the information is reliable.

    *  Advertising notebook -- Each ad that you run represents an
       investment. To make sure you maximize your investment, cut
       out each ad and tape it to a page in a three-ring 
       notebook. (For a radio or TV ad, write a short 
       description.) Enter the date, medium and cost of the ad.
       Record the results of the ad in sales, inquiries or 
       coupons redeemed. Divide the cost by the results to get a
       cost-per-inquiry factor that you can use to compare your
       ads and the media in which they appeared.

    *  Exit interviews -- When someone leaves your employ, be 
       sure to spend sufficient time to find out exactly why he 
       or she is leaving. Probe deep to learn what may be 
       occurring in your business that causes hard feelings,
       employee conflict or customer dissatisfaction. It is
       important that your employees leave with a good feeling
       about you and your business, so they will not spread
       unfounded rumors. Also, you may wish to keep them as
       customers. Employee turnover and training can be expensive
       to a business, so try to find out what you must do to keep
       employees and then decide if they are worth the price.
_________________________________________________________________

EXPANDING YOUR MARKET

When expanding your business, explore all the strategic
alternatives available to you. Select the one that makes the most
sense and then prepare a marketing plan on how to implement that
strategy. There are at least a dozen common strategies and a
variety of strategic combinations or special situations to choose
from.

Expansion of Present Location

Learn to spot telltale signs of saturation in your present
facilities. Grocery stores, for example, keep track of abandoned
carts. When a shopper fills a cart and then leaves because the
checkout line is too long, the grocer should realize that there
is a serious problem. If you are experiencing bottlenecks, think
about adding to your facilities. Determine how many additional
customers you could service by building up or out and compare the
additional sales to the cost of construction and temporary
inconvenience.

Relocation

If it appears unlikely that you can draw more customers to your
present location (at a reasonable cost), consider moving closer
to your customers. A location on Main Street, in a shopping mall
or an industrial park may cost you more in rent, but if you gain
exposure to new customers it may be a sound investment.

Additional Outlets

Reaching the most customers may require opening several outlets
at convenient locations throughout your market area. In addition
to the added costs of real estate and multiple inventories,
carefully analyze the cost and availability of labor and
training, and the cost of hiring a manager for each location and
installing an efficient monitoring system. Your advertising
dollars may become more efficient since your radio, TV and
newspaper ads cover your entire market. The multiple locations
will make it more convenient for customers to find you.

Downward Vertical Integration

If your profits depend on the prices you pay for raw materials,
your most profitable growth strategy may be to buy a farm, mine
or processing plant to produce your own materials. This strategy
also may make sense if your product quality is based on a
consistent supply of goods at an acceptable quality level.

Upward Vertical Integration

Most small manufacturing businesses that start are forced to
conform to the existing marketing channels and sell through
established manufacturers' representatives, jobbers or dealers
who have access to the market. As you grow, however, it makes
sense to analyze your distribution system to see when you can
improve your situation by hiring your own sales team, contracting
with distributors, buying a truck fleet, opening retail stores or
factory outlet stores or doing anything else you need to do to
get closer to your market. Remember, every time someone gets
between you and your customer, it either reduces your revenue or
increases your operating costs. Also, it impedes the
provider-consumer communication that is essential to a good
marketing program.

Exporting Goods or Services

Literally, there is a world of markets available to you if you
are willing to learn how to get started. The U.S. Department of
Commerce's U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service and the U.S. Small
Business Administration can help you explore potential foreign
markets for your product or service.

Tourists' Business

When you are looking for new customers, don't ignore tourists who
could be attracted to your area. Work with your local convention
and visitors' bureau to determine the impact if you cooperate
with local tourist attractions or hotels and restaurants to get
more people to visit and spend money in your community.

Franchises

Franchising as a growth strategy offers advantages if you are
short of expansion capital, yet have a concept that can be
packaged and taught to people who wish to invest in a business.
The legal problems can seem overwhelming, but with a good plan
and competent advice, you can develop a franchise system that
could prove extremely profitable.

License Agreements

If you have a technical process or service, you may be able to
find people in other markets who would be willing to pay you a
royalty for the rights to use your process. Perhaps you could
sell raw materials, secret ingredients, special tooling or
promotional materials to your license holders.

Direct Marketing

Selling directly to your customers is one of the oldest and most
effective methods of marketing. Today, there are few door-to-door
salespeople; most direct marketing is seen in party plan selling
and through mail, TV and magazines. Direct selling requires good
selection and training techniques and a commission plan plus
liberal incentives.

Telemarketing

If you have a good list of prospective customers, telemarketing
may be an effective method of informing them about your business,
qualifying them for sales follow-up or selling your product or
service to them. Professional firms can be used, or you can set
up your own telephone room. Here again, recruiting and training
are critical because only a few people can do telemarketing well.

Private Label

One method of reaching out to new markets is to sell your product
under the name of your distributor or retailer. However, you
cannot build customer or brand loyalty because the consumer does
not know you are the producer. Another potential problem is that,
should the owner of the label find a cheaper producer, you may be
out of the business.
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THE MARKETING PLAN

The marketing plan is a problem-solving document. Skilled problem
solvers recognize that a big problem is usually the combination
of several smaller problems. The best approach is to solve each
of the smaller problems first, thereby dividing the big problem
into manageable pieces. Your marketing plan should take the same
approach. It should be a guide on which to base decisions and
should ensure that everyone in your organization is working
together to achieve the same goals. A good marketing plan can
prevent your organization from reacting to problems in a
piecemeal manner and even help in anticipating problems.

Before your marketing plan can be developed, research must give
you the basic guidelines: for whom you are designing your product
or service (market segmentation), and exactly what that product
or service should mean to those in the marketplace (market
positioning). Below are some guidelines to help you develop a
marketing plan to support the strategy you have selected for your
organization.

Market Segmentation

Your marketing plan should recognize the various segments of the
market for your product or service and indicate how to adjust
your product to reach those distinct markets. Instead of
marketing a product in one way to everyone, you must recognize
that some segments are not only different, but better than others
for your product. This approach can be helpful in penetrating
markets that would be too broad and undefined without
segmentation. No matter what you are making or selling, take the
total market and divide it up like a pie chart. The divisions can
be based on various criteria such as those listed below.

Demographics

This is the study of the distribution, density and vital
statistics of a population, and includes such characteristics as

   *  Sex.

   *  Age.

   *  Education.

   *  Geographic location.

   *  Home ownership versus rental.

   *  Marital status.

   *  Size of family unit.

   *  Total income of family unit.

   *  Ethnic or religious background.

   *  Job classification -- blue collar versus salaried or
      professional.

Psychographics

This is the study of how the human characteristics of consumers
may have a bearing on their response to products, packaging,
advertising and public relations efforts. Behavior may be
measured as it involves an interplay among these broad sets of
variables:

   *  Predisposition -- What is there about a person's past
      culture, heredity or upbringing that may influence his or 
      her ability to consider purchasing one new product or 
      service versus another?

   *  Influences -- What are the roles of social forces such as
      education, peer pressure or group acceptance in dictating a
      person's consumption patterns?

   *  Product Attributes -- What the product is or can be made to
      represent in the minds of consumers has a significant 
      bearing on whether certain segments will accept the 
      concept. These attributes may be suggested by the marketer 
      or perceived by the customer. Some typical ways of 
      describing a product include 

      -- Price/value perception -- Is the item worth the price
         being asked?

      -- Taste -- Does it have the right amount of sweetness or
         lightness?

      -- Texture -- Does it have the accepted consistency or 
         feel?

      -- Quality -- What can be said about the quality of the
         ingredients or lack of artificial ingredients?

      -- Benefits -- How does the consumer feel after using the
         product?

      -- Trust -- Can the consumer rely on this particular brand?
         What about the reputation of the manufacturer in 
         standing behind the product?


Life-Style

Statements consumers make about themselves through conspicuous
consumption can be put to good use by research people who read
the signals correctly. By studying behavioral variables, such as
a person's use of time, services and products, researchers can
identify some common factors that can predict future behavior.

ZIP Code Analysis

In his book, "The Clustering of America,"* Michael J. Weiss
described the research efforts of the Claritas Corporation. In
1971, company president Jonathan Robbin started with the idea of
analyzing the 254,000 U.S. census blocks and 36,000 ZIP code
areas to find out what types of people live in each. Based on the
theory that birds of a feather flock together, he reasoned that,
as neighborhoods develop, the people who move in are attracted by
a set of common life-style factors in a pattern called social
clustering. He analyzed each ZIP code according to hundreds of
characteristics under the headings of social rank, mobility,
ethnicity, family life cycle and housing style. He found 34 key
factors that accounted for 87 percent of the variation among U.S.
neighborhoods. His computers then assigned each ZIP code to a
cluster type and ranked them from highest to lowest standard of
living (see Table 1).
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                               Table 1  
Clustering of U.S. Neighborhoods According to Standard of Living

ZIP              Median Median    % college  %  U.S.  Home value
qual Cluster     income home value  grads  households  to income 
ity-a
      
1  Blue Blood
     Estates    $70,307 $200,000+b    50.7     1.1       2.8
2  Money & 
     Brains      45,798  150,755      45.5     0.9       3.3
3  Furs & Station
     Wagons      50,086  132,725      38.1     3.2       2.6
4  Urban Gold 
     Coast       36,838  200,000+b    50.5     0.5       5.4
5  Pools/Patios  35,895   99,702      28.2     3.4       2.7
6  2 More Rungs  31,263  117,012      28.3     0.7       3.7
7  Young 
    Influentials 30,398  106,332      36.0     2.9       3.5
8  YoungSuburbia 38,582   93,281      23.8     5.3       2.4
9  God's Country 36,728   99,418      25.8     2.7       2.7
10 Blue Chip 
     Blues       32,218   72,563      13.1     6.0       2.3
11 Bohemian Mix  21,916  110,668      38.8     1.1       5.0
12 Levittown USA 28,742   70,728      15.7     3.1       2.5
13 Gray Power    25,259   83,630      18.3     2.9       3.3
14 Black 
    Enterprise   33,149   68,713      16.0     0.8       2.0
15 NewBeginnings 24,847   75,364      19.3     4.3       3.0
16 Blue-Collar 
     Nursery     30,077   67,281      10.2     2.2       2.2
17 New 
    Homesteaders 25,909   67,221      15.9     4.2       2.6
18 New Melting 
    Pot          22,142  113,616      19.1     0.9       5.1
19 Towns & Gowns 17,862   60,891      27.5     1.2       3.4
20 Rank & File   26,283   59,363       9.2     1.4       2.3
21 MiddleAmerica 24,431   55,605      10.7     3.2       2.3
22 Old Yankee 
     Rows        24,808   76,406      11.0     1.6       3.0
23 Coalburg & 
     Corntown    23,994   51,604      10.4     2.0       2.2
24 Shotguns & 
     Pickups     24,291   53,222       9.1     1.9       2.2
25 Golden Ponds  20,140   51,537      12.8     5.2       2.6
26 Agri-Business 21,363   49,012      11.5     2.1       2.3
27 Emergent 
     Minorities  22,029   45,187      10.7     1.7       2.0
28 Single City 
     Blues       17,926   62,351      18.6     3.3       3.5
29 Mines & Mills 21,537   46,325       8.7     2.8       2.2
30 Back-Country 
     Folks       19,843   41,030       8.1     3.4       2.1
31 Norma 
     Rae-Ville   18,559   36,556       9.6     2.3       2.0
32 Smalltown 
     Downtown    17,206   42,225      10.0     2.5       2.5
33 Grain Belt    21,698   45,852       8.4     1.3       2.0
34 HeavyIndustry 18,325   39,537       6.5     2.8       2.2
35 ShareCroppers 16,854   33,917       7.1     4.0       2.0
36 Downtown 
     Dixie-Style 15,204   35,301      10.7     3.4       2.3
37 Hispanic Mix  16,270   49,533       6.8     1.9       3.0
38 Tobacco Roads 13,227   27,143       7.3     1.2       2.1
39 Hard Scrabble 12,874   27,651       6.5     1.5       2.1
40 Public 
      Assistance 10,804   28,340       6.3     3.1       2.6
      
National Median $24,269 $ 64,182       16.2  100.0       2.6
      
Source: PRIZM (Census Demography) Claritas Corporation 1987.

a = ZIP quality is a socioeconomic ranking based on income home
value education and occupation a kind of pecking order of
affluence. Although jobs have no social status per se they're
rated in a complex weighting system on the basis of how much
education and training they require.

b = Because the upper census limit for home values is $200,000+ 
the figure for Blue Blood Estates and Urban Gold Coast are
estimates.
_________________________________________________________________

The important thing to recognize about the 40 groups in Table 1
is that each spends its money in particular ways because the
people in that neighborhood have common values. As you move up
the zip quality scale, it is obvious that people have more money
to spend, but unless you have what that group thinks is important
or desirable, they aren't going to buy. And, more important, if
their friends and neighbors don't like what you have to sell,
your chances of making the sale are pretty slim.

A sample analysis of the data in Table 1 follows. The average
American spends 2.6 times his or her annual income on a home
(calculated by dividing the median home value for each cluster by
the median income). According to Table 1, the Bohemian Mix
cluster spends almost twice the average on housing because, while
its members earn less money than neighboring clusters, their
higher education level gives them the confidence and desire to
invest in a larger house. The business owner must learn how home
purchase relates to all other purchases for each cluster and how
all purchases fall into a pattern. The pattern has to do with how
the people in each cluster place values on and gain acceptance
and pleasure from purchases, leisure activities and memberships
that contribute to the life-style of that particular
neighborhood.

In 1978, Claritas launched PRIZM -- Potential Rating Index by ZIP
Markets -- which refined the 40 rankings by cross-referencing with
magazine subscription lists, new car buyer lists, TV viewing
diaries, and warranty card, voting records and sales records for
thousands of products and services. With this new level of data
sophistication, marketing people obtained an amazingly accurate
picture of who lives in the 40 types of neighborhoods.

The largest single cluster, for example, is No. 10 -- Blue Chip
Blues. These are the top-of-the-line blue-collar folks who have
parlayed a high school education and skilled-labor jobs into
suburban comfort and active leisure lives. By comparing this
cluster's life-style expenditures with those of other clusters
and the national average, we can cumulate data such as those
reflected in Table 2
_________________________________________________________________

                            Table 2  
         Life-Style Expenditures of Blue Chip Blues Cluster

High usage                 Index*  Low usage               Index*

Life-style    

Campers/trailers             202   Jewelry                     91
Above-ground swimming pools  197   Civic clubs                 81
Watch ice hockey             173   Watch roller derby          77
Preferred stock in own co.   173   Imported champagne          76
Bicycles                     154   Malt liquor                 69
Hedge trimmer                153   Tennis                      67
Second mortgages             153   Jazz records/tapes          54
Lawn tools                   153   Movie cameras               51
Bowling                      151   
Automatic garage door opener 149   
Racquetball                  145   
Desk-top calculators         137   
Vans                         136   
Salt-water fishing           134   
Push lawn mowers             132   
Compact cars                 132   
Diet pills                   129   
    

Magazines/newspapers    

Skin Diver                   192   Wall Street Journal         77
Bride's Magazine             162   New Yorker                  74
4 Wheel & Off Road           159   Harper's                    69
Golf                         154   Town & Country              54
    

Cars    

Chevrolet Sprint             194   Saab                        67
Buick Riviera                175   BMW 5 Series                49
Plymouth Turismo             174   Ferrari                     46
Pontiac Grand Am             171   Jaguar                      41
Ford EXP                     171   Rolls Royce                 23
    

Food    

Children's vitamins          126   Canned corned-beef hash     94
Frozen pizza                 125   Whole milk                  92
Mexican food                 122   Cold cereal                 89
Powdered soft drinks         120   Canned stews                84
    
Source:SMBR and MRI data bases Claritas Corporation 1987.

*Index numbers indicate percentages of users in each cluster
indexed against the national average. An index of 100 equals the
U.S. average for that category. An index of 300 means the cluster
has three times the national average for that category.
_________________________________________________________________
.
Such information is indispensable to direct mail marketing firms,
but almost any growing business can benefit from better
information about past and present customers. Start by recording
ZIP codes from checks you receive, ask your customers to write
ZIP codes on your charge card slips and categorize your cash
sales by ZIP code. Such information gathered over time will give
you clues to such questions as

   *  Where do your present customers live?

   *  What areas are growing or declining?

   *  What is the influence of tourists, students, military or
   *  other specialized populations?

   *  Does advertising increase sales in certain areas?

   *  What is the effect of competitive activities on your sales?

   *  How can you find more customers like the ones you have now?

The real key to successful marketing is to identify the market
segments you wish to reach and then tabulate the results of your
marketing efforts until you find out what works best for you -- and
then keep repeating your successes.

Market Positioning

You must realize that your product or service cannot be all
things to all people. Very few items on the market today have
universal appeal. Even when dealing in basic commodities like
table salt or aspirin, marketing people have gone to all sorts of
extremes to create brand awareness and product differentiation.
If your product or service is properly positioned, prospective
purchasers or users should immediately recognize its unique
benefits or advantages and be better able to assess it in
comparison to your competition's offering. Positioning is how you
give your product or service brand identification.

Positioning involves analyzing each market segment as defined by
your research activities and developing a distinct position for
each segment. Ask yourself how you want to appear to that
segment, or what you must do for that segment to ensure that it
buys your product or service. This will dictate different media
and advertising appeals for each segment. For example, you may
sell the same product in a range of packages or sizes, or make
cosmetic changes in the product, producing private labels or
selecting separate distribution channels to reach the various
segments. Beer, for example, is sold on tap and in seven-ounce
bottles, twelve-ounce cans and bottles, six-packs, twelve-packs,
cases, and quart bottles and kegs of several sizes. The beer is
the same but each package size may appeal to a separate market
segment and have to be sold with a totally different appeal and
through different retail outlets.

Remember that your marketing position can, and should, change to
meet the current conditions of the market for your product. The
ability of your company to adjust will be enhanced greatly by an
up-to-date knowledge of the marketplace gained through continual
monitoring. By having good data about your customers, the
segments they fit into and the buying motives of those segments,
you can select the position that makes the most sense. While
there are many possible marketing positions, most would fit into
one of the following categories:

   *  Positioning on specific product features -- A very common
      approach, especially for industrial products. If your 
      product or service has some unique features that have
      obvious value this may be the way to go.

   *  Positioning on benefits -- Strongly related to positioning 
      on product features. Generally, this is more effective
      because you can talk to your customers about what your
      product or service can do for them. The features may be 
      nice, but unless customers can be made to understand why 
      the product will benefit them, you may not get the sale.

   *  Positioning for a specific use -- Related to benefit
      positioning. Consider Campbell's positioning of soups for
      cooking. An interesting extension is mood positioning: Have
      a Coke and a smile. This works best when you can teach your
      customers how to use your product or when you use a
      promotional medium that allows a demonstration.

   *  Positioning for user category -- A few examples: You've 
      Come a Long Way Baby, The Pepsi Generation and Breakfast of
      Champions. Be sure you show your product being used by 
      models with whom your customers can identify.

   *  Positioning against another product or a competing business
      -- A strategy that ranges from implicit to explicit
      comparison. Implicit comparisons can be quite pointed; for
      example, Avis never mentions Hertz, but the message is 
      clear. Explicit comparisons can take two major forms. The
      first form makes a comparison with a direct competitor and 
      is aimed at attracting customers from the compared brand,
      which is usually the category leader. The second type does
      not attempt to attract the customers of the compared 
      product, but rather uses the comparison as a reference 
      point. Consider, for example, the positioning of the
      Volkswagen Dasher, which picks up speed faster than a
      Mercedes and has a bigger trunk than a Rolls Royce. This
      usually works to the advantage of the smaller business if 
      you can capitalize on the American tradition of cheering 
      for the underdog. You can gain stature by comparing 
      yourself to a larger competitor just as long as your
      customers remain convinced that you are trying harder.

   *  Product class disassociation -- A less common type of
      positioning. It is particularly effective when used to
      introduce a new product that differs from traditional
      products. Lead-free gasoline and tubeless tires were new
      product classes positioned against older products. Space-
      age technology may help you here. People have become
      accustomed to change and new products and are more willing
      to experiment than was true ten years ago. Even so, some
      people are more adventuresome and trusting than others and
      more apt to try a revolutionary product. The trick is to 
      find out who are the potential brand switchers or
      experimenters and find out what it would take to get them 
      to try your product. The obvious disadvantage of dealing
      with those who try new products is that they may move on to
      another brand just as easily. Brand loyalty is great as 
      long as it is to your brand.

   *  Hybrid bases -- Incorporates elements from several types of
      positioning. Given the variety of possible bases for
      positioning, small business owners should consider the
      possibility of a hybrid approach. This is particularly true
      in smaller towns where there aren't enough customers in any
      segment to justify the expense of separate marketing
      approaches.
_________________________________________________________________

THE MARKETING BUDGET

Resource allocation is a critical part of any marketing plan. To
simplify budget preparation, it is recommended that investments
in labor, material and services be broken down into the five Ps
of marketing:

   *  Product -- The item or service you have to sell.

   *  Price -- The amount of money you ask your customer to pay 
      for your product.

   *  Place -- Where a product is now and how it is transported 
      to your customer.

   *  Promotion -- The advertising and publicity necessary to
      complete a transaction.

   *  Persuasion -- Personal selling of your business.

Each of the five Ps represents an investment in dollars,
materials and services. We can represent this as a system of
pipes consisting of a tank of money, which represents the total
marketing budget, a main pipe through which the dollars flow and
five valves that control the flow of money to each of the five Ps
(see Figure 1, page 12). The concepts of market planning,
segmentation and positioning are shown as filters. Budgeting is
the process of setting the valves to meet the needs of each
marketing task for each segment and then monitoring the results
over time to make sure you remain on target.

As your market segments change, you will have to reset the
valves. The important thing is to have in place an effective
marketing research system that gives you the confidence to move
in the right direction for the right reason.
_________________________________________________________________

        FIGURE 1 -- A MARKETING MODEL FOR SMALL BUSINESS

                 Marketing Budget in terms of
               dollars available for investment                   

     
                       Marketing plan


                       Segmentation


                        Positioning


Product/
Service      Price         Place        Promotion      Persuasion

*Acceptance  *Strategy     *Transporta- *Advertising   *Personal
                            tion                        selling
*Basic need  *Comparison   *Storage     *Publicity     *Direct
                                                        mail
*Discretion- *Deals        *Retail      *Signs         *Telemmar-
 ary                        Store                       keting
*Convenience *Coupons      *Wholesale   *Point-of-     *Endorse-
                                         purchase       ments
*Fad         *Credit       *Repair      *Special       *Door-to-
                            parts        events         door
*Luxury      *Layaway      *Service     *Word-of-mouth *Party 
                                                        plan
*Packaging   *Delivery                  *Repeat sales
*Value       *Installation
*Selection   *Warranty
*Amount (size)
_________________________________________________________________

The Product (or Service)

When consumers think about using a product or service, they
consider its advantages and disadvantages. In other words, they
ask, What's in it for me? Therefore, it is not enough to define
your product and its features; other questions must be answered.
Think first of your perception of your product or service and
then find out how your customers see it. Ask yourself questions
such as

   *  What is a description of our product or service?

   *  What image does it have in the market?

   *  What are its features and benefits?

   *  In the eyes of the consumer, is there a way for us to 
      provide our product or service more effectively?

   *  Where does our product or service fit in a product life
      cycle?

      -- Introduction (maximum investment in development).

      -- Growth (investment in marketing).

      -- Maturity (maximize profits).

      -- Decline.

      -- Marketing decision -- At some point during this 
         declining stage, you must decide whether to invest more
         money in the product (i.e., create a new and improved
         model requiring additional investment and generating a 
         new life cycle) or to discontinue it.

Price

There are a number of pricing strategies you can use to achieve
your growth goal. Each has the potential of producing a profit,
and most are tied to the critical relationship of price-to-sales
volume and stock turnover. Some strategies you may want to
consider are listed below.

Price Skimming

This refers to the practice of charging high prices for the
purpose of maximizing profit in the short run. It works best when

   *  The product is unique and people are willing to pay extra
      just to have it. There are trendsetters in society who 
      always are looking for something new and are willing to pay
      the price. A larger number are followers, and they will buy
      your product if it is accepted by the leaders. The 
      followers, however, will not pay the higher price.

   *  The cost of development is high and there is a chance of
      early obsolescence or imitation by competitors.

   *  You have a strong patent position, or your product would be
      difficult to copy.

The real disadvantage of skimming is that it attracts
competition. Your competitors will soon figure out what you are
up to, and the high profit potential will encourage them to copy
you. They may produce cheaper versions of your product or style,
referred to as knockoffs in the market. Once you have meaningful
competition on price, your skimming days are over and you run the
risk of ending up with a warehouse full of products that cannot
be sold at any price.

Penetration Pricing

The opposite of skimming is to introduce your product at such a
low price that you will quickly gain a large share of the market.
The purpose is to discourage competition. However, eventually you
will have to raise your prices to start making some profit and,
when you do, you will learn much about customer loyalty.

Buying a Market Position

A variation of penetration pricing is to buy your way into the
market with free samples or heavy coupons, for example, 50 cents
off on a 69-cent purchase. This tactic is usually used by big
companies because it takes considerable financial backing and it
may be six months or more before it starts to pay off. Small
marketers can use it to the degree they know what they are doing
and can control the process. Frequent follow-up is important to
ensure samples are not going to professional collectors but are
reaching potentially strong customers.

Loss Leader

This refers to promoting a few items at a sizable reduction to
attract customers. The idea is that the increased traffic will
result in greater sales of your regular-priced merchandise. The
reductions have to be on recognized brands and items purchased
frequently enough so customers know the prices and can recognize
the savings. You must keep switching leader items -- people are not
going to buy catsup four weeks in a row regardless of its price.
The danger is that you may develop a following of cherry pickers
who will breeze into your store, scoop up the specials and buy
nothing else.

Multiple Unit Pricing

You can increase the size of your individual sales by offering a
meaningful discount for larger purchases. A liquor store usually
will offer a discount or throw in a free bottle of wine when you
buy a case. The same idea applies to the baker's dozen, a
discount on a set of tires or selling beer and soft drinks by the
pitcher. This is a good technique for building customer goodwill,
but you will not see your customers as often. The trade-off, of
course, is that you save time and money on containers and
packaging, save time by writing up fewer sales and, perhaps, can
make your delivery service more efficient by selling by the
truckload. Variations are two-fors, six-packs, cheaper by the
carton and bulk price.

Suggested Retail Pricing

This is the practice of selling at prices set by your suppliers.
It is convenient because many product lines are available
prepackaged and prepriced. However, you lose flexibility and must
live with a set percentage markup. (To combat this disadvantage,
some suppliers offer two-for-three options using the retail
price). Because suggested-retail or retail-price-maintenance
plans are illegal in some states, the practice usually is a
loser. Using a slightly different strategy, Panasonic published a
minimum retail price list showing a higher average retail; some
stores use such gimmicks as compare at or nationally advertised
at to imply that the official price is at a certain point.

Discount Pricing

The discount store usually offers lower prices as a trade-off for
spartan interiors, lack of sales help and the efficiency of
central checkouts. These stores typically work on a 35 to
38 percent markup compared to 42.5 to 45 percent for a department
store. Since discount stores depend on the efficiency of greater
volume to cover operating costs, they must maintain, or at least
promote, good prices.

Full-cost Pricing

This pricing is calculated by adding the costs of the product or
service plus a flat fee or percentage as the margin of profit.
During inflation, you must keep track of your costs to make sure
that you are charging enough. In many business lines, owners have
come to realize that when they replace their stock, the wholesale
price has often risen above their retail price. If they do not
raise prices rapidly enough, they are faced with diminishing
inventories at a constant dollar investment or with having to
invest more money to restock their shelves at the constant level.

Keystone Pricing

This refers to the practice of setting the retail price at double
the cost figure, or a 100 percent markup. It is most common with
jewelry items and in specialty shops, high-ticket fashion shops
and department stores. Typically, the merchandise is subject to
drastic clearance markdowns on items that are slow sellers or
held past the season.

Price Lining

This is the technique used by most retail stores of stocking
merchandise in several different price ranges. A hardware store,
for example, may carry hammers in good, better, and best
categories at $3.49, $6.49 and $9.98, respectively, and a
professional model at $17.95. The theory is that people buy
products with different uses in mind and with different
expectations for quality and length of useful life. If you do not
carry a range of prices, you may lose the customers who cannot
find the product at the right price. Price lining simplifies
buying and inventory control because you buy only for the price
levels that you know your customers will accept and eliminate
those goods that fall outside the levels you want to carry.

Competitive Advantage

Here is where you copy or follow the prices set by your
competition. Based on your service image, you can set your prices
equal to, above or below those of your competition. This strategy
requires constant vigilance by reading the ads and shopping your
competition. It is a more passive technique because you're always
following your competitors. Chances are your more aggressive
competitor can make better purchases than you. A variation of
this is the we-won't-be-undersold routine, where you offer to
meet or beat the prices of all your competitors.

Pre-season Pricing

Many manufacturers offer price discounts or dated billing as
incentives to buy early. This is important to manufacturers
because of production planning and the lead time necessary for
ordering raw materials. For the retailer, the same principles
apply; also, off-season specials may be a way to profit in
business on a year-round basis. When you sell at a lower price to
get the early sales, you may be borrowing from later full price
sales. On the other hand, anyone who has tried to buy snow tires
during the year's first snowstorm knows the extent of delivery
problems. In this case, early sales at a lower price would have
allowed the merchant to serve the customers better and to capture
sales that may be lost due to limited service facilities.

Price Is No Object

This refers to certain marketing situations in which the quality
of the product or service is far more important than the price.
If you need a kidney transplant, for example, you are not going
to shop around and haggle over price. And even if you do press
the doctor, he probably will quote you a range with a $5,000
spread rather than giving a specific number. The same is often
true with high-ticket fashions and jewelry. Using the same
psychology, expensive automobiles and boats are not sold on
price. They may use a starting at or base price to get people
interested, but the prices of the options are usually in very
small print. The extreme of this attitude is that if you have to
ask the price you probably cannot afford the item anyway.

Place

Where the product is located when the potential customer is
exposed to a buying opportunity can often mean the difference
between success or failure. The distribution plan for a given
product may be determined by several of the  factors listed
below.

Product Characteristics

   *  Perishability -- Refrigeration or frozen storage 
      requirements can severely restrict place options and raise
      operating expenses.

   *  Bulk -- A product requiring large display space, or one 
      that is heavy, may restrict transportation options as well 
      as display opportunities.

   *  Displayability -- Package design that prevents stacking on
      store shelves can severely restrict customer exposure. (Log
      Cabin syrup was originally packaged in slanted-roof metal
      containers. As supermarkets placed increased value on shelf
      space for customer selection, the inability to stack the 
      log cabins forced a change in package design.)

   *  Buying requirements -- If the item must be tried on to
      determine fit or if it must be demonstrated before the sale
      can be made, the place element is more restrictive than for
      a product that requires no package opening at the time of
      purchase.

Customer Characteristics

   *  Impulse versus planned purchase -- Items displayed in a 
      high-traffic area can increase unplanned purchases.

   *  Frequency of purchase -- Items purchased once a week 
      usually require more outlets than those purchased once a
      year. Grocery stores, for example, always outnumber retail
      furniture outlets.

   *  Distance -- How far is the customer willing to travel to
      purchase your goods or services?

Use Characteristics

How the customer uses the product after purchase also can
determine place characteristics.

   *  Do you need to train the customer to use your product, or
      supply instructions or a repair parts list?

   *  Can you make more sales for service contracts, accessory
      items, consumable supplies, repair parts or companion 
      items?

Location

For most small businesses, especially those involved in retail,
finding the best location at the lowest price becomes an
important consideration. You can draw customers to a poor
location but the cost of advertising is often prohibitive. You
should learn how much money you have to pay for the better
location and see how that compares to the cost of drawing the
same number of customers to the poorer location. Do not overlook
parking, public transportation, quality of the neighborhood, sign
restrictions, lighting, traffic flow and other factors that
determine your store's convenience and safety.

Promotion

Perhaps the most versatile of the five marketing Ps is promotion.
It covers all phases of communication between the seller and the
potential customer. It is versatile because a change in budget,
media or target audience can be made quickly. Promotions also can
be effectively changed for specific market segment efforts. Major
promotional concerns include the following.

Budget

Because promotional costs can originate from several sources, it
is vital to establish a written budget and closely monitor actual
costs. The budgeting procedure is simplified if separate budgets
are prepared for advertising and promotional activities. Sales
goals in dollars, units or both are usually the basis for
promotional budgets.

Timing

Selling when the consumer wants to buy is a fundamental factor in
the marketing concept. Promotional efforts, whether in-store or
through mass media advertising, should be timed to coincide with
maximum seasonal or cyclical demand.

Distribution of Promotional Efforts

   *  Advertising -- The major portion of a firm's promotional
      budget is advertising. Some advertising media, such as the
      Yellow Pages, where a specific amount is charged each 
      month, can be budgeted as fixed advertising expenditures. 
      The mass media -- newspapers, radio, TV, direct mail and
      magazines -- should be individually budgeted to achieve 
      sales goals, improve your image and expand your customer
      base.

   *  Promotion -- Many firms classify promotion as a separate
      budget category. In this case, promotional efforts include
      in-store displays, sampling, specialty advertising, 
      giveaways and other nontraditional media efforts.

   *  Publicity -- This is the no-cost element, meaning there is 
      no charge by the newspaper or other medium for carrying a
      news release or feature. There will be an internal cost,
      however, for the preparation of publicity releases and
      photography. Many businesses miss publicity opportunities
      because they do not have a written marketing plan. Every
      promotion or addition of personnel is an opportunity for 
      free publicity, but only if the news release is prepared 
      and sent to the media. Business expansion, remodeling,
      automation or changes in product name all deserve a 
      publicity program.

Promotion Strategy

All advertising and other promotional activities should be in
tune with the firm's stated position in the marketplace. This
suggests that not only advertising themes but also media
selection must be based on building and strengthening that
position.

   *  Benefit approach -- Regardless of your media, to make your
      marketing concept work in advertising messages you must
      analyze each product and service in relation to these two
      elements:

      -- Product point -- Those features built into the product 
         or service. Product points are usually highly touted in
         advertising messages, but they are relatively 
         ineffective unless they are integrated with the second
         ingredient.

      -- Benefit -- The advantage a customer receives after
         purchasing the product. Your advertising should promise
         benefits and make those promises believable by naming 
         the product points that will produce the benefits. For
         example, "You'll feel better about your family's safety
         (benefit) when they are riding on the new steel-belted
         radials from Armstrong -- thanks to the interwoven
         blankets of steel embedded deep in the tread (product
         point)."

   *  Media -- Consider many types of media in your promotional
      campaigns.

      -- Newspapers

      -- Shoppers

      -- Television

      -- Radio

      -- Billboards

      -- Direct Mail

      -- Magazines

A full discussion of these media is included under Media
Available to Advertisers.

In summary, the importance of promotion in the overall marketing
strategy suggests you devote time to its written plan and
constantly monitor the plan's performance. Be creative but avoid
cuteness. Stick to the benefit approach, and your customers will
respond.

Persuasion

Your business's success will depend on your ability to persuade
others to take actions that will help them while also helping
you. This is referred to as a win-win situation. Both parties in
the transaction must receive a benefit in value or in
satisfaction. There are many buying motives that may bring a
customer to your business:

   Gain               Utility              Conformity
   Time saved         Productivity         Saved effort
   Health             Convenience          Money saved
   Comfort            Happiness            Need
   Protection         Pride (vanity)       Want
   Pleasure           Fear                 Economy
   Amusement          Love                 Luxury
   Security           Profit               Safety
 
The key to successful selling is to determine which motives
brought the customer to you and then develop a sales presentation
that will convince the customer that you and your product can
meet those needs. This process can be broken down into a series
of steps:

   *  Prospecting -- This is the activity of identifying 
      potential customers or running ads to entice people into 
      your store.

   *  Pre-approach -- This includes planning what you will say to
      customers and what evidence or displays you will need to
      enhance your presentation.

   *  Approach -- This may include a greeting, statement of
      objective or series of questions to determine exactly what
      the customer wants. Learn as much as possible about the
      customer and his or her buying motive before you begin your
      presentation.

   *  Presentation -- This is the opportunity to tell customers
      everything they need to know to make an intelligent buying
      decision.

   *  Dramatization -- Show enthusiasm for your product or
      service.

   *  Proof -- Words may not be enough. You may need to show 
      facts and figures, endorsements, testimonials or other 
      means of backing up your claims.

   *  Visualization --  your customers visualize the satisfaction
      they will derive from buying now.
   *  Demonstration -- If possible, let the customer experience 
      the product. Many items are difficult to sell without a test
      drive.

   *  Trial close -- This is a statement or question designed to
      let you know how close the customer is to making a buying
      decision.

   *  Uncover objections -- Find out why the customer is not 
      ready to buy.

   *  Meet objections -- Go back over your presentation to clear
      up misunderstandings or doubts the customer may have.

   *  Final close -- Ask a question that causes the customer to
      make a buying decision in your favor.

   *  Follow-up -- This includes all the steps you take to write 
      up the sale, arrange delivery, receive payment and ensure
      customer satisfaction.

The above process may be inefficient in many selling situations.
The genius and creativity of advertising is its flexibility in
preconditioning the customer and answering some objections.
Certainly your reputation, attitude and the atmosphere of the
selling situation can do much to alleviate fears or concerns in
the mind of the customer. Your best prospect often is a satisfied
customer or the friend or relative of a satisfied customer.

For many products or services, direct mail and telephone selling
can be used to complete the sale or to qualify prospects for a
personal follow-up.

Motivation is an essential ingredient in persuasion. You and your
employees must maintain a positive mental attitude. You must
learn to sell yourself, your company and your product. And your
attitude must be one of serving the customer first, with the
realization that your success depends completely on your ability
to serve the customer.
_________________________________________________________________

THE ADVERTISING BUDGET

This section will concentrate on how to prepare a written,
detailed advertising budget. This differs from a budget that
details specific dollar amounts for anticipated receipts and
expenditures, usually handled by a certified public accountant
(CPA) or other financial advisor. These professionals seldom do
more than allocate a specific amount for advertising and treat it
the same as rent -- i.e., as an annual expense item.

Returning once again to the marketing approach, a sound
advertising budget should be based on consumer habits and
preferences. Unfortunately, most retail advertising today appears
as an attempt to solve a store's problems. Promotions reading We
Are Overstocked, We Must Reduce Inventory and Our Loss Is Your
Gain are commonplace and do very little to stimulate the reader
to action. The first requirement of successful advertising for
the retail store is to work toward solving the consumers'
problems. This publication's approach to preparing an advertising
budget will, therefore, be based on the following assumptions:

   *  Timing of advertising will be determined by consumers'
      preference for buying rather than when the store would like
      to sell.

   *  Items to be featured in advertising will be selected on a
      basis of probable popularity with customers rather than on 
      a store's desire to reduce inventory.

   *  Headlines and copy for advertising will always be
      customer-benefit oriented.

   *  Any medium will be selected on its ability to reach the 
      right prospects. Personal favorites and prejudices prevent
      objectivity in media selection.

The complete advertising budget must provide specific written
answers to each of these questions:

   *  How much should I spend?

   *  When should I spend it?

   *  Where should I spend it?

   *  What media should I use?
 
How Much Should I Spend?

Since the cost of advertising must be paid from sales revenue, it
should always be expressed as a function of expected sales
dollars. The two most popular approaches are

  1. The number of dollars considered necessary to successfully
     promote the sale of a given item at a given price. (Example:
     $10 of the $300 selling price for each refrigerator will go 
     to advertising so that $3,000 in advertising should sell 300
     units and produce $90,000 in sales.)

  2. A flat percentage of every anticipated revenue dollar will 
     go toward advertising. (Three percent of an estimated 
     $100,000 annual sales volume will result in an advertising
     budget of $3,000.)

This section will concentrate on the second approach because it
allocates advertising costs for all product lines. Although fewer
than 50 percent of the items carried by most stores are never
advertised, their sale is the direct result of customer traffic
created by the advertised items and, therefore, all merchandise
sold should contribute to the overall cost of advertising.

Setting Sales Goals

In both approaches, the first step in preparing an advertising
budget must be setting sales goals. Just how many television sets
do you expect to sell in a month, a season, a year? Or what will
the retail sales volume for the entire store be in each time
frame?

Setting sales goals can be a guessing game, but basic research
into past sales performance, the quantity and quality of
competition, the economic forecasts for your area and
characteristics of the population in your market area can help
make the guess an educated one. The U.S. Department of Commerce
publishes statistical information about consumer expenditures,
retail sales and expense statistics. An hour or two spent in the
government publications section of your local public library can
pay big dividends. Another source for statistical data is the
business association that serves your industry.

Although the first sales goal you set will be an annual figure,
monthly sales goals can never be determined by merely dividing
the annual figure by 12 months. One of the certainties of
marketing is that consumer habits change constantly. Yet those
very changes make the consumer predictable since there is a
predictable pattern of consumer desire for almost every known
commodity. While this consumption pattern may vary from month to
month, the annual pattern repeats itself with remarkable
consistency. The chart shown in Appendix B will give you an idea
of the variation in annual sales patterns for just a few stores.
For example, while the average retail jewelry store can expect
23 percent of its annual sales volume in December, the lumber
yard or building materials store can expect only 8 percent of its
annual sales during the same month. The figures on the chart
represent average figures from stores of all sizes and from all
parts of the United States. They have been recorded and averaged
for five consecutive years, so your store's actual percentages
may vary slightly.

Your next step after setting an annual sales goal is to determine
what percentage of that annual volume you should anticipate for
each calendar month. You may elect to use the national figures
for your industry, but using your actual sales figures will give
much more reliable numbers. To determine what percentage of your
annual sales were achieved in any given month, merely divide that
month's dollar volume by the annual dollar value and multiply
that amount by 100. Your monthly share of sales percentages will
be even more accurate if you compute it for each of your last
three or four years of sales and then average the percentages for
each month. When you arrive at your monthly percentage of annual
sales, you can provide a picture of the cyclical nature of your
business by plotting the percentage figures on the graph provided
in Appendix C.

The worksheet in Appendix D will be the first step in preparing a
written advertising budget for your firm. Fill in the dollar
volume for your store for the last year in the upper right-hand
corner. Next, enter the annual sales goal you project for the
coming year. Remember to consider elements such as inflation, the
condition of both the local and national economies, any major
changes in your competition and changes you may have made in your
store (e.g., expansion, remodeling or the addition of new product
lines or brands). Annual sales estimates often are made on a
sales-per-square-foot basis, then converted to gross sales by
multiplying the square foot index by the total number of square
feet devoted to selling space. Using industry indices, you can
calculate your share of the market by comparing your sales with
estimates of your competitors' sales.

The third item required at the top of Appendix D is the
percentage of gross volume you plan to invest in advertising.
Appendix E shows the average percentage invested by 74 different
industries including retail and service establishments. Remember,
these published numbers are average figures; your location,
competition, reputation and market area may dictate an adjusted
percentage of sales for advertising. If your firm is new, you may
want to double the average percentage figure during the first
year just to establish yourself.

By multiplying the projected volume for the planned year by the
percentage allocated for advertising, you will arrive at the
dollar amount of the advertising budget for the year. You have
answered the question, How much should I spend?

When Should I Spend It?

Although you know how much money you plan to invest in
advertising, your budget also must indicate how much of that
amount to spend during each of the 12 months. Do this by
transferring the figures you plotted in Appendix C to the first
column of Appendix E -- these are the same figures. Then multiply
the projected volume for the year by the percentage figures for
each month and insert the results in column two of Appendix D. 
You now have refined your annual dollar sales goal into a dollar
goal for each calendar month.

The final column in Appendix D can be completed in one of two
ways. You can multiply the percentage figures in column one times
the projected total advertising budget or multiply the projected
monthly sales figures by the annual advertising percentage rate.
Either procedure will give identical figures for the projected
monthly advertising budget column. The completed Appendix D will
give you a written guideline that includes your monthly sales
goal and monthly advertising budget. If your business is a
one-product type, this simple worksheet could serve as your total
budget preparation guide. You should regularly monitor your
firm's actual performance against these projected goals, and when
there appears to be a deviation from the goals, reevaluate the
original goals and perhaps adjust them upward or downward.

Where Should I Spend It?

Many firms, especially in the retail field, cannot settle for
only the data in Appendix D since, over the years, they may have
added several departments with their own sales patterns. The
worksheet in Appendix F is designed to target monthly advertising
dollars toward the department or item where they will be most
productive. Preparation of this worksheet begins with another
review of your firm's past sales records. The left-hand portion
of the worksheet provides space to record the relative monthly
importance of each of three departments. Make up a sheet to
provide for the number of departments in your firm and divide the
total volume for each month by each department's volume and
multiply by 100. This will give you the percentage importance of
each department to the total store volume. The totals for all the
departments should equal 100 percent for each month.

Figures for the total ad budget column are merely transferred
from the third column in Appendix D. Since being unpredictable is
perhaps the most predictable of all human traits, we recommend
that you build in some flexibility. In this example, the
worksheet calls for saving 10 percent of each monthly advertising
budget as a reserve fund. This fund will not be used during the
year but will be held back for contingency use. It will be nice
to have if a 12-inch snowstorm hits the day after your full-page
ad appears!

The net media budget column is completed by subtracting the
reserve figures for each month from the numbers in the
advertising budget column. Finally, complete the columns labeled
Departments A, B and C by multiplying the percentage figures on
the left side of the page by the figures in the net media budget
column. For example, if Department A in your store did 40 percent
of the store's total volume in January, you would multiply the
net media budget figure for January by 40 percent and enter that
figure under Department A on the right side of the worksheet.
When this worksheet has been completed, you will have a written
guide telling you when each advertising dollar should be spent
and on which department (or item) it should be spent. If you
prepare and follow the breakdowns in Appendixes D and F, your
advertising will be timed to solve consumer problems by matching
your maximum expenditures with maximum consumer desires.

What Media Should I Use?

The final step in preparing your advertising budget is to
allocate advertising dollars to specific media by using the
worksheet in Appendix G, the Media Budget Allocation Form. The
worksheet provides a special column for fixed advertising
expenditures. Because the monthly costs of advertising in the
Yellow Pages, other directories and outdoor advertising signs are
fixed costs, they should be subtracted from your net media budget
before the remaining dollars are assigned to newspapers, radio
stations and other media. The advantage of completing this
worksheet is that you will have your total advertising
expenditure for an entire year on one sheet of paper.

Preparing these worksheets may seem tedious, but the effort will
be well worth your time. If you have a computer, create the
budgeting format on your terminal. Automating this procedure will
provide a system for tracking the actual sales performance
against your targeted goals. Remember, when actual performance
deviates from projected performance over a two- or three-month
period, it is time to seriously reevaluate the original sales
goals. Performance below projected goals, if it continues, will
increase the percentage of sales your advertising is costing
while continued sales performance above projected goals may
justify higher advertising expenditures.

Whether or not you use the forms presented here, take the time to
prepare a written advertising budget for your firm that is based
on future sales goals rather than on past years. You will notice
the difference where it really counts -- in profitability!
_________________________________________________________________

MAKING ADVERTISING WORK FOR YOU

Appeal to Consumers' Needs

Human behavior, according to psychologist Abraham Maslow, is
always the result of one or more of five basic needs or
motivating forces.* Maslow classified these in a sequence he
refers to as the hierarchy of human needs.

His theory is that until a lower-ranking need is satisfied there
is no desire to pursue a higher-ranking need. Below are the five
human motivators, beginning with the basic or lowest-ranked need
and continuing to the highest.

  1. Physiological needs -- Include hunger, thirst, reproduction,
     shelter, clothing, air and rest.

  2. Safety-security -- The need for security, stability,
     dependence, protection, structure, order, law, tenure, 
     pension and insurance.

  3. Love-belonging -- The need for belonging, acceptance, love,
     affection, family and group acceptance and friendship.
  
  4. Self-esteem -- The need for recognition, respect, 
     achievement, responsibility, prestige, independence,
     attention, importance and appreciation.

  5. Self-actualization -- The need for satisfaction, the desire 
     to achieve fulfillment through reaching self-set individual
     goals or aspirations.

The advertising practitioner will do well to become familiar with
the Maslow theory of human motivation because it stresses once
again that motivation is always an individual act. The most your
advertising message can hope to do is to present an appeal strong
enough to stimulate action toward satisfying one of the basic
human needs.

If there is one rule that will be most helpful in preparing
effective advertising, it is this: The message must put the
desire of the potential customer before the advertiser's desire.
Please read that one more time! The rule may sound like a simple
one to follow, but frequently advertising messages take the form
of a plea to customers to respond and solve the advertiser's
problem.

Visualize the felt tip pen you probably use every day. When it
was manufactured the raw materials were converted into these
product features: a plastic barrel, a plastic cap, a supply of
ink, a felt tip and a metal pocket clip. These are the total
product points in the felt tip pen. What's amazing is that none
of those things have anything to do with why you will buy the
pen! You buy any item only for how it will benefit you. The key,
of course, is benefit. Effective advertising must promise the
consumer some benefit he or she will receive after buying the
goods or services advertised. Product features should be cited
only to make the promised benefits believable. Here is an example
of how you can advertise the felt tip pen by promising benefits
and then using the product features to make promised benefits
believable.

   *  You can drop this pen on concrete from 20 feet in the air 
      and it will not break because it is made of a strong 
      plastic.

   *  You can draw a jet black line for more than 100,000 yards,
      thanks to the large supply of quality ink.

   *  This pen will not leave an ink stain on your shirt or in 
      your purse, thanks to the snug-fitting plastic cap.

   *  When you bend over this pen will not fall from your pocket
      because it features a strong spring steel clip.

Although this technique appears logical, many advertisements
ramble on and on with all the product features while the
potential customer asks, What will it do for me?

Using the benefit approach can be simplified by preparing a
worksheet on which each product you plan to advertise is
dissected into (1) the benefits the buyer will enjoy by owning
this product and (2) which product features will help convince
the potential buyer that the promised benefits are likely to be
true. Using the benefit approach is the best advertising
technique for each advertising medium. It is also the selling
technique used by all top salespeople. Practice it -- it works!

Techniques in Presenting the Advertising Message

The buying decision is seldom a purely rational one -- emotions
influence your behavior. As you explore various techniques for
presenting your advertising message, do not ignore psychological
and emotional appeals. For example, red, a strong color
suggesting excitement, increases reader interest when used in
sales ads. While the principles discussed here relate most
specifically to print ads, they can apply to all media.

Determining Layout Shape and Design

Behavioral scientists have determined that of all the rectangular
shapes, the vertical rectangle of approximately three units wide
by five units deep is the one the public is exposed to most and,
therefore, the one people find most comfortable. The advertising
world refers to this shape as the golden rectangle of layout. It
is believed that an advertising message receives higher
readership when presented in this size.

In Appendix H is a drawing of this three-unit by five-unit shape.
Notice the dot on the vertical center line, one-third of the way
from the top of the ad. This is called the focal point. It is the
point to which the eye is attracted first, at which the eye
enters the ad. Next, note the wavy line extending from the upper
left-hand corner of the ad to the lower right-hand corner. This
reverse s is the path that the eye follows, called the gaze
motion path. Your objective should be to reinforce the ease with
which the eye can follow this path. How you place elements of
your ad can invite the reader's eye to follow this path or to
leave your ad completely before getting your message. If your
artwork, for example, is located near the curves in the
gaze-motion pattern, it will invite your reader to leave the ad
at that point and turn the page. The gaze motion also reinforces
the principle that the best place for a headline is at the top of
the ad where the reader starts the visual journey through the ad.
The worst place for your logo is the lower left-hand corner; the
eye prefers to leave the ad at the lower right-hand corner, so
your logo will have greater impact there.

The dotted lines divide the ad into vertical and horizontal
halves to stress balance in your layout. Formal or symmetrical
balance occurs when the elements on the left side of the vertical
center line are in the same position and of the same size or
density as corresponding elements on the right side. This formal
balance is not as interesting to the eye as informal or
asymmetrical balance, obtained by balancing weights on one side
of the center line with weights of varying densities at greater
or lesser distances from the center line on the other side of the
ad. Visualize ad balance as being similar to a see-saw where
weight near the outer end of the board can be balanced by heavier
weights nearer the fulcrum on the other end of the board. In
designing your ad layout, place illustrations, copy blocks,
headlines and other elements so they appear balanced without
formality.

Communicating Desired Layout to Printer

In submitting any printed advertising message to the media, the
only way to ensure that your ad looks the way you intended is to
provide adequate instructions. Layout means blueprint to the
typesetter or printer. Your layout should be a full-size replica
of what you want the finished advertisement or brochure to look
like. Here are some guidelines to use in preparing layouts.

  1. A layout should accurately indicate where all parts of the
     completed message are to be located with respect to the
     borders. This must include the location and approximate, if
     not actual, dimensions of all artwork.

  2. There are five parts to a comprehensive layout:

     * Headline -- Print all headlines right on the layout sheet,
       making the headline fill the width you want. Give the
       printer a close approximation of the desired type size by
       the size of your lettering. On each line, put the exact
       words you want to appear and use capital letters or upper
       and lower case letters the way you want the type set.

     * Illustrations -- Use a copy machine, if possible, and 
       paste a copy of any artwork or photograph on the layout
       sheet where you want it to appear. If you plan to reduce
       or enlarge the artwork, show the finished height, width 
       and the location on the layout sheet.

     * Copy -- Copy refers to the text in your advertisement. Do
       not letter in the copy on your layout sheet. Use two
       parallel lines to represent each line of copy and draw 
       these lines in the exact position on the layout sheet. 
       These parallel lines should show whether you want the copy
       set flush on both right and left margins or if you prefer 
       a ragged edge on the right margin (see Figure 2). Each 
       block of copy should be positioned properly on the layout
       sheet and then should be keyed, i.e., assigned a circled
       letter of the alphabet that matches a separate block of
       copy supplied on copy sheets. Copy sheets should be
       typewritten, double-spaced and should include all words 
       and prices to be typeset, including any headlines you have
       lettered on the layout. Leave a two-inch left margin on 
       the copy sheet to give the mark-up person space to code 
       for type style and size.

     * Price -- It is generally a good idea to letter your prices
       right on the layout if they appear anywhere other than
       within regular copy lines. Show the price as it should
       appear, including the relative size of the cents to 
       dollars portion of the price and any dollar or cent signs
       you want used.

     * Logo -- The logo is your firm's name, whether you have a
       standard, exclusive design or you merely want your name 
       set in type. Let the layout show the desired location and
       size. It also is helpful to letter in your address and 
       phone number. If you have a logo design, do not paste the
       original art work on the layout. Make a copy and paste the
       copy in the desired position. Ask the printer to make a
       photo reproduction (PMT) of your logo and keep the 
       original artwork for future use.

In addition to these key elements, your layout also should
contain instructions, written outside the ad borders and circled.
A line from an instruction circle may lead to the specific area
within the ad if it helps clarify instructions. Instructions
should include the dimensions of the ad stated in inches (width
depth). For a newspaper ad, the width should be stated in columns
and the depth in inches or lines, depending on the paper's
policies. Other instructions can include the insertion date,
reference to the enlargement or reduction of artwork, the names
of typefaces desired and special typesetting requests. Remember,
your layout will serve as the blueprint for your ad. The finished
product can be only as effective as the original layout. The
copysheet that accompanies your layout also should contain the
size of the ad and the insertion date. Use a paper clip rather
than stapling the copy sheet to the layout. This will prevent
tearing when the two sheets are separated for production.
_________________________________________________________________

         Figure 2 -- JUSTIFIED AND RAGGED RIGHT MARGINS

     _____________________

     HEADLINE
     _____________________

     XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
     XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
     XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
     XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
     XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
                          Justified

     _____________________

     HEADLINE
     _____________________

     XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
     XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
     XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
     XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
     XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
                            Ragged
     _______________________________________________________

Strengthening the Elements of 
Your Advertisement Headlines

Since the headline is the first contact your readers have with
your message, it must reach out to them. Promise them a benefit.
Tell them how they will be better off if they read the rest of
the ad. Use action verbs. Save ten dollars is a stronger heading
than Savings of ten dollars because of the verb.

Headlines can be classified into the following five basic types;
effective headlines frequently combine two or more of these
kinds.

News Headlines

This form tells the reader something he or she did not know
before. Using the word news does not make it a news headline.
Now -- a copy machine that copies in color is an example of this
type headline.

Advice and Promise Headline

Here you are promising something if the reader follows the advice
in your ad. Switch to Amoco premium, no-lead gasoline, and your
car will stop pinging.

Selective Headline

This headline limits the audience to a specific group. For
example: To all gray-haired men over forty. Caution! Be
absolutely sure you do not eliminate potential customers with
this type of headline.

Curiosity Headline

The intent here is to arouse the reader's interest enough to make
him or her read the ad. The danger is that this headline often
appears cute or clever and fails in its mission. An example: Do
you have trouble going to sleep at night?

Command or Demand Headline

Watch out for this one as most people resist pushiness,
especially in advertising. Do it now! or Buy this today! This
headline generally can be improved by changing to less obtrusive
wording such as: Call for your key to success!

One common misconception about headlines is that they must be
short and easy to understand. This is not always true. Here is a
headline that was used extensively in print ads by Ogilvy and
Mather for one of their clients: At 60 miles an hour, the loudest
noise in this Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.

Illustrations

There are three primary reasons for using illustrations in an
advertisement.

   *  To attract attention to the ad.

   *  To illustrate the item being featured.

   *  To create a mood in the mind of the reader.

Everyone has heard, A picture is worth a thousand words; in
advertising, the illustration frequently helps the reader
visualize the benefits promised. You can almost feel the warmth
of the tropical sun when you see the photos in January travel
ads. Cost and practicality may dictate whether your ad uses
photographs, artists' drawings or merely canned artwork. Any of
these can make the ad more appealing to the reader's eye.

Copy

If you follow the three principles of good copy, your ads will be
effective:

   *  Good copy should be clear.

   *  Good copy should be crisp.

   *  Good copy should be concise.

Clear, crisp and concise . . . the three Cs of copywriting
suggest that the words in your advertising message merely do a
good job of communicating. Do not use big words when small words
can make your meaning clear. Use colorful, descriptive terms. Use
the number of words necessary to make your meaning clear and no
more -- but also no less! Selecting the right words is critical to
the success of the ads. Recent research conducted at Yale
University found that the following 12 words are the most
personal and persuasive words in our language.

     You            Discovery          Safety
     Money          Proven             Results
     Love           Guarantee          Save
     New            Easy               Health
 
Notice the overused word free is not on the list.

REMEMBER THAT WHEN YOUR MESSAGE IS PRINTED IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS
INSTEAD OF UPPER- AND LOWERCASE LETTERS, IT IS FAR MORE DIFFICULT
FOR THE READER TO FOLLOW AND REMAIN INTERESTED. EVEN IN HEADLINES
ALL CAPITAL LETTERS SHOULD BE AVOIDED.

Price

Should you or shouldn't you put prices in your ad? Yes! Yes! Yes!
Since price is the one factor that allows the consumer to
determine whether an item represents an adequate value, an ad
without price makes the buying decision difficult if not
impossible for the reader. Can you imagine how uninteresting your
daily newspaper would be if there were no prices on the food
store ads or the department store offerings? Yes, price belongs,
and it belongs whether you are advertising a home for $175,000 or
a ballpoint pen for 49 cents.

Logo

Can you visualize the corporate logos for such firms as
Chevrolet, Ford, Playboy, Borden or Levi Strauss? There is an
identification advantage in developing a logo design exclusive to
your firm. Using a logo also helps give your advertising
continuity. Use the logo consistently on all printed pieces,
including stationery. Use it in Yellow Page advertising, on the
side of your truck or company car, on bags or boxes and anything
else your customers or prospects may see.

Type

The typeface you use in advertising plays an important role in
how the message comes across. Printers are very knowledgeable
about typefaces and happy to help you make choices. A selection
of typefaces is illustrated in Appendix I.
_________________________________________________________________

MEDIA AVAILABLE TO ADVERTISERS

If you understand the concept that advertising is a
multiplication of a selling conversation, then the basic
ingredients of advertising media are easier to grasp. First,
there must be an audience. A newspaper printed as a single copy
could not function as an advertising medium unless the single
copy were passed from person to person to create a worthwhile
audience. (In that case, the advertiser probably could go from
one individual to another and be more effective while reaching at
least as many prospects in the same amount of time.) A potential
advertiser will require evidence that an audience does exist, and
will want to know the size and location of the audience, as well
as other characteristics.

The second ingredient on which an advertising medium can be
evaluated is its acceptance in the marketplace. Acceptance is
related not only to the total number of customers in an audience,
but also to the composition of that audience as compared to the
target audience of the advertiser. Advertising over a closed
circuit television program received only by occupants of nursing
homes would not be very profitable for a real estate firm
attempting to sell starter homes.

In addition to an audience's acceptance and size, the medium also
must have a usable frequency of exposure. Most retailers and
other local business establishments rely on their advertisements'
reaching potential buyers regularly, some even several times
daily. A medium with a once-a-year or even a once-a-month
frequency might deserve nothing more than a very small part of a
retailer's advertising budget. Remember, one way advertising
functions is by repetition; a commercial message increases in
audience awareness after more than one exposure.

Various advertising media will be examined from the standpoint of
these three basic ingredients: the audience (coverage) each
enjoys; the acceptance (impact) of the medium on the audience;
and the ability to expand its initial impact by being available
more than once or twice in a particular time frame (frequency).

Paid-circulation Newspapers

Almost every community has a newspaper. About 1,700 of the
paid-circulation papers in America are daily papers and several
thousand additional local papers are published weekly. Paid
circulation means the audience reached pays to have the paper
delivered to the home or pays a per copy price to pick it up at a
newsstand or vending machine. Newspapers are the most popular
advertising medium for most local businesses.

Today's newspaper no longer enjoys its former role as the almost
exclusive source of news; that privilege applies only in those
very few areas not served by radio or television. Newspapers
remain, however, a strong factor in their sphere of influence.
Below are some characteristics of paid-circulation newspapers
that make them appealing to advertisers.

   1. Most paid-circulation papers, both daily and weekly, reach
      the majority of homes in their primary city or town.

   2. The size of the audience is easy to determine and verify.

   3. The newspaper offers a predictable frequency of 
      publication: once, twice or up to seven times a week.

   4. Newspapers generally are bought by people representing all
      segments of the population. High- and low-income families,
      urban and suburban residents -- all are subscribers to the
      local newspaper.

   5. Newspapers offer several options to advertisers. Large or
      small ads, words alone or words with graphics, black and
      white or color, news or specialized feature page 
      positioning.

   6. The printed advertising message has both permanence and
      desired obsolescence. A reader can refer back to or even 
      clip and save your ad, yet tomorrow's edition is new and
      fresh and eagerly sought by the same reader.

   7. The newspaper is the only medium in which the audience also
      advertise. The want ad or classified section of most
      newspapers serves as a local marketplace where individual
      buyers and sellers gather to trade their treasures and buy
      and sell each other's services.

   8. Newspaper pasteup permits you to request special locations
      for ads that tie in with your market segments. Sports,
      business, society, food and news are the most common
      sections.

There are limitations to the newspaper as an advertising medium.

   1. You could possibly miss potential customers who choose not
      to have the paper delivered.

   2. Your advertising message must fight for the reader's
      attention. There may be hundreds of ads in one paper, as 
      well as dozens of articles and features for the reader to
      spend time on. If the total time spent with a newspaper is
      only 20 minutes or so, as some surveys have found, you can
      see the odds against your one ad reaching a really
      significant number of subscribers.

   3. To some advertisers, another limitation of newspapers is 
      the time required to get the message into the reader's 
      hand. The advertising deadline for some sections of large
      metropolitan papers may be one week or more in advance of
      publication date.

Advertising in newspapers is always priced by units of space.
Rates for classified advertising may be priced per word or per
line while display ads (the bordered ads that frequently contain
illustrations as well as words) are usually priced per column
inch or agate line. A column inch is a space one column wide by
one inch deep. The agate line is 1/14th of a column inch. The
cost of newspaper advertising is determined by the size of the
circulation, the degree of the paper's dominance in the
marketplace, and by the increasing costs of newsprint, ink, labor
and transportation. The paid-circulation paper is the oldest of
the mass media and continues to be the largest, as measured by
volume of advertising dollars. It is used by industry giants as
well as the corner drugstore. As a retailer or other small
business owner, some of your advertising budget will most likely
end up in your local paid-circulation newspaper.

Free-distribution Newspapers

Although far from new (the first newspapers in our country were
distributed free), today's free-distribution paper is different
from paid-circulation newspapers. Although the shopper type
papers contain mostly advertising and little feature material,
they remain a highly productive advertising medium in hundreds of
cities and towns. Many of the earlier shoppers have grown into
full-fledged newspapers with news, comics and features, and a
frequency of delivery that approaches seven days a week. They
offer the advertiser most of the advantages of paid-circulation
papers, including the permanence of print, the versatility of
color and graphics, and high readership of personal want ads. One
advantage over paid-circulation papers is their ability to reach
a very high percentage of the market area. Because they are free,
they are delivered to every home. If readers like what they read,
they soon come to depend on the paper. Studies show penetration
and acceptance by more than 90 percent of the residents in the
circulation area of free-distribution papers.

To verify the number of papers delivered, publishers of
free-distribution papers may employ auditing firms to come into
the delivery area and certify the number of copies printed, the
number of carriers used and the number of households that
regularly report receiving a paper. Many of these papers have
audited proof of coverage approaching 100 percent of the homes in
their markets.

The phenomenal growth of free-distribution papers in recent years
is related to the increased sophistication of marketing and
advertising technology. The computer made possible the
measurement of sales in market share. Not only do today's
merchandise movers target to sell more of their products each
year, but also to sell them to ever larger shares of the total
population in each area. Since daily and weekly paid newspapers
often do not reach a substantial number of consumers, the total
coverage concept of the free-distribution papers has proven they
have outgrown their reputation as throwaways! Today, Sears,
K-Mart, JC Penney and dozens of smaller department, discount,
food and apparel chain organizations regularly use the
free-distribution papers for total coverage of certain market
areas.

Another growing function of the free-distribution papers is their
ability to serve as the distribution vehicle for advertisers' own
preprinted flyers, sections or merchandise catalogs. Many
publishers will custom design for your special promotion a
delivery system that will deliver the preprinted section to every
home within a specified area, such as the 12 square blocks
immediately surrounding your business.

If there is a free-distribution paper in your market area, it
deserves an inquiry. Advertisements in it may prove to be the
most effective dollar invested in your advertising budget.

Direct Mail

We would be remiss not to mention the U.S. Postal Service and its
ability to deliver your advertising message. The direct mail
advertising message can be highly personal and powerfully
effective. You know how saturated your home mailbox is with
nothing to buy contests giving you chances to win new houses,
cars, world cruises and big checks for every month as long as you
live. While there is no obligation for you to buy anything, there
is always something available for sale -- subscriptions, books,
records, videos, personal products, real estate -- usually at
discounted prices. The giveaways are possible only because enough
people are tempted by what is available, and what they buy can be
traced to direct mail advertising. In almost every business there
is an opportunity for increased business through intelligent use
of direct mail advertising.

Because the per-piece cost of direct mail is much higher than
most forms of print, it must be used carefully, selectively and
efficiently. Mailing lists are difficult to prepare, expensive to
buy and are partially obsolete the day after they have been
completed. Because people die, move away or get mad at you at an
alarming pace, keeping an accurate mailing list is not easy.
Still, direct mail can be an efficient way to deliver a sales
message to a specific target audience. If your audience is
composed of doctors, lawyers, dentists or school teachers, for
example, only direct mail offers you the chance to direct your ad
to that target audience with no waste circulation.
Direct mail also makes couponing and sampling practical. It can
help isolate advertising response to one segment or another and
compare returns in one area with those in another.

The most critical part of any direct mail program is the mailing
list. Keep a list of all your customers, either by asking them to
fill out a mailing list card or by taking their names off the
checks you receive each day. Hold contests to get your customers
to fill out an entry form. As your list grows, you may need to
buy a computer or hire a mailing firm to keep the list current
and to prepare mailing labels.

Magazines

Print media also include magazines. While most national magazines
are not practical as an advertising medium for local businesses,
some local magazines may be. City magazines are now published in
hundreds of cities and towns. They may look as sophisticated as
their national counterparts, and they are edited to local tastes.
They use color, photography and professional writing and editing
to create high-interest stories about people, places and things.
They frequently are distributed free to certain people on special
lists restricted to higher income families. In this way they can
reach relatively exclusive audiences, but the frequency of
publication (usually monthly) restricts their use as a basic
medium.

Many regional and national magazines include classified ad
sections that may be useful for promoting the availability of a
catalog or for selling individual products. The advantage of
magazines is that they have highly defined readerships that allow
you to focus on specific market niches. If, for example, you run
an ad in a boating magazine, you can be fairly sure the people
who subscribe either own a boat or are looking for one. The
Standard Rate and Data Service (SRDS) publishes a complete
listing of all the magazines that serve particular market
interests; it is available in the business section of most
libraries.

Brochures

For many small businesses, a printed brochure may be helpful to
establish credibility and tell your story in more detail.
Computer typesetting and laser printing have reduced the cost of
producing a brochure. Free layout help is available at many copy
centers. You can keep your costs down by using standard 8.5 11
inch paper and by using a triple-fold design that will fit into a
standard business envelope.

Other Local Print Media

Don't overlook drop-point media such as booklets available for
free pickup in high-traffic areas like convenience stores, banks
and motels. These may include guides to local television
programs, listings currently available from real estate firms,
entertainment or sporting events. Evaluate each booklet on its
ability to provide enough value to justify using it.

Radio

In America, 280 million people own more than 300 million radios!
Only radio can take your advertising message to people while they
ride bicycles, walk in the park, ride in cars or climb mountains.
Radio brings a sense of urgency to its listeners that is second
to none. Contrary to the predictions of doom during the advent of
television, radio is alive and well today, and radio advertising
is a major part of the plan for advertisers of every size and
description

In its pre-television days, radio was the national advertisers'
most economical way to communicate with millions at a time.
Syndicated programs of music, drama and news were a common part
of the American life-style. With the advent of television, radio
moved to the automobile and the beach. Along came the transistor
and radio moved to the shirtpocket. Today radio is everywhere.
Millions awake to the sound of clock radios, and for many the
radio is the last sound they hear before going to sleep. How can
a small business use this sound-only medium for effective
advertising? Only by understanding it and capitalizing on its
strengths.

Today's radio station is judged on its effectiveness not only by
the number of its listeners, but also who those listeners are.
Many of today's stations have positioned themselves to reach a
selective audience instead of a total market. In one marketplace,
one station may play only country-western music, another rock
music, a third only religious music, while others feature 24-hour
news broadcasts or talk shows. As an advertiser, format
programming allows you to buy advertising on stations whose
listener characteristics most closely coincide with the profile
of your firm's customers. Buying time on a given station also can
help you reach audience segments that you may want to target to
help expand your firm's total market segment.

Radio advertising is sold on the basis of time. That time can
vary from an entire program, which includes your commercial
announcements, to spot announcements ranging from 10 to
60 seconds. Price ranges are higher during drive time (the hours
in the morning and evening when the maximum number of people are
in their cars going to or from work, school or other daytime
activities) and lower during the time when more people are
watching television. Most stations offer package rate plans with
a specified number of commercials guaranteed within a particular
time slot. Also, consider buying flights of commercials, i.e., an
intense saturation of 30-second or 1-minute spots in a relatively
short period of two or three weeks. Repeat this flight technique
during key promotional times of the year.

The sounds you can employ on radio include not only the monologue
of a man's or woman's voice, but dialogue and dramatic
conversations, vocal and instrumental music, and sound effects of
every imaginable nature, used individually or in combinations.
The size of radio's audience, like the circulation of newspapers,
is audited by independent organizations and available to
advertisers through station sales representatives. Arbitron, one
of the auditing firms, conducts its survey by having a sample
number of households keep a written diary of the radio listening
habits of each occupant during a predetermined period (usually
one week). Arbitron then summarizes the various stations'
listeners by time of day in 15-minute segments by sex and age of
listener. An advertiser can use the Arbitron data to select the
station or stations that best cover the desired target audience.

Radio advertising frequency is as high as you can afford. Many
stations now broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The
number of commercial minutes any station can air in each segment
of programming is limited by the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC), but there is still the opportunity to have a
message repeated frequently in any given period. It is also
possible to have the radio station come to your business for a
remote broadcast with customer interviews, prize giveaways and
other crowd-drawing techniques.

Television

Watching TV is the most common leisure activity in our country
today; many surveys report average daily television viewing time
as high as five or six hours. It is no wonder it has grown into a
giant advertising medium. Television always has been a popular
medium for large retailers, but its effective use by small- and
medium-size businesses is becoming more popular because of
lowered production costs and the ability of cable TV to reach
smaller market areas.

The power of television is its ability to appeal not only to
sight and hearing simultaneously, but also to strengthen that
appeal by the dimensions of movement and the realism of full
color. If you have invented a new product, TV advertising can
show and tell many people about it and actually show them the
benefit of ownership. Since they saw how it works and the package
it comes in, customers will recognize it when they are at the
store and be psychologically reminded of how it works and how
great it would be to have it. If the hammer had never been
invented until you came along, just imagine the number of words
in print advertising it would take to equal the effectiveness of
a 60-second television spot during which a hammer pounded a nail
to fasten one piece of wood to another!

Television advertising is sold by the time the message takes.
There may be additional charges for writing, talent, props,
on-location filming, music and editing. Audience loyalty is a
disadvantage in TV advertising. The audience tunes to a given
channel for entertainment they know they will find at a
particular time. If a football game, popular movie or some other
preferred form of entertainment appears on another channel, the
viewer does not hesitate to change channels without leaving the
couch. While viewers are loyal to the entertainment value of
television, they show very little loyalty to the station itself,
especially as cable can bring 40 to 50 viewing alternatives into
the home. Viewers, however, do tend to have favorite news,
weather and sports telecasting personalities, which can influence
the size of your audience and its consistency during certain time
periods.

Other developments that could affect television advertising are
the availability of many different stations through cable
companies, all-shopper channels, all-sports channels, all-news
stations, the use of home television screens as monitors for
in-home computer and game systems, and the popularity of video
movie cassettes. All of these may reduce the size of the audience
a television station can guarantee its advertisers.

Many rating services measure the size of television audiences.
National programs are measured daily and a station's audience
size can be estimated fairly well. Your local television
representative can explain television's penetration within the
station's area of dominant influence (ADI) and how that area may
conform to your firm's trade area.

Outdoor Media

Despite restrictive legislation, billboards and other outdoor
display signs still perform a strong advertising task in many
areas. Instant communication is the key to successfully using
billboards. Directed at drivers with only split seconds to divert
their eyes and to passengers who can at best get a fleeting
glance, wordy or complex messages are worthless. Photos or
striking art combined with a firm name and a one- or two-word
headline or slogan are common.

Audience totals are determined by how many sign locations you buy
and the total traffic passing each sign. Outdoor advertising is
usually sold on a basis of gross rating point (GRP) evaluation.
The GRP of any medium is the number of persons exposed to a
message compared to the total number of persons that make up the
market. One shortcoming is that the same person may drive by the
same billboard three or four times a day and be counted as four
separate people. Your local outdoor sales representative can
explain how many locations are necessary for you to achieve 50,
75 or 100 gross rating points, and what that exposure will cost
you over varying time periods.

Other Media for Advertising

We could spend considerable time just trying to complete a list
of all the other ways a business can advertise and probably still
leave some out. Pencils and pens with your firm's name imprinted,
skywriting, business cards and even sandwich boards all can
perform an effective advertising role for some advertisers. You
must evaluate each one on its ability to get your sales message
to the maximum number of prospects in a believable manner and at
a reasonable price. No textbook or consultant can do the job for
you. After you have read and listened, go to your local media
representatives and ask for their help. They have everything to
gain and nothing to lose by putting your firm's best interest
ahead of their desire to make a sale.
_________________________________________________________________

REFINING YOUR ADVERTISING FOR GREATER RESULTS

One of the greats in the advertising business, David Oglivy,
preached this philosophy to would-be advertisers: Never run an ad
unless you have a Unique Selling Proposition (USP).* It's still a
sound philosophy. If you can substitute your competitor's logo in
your ad and it still makes sense, you are not going to get your
money's worth out of the ad. Having a USP, as it has come to be
known, is difficult with today's brand name merchandise and
competitive pressures, but it is important.

     * David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising (New York: Random
       House, 1985)

Every item you advertise and every word and illustration you use
becomes a part of your firm's image. Your ability to develop a
USP depends on your knowing what you want your image to be and
then doing those things and only those things that reinforce that
image.

A men's clothing store can become the store with fashions for the
man who thinks young. A nursery can create the image of the home
of the talked-to plants that will respond to you. A car dealer
can develop a following and a reputation for his automatic
three-year trade-in plan. Once you have arrived at a USP that you
think will appeal to your customers, translate the idea into a
selling slogan of three to ten words that can be used as the
theme of your advertising campaign. Use it consistently until
your customers learn to associate your business with the selling
slogan.

But be careful. A few years ago Excedrin decided to position
itself as the headache remedy for many different kinds of
headaches, like headache No. 43 or No. 27. Their TV commercial
showed the agony of each headache by the number. What happened?
People went to their drugstores and said I think I've got
headache No. 43. Give me a package of Anacin. They sold the
concept of the headaches beautifully but not the exclusivity of
Excedrin as the best relief.

If you want to position your business in the marketplace, select
your target market. How old are they? What do they have in
common? What are their goals and ambitions? When you have learned
all you can about them, go back and learn more! Then start
talking to them, and only to them, in your advertising. Talk to
them about themselves and their desires. Then tell them how the
goods or services you sell are perfectly suited to helping them
achieve those desires.

Timing Each Ad for Impact

While your budget will tell you how much you have to spend each
month, you must refine your plan to know how many ads will run
each week and on which days. In planning your ad insert schedule,
be aware that the best results are obtained by strengthening
already strong sales days, not by trying to make bad days better.
If large employers in your area have paydays on the first and
fifteenth of the month, time your advertising to coincide. If you
use more than one medium, attempt to coordinate your efforts by
scheduling a radio blitz to coincide with a big print campaign or
special store event.

Using Color

Adding color to a black-and-white advertisement not only
increases readership, but can substantially increase the sales
response. Retailers, however, frequently use too much color in
their ads. Remember, color works because of its contrast with
noncolor areas; use it in one or two strong clustered areas
rather than scattering it throughout your ad. Keep in mind that
colors also communicate psychologically. Here are a few popular
colors and their common associations.

   *  Red -- Suggests excitement, heat, strength and is a good
      color to use in a sale ad.

   *  Yellow -- Conveys brightness, airiness, refreshment. 
      Warning: yellow gets lost on white paper, so always 
      surround  areas of yellow with a border of black or another
      dark tone.

   *  Blue -- As a cold color, can convey formality and 
      haughtiness in its darker shades and fragility, daintiness
      and youthfulness in the lighter tones.

   *  Orange -- A color of warmth, action, power.

   *  Green -- Another cool color, suggests cheapness and 
      coldness in its darker tones while conveying freshness and
      crispness in its lighter shades.

   *  Purple -- A color of royalty and stateliness.

   *  Maroon -- Suggests luxury, solidity, quietness.

   *  Brown -- Implies age, wholesomeness, utility.

   *  White -- Means purity, cleanliness, chastity.

   *  Black -- Conveys mystery, strength, heaviness.

Research on the productivity of color in newspaper advertising
invariably shows increased readership as well as increased sales
from ads that use color. Adding color raises the cost of the ad,
but the increased results are substantially greater than the
increased costs.

Critiquing Your Ads

We can learn great lessons from the past. If your firm has been
running ads, dig out a few from a year or so ago and see how many
of these common no-no's you can find.

   1. Does your ad contain words like our, I or other personal
      pronouns? They are poor communicators, try using you and
      yours.

   2. Is the ad uninteresting to look at overall? It may be
      balanced too formally. Try using an odd rather than even
      number of illustrations to help achieve informal balance.
 
   3. Does your firm have a logo? Develop one so the name of the
      firm is not just set in the same type as the rest of the 
      ad.

   4. Has your layout allowed the reader's eye to stray from the
      preferred gaze-motion path? If your invitation to the eye
      causes readers to leave your ad, you will not get them 
      back.

   5. Is your logo in the upper left corner or the lower right
      corner of the ad? Those are the two best spots for it.

   6. Does your headline promise the reader a benefit?

   7. Is your copy clear, crisp and concise? Be sure to use the
      product points that make the benefits you promised
      believable.

   8. Have you used a headline in capital letters? Don't!

   9. Have you told the reader what each item costs? It is very
      difficult to reach a buying decision until the question 
      "How much is it?" is answered.

  10. Does your ad contain any misleading statements? Any attempt
      to misinform or mislead the reader may lead to a sale, but
      in all certainty it will lead to lost customers and could
      lead to court. Honesty is still the best policy.

As you continue to expand your business in the months and years
ahead, use the tips presented here. Prepare a budget and review
it frequently. Select your items for advertising to help solve
consumer problems and then present your advertising message as a
form of planned communication. Ask your media representatives for
help in understanding their product.
_________________________________________________________________

REFERENCES

Maslow, Abraham. Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper &
Brothers, 1954.

Ogilvy, David. Confessions of an Advertising Man. New York:
Random H. Wolff, 1963.

. Ogilvy on Advertising. New York: Random House, 1985.
Weiss, Michael J. The Clustering of America. New York: Harper &
Row, 1989.
_________________________________________________________________

APPENDIX A: CUSTOMER SURVEY

If you are a business owner, these questions are for you. Have
you conducted your own private interview of customers? Have you
personally talked to at least 50 to 60 customers to find out what
they like or dislike about your business, products and service?

A personalized business survey is a simple thing to prepare and
implement. If you do it regularly, you can find when and where
things are breaking down in your service.

Use a piece of 8.5x11 inch paper with the following types of 
"yes" and "no" questions:

1.  Is the service we provide meeting
    your highest expectations? If
    not,, what areas can we improve?    _____ yes  _____ no

   1. ___________________________________________________
   
   2. ___________________________________________________    
    
   3. ___________________________________________________
    
2. Are we providing the brands and
   lines you want and expect? If
   not, please list what is needed.       _____ yes _____ no

   1. ___________________________________________________
   
   2. ___________________________________________________    
    
   3. ___________________________________________________
    
 
3. Is our business clean and 
   pleasant to be in at all times? How
   can we improve it?                     _____ yes _____ no

   1. ___________________________________________________
   
   2. ___________________________________________________    
    
   3. ___________________________________________________
    
  
 4. Do you feel the business is truly 
    a part of the community?              _____ yes _____ no
    
 5. Is it a friendly place?               _____ yes _____ no
     
 6. Are the prices competitive?           _____ yes  _____ no

 7. Do you feel you are getting 
    good values?                          _____ yes _____ no


You may want to include more specific questions, but the key is
to keep the survey short and to the point. Keep it personal by
preparing and signing it yourself. Leave room for written
comments.

Questionnaires should not be stacked at the cash register for
casual distribution. Personally present them to customers along
with a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

What can you learn from this? Plenty. What can customers learn?
Well, it shows you care and that is always a sales plus.
_________________________________________________________________

APPENDIX B: ANNUAL SALES BY STORE TYPE

         Percentage of the Year's Total Sales Each Month
                     (Five Year Average)

Store 
 Type       Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov  Dec Year

All retail
  stores    7.4 7.0 7.9 8.1 8.6 8.6 8.5 8.3 8.2 8.7 8.3 10.4 100%

Department
    stores  6.3 5.7 7.2 7.6 8.0 7.9 7.6 8.0 8.0 8.7 9.5 15.5 100%

Drug and 
proprietary 
 stores     8.0 7.5 8.0 7.8 8.2 8.1 8.1 8.2 8.2 8.5 8.2 11.2 100%

Eating and 
 drinking 
 places     7.3 7.0 7.7 8.0 8.8 8.9 9.2 9.3 8.7 8.8 8.1  8.2 100%

Family 
 clothing 
 stores     6.3 5.7 7.8 7.6 8.1 7.7 7.5 8.2 7.6 8.8 9.1 15.6 100%

Furniture,
 home furn-
 ishings 
 stores     7.6 7.2 7.7 8.0 8.3 8.5 8.2 8.4 8.2 8.8 9.0 10.1 100%

Gasoline 
 service 
 stations   7.8 7.2 8.0 8.2 8.7 8.8 9.2 8.6 8.1 8.5 8.3  8.6 100%

Grocery 
 stores     8.4 7.4 7.9 8.0 8.6 8.3 8.7 8.4 8.2 8.9 8.0  9.2 100%

Hardware 
 stores     6.2 5.7 6.3 7.9 9.3 9.8 9.4 8.7 8.3 8.9 8.5 11.0 100%

Household 
 appliance 
 TV radio 
 stores     8.2 7.1 7.4 7.7 7.9 8.4 8.6 8.2 8.0 8.6 8.3 11.6 100%

Jewelry 
 stores     6.0 5.0 6.0 6.0 8.0 9.0 6.0 7.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 23.0 100%

Lumber 
 yards 
 building 
 materials
 dealers    5.9 6.3 7.3 8.3 8.7 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.3 9.5 8.3  7.9 100%

Men's&boy's
 wear stores7.9 6.2 7.1 7.2 8.0 8.1 7.4 7.2 7.5 8.7 9.3 15.4 100%

Passenger 
 car other 
 automotive 
 dealers    7.5 7.8 8.8 9.3 9.4 9.9 9.3 8.2 7.9 8.4 6.7  6.8 100%

Shoe stores 6.6 5.9 8.8 7.5 8.0 8.2 7.3 8.8 9.3 9.3 8.7 11.6 100%

Tire battery
 accessory
 dealers    6.6 6.0 7.3 8.7 9.0 9.3 9.2 8.6 8.1 8.9 8.7  9.6 100%

Variety 
 stores     5.9 5.8 7.5 7.2 8.3 7.8 7.5 8.0 7.9 8.4 8.9 16.8 100%

Women's 
 apparel
 accessory
 stores     6.8 6.3 7.6 7.6 8.0 7.9 7.3 7.9 8.0 9.0 9.1 14.4 100%

Source:U.S. Department of Commerce
_________________________________________________________________

APPENDIX C: SHARE OF ANNUAL SALES BY MONTH

%

24

22

20

18

16

14

12

10

 8

 6

 4

 2
     JAN  FEB  MAR  APR  MAY  JUN  JUL  AUG  SEP  OCT  NOV  DEC
_________________________________________________________________

APPENDIX D: PROJECTED SALES AND PLANNED AD VOLUME

             Projected Sales Volume By Months and
                  Planned Monthly Ad Volume

Previous year's gross annual volume                   $__________

Projected volume for planned year                     $__________

Percentage of gross volume for advertising            __________%

Projected total annual budget for advertising         $__________

                                                      Projected
                                      Projected        monthly
                    % of annual        monthly       advertising
Month              sales by month   sales volume       budget

January            ____________%   $____________   $_____________

February           ____________%   $____________   $_____________

March              ____________%   $____________   $_____________

April              ____________%   $____________   $_____________

May                ____________%   $____________   $_____________

June               ____________%   $____________   $_____________

July               ____________%   $____________   $_____________

August             ____________%   $____________   $_____________

September          ____________%   $____________   $_____________

October            ____________%   $____________   $_____________

November           ____________%   $____________   $_____________

December           ____________%   $____________   $_____________

  Total            ____100_____%   $____________   $_____________
                                     (annual total  (total annual
                                      volume)        ad budget)

________________________________________________________________

APPENDIX E: AVERAGE ADVERTISING INVESTMENTS OF RETAIL STORES

Business credit institutions                        .2%
Commercial printing                                 .2%
Services-equipment rental and leasing               .2%
Services-advertising agencies                       .3%
Security and commodity brokers                      .4%
Services-building cleaning and maintenance          .4%
Office computing and accounting machinery           .5%
Retail-auto dealers and gas stations                .5%
Savings and loan associations                       .5%
Services-engineering and architect                  .5%
Services-linen supply                               .5%
Insurance agents and brokers                        .7%
Services-research and development laboratories      .7%
Services-computer and data process                  .9%
Office furniture                                   1.0%
Retail-mobile home dealers                         1.0%
Services-detective and protective                  1.0%
Services-hospitals                                 1.0%
Ship/boat building and repairing                   1.0%
Retail-grocery stores                              1.1%
Farm and garden machinery and equipment            1.2%
General building contractors                       1.2%
Travel trailers and campers                        1.2%
Retail-drug and proprietary stores                 1.3%
Transportation services                            1.3%
Personal credit institutions                       1.4%
Services-nursing and personal care facilities      1.4%
Silverware and plateware                           1.4%
Motorcycles  bicycles and parts                    1.5%
Bakery products                                    1.7%
Motor vehicles and car bodies                      1.7%
Retail-apparel and accessory stores                1.8%
Hardware                                           1.9%
Paints  varnishes and lacquers                     1.9%
Services-automotive repair and service             1.9%
Retail-lumber and other building materials         2.0%
Hotel and motels                                   2.1%
Cigars                                             2.2%
Retail-shoe stores                                 2.2%
Musical instruments                                2.3%
Retail-variety stores                              2.3%
Footwear except rubber                             2.4%
Household appliances                               2.5%
Services-management consulting and PR services     2.6%
Watches  clocks and parts                          2.6%
Retail-women's ready-to-wear                       2.8%
Retail-department stores                           2.9%
Retail-eating places                               2.9%
Retail-sewing and needlework stores                3.0%
Finance-services                                   3.2%
Photographic equipment and supplies                3.2%
Radio/TV receiving sets                            3.4%
Radio/TV broadcasters                              3.5%
Pens  pencils and other office materials           3.6%
Real estate                                        3.6%
Services-miscellaneous amusement and recreation    3.6%
Services-motion picture theaters                   3.7%
Services-educational                               4.1%
Services-personal                                  4.3%
Jewelry-precious metals                            4.4%
Retail-jewelry stores                              4.5%
Retail-household appliance stores                  4.7%
Bottled and canned soft drinks                     5.7%
Retail-mail order houses                           5.9%
Candy and other confectionery                      6.1%
Cigarettes                                         6.3%
Toys and amusement sport goods                     6.3%
Malt beverages                                     6.5%
Soap and other detergents                          6.5%
Drugs                                              7.8%
Retail-furniture stores                            7.8%
Phonograph records                                 8.6%
Perfumes cosmetics and toiletries                  8.8%

Source: Advertising Age, August 17, 1981
_________________________________________________________________
 
APPENDIX F: DETERMINATION OF ADVERTISING MEDIA BUDGET

                                        *Less    Net
Percentage of total store sales   Total reserv  media
    contributed by each Dept.      ad   10% of  budget
Month Dept.A Dept.B Dept.C Total Budget Budget Monthly  A   B   C
Jan.                        100% $      $      $        $   $   $

Feb.                        100%

Mar.                        100%

Apr.                        100%

May.                        100%

Jun.                        100%

Jul.                        100%

Aug.                        100%

Sep.                        100%

Oct.                        100%

Nov.                        100%

Dec.                        100%

                            TOTALS

* 10% of the total monthly ad budget is held in reserve for 
  special promotions.
_________________________________________________________________

APPENDIX G: MEDIA BUDGET ALLOCATION FORM
_________________________________________________________________

         Plan                               Allocation
_________________________________________________________________
                        Fixed 
       Gross Less Net    adv.  Print budget  Electronic
      budget res. budg.  exp.    ___% total  -% total  Misc Total
19-- -%sales _%  _%tot. -%tot. med. med. med. med. med.  -%  100%
_________________________________________________________________

Jan.

Feb.

Mar.

Apr.

May

Jun.

Jul.

Aug.

Sep.

Oct.

Nov. 

Dec.  

TOTALS

  NOTE: Step 1: Transfer advertising budget figures from Appendix
                D to Plan Portion
        Step 2: List all fixed monthly advertising expenses
                (example-- Yellow Pages)
        Step 3: Determine percentage of total budget to be 
                allocated to each category
        Step 4: Apply each media's percentage share against net
                budget dollars and record dollar amounts.
    
_________________________________________________________________

APPENDIX H: ADVERTISING LAYOUT GUIDE

                     Not Available in .txt format
_________________________________________________________________

APPENDIX I: TYPE STYLES

                     Not Available in .txt format
_________________________________________________________________

APPENDIX J: INFORMATION RESOURCES

U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)

The SBA offers an extensive selection of information on most
business management topics, from how to start a business to
exporting your products.

This information is listed in The Small Business Directory. For a
free copy contact your nearest SBA office.

SBA has offices throughout the country. Consult the U.S.
Government section in your telephone directory for the office
nearest you. SBA offers a number of programs and services,
including training and educational programs, counseling services,
financial programs and contract assistance. Ask about

   *  Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), a national
      organization sponsored by SBA of over 13,000 volunteer
      business executives who provide free counseling, workshops
      and seminars to prospective and existing small business
      people.

   *  Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), sponsored by
      the SBA in partnership with state and local governments,
      the educational community and the private sector. They
      provide assistance, counseling and training to prospective
      and existing business people.

   *  Small Business Institutes (SBIs),organized through SBA on
      more than 500 college campuses nationwide. The institutes
      provide counseling by students and faculty to small
      business clients.

For more information about SBA business development programs and
services call the SBA Small Business Answer Desk at
1-800-U-ASK-SBA (827-5722).

Other U.S. Government Resources

Many publications on business management and other related topics
are available from the Government Printing Office (GPO). GPO
bookstores are located in 24 major cities and are listed in the
Yellow Pages under the bookstore heading. You can request a
Subject Bibliography by writing to Government Printing Office,
Superintendent of Documents, Washington, DC 20402-9328.

Many federal agencies offer publications of interest to small
businesses. There is a nominal fee for some, but most are free.
Below is a selected list of government agencies that provide
publications and other services targeted to small businesses. To
get their publications, contact the regional offices listed in
the telephone directory or write to the addresses below:

Consumer Information Center (CIC) 
P.O. Box 100
Pueblo, CO 81002
The CIC offers a consumer information catalog of federal
publications.

Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
Publications Request
Washington, DC 20207
The CPSC offers guidelines for product safety requirements.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
12th Street and Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20250
The USDA offers publications on selling to the USDA. Publications
and programs on entrepreneurship are also available through
county extension offices nationwide.

U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC)
Office of Business Liaison
14th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW
Room 5898C 
Washington, DC 20230
DOC's Business Assistance Center provides listings of business
opportunities available in the federal government. This
service also will refer businesses to different programs and
services in the DOC and other federal agencies.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Public Health Service
Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, MD 20857
Drug Free Workplace Helpline: 1-800-843-4971. 
Provides information on Employee Assistance Programs.
National Institute for Drug Abuse Hotline: 1-800-662-4357. Provides
information on preventing substance abuse in the workplace.
The National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information:
1-800-729-6686 toll-free. Provides pamphlets and resource materials
on substance abuse.

U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)
Employment Standards Administration
200 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20210
The DOL offers publications on compliance with labor laws.

U.S. Department of Treasury
Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
P.O. Box 25866
Richmond, VA 23260
1-800-424-3676
The IRS offers information on tax requirements for small
businesses.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Small Business Ombudsman
401 M Street, SW (A-149C)
Washington, DC 20460
1-800-368-5888 except DC and VA
703-557-1938 in DC and VA
The EPA offers more than 100 publications designed to help small
businesses understand how they can comply with EPA regulations.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
200 Charles Street, SW
Washington, DC 20402
The FDA offers information on packaging and labeling
requirements for food and food-related products.

For More Information

A librarian can help you locate the specific information you need
in reference books. Most libraries have a variety of directories,
indexes and encyclopedias that cover many business topics. They
also have other resources, such as

   *  Trade association information
      Ask the librarian to show you a directory of trade
      associations. Associations provide a valuable network of
      resources to their members through publications and
      services such as newsletters, conferences and seminars.

   *  Books -- Many guidebooks, textbooks and manuals on small
      business are published annually. To find the names of books
      not in your local library check Books In Print, a directory
      of books currently available from publishers.

   *  Magazine and newspaper articles -- Business and
      professional magazines provide information that is more
      current than that found in books and textbooks. There are a
      number of indexes to help you find specific articles in
      periodicals.

In addition to books and magazines, many libraries offer free
workshops, lend skill-building tapes and have catalogues and
brochures describing continuing education opportunities.

 
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