2018-03-09
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Task 2. Go back to the table. Describe the main idea represented by this table in about 25 sentences. Do the task in writing.
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A SAMPLE OF A BRAINSTORMING MEETING (FOR SELF-STUDY )
Exercise 1. Readthe first part of an authentic brainstorming meeting between three members of the Marketing Department at Business Solutions Limited.
Then answer these questions.
1. What is the purpose of the meeting?
2. What types of promotion are mentioned by participants?
| Paul: | OK, thanks for coming along this morning. As I said in my e-mail, the purpose of the meeting this morning is for us to brainstorm ideas, promotional activities that we are going to carry out to make sure that the launch of the Business Solutions website is a success from the start. I’m going to open up to you to come up with the ideas you’ve formulated over the past couple of weeks. Anything goes, we’ve got no budget at the moment but you know, fire away. |
| Stephanie: | Oh great. No budget constraints. |
| Courtney: | That’s great. Television and radio. |
| Stephanie: | Well, it’s starting big. |
| Paul: | Excellent. |
| Courtney: | Well, we haven’t got a budget, but I think we could reach a wide audience, something like that, and … we could focus on some of the big sort of business financial network television if we want to reach a global market if that’s what we’re working to do and extending to all areas I think. |
| Stephanie: | Yeah, that’s been quite unsuccessful for some of the banks and stuff. |
| Paul: | That’s right, but definitely focused on advertising. |
| Courtney: | Focused on specific networks that would reach, that you know… Businessmen are watching network television. |
| Stephanie: | Well, I’ve been working more on cheaper solutions than that just in case there are budget problems. I thought we could do some effective online promotion, which is actually very cheap, and I think we should aim to do anyway. Direct mailing but also register the site effectively with search engines so anybody who goes onto the Internet and is looking for business solutions would come up with our website. |
| Courtney: | Yeah, we should definitely do some of that. |
| Paul: | Absolutely, yes. |
| Courtney: | What about press advertising, traditional newspapers, business magazines and journals? |
| Paul: | Yes. |
| Courtney: | Yes, great, I mean we’ve done that very effectively in the past. |
| Paul: | Yes, we’ve had some very good response rates to for the ads we’ve placed before. |
| Stephanie: | Yes, and that could be something we could do, not just once but a kind of campaign over a period of time. |
| Courtney: | Yes, build it up. |
| Paul: | Yep, use a campaign, OK. |
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Exercise 2 Read the second part of the meeting and answer these questions:
1) What other ideas for promoting the website are discussed by the participants?
2) When is the next meeting? What information will the participants get then?
| Stephanie: | And then, going back to cheaper solutions, we could use the contact base we’ve got, the market research we’ve been doing for this new website. We’ve got some very good contacts where I think we could sent out glossy brochures, maybe a CD demonstration, CD ROM demonstration of the site to human resource manages, training managers. |
| Courtney: | Yes, that’s a good idea |
| Paul: | Great. |
| Stephanie: | As we’ve already got contacts with lots of those and I’m sure we should. |
| Courtney: | …exploit them. |
| Stephanie: | Yeah, we could build that up. |
| Paul: | Yes. |
| Stephanie: | And direct mail them. |
| Paul: | With information packs or…? |
| Stephanie: | Yeah, we could do a big either CD ROM walk-through as part of a glossy brochure pack. That might be one way and … or information brochure if we didn’t have so much money. |
| Courtney: | Yeah, would it be worth it sponsoring some kind of event, I don’t know? |
| Stephanie: | Oh, yeah. |
| Courtney: | You know, inviting the real movers and shakers of art, you know, are target customers, the ones we can count. |
| Stephanie: | It would be great to do a presentation maybe on a boat going up the river or something. That would get the press in. |
| Paul: | Yes. |
| Courtney: | Yes. |
| Paul: | That’s a good idea Courtney, excellent. OK. What are the other areas of press advertising could we do, do you think, I mean, you know, we’ve done bill board advertising before but … |
| Stephanie: | Billboards, what about that? |
| Courtney: | I don’t know. |
| Stephanie: | I hadn’t thought of that for this but… |
| Courtney: | I don’t know what the costs are related to that, I think we would have to look at that. Underground, airports, maybe some of them. |
| Paul: | Yep, OK, well, I’m going to wrap the meeting up now. We’ve come up with some really good ideas, we’ve got TV, radio advertising, obviously, that’s going to be dependent on the budget we’ve actually set at the end of the day. Online promotion which is cheaper but obviously we’ve got certainly have some degree of online promotion. Press advertising, business journals, billboards, maybe depending on the budget again. The contacts with human resources departments, definitely, I mean that’s an area that we’ve really got to explore and certainly a sponsorship of a major event to tie into the launch would be a great idea. |
| Courtney: | OK, so when will we meet next? |
| Paul: | I think we’re scheduled for three week’s time. |
| Stephanie: | Yes, that’s right. |
| Paul: | By which time we’ll have more of an idea of the sort of budget that we’re working with. |
| Stephanie: | Shall we cost some of these things and see…So that we can…? |
| Courtney: | I’ve got some research I can look at. |
| Stephanie: | OK, then we’ll bring that to the next meeting. |
| Paul: | Great. |
| Stephanie: | Great. |
| Courtney: | OK. |
| Stephanie: | OK, thanks. |
