Unit 2 Assignment 5: In Front Advertising Business Plan and Pitch

.

Business Plan

In Front Advertising

Contents                                             Page

.

Introduction

Executive Summary.……………………………………………….2

Personal Profile.……………………………………………………..2

Innovative Business Vision.………………………………………..3

Business Model including routes to market……………………..3

Statement of Aims and Objectives.………………………………4

.

Description of the Business

Product and services………………………………………………5

Market definition and Opportunity.……………………………….6

Unique Selling Point……………………………………………….7

.

Business Operations

Legal structure……………………………………………………..8

Legal Requirements……………………………………………….8

Operations plan.……………………………………………………8

Management and Organisation…………………………………….9

.

Marketing………………………………………………………………….6

Trends

Competition

Promotion

.

Financial Summary and Analysis…………………………………….10

Summary of financial data

Financing Required

.

Risks……………………………………………………………………….11

.

.

Appendices……………………………………………………………………………….13

CV

Statement of Aims and Objectives

Legal requirements

Marketing Plan

Financial Summary

.

.

In Front Marketing

.

.

Introduction

Executive Summary

In Front Advertising started as a simple, direct marketing company and will expand to provide mobile advertising solution. Our market are small to medium sized business owners, offering them effective yet affordable solutions that will drive customers awareness up and hopefully, drive customers to their door. In our planning and preparation, we found that in our third year, we can clear a profit of over £1million if everything runs smoothly, in line with the cashflow forecasts. In the future, we want to be the go-to for effective, affordable and environmentally friendly mobile advertising. We aim to use petrol and diesel powered vehicles as little as possible such as for transporting our operatives from A to B. Our funding requirements start from as little as £1000 for the start-up costs, I have this initial investment secured using my own personal savings and investments. We do not necessarily require investment though if we were to take that route, the investor would have to contribute significantly in terms of knowledge or experience as we do not require financial investment. In return for investment, we will sell 7% equity to the right investor in return for a mere £1000, company valued based on first year financial forecasts.

.

Personal Profile

See full CV in appendix A.

Skills: Analytical, Strategic and great communication skills. Also rather adept at sales. I need to learn to drive and also how to better manage people, I will gain management skills academically and I have plans to attain my driver’s licence between June and September 2017. My financial status is strong, I have the funds available (with 7 days notice) to cover the basic start up costs of my business, including enough cash to cover the cost of living expenses throughout the initial start up phase.

.

.

Innovative Business Vision

My business will focus largely on leaflet distribution and other direct marketing methods, alongside this we will also provide energy efficient, clean mobile advertising solutions. We will achieve this using custom built bicycle trailers which carry billboards (the expected dimensions of which would be 4m x 3m x 0.75m). I believe this will be far more attractive to customers over stationary billboards provided by those such as PrimeSight and JC Decaux because when footfall lessens around stationary billboards, the business who has invested in that advertising strategy will then be wasting money, our solution is simple, when the footfall drops, we move to somewhere more congested. We will also find other benefits, such as agility over traditional mobile advertising solutions. Because of the size (or lack of), we will be able to squeeze through gaps that mobile advertising vans simply cannot. Alongside this, we can also set up in pedestrianised areas provided we take extra care to prevent hazards. This means, we can ensure eyes are on our mobile advertising boards almost constantly. . We also want to give individuals who would be overlooked by traditional employers an opportunity to better themselves and to escape the revolving door lifestyles they are stuck in. This will include working with those suffering from hardships or are otherwise disadvantaged such as those who are homeless, drug addicts or criminals who are looking for an opportunity to rehabilitate. We will work with homelessness services, drug and alcohol partnerships and probation services to ensure the best support is offered to these individuals to mitigate the risk of them relapsing back into the lifestyle they lead previously.

.

.

Business Model including routes to market

Our route to market will be relatively straightforward. Using my sales skills, I will start gathering our initial customers by visiting small to medium sized businesses around Leicester and pitching my mobile advertising solutions to them. I will also utilise previous customer relationships to harness the power of word of mouth, a tool that is extremely effective at gaining new customers simply because if a previous customer recommends us to their friend, it is far more trustworthy than Google advertising, however that is not to say we will not use other advertising methods to promote our brand ourselves. . We are also looking to develop a way in which the homeless communities and those who are more disadvantaged than most the opportunity to earn an income and also give them a hand up instead of a hand out, following a similar business model to John Bird, founder of The Big Issue. We initially thought about using these disadvantaged people to deliver leaflets and other marketing materials but after lengthy debates with potential customers, it has become apparent that this would be unviable due to it being unattractive to my target market, the largest criticism was the increased risk of “dumping”, whereby someone discards marketing materials and claims delivery is completed, we could mitigate this risk using GPS tracking but we are a distance away from that yet and to achieve this early one would require further funding. . With that being said, potential customers were more than happy for these individuals to ride the mobile advertising bicycle billboards provided the riders are presentable and remain professional at all times, this will be relatively easy to achieve given YASC provide breakfasts and showers to those who are disadvantaged in the mornings, they are based in The Dawn Centre on Conduit Street, Leicester. .

.

.

Statement of Aims and Objectives

Our five year aim is to be a nationally recognised brand, that’s our business aim. Our worldly aim is to relieve the stigma associated to homeless people, drug addicts and criminals and raise awareness for the fact that these individuals do not deliberately decide to ruin their lives and in fact, many multiple factors come into play which lead an individual down the paths that they take. Other sjort-long term aims include: Developing an easy to understand and functioning hierarchy within the business whereby I, the CEO, would be on equal terms as my partner CEOs who are leading other offices throughout the UK. We will operate on a profit-share basis whereby they would share their profits with us. Partner CEOs will have progressed through the company and will be given the opportunity to form their own sister-company which will work in tandem with us, referring non-local customers to their most local In Front Advertising office. See Appendix B for Route To Leadership. Note: Partner CEOs will run their own individual businesses as a separate entity and shall be beneficial to us via profit shares, this limits the overall risk of taking on partner CEOs. To exit the partnership would mean the partner CEO ceases trading completely and returns all assets back to In Front Advertising. The premises and any intellectual property “given” to the partner CEO will be on a lease-hold kind of basis whereby In Front Advertising will retain ownership. To double our profits each year for the first five years, this will be achieved through maintaining an appropriate level and scale of growth and expansion. To diversify our products and packages in a way which allows our customers to personalise their advertising product packages through a mix of marketing methods and mobile advertising. We are also considering diversifying into digital media marketing however, it would be imperative we achieve this within 2 years or less before the market becomes too diluted. Our fourth objective is to remove the “smoke and mirrors” from marketing, we want to provide straight forward, simple solutions to our customers to meet their marketing and advertising needs. Our final objective is to keep business simple, most advertising businesses, such as Prime Sight, if you ring them to ask for a price, they’ll have to transfer you three or four times before you speak to someone who will then promise to call you back with a quote but never manages to get round to it, speaking from personal experience. The same is true of JC Decaux, finding out how much it would cost to advertise on the side of a bus, for example or in one of their bus stop billboards, you first have to define how long you require the advertising space for and a multitude of other factors before they can give you a price, this isn’t ideal when you just want to compare prices between one advertising agency and the next. It is absolutely important that we give businesses the same opportunities to advertise as the very largest companies. Because this industry is seemingly shrouded in mystery, smaller than massive businesses seem to be restricted in their advertising methods and given what I am offering is more cost effective than a full page newspaper advert, there is a need for my services for smaller businesses.

.

.

Description of the Business

We will offer two services initially but will look to diversify over time and will be willing to try new products and services; the first is marketing material distribution where we will be posting mostly single page leaflets through letterboxes for businesses. Our distributors will typically be distributing multiple customer’s leaflets at a time, to make it cost effective for them. However, we will offer a Solus service which is where a customer has the option to pay extra to have their marketing materials on their own which has pros and cons, the benefits are that the recipients will only view one single leaflet instead of multiple, the disadvantages of this are that a fly-away piece of paper is far more likely to end up being thrown away without even a glance as opposed to several fliers at once. Alongside that, it has the disadvantage on my business because it means an operative is completely booked with just one customer so the cost of Solus has to be significantly higher, up to 4 or 5x the cost of the regular distribution service., this is to also make it worthwhile for the operative who will earn 25% commission for the order. Our other service is mobile advertising solutions, as explained above, is going to be bicycle pulled billboards. This will allow better agility than an advertising van and more effective use of our customer’s advertising budget than paying for a stationary billboard. This can also be coupled with hand to hand leaflet distribution which is a complimentary service provided alongside door to door distribution unless the customer requests otherwise. Our largest competitor is JC Decaux who are national leaders in outdoor advertising, both non-digital and digital. It will be tough to compete with this company but we shall, we have a good hand in terms of making our services straight forward and easy to take advantage of, which, as previously mentioned, is not the case for advertising businesses. I believe this is because advertising is easy to replicate, the larger companies like to keep everything secret and only reveal pricing to those who they feel are serious about advertising with them, my argument is that a customer doesn’t know whether or not they are serious about purchasing an advertising product until they are fully informed; because we will give all of the details our customers need from the offset, I feel this is where we will have the upper hand. Over time, we will develop our products further and make them more innovative over time, including, possibly, creating digial mobile advertising billboards. Because mobile advertising isn’t a new idea, it would be impossible to own any intellectual property in regards to this, aside from that, intellectual property is really expensive to acquire also and I don’t think intellectual property (IP) is the way forward in the 21st century anyway, pretty soon we will find everybody is suing each other for IP infringements because eventually, ideas will become less and less completely organic. It will, however, be imperative that I get trademark protection and copyright for our name, In Front Advertising, to prevent imitators. If someone has to steal our company name, it will show the capacity of the individual running that company, it will bring us into disrepute, no doubt, and that is why trademarking is important. Alongside that, if someone were to mistakingly take our name and we hadn’t had it trademarked, and they did get their name trademarked, they would have the legal right to ask me to change name because they would own the IP.

.

.

Market Definition and Opportunity

Leaflet Distribution – Direct Marketing Association carried out a survey which revealed 79% of free printed material recipients keep, glance at or pass on to a friend printed marketing materials they receive through their letterbox shows leaflet distribution is far from obsolete. 84% of respondents took action when they received a money off coupon. – http://www.dor2dor.net/statistics.htm Mobile Advertising Space – After asking several business owners about their opinions of travelling billboards, I found a common agreement that the traditional ones used today are rather unsightly and they wouldn’t use that as a advertising method but they did show genuine interest in the idea of a more elegantly designed travelling billboard which would be more versatile than one pulled by a car or van such as my idea of using bicycles with a custom built billboard built into it. – Business owners on London Road and Belgrave Road. We have found that our main target segment in Leicester is Asian businesses and business owners, we have captured this segment via word of mouth and Asian culture is on where a recommendation from a friend is worth far more than someone pitching their services to them, though this is also effective, we have found word of mouth referrals generate the majority of our business in Leicester, as we expand we will have to reconsider our target market and remain dynamic in terms of who we work with. We have a range of competitors nationwide who also distribute leaflets, there’s very little we can do outside of being reliable to compete with these in a way which will make us more appealing to customers, we will compete by aiming to be the best value for money. Our largest competitors for outdoor advertising would be JCDecaux, who in 1999 diversified into outdoor advertising and now maintain over 14% of the UK market share. JCDecaux are really on top of their game with all their different advertising strategies from bus stop advertising and Vitrines (the rolling panel “billboards” that are often situated in pedestrianised areas, far smaller than traditional 48 sheet billboards). Our customers currently pay by cash, this is common amongst Asian business owners. I hope to roll out an electronic payment system that my regular customers can use to make regular payments as currently, we rely on meetings to exchange cash and for my less-local customers, they make payments directly into my personal bank account which makes it tough to separate my own money from the money owed to my business. Once the business is fully registered, I will take advantage of the free period of business banking offered by some banks. We will advertise our services through direct marketing and word of mouth, mostly, we will also lead by example by delivering fliers with our own branding on and advertise ourselves on our mobile billboards. We will also invest in online advertising when we expand into different cities but in the mean time, we will also advertise in local and community magazines.     As a result of the failure of my original primary market research, I have was unable to gauge whether or not there is a market for leaflet distribution in my area still so what I did instead was create a new survey and I booked appointments with local business owners to ask two questions: Do you use leaflet distribution? If so, how often? How much would you expect to pay to have 1000 leaflets delivered? The responses I received varied somewhat but the majority of the 30 respondents did indeed use leaflet distribution (18/30 – 60%). Of those 18, more than half used leaflet distribution regularly (we explained to respondents we consider regular to be at least once every three months, 13/18 respondents told us they do use leaflet distribution regularly, this is equivalent to 72%). Our final question was qualitive and our respondents varied their answer between £15 and £60, though we found the average range to be between £30 and £40 (21/30 respondents said they would pay a specific figure between those two ranges, this makes up 70%. Answers from these 21 individual business owners, just over a quarter chose prices in the range above £50, whereas the most popular range was between £30 and £35, the rest selected values between £35 and £45). Because more than half of the respondents said they use leaflet distribution and more than half of those use leaflet distribution regularly, I conclude there is a market for leaflet distribution. . See Appendix C for for full market research. .

.

.

Unique Selling Point

Our mobile billboards will be pulled by bicycles, this means zero carbon emissions and our billboards will be far more agile and mobile than traditional advertising vans and stationary billboards. The benefit over stationary billboards is significant in the sense where our customer’s funds will be better invested in our mobile advertising services because unlike stationary billboards, when footfall lessens, we can simply move to somewhere that is busier, a stationary billboard cannot move and therefore, when footfall lessons, the business’ investment will be wasted during times of low footfall. The downside to our mobile advertising solutions is that we will not be able to provide 24/7 advertising as our riders will need to sleep at some point, over time, as we employ more riders, we will find we can cover 24 hours of advertising though early hours of the morning, like 3am or 4am, will it be effective when the majority of those awake at that time are likely to be intoxicated, unemployed or too tired to pay attention or otherwise not interested at such an early hour of the morning? Also, would it be fair to expect someone to cycle around the city at such an unforgiving time? .

.

.

Business Operations

Limited Company (maybe social enterprise pending further research). This because we want remain separate legal entities from our business and so that we can have share holders, as a result, we have less personal risk should anything happen to our business.

.

Legal Requirements

Health and safety at Work Act 1974: Maintain good reporting in accident and injury book, carry out regular risk assessments, try and find hazards at work and how to prevent them. Work in line with RIDDOR. Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) Contract law Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982. The above will all be crucial to the operations of our business for health and safety, employment and sales reasons. . See Appendix B for full details, explanations and examples of legal requirements.

.

Operations Plan

Current operations: East Midlands, mostly Leicester. I have chosen this location because it is local to me and cities in the East Midlands are easy and cost effective for me to travel to. We hope to expand nationally within 5 years. We are currently operating from my flat but hope to acquire business premises in the way of a storage lockup that can be used as a base of operations. We have a budget for business rates and lease included in our cashflow. (see Appendix C for financials) Purchasing arrangements are typically cash though we will implement an e-payment system to make auditing easier and also an EPOS (electronic point of sale) system to accept major debit or credit cards, this will make taking payments faster than relying on our customers to manually transfer the funds to our account. Our business will not require many resources to start up or maintain, our biggest resource will be employees, we will source these by liasing with homelessness and other services to find the people we can help. We have to be entirely honest with our customers to maintain a quality business relationship with them. Dumping is a major issue and the only way to compensate for that risk is through low pricing or tracked distribution which will increase the fees our customers pay due to licensing costs of software unless we use free alternatives that do no show a house count. We will use Microsoft Excel for auditing and Microsoft Access for database management and customer relationship management (CRM). We will source new customers through a range of marketing techniques, mostly direct marketing and via our own leaflet distribution channels. We’ll charge £35 per 1000 as a result of market research.

.

.

Management and Organisation

Staff Structure Roles: . We will employ one new distributor every quarter should everything go to plan in regards to our cashflow forecast, this will allow for steady growth and expansion. When we are comfortable with this, we will employ mobile advertising riders and these will be able to progress through the company to high roles. New roles will be added over time and one person may fit more than role. I currently fill all of the roles myself. Some roles are full-time paid roles which may require more than one person and new branches will be added over time also. People will only be employed once the business is no longer manageable by just myself. Many roles will be filled through natural career progression, others will have to employed through other sources of recruitment. We will source staff through both traditional means, such as recruiting online via job search websites and through natural career progression and non-traditional means such as head hunting distributors and riders through working with certain partnerships to find the most capable of working and those wanting of a real opportunity of change. No training will be required for our operatives other than company policies and Health and Safety. Certain training may be required for higher level staff members employed by the company. One person may fill more than one role. The above structure is the completed structure once business has developed. As it currently stands, I will fill the role of most of the corporate structure with operatives (leaflet distributors and riders) joining the lower ranks and progressing through the company.

.

.

Marketing Plan

.

We will use direct marketing methods and word of mouth to generate the majority of local business, this will include telephone and SMS marketing and face to face B2B marketing, we will also take referals and ask for leads. We will also use a mix of indirect marketing, such as using our own mobile advertising solutions and leaflet distribution channels. We will use targeted marketing strategies, using tools like Google Adwords and other online advertising mediums. We can target demographics such as Asian business owners in Leicester by advertising in local business brochures in my home area of Belgrave. See appendix C Marketing Analysis, including full market research.

.

.

Financial Summary and Analysis

.

P&L

.

.

Financing Required

Minimum start up costs: £1000 – Covered by a Director’s Loan. Ideal start up budget: £3151+: This can be raised from investment or from the Start Up Loans Company. Otherwise, we can start with just £1000 in which case we have that already in savings and investments and can generate the rest through sales revenue. We will be willing to give up to 20% of the equity away in the start up phase of our business. All debts will be short term, of course, investors should be invested long term but there are contingency plans and exit strategies in place should they need to be utilised. If we took out a loan of just £4000 (rounding up our ideal start up budget), we can have this paid off within 6 months or a year depending on how much we repay each payment and how much interest is charged on the loan.

.

.

Cash Flow Forecast Year One

.

.

Opening Balance: £0 Closing balance of first month is -£3339; due to expenses paid in the first month of operations financed by my own personal funds which will be documented as a director’s loan. This figure will be offset over time where financially viable. As a result, we will find an increase of £1000 accumulative over the first few years, once this has accumulated, we can look towards repayment. We will break even in February (see appendix).

.

.

.

Risks

Our biggest risk would be free printed material and non-motion billboard advertising becoming obsolete. We will mitigate this risk by ensuring we remain dynamic and open to new opportunities to diversify our products and services. Our second biggest risk is our business paying our staff a fair and proper wage, especially those contracted on a self-employed basis given everything that has happened in 2016 and will, I daresay, continue to happen into 2017 in regards to low wages, poor wage structures (such as those exhibited by Sports Direct) and self-employed contractors being unable to make ends meet due to poor pay structures (such as MyHermes and Amazon’s self-employed couriers). If we are unable to pay our staff fairly, we may have to rely on our contingency budget which could be depleted quickly if we do not generate sales from the offset. However, with an already established customer base to start us off, I believe this shouldn’t be too much of an issue provided we budget correctly. .

.

.

Appendices

.

Appendix A: CV (Please note: Due to formatting issues, the following document begins on the next page.

Andrew HillPersonal Statement	.	I have been interested in business since a young age, with my working career starting at just fourteen years old. I take a great amount of interest in how businesses run, how shops are laid out (both brick and mortar and e-commerce) and I especially enjoy seeing the correlation between world events and the effects it has on business and the overall economy. I enjoy writing about these events on social media and how I expect they will influence the economy in the future as well as how economic events effects individuals on a consumer level. I also enjoy learning about the stock markets and I have been trading for over a year with moderate success with my best performing holding being Boohoo, an online fashion retailer, whose share price has more than tripled since purchase early-mid 2016.
Skills	.	Problem Solving Logical Decision Making Communication Sales Customer Service / Experience Computer Literate – Able to use most key Microsoft Office programs Report Writing Meeting Deadlines Data Analysis
Achievements	.	30th January 2017: Global Entrepreneurship Week DECA Idea Challenge 2016 Global Winner – See below. http://www.decadirect.org/2017/01/30/deca-idea-challenge-2016-global-winners-announced/ 16th January 2017: Global Entrepreneurship Week DECA Idea Challenge 2016 Global Finalist – We were tasked with creating an innovative sustainable product by repurposing a selected item, the 2016 challenge included plastic bottles so my team developed a product to prevent young children getting electrocuted from poor electrical safety regulations in third world countries. The other finalists in our category (colleges and universities), we were up against university students. (http://www.decadirect.org/2017/01/16/deca-idea-challenge-global-finalists-announced/ – we are the Frugal Anti-shock Leicester College entry.) Winners are announced on 30th January 2017. 2016/2017 – College – I achieved a lot throughout my education here where I am currently predicted an end grade of D*D, just one below the highest I could possibly achieve which, of course, I am aspiring to. The above achievement was also only possible because Leicester College pointed us in the right direction. I began my education a month late into the term and was transferred onto a more appropriate course as my knowledge was too advanced in the subject and the college felt I was better suited on a more practical course, so I transferred to a new campus and was enrolled on a BTEC Level 3 in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship and I had to catch up with three assignments which I achieved a distinction grade for with no resubmissions or classroom learning, all well within deadline.
Work History	.	Sole Trader – Leaflet Distribution and Advertising June 2015 – January 2017 For over a year, I was making ends meet by running a leaflet distribution business which, due to studying, has been largely impacted and this is why I have decided to stop taking on contracts whilst I focus on my education and employment. I was able to generate my own leads and a solid stream of custom from a large portion of Melton Road, Belgrave Road and Loughborough Road and the surrounding areas. Home Fundraising May 2016 – August 2016 Door to door fundraising; I achieved more regular direct debit donors for the charity I was working on behalf of (Voluntary Services Oversees) than anybody else within my company on that day. I learned the importance of being able to adapt your sales skills for different environments, which with a small amount of training I was very able to do. Other Work Experience Sole trader of own gardening business. Owner of several multi-level marketing businesses. Hope Hospitality – Telesales Montana Marketing – Door to Door sales Stagg Hairstyles – Receptionist/Stylist assistant, stylist, colour technician, assistant manager
Education	.	Leicester College / Peter Jones Enterprise Academy BTEC Level 3 – Enterprise & Entrepreneurship. 2016/2017 This is a very hands on practical course which gives us the skills we need to be able to run our own businesses; without any classroom learning and after starting months later in the year after being on a previous course (BTEC Lvl3 Business) which I was transferred from because I was too knowledgeable of the subject, I submitted three distinction grade assignments within just two weeks without any resubmissions and have since maintained the spot as the highest achieving student in my year on my course in my college. I am going to attend De Montfort University in late 2017 for which I have already been given a conditional offer upon passing my course (though I am on track to achieve an overall grade of a distinction). Predicted grade D*D. Leicester YMCA Education Department Pre-Tenancy Skills. 2016 – 18 week course. This course is designed to teach younger adults the skills they need to live independently and to make better decisions in terms of household budgets and finance. I completed this course in 6 weeks with a very low attendance due to completing all of the work several weeks before all other students. Heart Of England Training BTEC Level 1 – Hair and Beauty I took this course to improve my scissor cutting skills, as I am adept at other hair treatments and styling (aside from scissor work) but unfortunately, it was not much of a success as this course mostly involved health and safety at work and other really valuable learning about the workplace in general, customer service and administration alongside very basic hair and beauty treatments which, due to my extensive experience at this point, I already knew and surpassed other students on the same course. Gateway Sixth Form College A Levels – English Literature, Psychology, Biology: Uncompleted I excelled during my secondary school years in English and science so I decided to embark on these courses because at the age of sixteen, I knew I didn’t want to work in a salon my entire working life but I didn’t know what direction my career would take me in. Unfortunately, due to circumstances far beyond my control, I ultimately found myself homeless with no other choice but to leave college. Soar Valley Community College GCSE Subject – Grade English – B English Literature – B Science – B Additional Science – B (Coursework grade – A*) Math – C ICT – C equivalent Business Studies – C Media Studies – D
References . .	.	Available Upon Request . Appendix B: Company Progression: Route To Leadership (Not finalised) Operative – Team Leader – Manager* At this point, training will be given in sales and business ownership. The manager will then be in a position where they will actively manage customers and their accounts, as well as developing and following up oin leads, closing sales and driving the business. Once they have demonstrated capability, they will become CEOs in training before being given the opportunity to open their own office. . We have not yet decided how best to approach the final stage of the route to leadership, however, it will be at least 12 months before we are at a stage where managers will have shown they are capable of running their own office.

.

.

Appendix B: Legal Obligations:     I will be discussing several legal aspects from key legislations set in place by the government to protect me as a business owner, my staff and consumers and the general public alike. The legislations we will be focusing on is the Health and Safety legislation, contract law and consumer protection legislation, we will also briefly discuss the Sales of Goods Act and the Consumer Rights act which replaced the Sales of Goods Act on a consumer level.

    First, we will talk about health and safety. Health and Safety has a huge impact in everyday life for every business and consumer alike, it is due to this legislation that we no longer see so many shelves getting stacked during opening hours as we would previous to the legislation being put in place. The legislation is intended “to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare” of all visitors to your business premises or work location, whether your business is a supermarket with a single, physical location or if you run a landscape design business where you will work mostly on private property. If at any point an injury occurs due to the fault of an operative at work or for any fault, risk or hazard that the business has not reasonably managed then the business is liable for any injury caused; it is important to ensure businesses are fully protected with relevant insurance products as this will mitigate the risk of high legal expenses.

    The law requires business owners to take reasonable steps to reduce risks and prevent hazards and should an injury occur or the act is otherwise breached, the courts will look at several factors such as whether or not the cost to reduce the risk or prevent the hazard was grossly disproportionate to the amount of risk presented. Another factor taken into account is the risk to personal safety when it comes to dealing with the risk of a hazard or whether or not the hazard was present and preventable at the time when risk assessments were conducted. For example, a precariously placed boxed on top of a 3 metre shelf may be impractical to be moved if there are no step ladders available meaning the only way to reduce the risk is to physically climb the shelves which could cause them to fall and crush the person trying to remove the hazard. The practical steps to take would be to prevent public access to the area where the hazard is present.

    Similarly, if the hazard is easy to remove, such as wires across the floor presenting a trip hazard, if somebody tripped and no reasonable steps were taken to prevent them tripping, such as moving the wires, then it is logical to conclude that the business would be liable for this.

    My business, In Front Advertising, would have to be particularly careful in heavily pedestrianised areas, such as the city centre, where risk of collision would be greatly increased due to my advertising vessel being rather long. I would mitigate this risk by using hi-visibility strips and clear warnings that the vehicle takes wide turns and that caution should be taken when turning. It would also help to have action cameras installed to ensure no frivolous lawsuits occur as a result of people deliberately entering blind spots with the intention of me colliding with them for the purposes of personal injury claims. I would also require, by law, to document any accidents or injuries and I will do this by recording them properly in an injury book. More information on Health and Safety can be found here: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/hsc13.pdf

Another example of Health and Safety at work and how breaching health and safety legislation can affect a business can be found with First Bus, I boarded a bus in 2016 with a backpack weighing 20kg on my back, I showed my pass and the driver pulled off, the weight on my back coupled with the motion of the bus projected me forward causing my right shoulder to collide with the hand rail rather forcibly, it caused an injury which left me unable to post the leaflets in my bag for several days which caused me to fall behind on my customer’s order, this caused the order to be fulfilled late and as a result, I felt it was only fair to refund part of the payment given to me for the delay in delivery. Because section 7(a) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 states an employee is “to take reasonable care for the health and safety of himself and of other persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions at work…” As a result of the driver’s actions, I suffered an injury. So I reported this to First and requested they reimburse me for the partial refund I gave to my customer, I had made a mistake of not properly documenting the customer’s order and so they refused, I asked instead to be compensated for my injury, initially, I did not want anything for the injury itself, I just didn’t want to be left out of pocket as a result of their driver’s failure to ensure I was holding on to something. I know First drivers are trained to ensure passengers who are disabled, with children or encumbered by luggage are safely positioned before pulling off. My last correspondence with First was with them explaining to me that they refuse liability and their reasons as to why, I have argued their points and given them seven days to respond and change their position on the matter, failure to do so will result in me progressing with a no win no fee personal injury claim through Irwin Mitchel. After the seven day deadline, Transportation Claims Ltd have failed to respond and so I have brought the claim to Irwin Mitchel, this is important for the future of my business because if it is found that the bus company are not liable for my injury, then I will have to think of a safer way for my distributors to travel with such a heavy load on their back; perhaps we can mitigate the risk of injury by making a policy that distributors only carry a certain amount of weight in their backpacks, if a distributor breaches this policy and is injured as a result, the business will not be liable for any injury they sustain as a result of their ignorance.

A few months prior to starting the college course, my landlord’s contracted worker left a copper pipe at the bottom of my stairs in my block of flats, the lights were off in the communal walkway and I slipped on the pipe and injured my back, I have the right to claim for my injury due to their breach of health and safety whereby their contracted worker did not take reasonable care to ensure the area was free from hazards, we were not informed as residents that work was going to be carried out either. These two examples demonstrate how easy it is for an operative to be negligible. I do not believe for one moment that the bus driver or the Asra (my landlord) contracted worker deliberately went out of their way to cause injury to anybody; thankfully and hopefully, they should be covered by public liability insurance, I am in discussions with Transportation Claims Ltd who are First Busses’ insurers who, as I mentioned, have currently refused liability.

Health and safety will have a huge impact on my business, both for my employees and self-employed staff and also for the general public. It would be disastrous if my bag strap snapped and my leaflets landed on a ladies foot leaving her out of work, I would be responsible for covering her loss of earnings and compensating her for her injury, with that being said, I would mitigate this by ensuring I have public liability in place in case of accidental injury. Another issue I will have is with my bicycle billboard, I would have to take wide turns as a result of the length of the trailer which could increase the risk of collision, especially in any blind spots around corners. I would mitigate this by ensuring proper lighting and reflectors are used, along with warning signs and possibly dash-cam cameras installed on the trailer to protect against any frivolous claims made against me where members of the public could potentially deliberately injure themselves. Alongside this, we would be required by law to ensure we had an accident book to record any accidents and similarly, we must also undertake risk assessments (also a legal requirement) to minimise hazards, whenever an accident takes place, it is vital that we record the accident and also cross reference any injuries or accidents with our risk assessments to see how we could better avoid the same accidents in future and to also see if anything more could have been done to prevent the accident from happening in the first place.

    Next, we will look at contract law and how it will affect my business. A contract is a voluntary agreement between two or more parties and is enforceable by law, not criminal law (unless where the contract is fraudulent or otherwise could insight another to commit a crime) but instead civil law meaning you cannot go to prison for breaching a contract unless the contract itself is criminally illegal (such as the contracts used in the Ponzi Scheme, whereby they promised high returns which came from other people joining the scheme whilst those lower in the “pyramid” didn’t see much money if any at all, it was deemed a pyramid scheme due to their being no tangible product for sale). For a contract to be legally binding, certain criteria has to be met, these include:

However, in a business contract, intention is inferred. To put this into perspective, if I had a contract with the Samworth Brothers to provide the ingredients that I have agreed to use to make sandwiches that I would sell on the market and instead I simply resold the ingredients or sold the sandwiches to retailers, I would be in breach of the contract as I would have gone against the original intention. A business contract is a contract which has the purpose of being used in order to make a profit, if you were to break the contract by selling the sandwiches elsewhere or using the ingredients for other purposes, as Samworth Brothers also make Sandwiches for the likes of Tesco and Ginsters, if I were to sell my sandwiches to these companies, I could have a negative impact on Samworth Brothers’ own income. Samworth Brothers would not take me to court if I made a huge amount of profit from selling my sandwiches on the market because we agreed to this but if I made a huge amount of profit selling the sandwiches elsewhere then Samworth Brothers can make a claim for some or all of the profit earned, plus compensation for any damages to their own financials.

.

If someone breaches a contract, it is up to the court to decide whether or not to award damages or other compensation to the party who did not breach the contract. Sometimes, there are exit clauses and clauses to explain the consequences of the breach, in these cases, it is up to the judge to decide whether these clauses are fair, also. A judge would also take into account the reasons the contract were breached amongst many other things before deciding on an outcome of a claim.

Contract law will have a huge impact on my business for two reasons, it will be absolutely important for us to have in writing how many leaflets will be delivered or how long we will advertise their business for, the deadlines for campaign completion and the amount that will be paid for the services I offer so that, firstly, we have proper documentation of orders (as I have learned since my injury on the First Bus) and also, in case there are ever any issues whereby the customer feels I have not adhered to the contract adequately and in which case, there will be physical evidence if needed in court.

More information on contract law can be found here: http://www.a4id.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/A4ID-english-contract-law-at-a-glance.pdf

    Next, we will talk about consumer protection legislation. This is a huge subject to cover and I will explain the most important aspects of this legislation. First, however, I will mention the fact that the Consumer Rights Act of 2015 replaced the Sales of Goods Act 1979 on a consumer level only and the Sales of Goods Acts only refers to business to business sales. The Consumer Rights Act of 2015 is the amended act for business to consumer sales. The Consumer Rights Act covers the quality of a product, returning, replacement or repair of goods, your rights in regards to digital content and also delivery rights, included is also your rights when receiving a service. The quality of a product is defined as a product being fit for purpose, as described and of satisfactory quality. If you buy a new pair of boots which are clearly well worn, it will not be as described even though the boots may be fit for purpose and of a satisfactory quality, though saying that, the quality would be diminished if they were well worn so, there is that…

    Under the consumer rights act, you also have the right to reject the product within 30 days if it is found to be faulty or develops a fault, is unsafe or otherwise of unsatisfactory quality. This is not to be confused with distance selling regulations which define a period of 14 days where a customer can return goods bought online, over the phone or via mail order within 14 days of receipt for any reason at all. The 30 day right to reject is only applicable for items you purchase that turn out to be not of satisfactory quality, this protection is especially useful for those who buy clothing but do not try them on in-store changing rooms. In regards to digital products, the right to a refund isn’t given even if the item develops a fault, instead it should be replaced or repaired. Companies like Alphabet who give customers an option to pay for some apps on their Google Play Store will give a refund for apps that are uninstalled (where a refund is also requested via the app store) within 7 days, this is not a legal requirement and is instead a gesture of goodwill whereby the refund can be refused at any time for any reason and can also be reversed. What isn’t immediately clear is if a product is purely digital but entirely miss-sold, can a person claim a full refund then? If we look at Payment Protection Insurance, which is a non-physical financial product as opposed to a digital product, many people were misinformed and therefore miss-sold this insurance and those who were miss-sold this insurance were given the legal right to a refund years after the sale took place so surely the same should apply for digital products that were miss-sold? With that being said, miss-selling a product and a product developing a fault after purchase are completely different factors and should not be mistaken.

    The consumer rights act also encompasses the Financial Conduct Authority guidelines in regards to financial products, including lenders adhering to the responsible lender’s code.

    Another key thing of note is when a consumer discovers a fault within the first 6 months, it is to be assumed the fault was there since the time of purchase unless the retailer can prove otherwise, if they cannot prove otherwise then the customer is immediately entitled to have the product repaired and if this fails, the customer can reject the goods for a full refund. Similarly, the retailer cannot reduce the refund with the exception of motor vehicle sales whereby the value of the refund will depreciate in line with the depreciation of the value of the vehicle after the first 30 days. A customer, if they want to keep the goods, can request a partial refund but the retailer can refuse this and request the item back in exchange for a full refund only. You have 6 years to make a claim to the small claims court if a retailer refuses to give you refund in line with the consumer rights act and you can seek legal advice from the citizen’s advice bureau. The consumer rights act will not have an impact on my business as I will only be dealing with business to business sales. The Supply of Goods and Services Act does, however, apply to me.

    Of course, my business does not provide any physical products at the moment, so the previous points regarding the consumer rights act doesn’t apply to me, however, if we ever started printing marketing materials for our customers, then the previous point would certainly apply. I do however provide a service to fellow businesses and therefore, the Supply of Goods and Services Act of 1982 does apply to me (however, the Consumer Rights Act of 2015 is the act I should refer to if I were providing a service to consumers, like the Sales of Goods Act, the Supply of Goods and Services Act was replaced by the Consumer Rights Act on a consumer level, according to Which).

    We will focus on the supply of services whilst we discuss the supply of goods and services act and discuss the supply of goods where appropriate, this act states that, similar to the Sales of Goods and Consumer Rights acts, that a service must be fit for purpose, as described and of satisfactory quality.

    I worked in a hair salon in the past and the first lady’s hair I’d ever cut, I left an entire inch step between the bottom layer and top layer of her hair, it looked terrible and being so young, at the time I was just sixteen years old, I was petrified to confess my mistake; I curled the ends so she couldn’t tell and she left the shop. Unsurprisingly, she never returned to the salon but in line with the Supply of Goods and Services Act, she was well within her rights to come back to the salon to demand corrective work be carried out at no cost to herself. I cannot say I blame her for not returning for the corrective work, but in my defence, I was still training. Unlike the sale of goods, however, most people won’t be entitled to a full refund of a service unless the workmanship was extremely poor, in the case of the lady at the salon, she’d have been entitled to a full refund. Otherwise, service providers can refuse a full refund and may offer a partial refund (depending on the quality of the work) or to provide corrective work free of charge (for example, if a painter and decorator left a patch of wall unpainted, then corrective work would be justified however, if the painter and decorator demolished a wall he was being asked to paint, then of course, the customer would be entitled to a full refund). Simply put, up until the 1^st October 2015, the Supply of Goods and Services Act of 1982 covers all work carried out by businesses that provide a trade, that could be; builders, mechanics, dry cleaners and covers work carried out within a business or a person’s home, like a landscape designer or gardener, now however, if a service is carried out on behalf of a consumer or if a consumer purchases an item the acts that would apply to these in the past are now replaced by the Consumer Rights Act of 2015.

In conclusion, it is vital that we understand the legislations discussed in this assignment fully, the reason for this is that any misunderstanding of any points mentioned in this assignment will have a direct, negative impact on my business. If I fail to carry out risk assessments or record accidents and injuries accurately then I will almost certainly be liable for any person who claims my business or my employees caused injury. Without carrying out a risk assessment, I will automatically be liable unless I can prove the accident did not happen. Similarly, for a consumer who slips or trips or otherwise suffers accidents, they should request their injury be logged properly as this will assist in any personal injury claim they may or may not make. The accident book plays a vital role as it allows both parties’ legal counsel to see what caused the accident, where the accident took place and any injuries that occurred (important for cross referencing medical records from the injured as frivolous claims are not uncommon such as a person exaggerating their injury). The final point I will make is that The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations of 1995 (RIDDOR) is a legislation that sets out the statutory duties of employers and businesses to carry out risk assessments and record injuries, failure to do so automatically places those being claimed against on a back foot in the sense that if you breach RIDDOR, the courts will only have the evidence provided by the claimant (their word and any medical evidence) that the incident took place and no evidence from the defendant, of course, there are some exceptions to this rule, it would be rather foolish to not carry out a risk assessment but a court will overlook this if you can prove the person wasn’t injured, for example if you claimed you slipped in ASDA but CCTV shows you did not so much as stumble, the claim would be awarded in the defendant’s favour. Similarly, if a risk assessment was carried out and the accident was not recorded, this can be the defendant’s golden ticket to refuse liability and in which case, any personal injury claim could fail to be taken further than litigation. In the above personal examples where myself, as a consumer, suffered injury as a result of a businesses’ employees or contractors, I reported the incidents straight away via telephone to my landlord and First Bus respectively before I sought medical treatment, I knew that the longer I did not report the injuries to the companies concerned would have an impact on whether or not those companies admit liability, I am finding though, that even if one does report the incident to the company concerned, they may still refuse liability and in which case, the claim should be progressed to a claims court so a consumer can claim what they are legally entitled to for their personal injury.

.

Reference:

(All above links)

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1979/54 Sale of Goods Act

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/contents/enacted Consumer Rights Act

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1987/43 Consumer Protection Act

https://www.gov.uk/consumer-protection-rights Consumer Rights

http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation Consumer Rights

http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation Consumer Regulations in regards to various business practices

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/business/marketing/marketingmixrev3.shtml BBC Bitesize

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3zR6PS2LXwbV3sY2MT9PPjF/sale-of-goods-act-1979-as-amended

.

Appendix C: Sales and Marketing Plan

.

.

    Market Research Objectives:

.

The methods I will use to gather data will be done via digital and face to face communication and through the use of surveys, conversation and secondary research.

I have chosen to survey businesses and gather secondary data in regards to businesses as business owners will be my target customer, specifically, for the most part, small to medium sized businesses including sole traders but where necessary, referring to larger businesses.

.

Plan:

Questionnaire for customers (businesses).

.

(35 questions in total)

The first set of questions will be to gain an insight into who your business is, just basic demographics. (7 questions)

The second set of questions are in regards to their overall advertising and marketing experiences. (6 questions)

The next set of questions is in regards to leaflet distribution specifically. (7 questions)

The next set of questions are in regards to digital media marketing. (8 questions)

My final set of questions will be around general marketing methods and preferences specifically to allow me to gauge the customer’s preference to how a marketing business should structure their pricing and to also get an idea of your opinion regarding new and upcoming marketing methods. (8 questions)

.

Survey link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1MFn10sKYpv_FGZ1s0_dTZzJFJPWizvv7YnHxRlotUBU/edit?c=0&w=1

.

Proposed Timeline:

Data/Report

.

Upon attempting to carry out the above survey, it soon became apparent that business owners were reluctant to divulge too much information about their own businesses. I attempted to convert the survey into a Google form so that I would be able to fill it in for them, therefore minimising the amount of effort they would need to input themselves.

I was unable to gather any conclusive data from my survey with the exception that those small businesses who work in the landscape and horticultural industries tend to spend less than £1000 per year. I believe the lack of respondents is as a result of too many open ended, qualitative questions and due to time constraints, I have been unable to carry out my primary market research adequately which is a shame.

What I have had to do instead, because of the failure of carrying out the above survey, is to try and gather information through having deliberate conversations with business owners which, to the best of my ability without seeming too nosy, I hoped to be able to meet at least some, if not all of my marketing objectives.

I decided to profile each business I approached by asking if each business was independently owned or not, I did also speak with franchise owners who informed me that most of their marketing was carried out by head office so I’ve decided to omit franchises from my findings. Because I ended up targeting only small to medium sized businesses which were independently owned, for the most part, they had fewer than 10 employees however, what I did find was that there is a direct correlation between the amount of employees a business has and their marketing budget, I believe this is as a result of an increased ability to handle more customers and often goes hand in hand with the business occupying a larger premises, for example, Radia’s Supermarket on Melton Road in Leicester spend a large amount of money (over £1000 a year) on instore marketing and on fliers though they do not have them distributed for themselves specifically, instead if customers want one, they can take one but do very little in the way of outside marketing. With that being said, they do partner with several entertainment companies and venue hire companies such as JJPromotions (owned by Dr. Jajoo), Jay’s Entertainments and Sony Asia who will place Radia’s Supermarket on their show fliers as a place to purchase tickets which subsequently drives a large amount of new customers to Radia’s Supermarket for every show. Radia’s was a fantastic example for my market research as it really gave me an insight into how companies can still market themselves without having to spend a large amount of money; even without spending the £1000+ per year on in store marketing (banners, fliers, posters, etc.) they’d still have a strong marketing strategy from their several partnerships with companies as far as London (and sometimes India) who often put on shows in Leicester and areas of the UK with a high Indian population. Radia’s Supermarket has less than 10 employees working on the premises at any one time, this excludes those who are travelling to pick up supplies or make deliveries and any casual workers they employ. I gathered from this that they do in fact have more than 10 employees and from this we can conclude that Radia’s Supermarket will be well suited to handle a lot of customers and in my opinion, they could quite safely increase their marketing budget without having any adverse effect on their business.

Although Radia’s Supermarket do not personally distribute their marketing material door to door or face to face, this doesn’t mean that leaflet distribution was obsolete. In fact, what I have found (and this can be gathered from my survey responses and secondary data collected from Leicester Leaflet Distribution [LLD]) is that leaflet distribution is especially popular with businesses with less than ten employees and also larger retail companies who often change their stock, one particular supermarket retailer who is guilty of regular stock changes is Lidl, Lidl will distribute their catalogue every quarter and it’s no easy fete to deliver them as there are only 10 to a box when usually there are 1000 to a box of any other marketing materials. I have not personally had the opportunity to sign on of their distribution contracts yet but LLD has and they have informed me that they pay above £100 per 1000 catalogues distributed whereas typically they would pay only £28 for 1000 A5, up to 130 gsm (paper size) fliers, of course they would not disclose to me how much Lidl would pay LLD but I can only imagine there is a significant profit. I also know that TNT subcontract distributors to deliver Lidl catalogues also which is evidence of Lidl carrying out a national marketing campaign. If companies like Lidl are still choosing to have their catalogues distributed, does that really mean distribution is not obsolete? Well, not exactly. I mean, it is quite clear that some companies will throw money at things simply to increase their expenses for the benefit of tax, it isn’t to say Lidl is guilty of this but until we see actual results based on the customer response to their campaigns.

So, it sounds as though leaflet distribution is obsolete, does it not? Well, yes it does but leaflet distribution is arguably one of the most effective methods of advertising in the twenty first century, especially given Neilson data which shows the contrast of digital advertising on the television and radio whereby when these adverts are shown, viewers simply switch off, change channel or mute their devices (62%) and simply flick past printed advertising (81%). This, coupled with the Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA) statistic of 79% of recipients who keep, glance at or pass on to a friend printed marketing materials they receive through their letterbox shows leaflet distribution is far from obsolete. In fact, suddenly it’s just became rather attractive. It is often believed that the response gained from leaflet distribution is as little as 3-6%, which is believable but this doesn’t mean that leaflet distribution is ineffective. Do you think the John Lewis Christmas themed advert gets hundreds of new customers the first time it is shown? Of course not, it makes us realise Christmas is just around the corner but by dinner time, we’ve already forgotten about it. No, marketing campaigns are most effective when it is repeated; this is why JCDecaux (Britain’s largest outdoor advertisers) will recommend having any outdoor advertising for at least a week if not longer and don’t even have a price to quote for one single bus stop advertisement for less than a week. Based on this evidence gathered mostly from secondary research, we can deduce that print and distribution is still perfectly viable and definitely is not obsolete, far from it in fact, especially when we take into account LLD who specialise in only distributing other company’s marketing material for them.

I was also able to discover, especially from smaller businesses on Evington Road in Leicester, that digital advertising is becoming more affordable, speaking to one marketing business on Evington Road called Digital-Adverts.co.uk whose digital billboard on the corner of East Park Road/Evington Road boast a viewership of over 50’000 per week for as little as £625 per month (on the big screen), so if a month is three weeks, the price works out to be half of that of a typical door to door leaflet distribution campaign. It costs significantly less on the smaller digital billboard. Is it effective? Well, Bray & Bray Solicitors and Mercedes Benz Leicester (an independent Mercedes show room) certainly think so as they are regular returning customers of Digital-Adverts.co.uk.

After speaking with Bray & Bray, a Leicester based legal firm and MB-Leicester, I was informed that they use affiliate marketing, now I’ve only ever known affiliate marketing to be carried out by online businesses so I learned something new today myself. I personally cannot currently perceive how I would implement affiliate marketing into my own business without having somebody who is technologically able to show me how to set up an affiliate scheme however, what I do know is that the cost is based on the amount of clicks the advert receives from individuals visiting different websites. I have been an affiliate for Amazon in the past who pay a commission based on sales, I advertised their products on a content hosting platform called HubPages where I also placed Google Adverts and eBay affiliate links sparingly. Google Adsense (Alphabet’s payment application for content creators) would pay based on traffic to your site and eBay would pay, like Amazon, based on purchases. However, due to cookies, if a customer clicked through to Amazon through your link and purchased something other than the advertised item, you would still receive commission so it is more of a referral fee that you would earn instead of a sales commission. I believe this has enabled me to confirm that digital media is definitely a great way forward, especially for smaller businesses who maybe cannot afford or simply don’t need prime-time television advertising. The beauty of online digital advertising is that you can target the exact demographic you’re looking for where local or national television and radio simply cannot give you that control.

To decide whether or not businesses would prefer a marketing “package”, for lack of a better term or individual marketing products, I had to call several marketing managers of several big companies before I managed to speak to the senior communications officer of John Lewis, because most small to medium sized businesses only opt for one or two methods of advertising at any one time, John Lewis’ senior communications officer informed me that they actually have large advertising packages put together by a company called Adam&EveDDB who from 2012 have managed their advertising, including the iconic Christmas adverts including this year’s featuring Buster the Dog who we all know is far more grateful for the trampoline than the children it was intended for but that’s neither here nor there. After calling Adam&EveDDB, I discovered that John Lewis, along with many other massive businesses, have been cheating their way through advertising for several years to the extent that the majority of it goes through this marketing company who also boasts a wealth of clients from insurers such as Aviva to breweries such as Fosters and even UniLever (particularly, Marmite) and banks such as Lloyds. It is quite clear that this marketing company is very large. Adam&EveDDB put together comprehensive advertising packages including both printed and digital media (including television, radio and online advertising) for businesses and from their success, it would seem that these packages would be rather popular, especially with larger businesses but the obstacle I will have personally would be a massive lack of experience, after all the likes of John Lewis would be unlikely to have any margin for error. For marketing packages to be suitable for smaller or medium sized businesses, we would have to carefully put together relevant advertising methods and take into account the duration of each individual advertising campaign within the package and then a suitable cost which should be kept below £1000 as £1000 seems to be the benchmark for the yearly marketing budget of most businesses I’ve spoken to who have been willing to divulge that information. Because Adam&EveDDB do print advertising, it is hard for me to simply write newspaper and magazine advertising off, would such an established company use such methods if they were ineffective or redundant? Or are they simply continuing to use these methods as a back-up revenue stream? Given the cost of magazine advertising in the likes of Metro and Leicester Mercury which are daily newspapers, it would seem a bit pointless to advertise for only one issue yet for magazines such as Leicester based Niche magazine whose issues are monthly, advertising in one edition of that may be very effective, especially for those who’ll pick up a magazine and reread articles several times to absorb the most information from them.

I decided to call several takeaways and restaurants along London Road in Leicester and present them with a hypothetical choice of preference between leaflet distribution, digital media and travelling billboards pulled by bicycles, the responses I received varied greatly with the most commonly used marketing method (of the three) was leaflet distribution however, most of the businesses I did call informed me that they had switched to services such as Just-Eat, Hungry Horse and Deliveroo however, none of them had used travelling billboards with the exception of More restaurant on London Road (whose advertising was pulled by a van), they believed them to be very effective, however it was a common trend that travelling billboards were the most intriguing, for lack of a better word, to business owners along the London Road, perhaps down to the central location or novelty of the idea. I also discovered from these same businesses that they did not design their adverts or leaflets themselves and mostly had them designed and printed by the same companies and sometimes even distributed by the same company in the past however, as I said, with the food industry moving towards Just-Eat and the like, distribution of menus and leaflets for these companies is in much less demand than it was say five years ago before the birth of Just-Eat. Because of such a small amount of survey respondents, I cannot gauge accurately whether or not investing in printing machines is worthwhile or whether I should simply outsource this to printing factories; one thing is for sure, however, print and distribution is not obsolete, far from it in fact. Perhaps it could be argued that it is obsolete in the food industry now but with other industries, such as house builders, legal service providers and retailers, print and distribution is still a very effective method of advertising.

The final evaluation I can make from the data I collected via my unorthodox surveying methods of conversation is that branded materials, similar to those provided by companies like Everything Branded, would be seen as quite pointless after the response of several business owners but my argument to that would be that it is free advertising for those who use the branded merchandise. Because of this argument, I am going to disregard what my respondents have told me and go ahead with outsourcing this to companies like Everything Branded, I would like to think that before I do launch my business, however, I will have a clearer picture gathered from further market research into the viability of some of the services I am looking to provide. I understand fully how my lack of respondents for my survey has impacted my ability to meet my marketing objectives but all I can do is learn from this and ensure in future, I have a better method of collecting data.

I have found that the most effective method I have found so far of gathering my market research is to simply have a conversation with business owners, the problem with that is, however, there is no uniform set of questions I can ask and given that every business is different, I thought perhaps some questions would be more relevant to some businesses than others.

I was unable to gather any responses in regards to direct sales, but I feel I may have not have communicated the role of a direct salesperson well enough to some of the business owners I approached, I believe they misunderstood what I was explaining to be a self-employed shop assistant when this is not the case at all so I cannot speculate on whether or not this would be a viable option until I carry out further market research.

.

.

Evaluation

    It is painstakingly obvious that my primary research method failed, this I believe is as a result of me not accurately predicting when my target market will be available to complete my survey, this coupled with the length of the survey ultimately resulted in such a poor response. I have found my target market were simply too busy running their businesses to complete my market research; what I should have done instead was anticipate this from the beginning and book appointments to visit my potential customers at a time which better suited them. It was naïve of me to think business owners would be readily available to give up their time at my request to sit down for up to thirty minutes to complete my survey.

    With that being said, I do believe I’ve achieved at least 50% of my marketing objective, these are:

It is unfortunate I was unable to achieve the final four objectives to my own satisfaction, the consequence of this is simply that I will have to complete my market research again at a later date which will cost time and resources; I have however benefited from this experience in that I have learned that business owners are very time-poor, quite understandably so too.

In conclusion, I have decided that leaflet distribution is definitely worth continuing which was the most important objective given it is provides the majority of work for my current business, there is still a demand and it’s also still very effective as I mentioned previously. Alongside this, I feel that business owners were quite enthusiastic in regards to things such as travelling and digital billboards but I was unable to gather how much my target market would expect to pay for the former of the two due to the failure of the survey. I was also unable to make an educated decision in regards to whether or not purchasing printing equipment would be worthwhile but as mentioned, I would outsource this where appropriate or otherwise refer customers to reputable printers. Overall, however, with the exception of the survey, I believe my market research to be a relative success. In regards to the survey, my final critique would be that some of the questions seemed rather invasive which could explain the poor online performance of the survey, in particularly where I am asking about budgets, these were non-obligatory questions which respondents did not need to answer however, perhaps I could have done a better job in presenting the question as optional. I also used too many open questions whereas, for business owners especially, I should have used multiple choice questions for their convenience.

I feel I have evaluated my research methods effectively and even though my primary research method wasn’t a success, I was able to learn from the mistakes I made and realised that perhaps a survey was the wrong way to go in regards to gathering data from my target market. I had a better response from business owners when I put the survey away and just discussed various topics with them, of course this meant it became very difficult to compare one set of data to another due to a non-uniform method of research. Surveys are effective when use appropriately because of the way they obtain data to a uniform set of questions which do not differ from one respondent to the next but for time-poor business owners who do not have the time to sit down and discuss a large amount of questions with very little incentive, it is fair to say that there were several oversights in the planning phase which had a severe knock on effect to everything beyond the planning phase of this assignment.

.

Log:

5^th November – 7^th November: Planning took place over the first two days, on the 7^th November, I compiled a Google Forms survey which I published for one week and shared on social media and in business forums.

12^th November – 13^th November: Approached businesses for them to fill in my survey to no avail.

14^th November: I am concerned that my survey has only received a few responses.

15^th November: I offered a £50 prize draw as an incentive to complete the survey. Not sure how I will choose a winner.

17^th November: Approached more businesses for them to fill in my survey, again to no avail. Realised I should have booked appointments by calling them first.

18^th November: I made the survey easier to read and removed some less relevant questions.

19^th November: Wrote the survey off as a failure after attempting to gain responses from business owners again. I decided to change tactic, I headed into town and spoke to several independent shops but quickly realised many of these shops rely mostly on passing footfall instead of traditional advertising methods so I decided I need to get a bus to go further afield. I headed up London Road and Evington Road and spoke to several business owners around Highfields and Spinney Hill. I also called several large companies including John Lewis Group, Tesco, Lloyds, Iceland and several smaller businesses I have worked with in the past along Melton Road. I took the executive decision to scrap the survey and cut my losses, I have referred briefly to the three responses I did get for the survey within this assignment but for the most part, it’s safe to say my primary research method was a failure, from this I have learned that if ever I decided to provide Market Research as a service, I would almost definitely outsource it. I also begun my secondary research and made a start on the report and evaluation of data. On the Brightside, I didn’t get any responses since offering the £50 prize draw so, there is that.

20^th November: Went over my market research to identify shortfalls, mistakes and otherwise where I could improve my market research techniques. Completed evaluation.

.

Sources/Reference:

http://www.independentshops.co.uk/leicester/

http://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/knowledge/articles/2015/02/the-rise-of-independent-retailers/

http://www.business2community.com/marketing/2016-marketing-statistics-keep-ahead-competitors-01568318#3QWtygJtCkCGwfbA.97

http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics

https://freely.net/marketing-statistics-2016/

https://dma.org.uk/article/what-is-the-response-rate-from-leaflet-distribution

http://www.directletterboxmarketing.co.uk/leaflet-marketing-the-good-the-facts-the-stats/

http://blogs.pitneybowes.co.uk/pbtalksbiz/2014/04/29/5-mind-blowing-stats-prove-leaflets-arent-dead/

https://marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/160-amazing-marketing-stats-you-need-to-know/

.

Market Research Part 2:

    As a result of the failure of my previous primary market research, I have been unable to gauge whethe or not there is a market for leaflet distribution in my area still so what I did instead was create a new survey and I booked appointments with local business owners to ask two questions:

The responses I received varied somewhat but the majority of the 30 respondents did indeed use leaflet distribution (18/30 – 60%).

Of those 18, more than half used leaflet distribution regularly (we explained to respondents we consider regular to be at least once every three months, 13/18 respondents told us they do use leaflet distribution regularly, this is equivalent to 72%).

Our final question was qualitive and our respondents varied their answer between £15 and £60, though we found the average range to be between £30 and £40 (21/30 respondents said they would pay a specific figure between those two ranges, this makes up 70%. Answers from these 21 individual business owners, just over a quarter chose prices in the range above £50, whereas the most popular range was between £30 and £35, the rest selected values between £35 and £45).

Because more than half of the respondents said they use leaflet distribution and more than half of those use leaflet distribution regularly, I conclude there is a market for leaflet distribution.

.

.

Appendix D: Financials (Cashflow year 2 and 3, P&L and analysis).

.

Financial Summary:

.

.

Year 2

.

.

Appendix D ( Continued )

.

Year 3

.

.

.

Financial Analysis Appendix D ( Continued )

.

.

.

P&L

.

.

.

Breakeven

.

Appjh

.

Appendix A: Pitch Presentation

.

Appendix B: Pitch Handout

Summary of revenue and expenses:

Costs:

.

Total Annual Fixed Costs: £139

Total start-up costs: £3151

.

Sources of Revenue (Monthly)

Total Monthly Revenue Sales: £1680

.

.

Overleaf / On the following page is a cash flow forecast. Refer to excel document to edit variables and to see how they affect the overall cash flow. Alternatively, click the link below:

Cash flow Excel Fully Adjustable – Andrew Hill Advertising.xlsx

.

.

*Factored in £500 as a budget for lease and business rates, this is omitted from the cash flow forecast submitted in previous assignments.

.

.

is cash flow forecast does not account for seasonal impacts such as popular public holidays.

.

Appendix C: Cashflow – P&L Excel – Andrew Hill Advertising

CASHFLOW Year 1

		January	February	March	April	May	June	July	August	September	October	November	December
# Distributors		1	1	1	2	2	2	3	3	3	4	4	4		A	A) Adjust these numbers to see how a change in the amount of distributors employed in any month affects financials.
# Different Leaflets Per Letterbox		1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1		B
# Billboard Riders		0	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1		C
# Vehicles		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		D
Month		January	February	March	April	May	June	July	August	September	October	November	December	Year End Total
Opening Balance		0	-3339	-2687	-2035	-1071	-107	857	2133	3409	4685	6273	7861
Cash Inflows																B) Adjust these numbers to see how the amount of different leaflets being posted at the same time can affect financials.
Distribution		480	480	480	960	960	960	1440	1440	1440	1920	1920	1920	14400
Billboards		0	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	13200
Total Cash In		480	1680	1680	2160	2160	2160	2640	2640	2640	3120	3120	3120	27600
Cash Outflows
Total Start Up Costs		3151												3151		C) Adjust these numbers to see how the amount of billboard riders in any month can affect financials.
Yearly Costs		0												0
Distributor Commission (25%)		120	120	120	240	240	240	360	360	360	480	480	480	3600	E
Billboard Rider Commission (20%)		0	240	240	240	240	240	240	240	240	240	240	240	2640	E
Lease & Business Rates		500	500	500	500	500	500	500	500	500	500	500	500	6000
Vehicle Purchase		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		D) Adjust these numbers to see how the amount of vehicles in operation in any given month can affect financials.
Vehicle Running Costs (£100 per month per vehicle)		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Contingency Payment (10% overall revenue)		48	168	168	216	216	216	264	264	264	312	312	312	2760
Total Cash Outflow		3819	1028	1028	1196	1196	1196	1364	1364	1364	1532	1532	1532	18151
Closing Balance		-3339	-2687	-2035	-1071	-107	857	2133	3409	4685	6273	7861	9449	25428
Contingency Budget Balance		48	216	384	600	816	1032	1296	1560	1824	2136	2448	2760	15120		E) The commission is paid to distributors and riders as earnings and is determined by the amount of leaflets they deliver and how many doors they will deliver to. Distributers will be responsible for their own tax in line with HMRC rules for self-employed workers.
Total Balance		-3291	-5762	-7413	-7884	-7175	-5286	-1857	3112	9621	18030	28339	40548	60982

CASHFLOW Year 2

		January	February	March	April	May	June	July	August	September	October	November	December
# Distributors		5	5	5	6	6	6	7	7	7	8	8	8		A	A) Adjust these numbers to see how a change in the amount of distributors employed in any month affects financials.
# Different Leaflets Per Letterbox		1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1		B
# Billboard Riders		1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1		C
# Vehicles		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		D
Month		January	February	March	April	May	June	July	August	September	October	November	December	Year End Total
Opening Balance		9449	11210	13110	15010	17222	19434	21646	24170	26694	29218	32054	34890
Cash Inflows																B) Adjust these numbers to see how the amount of different leaflets being posted at the same time can affect financials.
Distribution		2400	2400	2400	2880	2880	2880	3360	3360	3360	3840	3840	3840	37440
Billboards		1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	14400
Total Cash In		3600	3600	3600	4080	4080	4080	4560	4560	4560	5040	5040	5040	51840
Cash Outflows
Total Start Up Costs		0												0		C) Adjust these numbers to see how the amount of billboard riders in any month can affect financials.
Yearly Costs		139												139
Distributor Commission (25%)		600	600	600	720	720	720	840	840	840	960	960	960	9360	E
Billboard Rider Commission (20%)		240	240	240	240	240	240	240	240	240	240	240	240	2880	E
Lease & Business Rates		500	500	500	500	500	500	500	500	500	500	500	500	6000
Vehicle Purchase		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		D) Adjust these numbers to see how the amount of vehicles in operation in any given month can affect financials.
Vehicle Running Costs (£100 per month per vehicle)		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Contingency Payment (10% overall revenue)		360	360	360	408	408	408	456	456	456	504	504	504	5184
Total Cash Outflow		1839	1700	1700	1868	1868	1868	2036	2036	2036	2204	2204	2204	23563
Closing Balance		11210	13110	15010	17222	19434	21646	24170	26694	29218	32054	34890	37726	282384
Contingency Budget Balance		3120	3480	3840	4248	4656	5064	5520	5976	6432	6936	7440	7944	64656		E) The commission is paid to distributors and riders as earnings and is determined by the amount of leaflets they deliver and how many doors they will deliver to. Distributers will be responsible for their own tax in line with HMRC rules for self-employed workers.
Total Balance		54878	71468	90318	111788	135878	162588	192278	224948	260598	299588	341918	387588	2333836

CASHFLOW Year 3

		January	February	March	April	May	June	July	August	September	October	November	December
# Distributors		9	9	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10		A	A) Adjust these numbers to see how a change in the amount of distributors employed in any month affects financials.
# Different Leaflets Per Letterbox		1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1		B
# Billboard Riders		1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1		C
# Vehicles		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		D
Month		January	February	March	April	May	June	July	August	September	October	November	December	Year End Total
Opening Balance		37726	40735	43883	47031	50491	53951	57411	60871	64331	67791	71251	74711
Cash Inflows																B) Adjust these numbers to see how the amount of different leaflets being posted at the same time can affect financials.
Distribution		4320	4320	4320	4800	4800	4800	4800	4800	4800	4800	4800	4800	56160
Billboards		1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	14400
Total Cash In		5520	5520	5520	6000	6000	6000	6000	6000	6000	6000	6000	6000	70560
Cash Outflows
Total Start Up Costs		0												0		C) Adjust these numbers to see how the amount of billboard riders in any month can affect financials.
Yearly Costs		139												139
Distributor Commission (25%)		1080	1080	1080	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	14040	E
Billboard Rider Commission (20%)		240	240	240	240	240	240	240	240	240	240	240	240	2880	E
Lease & Business Rates		500	500	500	500	500	500	500	500	500	500	500	500	6000
Vehicle Purchase		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		D) Adjust these numbers to see how the amount of vehicles in operation in any given month can affect financials.
Vehicle Running Costs (£100 per month per vehicle)		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Contingency Payment (10% overall revenue)		552	552	552	600	600	600	600	600	600	600	600	600	7056
Total Cash Outflow		2511	2372	2372	2540	2540	2540	2540	2540	2540	2540	2540	2540	30115
Closing Balance		40735	43883	47031	50491	53951	57411	60871	64331	67791	71251	74711	78171	710628
Contingency Budget Balance		8496	9048	9600	10200	10800	11400	12000	12600	13200	13800	14400	15000	140544		E) The commission is paid to distributors and riders as earnings and is determined by the amount of leaflets they deliver and how many doors they will deliver to. Distributers will be responsible for their own tax in line with HMRC rules for self-employed workers.
Total Balance		436819	489750	546381	607072	671823	740634	813505	890436	971427	1056478	1145589	1238760	9608674

P&L

	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3
Sales	27600	51840	70560
Distributor Commission	3600	9360	14040	< Cost of Sales
Rider Commission	2640	2880	2880	< Cost of Sales
Gross Profit	21360	39600	53640
Yearly fixed costs	0	139	139
Lease and business rates	6000	6000	6000
Vehicle purchase	0	0	0
Vehicle running costs	0	0	0
Contingency Payments	2760	5184	7056
Net Profit	12600	28277	40445

Charts and Graphs

	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3
Total Revenue	27600	51840	70560
Total Expenses	18151	23563	30115
Profit/Loss	9449	28277	40445
Datasets for charts			Profit/Loss
	Year 1
Total Revenue	27600		Year 1	9449
Total Expenses	18151		Year 2	28277
	Year 2		Year 3	40445
Total Revenue	51840
Total Expenses	23563
	Year 3
Total Revenue	70560
Total Expenses	30115

Cashflow Budget

	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3
Cash Inflow
Leaflet Distribution Sales	14400	37440	56160
Mobile Advertising Sales	13200	14400	14400
Total Inflow	27600	51840	70560
Cash Outflow
Yearly Fixed Costs	0	139	139
Lease/Business Rates	6000	6000	6000
Vehicle Purchase	0	0	0
Distributor Commission	3600	9360	14040
Rider Commission	2640	2880	2880
Contingency Payment	2760	5184	7056
Total Outflow	15000	23563	30115
Net Cashflow	12600	28277	40445
Cumulative Cashflow	12600	40877	81322

Sales Budget

Year 1	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Leaflet Distribution
Sales Units	16	16	16	16
*Price per unit	30	30	30	30
Mobile Advertising
Sales Units	3	4	4	4
*Price per unit	300	300	300	300
Total Sales	1380	1680	1680	1680
Leaflet Distribution: Each unit = 5000 leaflets to be delivered.
Mobile Advertising: Each unit = 1 week of advertising per board.

Expenses Budget

Expenses Year 1	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Year Totals
Yearly Fixed Costs	0	0	0	0	0
Lease/Business Rates	1500	1500	1500	1500	6000
Vehicle Purchase	0	0	0	0	0
Distributor Commission	900	900	900	900	3600
Rider Commission	720	960	960	960	3600
Contingency Payment	690	690	690	690	2760
Total Expenses	3810	4050	4050	4050	15960