Question

Develop a brand and a promotion mix for a new company that is selling rain barrels to homeowners.

The Product

Jim Taylor inherited a small sum of money from his father and is using his inheritance to start a company that manufactures and sells rain barrels for homeowners. Jim makes his barrels out of recycled materials.  Because he is the manufacturer and the retailer, and because he already owns the land and building for manufacturing, he believes that he can undersell the competition by 10% and still make a nice profit. He wants you to develop a promotion plan and help him come up with a good brand name.

You will need to conduct internet research on rain barrels to learn what they are, how they work, what the benefits are, how much the existing competition charges for them, and any other information you feel would be helpful.

The Brand

Jim wants a catchy name that portrays a "green" image and his love for nature and water conservation. He is leaving it up to you to create something that will launch his company to national recognition.

The Promotional Mix

Jim wants to know how he should promote his new product and company. You will need to develop a promotional mix explaining your plan for

• advertisement
• personal selling
• sales promotion
• public relations

Your Assignment: Write a discussion post addressing the following:

1. Your proposed brand name. State it, explain how you came up with it, explain why you think the brand name will work.
2. Your promotional mix. How will you advertise? What is the plan for personal selling? What sales promotions do you recommend? What should Jim do to build public relations?

Answer 1

An interesting brand name for the company would be the 'Eco drum'. This name is suitable because drum is another name for barrel, so it would explain the purpose of the company and 'eco' because it is friendly. This name is also very catchy. It will get registered into the mind of people very easily. A catchy name is always necessary for a company's success because they are the identification of the company. They speak for the company. Difficult names are not suggested for a brand name because even if the quality of the product is good, the customers will have a hard time remembering the name and wont remember the company. Attractive names are very important for brand recognition.

Promotional mix is always the backbone of a company. All that makes a difference is that how many people one can reach out to. Advertising is the most effective way of doing it since we can reach out to many people at once. The most effective way of doing advertisement for rainbarrel is by publishing it on a newspaper and writing about the benefits of it that will explain people why they should buy it. A blog can be written on how rain barrels are useful for the environment and especially urban and suburban areas where where it decreases the amount of water runoff and contaminate waterways with harmful contaminants. Also a very successful way of advertising nowadays is through social media sites, where people spend a lot of time.

Personal selling is also a very good tools as it involves personal attention. If people are educated about it, personally and they are explained the benefits of it in details, they get convinced to buy it. Door to door sales people can be hired and asked to go to homeowners for selling. Different incentives and commissions can be offered to them so that they put in their best effort.

Sales promotion of water barrels can be done by by distributing pamphlets and organising campaigns where lucky winners get rain barrels for free and then interviews can be conducted on how its being useful in their lives. On off seasons, giving discount on the barrels is a very good way of attracting people. Sometimes, lucky draw is also an effective way of advertising where lucky buyer get a very good discount on the barrels.

Public relations is something that all customers look forward to. It has a positive impact on the business. Personal messages can be forwarded on researches of how the barrels are benefitting the environment and people, so that they are convinced to buy them. During sales, messages can be forwarded to people informing them about the discounts.