Promotional Campaigns for The Cats Cafe Singapore
| Subject: | 📡 Media |
| Type: | Profile Essay |
| Pages: | 11 |
| Word count: | 2766 |
| Topics: | 🤳 Social Media, Advertising, Business Ethics, Communication, Marketing |
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Table of Contents
Introduction
The Cats Café Singapore was launched in the year 2014 to offer something like recreational services to cat lovers as they catch up with friends over premium coffee and freshly baked pastries among the feline companions. The Café offers an environment that is comfortable to the cat lovers in order to have a fun with friends as they enjoy delicious meals offered in the Café like premium coffee and freshly baked pastries. The café had been operating well receiving several customers which had forced the café open up several outlets in order to serve as many customers as possible due to the increasing number of visitors. A scenario happened that led to the decline in the number of the visitors coming to be served in the café. News reports and other issues surrounding the cats’ death at another Cat Café, the Cuddle Cat Cafe, emerged and the management of The Cats Café Singapore noted a decline in the number of visitors coming to one of its outlet that is located in Victoria Street and this raised a lot of concerns on the future of the business. The decline in the number of visitors resulted in a tremendous decline in business and this can lead to a total closure of the business in the long run. The management therefore sought to come up with strategies that can be put in place in order to keep the business going. These include promotional campaigns that should be put in place to curb the worsening situation.
Having been tasked to come up with some ways that can be put in place to restore the glory of The Cat Café Singapore, a lot have to be done in making a choice of the promotional campaigns. These are means that will be used to remarket the business in order to win the confidence of new and old customers so that they can still belief in the services offered by the business. Several promotional campaigns exist, most of which are very economical to the business. All that will be done is to come up with means that can be used in product and service promotion that can reach as many people as possible within the short period of time. The methods that will be chosen will ensure that negative perception that the customers had developed in the business will be converted, business will spend the least to reach as many customers as possible and the means will capture psychological feelings of the customers. It will involve the use of both visual and non-visual means to ensure everyone is attended to. With this approach, the business will be able to recover its glory and attract more customers than ever before.
Body
The main goal of this essay is to ensure that The Cat Café Singapore restore its glory and attract as many customers as possible after the scenario of cat death that affected a different cat café. The business should attract both new and old customers to the services offered by the business in order to ensure a continuous growth of the business. The wrong perception of cats’ death should be faded out of customers perceptions about the business and be assured that they will enjoy seeing all sorts of cats as they enjoy coffee and other products offered in the business.
Promotion can be defined as a process whereby a product or a service is brought to the attention of the market. This term can be used interchangeably with the term marketing, which is a process where by a product or a service is merged with the market. The two terms intends to bring the attention of the customers to the existing product and service in a business. The Cat Café Singapore is business that targets a specific group of people, cat lovers and those who likes taking coffee and eating baked pastries. Marketing the product therefore involves convincing those who are cat lovers and have been the customers to the café and may have been scared away by the rumors of cat deaths in the Cuddle Cat Café, other potential customers who are cat lovers and may not have noticed the existence of such products and services in The Cat Café Singapore and any other potential customer who may not be a cat lover but can be convinced by the promotional strategies to be put in place and convert them to become customers in the café. The main target in this promotion is therefore the general public in order to ensure that the business receives more customers hence enhance future growth of the business. Addressing the general public convincingly through this campaign will ensure that a lot of converts will be received coming to the café.
Promotional campaign have got its goals which include the following;
- To ensure that the promotional message that will be used reaches the intended and targeted audience
- To ensure that the message given out is well understood by the audience
- To ensure that the message used stimulates the recipients and make them take the necessary action
These goals will be a guide to the language that will be used during the promotional campaign. As a result, the audience will be addressed in a convincing language to understand that the issue of cat death never affected The Cat Café Singapore and that all type of beautiful cats that have been enjoying while being served with foods offered in the café are still available, healthy and becoming beautiful every day. They should also be assured of the healthy measures taken by the café to ensure that the cats are always safe and never fall sick or get infected by any disease that can lead to their death. As a result, products and services offered by the business to their customers are ever safe and healthy. They should also be convinced that the department dealing with cats is different from food department and they should not be worried by the level of hygiene offered by the business. Healthy measures in the business are controlled by the relevant authorities in the country to ensure that customers meet the right quality ad standard of services as required.
In addition, the audience should be made aware of other additional services the café offers to their customers which include entertainment, private rooms for the customers, discounts offered to customers upon buying a certain amount of food and free meals for anyone bringing three new customers. This approach will convince new and old customers to come and be served in the café as they enjoy the beauty nature of cats.
Strategies to be employed
The scenario have affected the business and immediate action needs to be taken. During promotional campaign, the following should be done to ensure that the business attract new customers and retain old ones. First, market communication opportunities will be accessed. This involves understanding the needs and culture of the targeted audience. Other influencers among individuals, decision makers and the general public will be studied to understand their reaction to new products. The second approach that will be taken in this promotional campaign is to choose the best communication tool. The tool that will be chosen should ensure that the general public is reached within the shortest time possible at the minimum cost incurred by the business. Some of the communication media available include personal face to face meeting with the audience, use of telephone contacts, non-personal communication media as newspapers, magazines, use of social media like Facebook, twitter, Instagram among others, visual media like television and cinemas and use of celebrities to promote the product.
The use of social media in product promotion is cheap and a large number of audience can be reached within the shortest time. The choice of communication media will be based on the cost and its ability to convince the general public. Personal selling and promotion will be included where a team will have a roadshow campaign in and outside Singapore giving out free sample of products offered by the business. The campaign will also be used to make the public aware of the existence of healthy beautiful cats in the café that anyone, not only cat lovers, but the general public wish to see. Photos of the cats taken will be used to convince them that the cats are still there, and this will make them drop the idea of cat deaths in the café. The use of visual media like TV and videos on Social media displaying and explaining all the operations taking place in the business with an intention of meeting the required standard. The videos will show all the way from pre-preparation of the meal to serving, elaborating every step and why the step is taken. The shows that will be used in TVs will also portray the beauty nature of the café offered by the presence of the cats, which will make attract the general public. Non-cat lovers will also be attracted by the type of food offered in the café and will find the presence of cats an added advantage and cat lovers will find the type of food present an added advantage.
Furthermore, the public will be made aware of after-sale services and incentives offered by the business. These include recreational services, entertainment, discounts on some services and free Wi-Fi to the customers. The approach will include the use of celebrities like musicians and athletes in promoting the products and services offered by the business. Other ways that will be used to promote the business include supporting bash and other ceremonials in the café, wedding shows and other public gathering. This will make the public belief in the products and services offered in the business and the business growth will be guaranteed.
The most important thing in promotional campaign is to meet customer’s demand and ensure that the products and services offered to them meet their needs. As a result, communication skills and the choice of words to be used should be strong enough to convince them that whatever they will get in The Cat Café Singapore cannot be offered anywhere else in terms of quality and availability. Apart from the use of wordings to convince them, demonstration should be carried out where free samples of products and the use of visual displays to assure them that there is no cat death that took place in the café will be employed.
Supporting Theories
These promotional strategies that will be employed here is supported by some of the existing theories of product promotion.
There exist two main promotional strategies; the push strategy and the pull strategy. Push strategy involves giving out generous discounts and other benefits to customers in order for the sales to increase drastically. This strategy is normally successful in firms and this makes the sales in a firm increase. It focus mainly ensuring that the cost of advertisement is reduced to the lowest level. For the case of pull strategy, its strategy is to ensure that the use of different channels is minimized and it focus on advertising the product. The goal of this strategy is to create a potential market for the products of the business. The theory confirm the use of discounts and free samples by The Cat Café Singapore in order to lure customers to the business. In addition, promotional strategies that have been proposed will ensure that the business spend the least in advertising its products and services.
Common media used in product promotion include advertisements, sponsorships, networking, a launch, using special events or activities like bases and other ceremonials, exposing via the media like online, radio, TV, newspapers and magazines, use of brochures and flyers, use of questionnaires or surveys, use of newsletters and annual reports and use of public notice boards. These ensure that the public is reached and the product is sold widely.
Advertisement refers to mass communicating of information that intends to persuade buyers to buy products with an intention of maximizing profits in a business. Advertising is one of the strategies used in product promotion and they therefore came up with the following elements of advertising.
- It ensure that there is mass production in the form due to the increase in the number of customers
- It is a mass communication that intends to reach a large number of consumers
- Advertisement is a non-personal communication because it is not delivered by an actual person or addressed to a specific person
- Advertisement is economical since it reaches a large group of people keeping the cost per message low.
- Advertising is speedy as an advertiser speaks a million of people in a matter of few hours
These elements presented in this theory confirms most of the strategies put in place that will be used in promotion campaigns at The Cat Café Singapore.
Furthermore, advertisement should include specific issues. As suggested by Copley, an advertisement used in product promotion should contain the following;
- The information given to customers should be of great benefit to the customers. it should give customers more satisfactory from their expenditure
- Advertisement should suggest better solutions to the existing problem. The case of cat death should be addressed during promotion campaign where the customers should be assured of the health conditions of the cats in the café and how the issue of death have been addressed for future sustainability.
- Advertisement should involve persuasion. An advertisement without persuasion is ineffective. An advertisement that fails to influence customers can be at that moment or in future is a waste of resources. As a result, product promotion that is intended to be employed in marketing products and services available at The Cat Café Singapore have been chosen to be so convincing that it can persuade even non-cat lovers to be part of the customers in the business. Convincing language is chosen which is confirmed by this theory.
- Because the sole reason of product promotion is to ensure that profitability in a business is increased due to the increase in sales volume, the expenses that will be used should not increase inappropriately. This confirms the plan put in place where promotional strategies chosen are not costly making it economical to the business.
These theories on promotional advertisement given by Copley confirm what the strategies put in place contains. It should be noted that the strategies suggested to be used in promotional campaigns at The Cat Café Singapore meets these conditions given by Copley.
“Marketing is a Theory based. It is predicated on theories of consumer behavior, which in turn draw upon the social and behavioral sciences” further theories on product promotion came through the approach of learning theory, which gave rise to different names like “the linear information processing theories of communication and persuasion”, “message models” and hierarchy of effects theory.” These approaches reflects assumptions and methodology of cognitive psychology. Product promotion aims at progressing customers through various stages which include the cognitive, the affective and the behavioral stage before customers deciding to buy products. This can be simplified in the diagram below.
These theories confirms what is strategized to be applied in in promoting products at The Cat Café Singapore. These theories support the plans set and as a result, the business at the café will rise and a lot will be gained as a result of customers opting for its products.
Conclusion
It is important to note that promotional campaign is an important practice that a business should consider. It involves several practices that ensures that the business grow and its production and sales improves due to the increase in the number of customers. Promotional campaign involves the use of various strategies which include the use of persuasive language that can convince customers that the products and services offered to the by the business meets their needs and they are satisfactory. In addition, there exist various ways of conducting promotion which include personal face to face campaign where the person marketing products meet customers in person, social media like Facebook and Twitter to mention a few, visual methods like TV an cinemas, use of special events like weddings, bash and other ceremonies, use of non-visual media like newspapers, journals and brochures; and use of other services as discounts and free samples. Conducting road-show to influence customers is also another method. The strategies put in place that will be used to promote products and services at The Cat Café Singapore are well supported by existing theories relating to marketing and product promotion campaigns. These strategies are therefore sufficient to bring back the operational capability of the business and should be employed.
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