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Boost your Revenue
with Creative Promotions
Competitions
Competitions, prize draws, lucky draws, whatever you
choose to call them, have an important role in product
promotion. While they offer your target audience a chance
to collect a prize, usually tied to some form of purchase,
they can also be used to build a marketing database
that can later be utilised for direct marketing.
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Sales
These are attention-attracting events usualy offering
percentges-off goods to spur sales in traditionally
low periods such as after Christmas, or when a change
of stock is required for seasonal reasons.
Gift Certificates
These are traditionally paper 'certificates', however
think about how you can spice them up. Be creative!
Customer Service
Offer your customers extras such as: cooking tips,
recipes, maintenance tips for looking after equipment
- build a relationship with your customer.
Free Gifts
Called premiums, free gifts or gift-with-purchase.
These can be used to promote the trial of a new product
or to entice your target audience to buy high priced
items. It is hard to by-pass something FREE!
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HOW TO NEGOTIATE THE BEST DEAL
Skills you Need
Patience and good manners are essential as you go through
the process of negotiation. Consider these additional
skills:
- Listen actively - ask questions, paraphrase others,
be interested when they speak, make eye contact.
- Share information - be upfront with information,
but don't place all your cards on the table at once.
- Communicate - allow all parties to be involved,
listen, never shout, set inclusive goals and reasonable
deadlines at the start of the negotiation. Form questions
that cannot be answered with a 'yes' or 'no'.
- Remain flexible - broaden your concept of what you
want or are prepared to accept. To have a win-win
situation you will need to compromise.
- Be creative - look outside your views and experiences
for a solution. Review the wildest ideas, 'look outside
the square'.
- Remain calm and emotionally detached - negotiations
can be emotional; take deep breaths and refer to written
guidelines to stay on track.
COMPUTER HEALTH
Computer Virus that Humans can
Catch
COMPUTER keyboards may pose a serious threat to office-workers'
health, with users at risk of catching disease, a study
has shown.
Leading bacteria experts warn
the average keyboard is a natural breeding ground for
harmful bacteria, including golden staph and E coli.
Industrial chemist Robert Goldsworthy
said unless a keyboard was cleaned regularly, bacteria
would thrive.
"The average keyboard is
definitely filthier than a toilet bowl," he said.
"It is a huge problem. We have swabbed keyboards
in Sydney, Malaysia, Japan and Singapore and we have
found golden staph mainly, then E coli and candida,
as well.
"(With) someone sitting
at a terminal keyboard, the natural thing for them is
to start touching ears or picking their nose. Or if
someone has a cold and sneezes, then starts touching
the keyboard, there is the likelihood that people will
get the cold. And it is the same with the SARS virus".
The bacterium found on keyboards
can cause upset stomachs, vomiting, urinary tract infections
and respiratory ailments.
An estimated 60% of all illnesses
are contracted in the workplace and Mr Goldsworthy believes
unhygenic keyboards may be part of the problem.
.....extracted from an article SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 11/5/03
by Sharri Markson
Basically you have to be very careful and, have our
own cleaning kit! |
