Texas Monthly is a regional magazine covering politics, business, and culture, but focusing largely on leisure activities and events in Texas. The magazine has a large real estate advertising section, as well as classified sections in which nearly all advertisers are Texas-based businesses appealing to a prospective buyer who is interested in connecting with Texas history and culture. It also has a large, loyal reader base all over Texas, mostly urban, welleducated, and affluent, and the magazine’s salespeople pride themselves on their ability to find creative solutions for their customers.
Today, Amy Vandaveer, a sales representative for Texas Monthly , is meeting with the marketing director for the Woodlands Town Center, a major community development organization. The Woodlands is a planned community outside of Houston and the recently added Woodlands Town Center includes restaurants, shops, and a hotel and convention centre.
The marketing director’s goal is to make the Woodlands Town Center a destination for Houston residents, rather than another area serving people who already live in the Woodlands. Up to this point, the Woodlands Town Center has mostly relied on word of mouth and the positive publicity that it received after winning awards to attract visitors; now, the marketing director is interested in using more print advertising and has scheduled this meeting with Amy to learn more about the possibilities of advertising with Texas Monthly.
As a rule, Amy uses relatively informal presentations on her sales calls. The most significant part of her presentation is a copy of Texas Monthly; showing potential customers a recent issue gives them the opportunity to see the magazine’s overall look and feel and gives them a good look at the context in which their ads would appear.
Over the course of the informal presentation, Amy also shows the customer statistics on the reader base of Texas Monthly and the ways in which they respond to ads in the magazine, as well as a price sheet for various types of ads.
After listening to what the Woodlands Town Center needs, Amy proposes a four-page colour ad, which can also be printed separately from the magazine for use as a brochure. Although the price depends on the number of stand-alone brochures that are ordered, she estimates that the cost of the ad would be about $50 000. She and the marketing director agree on a timeline for a more formal proposal that can be shared with the rest of the Woodlands Town Center board, and Amy moves on to the rest of her day.
Questions
1. Explain how Amy Vandaveer can use the three prescriptions for a product-selling strategy in preparing and presenting product solutions.
2. What are the major benefits that Amy incorporates into her presentation?
3. What are the most likely objections that the marketing director might raise?
4. In addition to the actual product strategy, how important will information about Texas Monthly (its history, mission, past performance, etc.) be in closing the sale?