Real Institute of Management

and Research , Nagpur

Subject
Management Case Analysis

The Business Owner Who Lost Track

of Her Sales by Joe Gracia
In the early nineties, a small business owner, Mary,
contacted us to ask for our help.

She said that she was spending a lot of money on

newspaper ads to promote her small business,
but that she didn't feel like she was getting very
much return from her investments.

After one meeting, it was obvious what was wrong.

While she had an excellent service and was
getting rave testimonials from her current
customers, her marketing strategy had several
major flaws that were preventing her from
attracting significantly more customers and sales.
 She wasn't tracking her
advertising results
Mary was placing ads in over 10 different
publications each month, but had absolutely no
idea which of those publications were producing
results for her and which were not.
Since she was getting very little response anyway, we
knew that most of the publications were
producing nothing for her. She was not only
wasting a great deal of money, she was also
losing a lot of money from lost sales
While there are a number of effective ways to code
your marketing pieces, we showed Mary the
easiest and most appropriate for her situation.
We simply had her put a different, fictitious
Extension Code next to her phone number in
each ad.
 When you don't track, you lose
more than just the cost of the ads

We also explained that when you don't know which ads

are working, you're not only losing the money that
you spent on the ads themselves, you're also losing
the sales that you would have received by investing
that same money in a profitable ad.
This can quickly add up to thousands of dollars in lost
sales.
Mary was still not completely convinced that this was
necessary--she was hoping that our solution would
be more "creative." She thought she needed more
sophisticated and clever ads.
We explained that before we even looked at the content
of her ads, it was vital that she establish an effective
way to track her marketing results.
The tracking system reveals
the truth about Mary's ads
Mary was right. It is foolish for business owners not
to track their marketing efforts, but few do it. You
can easily tell if they are tracking, by just looking
at the bottom of their ads. If you don't see an
Extension Code, a Department Number, or
something like "Ask for Sue, Operator 87, or
Catalog 132, etc.," chances are, they aren't
tracking.
You can't guess your way to profit. If you're not
tracking, you're losing thousands of dollars. It's
that simple.
We congratulated Mary on her new system for
tracking her marketing. Now she had a system
that would allow her to pick and choose her
marketing efforts based on specific results and
facts, not just guesses and opinions
 Questions:
Q 1- Explain Mary’s marketing strategy.
Answer : In the early nineties, a small business owner,
Mary, contacted us to ask for our help. She said that
she was spending a lot of money on newspaper ads
to promote her small business, but that she didn't
feel like she was getting very much return from her
getting rave testimonials from her current customers,
her marketing strategy had several major flaws that
right.

Q 2- What were the issues that you think , Mary was

missing out on?
Answer : Mary was right. It is foolish for business
owners not to track their marketing efforts, but few
do it. You can easily tell if they are tracking, by just
looking at the bottom of their ads. If you don't see an
Extension Code, a Department Number, or
something like "Ask for Sue, Operator 87, or Catalog
132, etc.," chances are, they aren't tracking.
Q 3- How was the problem that Mary was facing
could be identified?
Answer : "It may seem like it would be difficult and
confusing, but really it's not," I assured her.
"Mary, the solution is simple," I explained. "All
you have to do is put a little tracking code in each
ad. Then as your prospects and customers
respond to the different ads, you just ask them
for that particular code." each ad. Then as your
prospects and customers respond to the different
ads, you just ask them for that particular code."
Q 4- “Spending money blindly is the sure way to
failure” .How would you explain this in Mary’s
case?
Answer : “Spending more money blindly is the sure
way to failure” this statement is very clearly
explained by the case study of Mary. She was not
tracking her advertising results causing her to
lose a lot of money from lost sales. She did not
know if her money used for newspaper
advertisements was being utilized or not but she
was still paying the newspaper each month for
ads so in a way she was blindly paying money was
not bringing her results. The tracking revealed the
truth about Mary’s advertisements. As later
analyzed only one paper was bringing Mary good
results others were not.
Q 5- What have you learned from this case
Answer : There is a lot to learn about how to build a
big business from a small business and what to
do to turn that business into a big business and
how it happens with an example