You can PM me if you want, im on like 90% of the time and would be willing to reply to whatever you ask.

Congratulations to you both.

File: Report
Time: 14:42
Enclosed:
The transfer to City 11 was a success. We managed to move all of our stock over to the new warehouse successfully and had zero damages. This thanks can only go to the Universal Union who managed to get it done, back in the old days you'd expect at least three breakages with two of those being 'misplaced' by the workmen. Our new headquarters has been opened and I must say, in contrast to the old HQ, it seems to have a nicer look to it than its predecessor. I feel like the working conditions are much tighter than they used to be, allowing efficiency to increase. The number of stores in the main street is also far better than City 18. Just yesterday I invested in a store for five-hundred tokens and we are receiving a commission as a result. They have almost reached the money invested and we shall soon see a profit.

In other events, our co-organiser Ted Simmons opened a noodle store, allowing other to franchise it. This business strategy is a key one in bringing the profits in. Soon I hope to invest our profits on advertising our new stores and employment, that way we will only expand. We must be weary with this new city, expanding too quickly may cause us to fall short on our expectations. The members of my division seem to be doing a fine job in their stores, bringing in profits all around. The move has caused many citizens to buy more of our stock. Food sales have seen an increase by 14% compared to the last week in City 18. Our general goods have remained steady, however, as their profits continue to flow in.

I hope to soon create another advertising campaign to bring in new employees and more customers, signs will soon be seen around the street. We have seen some competition from other citizens who wish to sell general goods, in the spirit of competition I believe they will be worthy competitors to gain customers. They seem to be using tactics against us to take customers. I will continue to inspect their sales and finance and see if they stand any chance of remaining open in the future.

Signed
John Bourne - Business Commander

• Advertising Strategies
• Using Pricing to Your Advantage
• Returning Customers

1. Advertising Strategies
There are several ways you can advertise your store to the public, some obvious, some not so obvious. Regardless of the way you advertise your business, you must ensure that you bring the customers in. Even if they don't buy anything, the awareness of your store is imperative to having customers in the future. Having an attractive store may being people in to see the furniture, at least they understand that your store is there. This may lead to them informing others that your store is open, bringing in more customers.

Advertising is the communication of information about your store to the general public.

Communication, is the key word in that definition. Communication is the key to unlocking increased sales. Communicating to the general population leads to knowledge of your products and therefore leads to the public knowing your store. There are several types of communication available, verbal and written are the best and only ones on the server available so we will have to go with that.

• Verbal

- Verbal information is the communication of sound between individuals. This means word of mouth.
- Word of mouth is arguably one of the best forms of advertisement, simply because you cannot control it. A citizen purchases a good from your store or sees an advert, he talks to another citizen about it, they tell another and so on.
- A good way of getting this moving is to pay a citizen to talk to other citizens about your store. This will get the wheels of information going and awareness of your store will increase quickly.
- Another way of verbally advertising your business is to talk to others about what you sell yourself, this is the most reliable as you know you've sent the information around, and it's free.

• Written

- Written information is the communication of words between individuals by means of physical words.
- Written is a less reliable use of advertisement as it does not spread as quickly as word of mouth. However, seeing players recently tells me one thing about their intentions with items they see. If they see paper on a wall, they'll quickly read it out of curiousness. So paper is a good way of getting information about your store out to the customers quickly if an advert or two are in the street.
- If using paper, strategic locations are very helpful in getting your information out. These points are near the spawn exit, Ration Distribution, and Housing buildings. These are the most common places you'll find people, so placing adverts around these areas will ensure that information about your store will reach the eyes of the curious.
- Paper is probably one of the only written ways you can advertise your business, so be sure to stock up on paper and spread them around. If you don't have a physics gun, place it on a table in one of the strategic locations or ask an admin to nail it to a post or wall near.


Using Pricing to Your Advantage
The clear intention for any sale is to make a profit, that much is clear. However, there are ways you can use pricing as a promotional way of advertising. For example:

- Tea is sold for the same price it is bought for, making it cheap.
- Citizen comes into the store for the deal and looks at the list of products.
- Citizen buys a Doughnut with the Tea after seeing the list.
- The profit gained from the Doughnut covers and increases the lost profit from the Tea.

This example shows you that a citizen came to the store for the good deal, but he also saw other things he may of wanted, that he never necessarily came into the store to buy. This is a common business strategy in real-life supermarkets. You go in to get a deal, but see something else you want that isn't included in the deal but you buy it anyway.

Another way of using pricing to your advantage is when selling a product at the same price as its cost. This is to get awareness of your store increased. You then increase your price later on once you have more citizens coming into your store to buy your products. This is known as skimming pricing, you skim the cost of the product when selling, then increase it when your reputation and sales increase. This MAY decrease the sales of that product, as it is a risky strategy and is not always 100% effective. Not to mention it may take some time to gather the increased sales from selling the product at the same price as its cost meaning lost profit from that time. So don't always use this strategy. When looking to the pricing list above, don't worry if you don't follow it. It's only a guideline, so change the prices around to use pricing to your advantage.

Returning Customers
When selling your products, the majority of your profits/sales does not come from new consumers. It comes from repeat customers who have been to the store before and have come back to buy again. This is imperative to keep at a high rate as it results in increased profits. There are several ways to get customers to return:

• Make them feel wanted in the store, help them in anyway possible.
• Include deals in their purchases so they return and buy the same things.
• Don't rush their transaction to get to other customers

This and more will help to keep your customers returning to your store to buy your products. Usually this only works as food rather than general goods. This is because general goods are usually only needed to be bought once such as flashlights or bags/backpacks. Food is the major product that people return for. Be sure to make the roleplaying experience for both you and the customer a good one. They'll return to a store that included more RP than a store where you just bought and left.

I agree. The Poll wasn't needed. I mean it's all well and good your supporting me, but a poll for others to give their opinions wasn't the best idea. It's made me look like an admin wannabe, which in some cases I could be seen as one. But I am only here to support the servers for the best. The poll may have shown me peoples opinions, in some cases, which has benefited me in seeing what flaws people notice in me.

So thank you for the support, but the poll was never going to change anything, regardless of the results.

Thank you for putting a reasoning with your answer, unlike 80% of people.

I didn't understand what you meant in that sentance. Didn't make much sense.

Martinner, it would if people would include a reason with their no other than "I dont want him to be admin cause."
Anyone can do that.