Article Review

Article Review

Introduction

The article “How to Get Attention In a New-Media World' by Gwendolyn Bounds, describes the advertising strategies for the small business owners. The small businesses have certain unique characteristics, which significantly alter their advertising campaigns. Unlike the corporate giants and big businesses the small business usually run on a very limited budget, and cannot afford to invest heavily on the PR firms. The startup owners of these businesses usually handle most of the managerial responsibilities, and their own personality and beliefs form the organizational culture. With the example of a New York shoe and dress designer, Holly Dunlap, the article begins by telling the story of a small business owner. Just like any other business operating in her field, Holly hired an expensive PR firm to increase the profile of her business. She was not aware on the operations and advertising strategies of the firm, and was disconnected with the entire activity. The success of the small business depends on the ability of the owner manger to apply their philosophy and character onto the business entity and provide personal care to the customers. In the example of Holly, she was not taking an active part in the advertising process, and in a way she had shifted her own responsibility to a third party. Holly was at a risk of losing her grip on the marketing function and establishing a personalized relation with her customers. The main objective of the article is to critically analyze the dynamics and the adverting needs of the small businesses, and what are the most effective modern tools to successfully brand the business (Bounds, 2006).

Purpose: Unconventional Tools for Innovative Advertisement

Holly was able to find out through her personalized website, that she did not require the expensive and non personal PR form to advertise her brand. She only required a medium which would help her form a casual relation with the clients, and show them the ideology and the culture of the business. Holly used unconventional and drastically cost efficient measures to reach out to the customers; her diary became an instant success on the internet, where the potential customers and the famous people mentioned would keep a keen interest in the diary. The result of the activity was that Holly fired the expensive PR firm and continued her strategy of a personalized and innovative website. With only the fraction of the cost she was incurring with the PR firm, Holly was able to attain more than 20, 000 visitors on her website per week. For a small business like hers this figure represents a monumental success, and perhaps to attain similar levels of success through the conventional PR firms, she would have had to bear excessive amount of costs. Her success is not just limited to this initial stage, as she could potentially triple the number of users visiting her website by advertising the link of her website on other sites.

The main purpose of the article is to highlight the modern tools that ...