Crestfield Furniture Essay

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To: Charlton Bates – President, Crestfield Furniture Industries, Inc. RE: 2004 Communications Budget and Advertising Plan The Situation: The Hervey and Bernham Agency proposes that Crestfield Furniture Industries (CFI) increase advertising expenditures by $225K for the 2004 advertising year. The caveat – this increase would be applied to the consumer advertising portion of the 2004 Communications Budget and goes against company policy of 5 percentage-of-sales for total promotion costs. Let's call this "Plan A." John Bott, VP of Sales for CFI disagrees and stresses the need for $135K to be allocated to sales expenses and administration costs ($65K) and salary for a new sales representative ($70K) to accommodate the 50 new accounts for 2004. This leaves $165K available for other promotion. Let's call this "Plan B." Both plans are based on $79.5M in net sales in 2004, yielding a $300K increase in promotional dollars from the year prior. After thorough analysis, I recommend Plan B. The Analysis: Context/Climate – In 2003, total furniture industry sales were $23.9B. Wood sales comprised 43% and are expected to increase by 6% in 2004. Company – Family owned and operated since the1900's, we know CFI has maintained a legacy for creating high-quality wood furniture with 2003 net sales of $75M. Unique to CFI is it's sales force which is expected to inspire retailers to sell the CFI line, assist them in setting up displays, and educate them on products so they can pass knowledge on to the consumer. Consumers – Consumers lack confidence when evaluating furniture quality. They find it difficult to choose from a variety of styles, and are afraid they won't like what they've bought later on. A survey by Better Homes and Gardens confirms this lack of confidence and shows a reliance on in-store sales persons. 77.5% of respondents said it's very important for

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