Big Stick

Business reporting is not always easy. Too often we can get swamped down in paper work and long, exhaustive reports that offer entirely too much information. Your business reporting does not have to end up like that. If you find yourself caught in this trap of creating long boring reports that nobody wants to read then perhaps it is time you find a new way to present your findings.

Have you ever heard of a business intelligence tool? Chances are you haven’t and that is okay. I will explain exactly what a business intelligence tool is. Quite honestly, it is pretty simple. A business intelligence tool is a tool that allows you to present information in an intelligent and meaningful manner.

One such business intelligence tool that allows you to do this is known as a dashboard. A dashboard is simply a means of displaying information. There are a variety of different kinds of business dashboards that you can use to display the information compiled in your reports. The dashboard facilitates this process by making it extremely easy to convert information into charts and graphs.

When you display information in charts and graphs it is easier to understand and interpret the data. In turn this makes the business reporting process that much easier and meaningful. You can offer the information you have researched to your boss in a much more efficient manner than a 50 page report. We all know your boss isn’t really interested in reading that long boring report so why should you waste your time preparing it? The answer is you should not waste all that time writing a report. Rather, you should spend your time analyzing the numbers and preparing a short presentation using charts and graphs like a pie graph to present your findings on business aspects like the latest changes in market share. Certainly, your boss would much rather take a look at a pie graph and visually see how your market share has grown while the competition’s piece of the pie has shrunk.

Through a dashboard, making better use of a chart and graph is entirely possible. You can use a pie graph to display other vital information. For instance you might rely on a pie graph to show how the percentage costs of various components of your product compares. Such a pie graph could assist you in easily identifying the component costs that are out of line with the all the others. With this knowledge in hand you can then make the appropriate recommendation to your boss. He will appreciate the visual representation of the component costs displayed by the pie graph, and will be more likely to respond to your recommendations.

Is advertising the ultimate means to inform and help us in our everyday decision-making or is it just an excessively powerful form of mass deception used by companies to persuade their prospects and customers to buy products and services they do not need? Consumers in the global village are exposed to increasing number of advertisement messages and spending for advertisements is increasing accordingly.

It will not be exaggerated if we conclude that we are ‘soaked in this cultural rain of marketing communications’ through TV, press, cinema, Internet, etc. (Hackley and Kitchen, 1999). But if thirty years ago the marketing communication tools were used mainly as a product-centered tactical means, now the promotional mix, and in particular the advertising is focused on signs and semiotics. Some argue that the marketers’ efforts eventually are “turning the economy into symbol so that it means something to the consumer” (Williamson, cited in Anonymous, Marketing Communications, 2006: 569). One critical consequence is that many of the contemporary advertisements “are selling us ourselves” (ibid.)

The abovementioned process is influenced by the commoditisation of products and blurring of consumer’s own perceptions of the companies’ offering. In order to differentiate and position their products and/or services today’s businesses employ advertising which is sometimes considered not only of bad taste, but also as deliberately intrusive and manipulative. The issue of bad advertising is topical to such extent that organisations like Adbusters have embraced the tactics of subvertising – revealing the real intend behind the modern advertising. The Adbusters magazine editor-in-chief Kalle Lason commented on the corporate image building communication activities of the big companies: “We know that oil companies aren’t really friendly to nature, and tobacco companies don’t really care about ethics” (Arnold, 2001). On the other hand, the “ethics and social responsibility are important determinants of such long-term gains as survival, long-term profitability, and competitiveness of the organization” (Singhapakdi, 1999). Without communications strategy that revolves around ethics and social responsibility the concepts of total quality and customer relationships building become elusive. However, there could be no easy clear-cut ethics formula of marketing communications.

ADVERTISING – PRESCIOUS INFORMATION OR VICIOUS MANIPULATION?