P7 - Outline electronic and non-electronic methods for communicating business information, using examples for different types of audience.
The first type of information that I am focusing on is written information that is on screen, the form of the communication is a PowerPoint presentation which is used electronically to present information to members of staff. In Sainsbury’s they hold meetings regularly and my example of a time is when they had a new product that was coming into their store, the presentation explained the product and how they can promote it. This information is internal as it is in the business its self explained to its target audience who are the employees. The non-electronic method that Sainsbury’s have explained this new product is through posters, they are put onto the notice board for their target audience that is the customers. The purpose of the electronic and non-electronic methods of this information is to keep customers updated but also the members of staff, the audiences are satisfied for the way that the information is presented to them.

The second type of information that I am going to explain is verbal, the form of communication that is used is face-to-face and DVD’s. The target audience for the face-to-face information is the customers, an example of a non-electronic method is in Apple store there is a member of staff who would stand and present themselves to members of the public. Their aim is to sell the product and explain as much information as they possibly can, the benefit of this is that customers can ask questions and they can be answered directly then and there. The electronic method is the DVD’s that are handed out to the target audience the employees to watch about the new product that the company has brought out. This sort of communication is suitable for the employees as they can watch the video of the new product as many times as they need to learn more about it.

The third type of communication is visual and a company called Multiflame use a lot of visual communication to communicate with their target audience. The non-electronic communication they use is putting flyers and posters up in local shop to promote their business, they hand cards out to store for them display, their vans and car have advertisement on the side of them so that people can see what they can offer and the final thing they use non-electronic communication is newspaper ads. They have little ad in the back of the local news paper that describes what they business does and way to contact them. This is a good way for them to reach out to their target audience because they are only a small company and any more other type of visual communication like electronic communication like visual animation in bus stops and TV adverts would be too costly for them and they wouldn’t be able to afford it. But the only electronic type of visual communication they have is social media and their website. Some suppliers of Multiflame post status of their website links and feedback on how good their service is. The social included are Twitter and Facebook. But both of these communications are suitable for Multiflame because they are only a small business so this means they can’t compete against bigger business. So what they do i they sneak under the competition and focus on the non-electronic communication to persuade potential customer to come to their business.