CASE: Gold Coast Advertising (GCA) Essay

George Stein sat in his large office overlooking dineros Michigan Avenue. As chief executive officer of the Gold Coast advertisement he seemed to always be confronted with one bother or another. Today was no exception. George had unspoiled come out of a unyielding meeting with Jim Gerard, head of the board for the splendid advertizement agency. Jim was concerned about a growing problem with lowered gross revenue expectations and a decreasing customer base. Jim warned George that something had to be done quickly or Jim would bring in to go on the board of action. George acknowledges that gross sales were down but attributed this to general economic conditions. He assured Jim that the problems would be address immediately.As George pondered his next course of action, he admitted to himself that the customer base of GCA was easily decreasing. The agency did not quite construe the reason for this decrease. Many regular customers were not coming back and the rate of bran-new customers seemed to be slowly declining. GCAs competitors seemed to be doing well. George did not understand the problem.What Do Customers Want?GCA was a Chicago-based advertising agency that developed campaigns and promotions for small and medium-sized firms. Their expertise was in the retail area, but they worked with a wide range of firms from the food aid industry to the medical field. GCA competed on price and drive of product cultivation. Advertising in the retail area was rivalrous and price had always been important. Also, since retail fashions switch rapidly, speed in advertising development was thought to be critical.George reminded himself that price and speed had always been what customers wanted. Now he mat up confused that he really didnt know his customers. This was just another crisis that would pass, he told himself. But he needed to accost with it immediately.