Directions: Read the entire case study below. Your task is to answer Questions 1, 2, and 3 (the ones in italics). Make sure you understand the case carefully before starting to answer the questions.

SCENARIO:

Kelly Lee and Noah Walker meet in a marketing class and recognize they have two things in common. First, they enjoy working with animals. Kelly's family breeds Irish Setters, and Noah works part time in a veterinary office. Second, they both want to be entrepreneurs. After some initial market analysis, they decide to collaborate on creating a pet daycare center, Pet Haven, which will offer daily workouts for animals, hourly playtime, petting with individual handlers, and clean and roomy cages or containment areas. To get Pet Haven up and running, Kelly and Noah realize they must persuade either a bank or other investors to give them a small business loan. Then, they must persuade potential customers to use their service.

Persuading Lenders to Fund a Loan

When Kelly and Noah go to the bank to discuss a loan for Pet Haven, the banker is interested in the idea but tells them their interest rate will be very high because they have an insufficient credit history and no collateral for the loan. To secure a more reasonable rate, he suggests they ask parents/relatives to co-sign the loan application. In other words, their parents would have to agree to repay the loan if Kelly and Noah could not. They decide they need to convince their parents that Pet Haven is a sound financial idea. To prepare for these meetings, they brainstorm a list of questions their parents could ask:

• Are you ready to run a business?

• What services will you provide? How do you know these are the right services? What will you need in order to deliver these services?

• Who is your customer base? Are there enough customers to support your business?

• What is the competition in our city? What will you offer to make you stand out?

• Have these kinds of pet daycare businesses been successful in other towns?

• How will you market your services to your customers? How will you communicate and what will you communicate?

• What kind of licensing and credentials do you need?

• Do you have a location yet?

• What will the start-up costs be for leases, employees, advertising, equipment, etc.?

• What size loan do you need? How will you repay it from cash flow?

• Why don't you get a job first and get some experience? You can open the business later.

QUESTION 1: In 250-300 words, explain how Kelly and Noah can persuade their parents successfully? Think about:

• What questions require a logical argument, using claims, reasons, and evidence?

• How should Kelly and Noah gather information to support arguments?

• How can Kelly and Noah establish credibility about their ability to run a business and repay a loan?

• What kinds of emotional appeals might be effective as part of their argument to their parents, to motivate action?

Identifying Benefits and Objections

Based on Kelly's and Noah's persuasive business plans, agree to cosign the loan. However, they insist that Kelly and Noah begin to market their business before graduation. As a next step, Kelly and Noah decide to learn more about their potential customers:

• What do they know about pet daycare services?

• What benefits will they perceive from the service?

• What objections and concerns may prevent them from using the service?

QUESTION 2: How can Noah and Kelly learn this information? What would you do?

• Search the internet for animal or pet daycare centers. Select at least two companies and read their websites thoroughly. List the customer benefits that each company stresses. Which benefits seem most compelling? What benefits would you recommend Noah and Kelly stress? Can you think of other potential benefits that you did not read about in competitors' websites? (150-200 words)

• What kind of objections might pet owners raise about the pet daycare concept? What may prevent pet owners from using Pet Haven's services? What will convince them to send their pets? For each objection or question, give Kelly and Noah ideas about how to anticipate those issues in their marketing materials. What objections should they refute and how? What objections might they concede and how? (150-200 words)

Using Social Media to Persuade

Noah and Kelly understand that they can reach a broader audience and be more persuasive if they use social media in addition to a website, but they have not yet focused on how best to use social media.

QUESTION 3: Identify at least two ways that Noah and Kelly can use social media to persuade potential customers. Explain why these would be effective. (200-250 words).