Question: John Mayes opened Sparkle Janitorial in 2005. John began his business by acquiring two contracts for office cleaning services from two local manufacturing facilities. For two years, John and his wife, Barb, performed the cleaning services alone. After acquiring three additional cleaning contracts in 2007, John hired two employees.

"Up to that point, we had room to grow but we really had no advertising plan, " John stated. "We were relying mostly on word-of mouth".

By 2010, Barb hired another two full-time employees to begin Sparkle's new endeavor carpet cleaning in homes and offices.

"Competition was getting tough for both of our services at that point, " Barb added. "We ran a local radio spot three times each week. Then we had an advertiser print coupons on placemats. That gave us a little more exposure."

John and Barb Mayes admit that they did not realize the value of a sound promotional plan earlier. "We wish we would have put together something catchy with a jingle long before now, " they said.

1. Two local manufacturing facilities are John and Barb's business customer.

2. Three levels of product principles was applied by John and Barb while developing his cleaning service.

3. John and Barb have been using all five tools of promotion mix strategy to communicate their cleaning vice's value to customers.