Contextual Narrative
Purpose
One of my duties at my internship with Market America was to run the company blog on retailinsights.com. Every month, I researched a topic related to the retail industry, interviewed individuals who worked in that department, and wrote an article about it for the blog. The June blog article was on supply chain management with an international focus. When I interviewed Chad Sullivan, the Global Distribution Manager for SHOP.COM | Market America, I had a series of questions about international distribution of retail products. From his answers to those questions and follow-up research on company procedure with regards to shipping, I wrote this article.
Audience
Retailinsights is a blogging site for those within the retail industry. The audience is probably highly experienced in the topics discussed in blog articles they decide to read and is coming to the blog for advice on how to improve their own business model. Because of their purpose for coming to the site, the blog posts tend to focus on audience benefit and how the audience could apply different practices to improve their own international business and retail practices.
One of my duties at my internship with Market America was to run the company blog on retailinsights.com. Every month, I researched a topic related to the retail industry, interviewed individuals who worked in that department, and wrote an article about it for the blog. The June blog article was on supply chain management with an international focus. When I interviewed Chad Sullivan, the Global Distribution Manager for SHOP.COM | Market America, I had a series of questions about international distribution of retail products. From his answers to those questions and follow-up research on company procedure with regards to shipping, I wrote this article.
Audience
Retailinsights is a blogging site for those within the retail industry. The audience is probably highly experienced in the topics discussed in blog articles they decide to read and is coming to the blog for advice on how to improve their own business model. Because of their purpose for coming to the site, the blog posts tend to focus on audience benefit and how the audience could apply different practices to improve their own international business and retail practices.
Rhetorical Decisions
Decision to focus on the benefits for the customers
At first, I wrote two drafts of this article--one that focused on increased productivity for the company and shipping to international markets more effectively and this one that focused on keeping international customers happier because you are shipping products to them in a more organized and efficient manner. The reason I chose to use the latter article is because the main objective of improving supply chain operations is to deliver better services to the customer. At the end of the day, more efficient supply chain operations and the ability to ship products internationally faster means customers are likely to come back and support your business. By focusing on this, I wrote about the end benefit for the company (happier customers means a happier business) instead of the direct benefits from improving international supply chain operations. I tied this throughout and made my ending sentence centered around this theme: “You need an effective global distribution plan to increase your international presence and keep current customers satisfied.” Focusing on the end benefit would keep the interests of the readers of this blog, who are interested in business advice and how to grow their own product-based business.
Decision to emphasize that more research is needed
During my interview with the Global Operations Manager, a point that kept coming up was each carrier company and each country varies differently in shipping regulations and they can change their regulations quickly. For example, he brought up one country which changes their international shipping regulations at least four times each year. I made sure the audience understood this importance by labeling this subsection in bold as “Researching carriers is key.” Because of the variability with international shipping procedures, I felt it was important to stress the importance of further research on international shipping procedures from the beginning of the subsection. I also called the audience to the action of researching further at the end when I wrote, “Extensive research on local carriers can allow you the ability to offer these perks to your customers.” This provides a call to action to readers to do their own research. By providing them with this next step, I gave the audience direction in what to research next while making sure the blog kept its promise to inform readers on how global supply chain management worked, but also being truthful about where the blog post lacked certain knowledge they might need to create their own successful global supply chain system.
Decision to place the subsection on choosing a carrier last
Of the three subsections, I decided to display choosing carriers last for two main reasons. The first is that it was the bulkiest section, so I didn’t want the beginning of the article to be too text heavy. As a general rule of thumb, it’s good to place the densest material last because by the end of the article, the reader is more intrigued and invested than at the beginning. The second reason is because this was an extremely important section. Sullivan spent much of the article discussing the importance of not only choosing a carrier, but developing a relationship with the carrier. Because of this, I wanted to place it last so the reader would remember this section better as it held more importance than the first two subsections. By placing this section last, readers are given a next step they can do as the primary audience works in global supply chain management; they can research and chose the carrier which is best for their company.
Final Thoughts
Overall, this article differed from the first article I wrote for the blog (on warehouse technologies) because it felt more like a call to action for further research. The first article I wrote for the company blog included actionable steps and technologies you could buy. However, this article acted almost as a reminder or call to awareness about the importance of constantly researching international shipping trends so your product gets to your customer. It was fascinating to see how articles in the same style published on the same medium for the same brand can call the audience to do very different actions.
Other Blog Posts I Wrote During My Internship:
Decision to focus on the benefits for the customers
At first, I wrote two drafts of this article--one that focused on increased productivity for the company and shipping to international markets more effectively and this one that focused on keeping international customers happier because you are shipping products to them in a more organized and efficient manner. The reason I chose to use the latter article is because the main objective of improving supply chain operations is to deliver better services to the customer. At the end of the day, more efficient supply chain operations and the ability to ship products internationally faster means customers are likely to come back and support your business. By focusing on this, I wrote about the end benefit for the company (happier customers means a happier business) instead of the direct benefits from improving international supply chain operations. I tied this throughout and made my ending sentence centered around this theme: “You need an effective global distribution plan to increase your international presence and keep current customers satisfied.” Focusing on the end benefit would keep the interests of the readers of this blog, who are interested in business advice and how to grow their own product-based business.
Decision to emphasize that more research is needed
During my interview with the Global Operations Manager, a point that kept coming up was each carrier company and each country varies differently in shipping regulations and they can change their regulations quickly. For example, he brought up one country which changes their international shipping regulations at least four times each year. I made sure the audience understood this importance by labeling this subsection in bold as “Researching carriers is key.” Because of the variability with international shipping procedures, I felt it was important to stress the importance of further research on international shipping procedures from the beginning of the subsection. I also called the audience to the action of researching further at the end when I wrote, “Extensive research on local carriers can allow you the ability to offer these perks to your customers.” This provides a call to action to readers to do their own research. By providing them with this next step, I gave the audience direction in what to research next while making sure the blog kept its promise to inform readers on how global supply chain management worked, but also being truthful about where the blog post lacked certain knowledge they might need to create their own successful global supply chain system.
Decision to place the subsection on choosing a carrier last
Of the three subsections, I decided to display choosing carriers last for two main reasons. The first is that it was the bulkiest section, so I didn’t want the beginning of the article to be too text heavy. As a general rule of thumb, it’s good to place the densest material last because by the end of the article, the reader is more intrigued and invested than at the beginning. The second reason is because this was an extremely important section. Sullivan spent much of the article discussing the importance of not only choosing a carrier, but developing a relationship with the carrier. Because of this, I wanted to place it last so the reader would remember this section better as it held more importance than the first two subsections. By placing this section last, readers are given a next step they can do as the primary audience works in global supply chain management; they can research and chose the carrier which is best for their company.
Final Thoughts
Overall, this article differed from the first article I wrote for the blog (on warehouse technologies) because it felt more like a call to action for further research. The first article I wrote for the company blog included actionable steps and technologies you could buy. However, this article acted almost as a reminder or call to awareness about the importance of constantly researching international shipping trends so your product gets to your customer. It was fascinating to see how articles in the same style published on the same medium for the same brand can call the audience to do very different actions.
Other Blog Posts I Wrote During My Internship: