Although gross sales continue to increase, National Furniture’s marketing objective is to increase it’s brand recognition in response to new competitors, and to promote it’s relatively new interior design consulting services. National Furniture creates a monthly report based on sales data from which to track and evaluate the rate of business growth.  Quarterly sales reports are compiled at the end of every three-month period showing trends regarding furniture sales and design service sales in both the short-term and longer-term.  Executive meetings follow these reports whereby discussions regarding ways to improve sales as well as other business areas lead to strategic decisions being made.  Year-end reports in both areas and for the overall business are generated in January and results are compared against the company’s goals for the year.

National Furniture has set it’s marketing objective at increasing overall sales by 18%, and at increasing consulting service sales by 30%.  National Furniture intends to meet these targeted objectives by retraining it’s sales force to increase their knowledge of interior design in order to sell those services better, and by increasing it’s advertising expenditures from 10% to 13% of gross sales.