In Response to Christine's Post: "Superbowl Ads"

“Do you think showing the ads before the game was a good marketing strategy or not?”

Many of the companies that created special Superbowl commercials released them on the internet before the game started this year. I think this wasn’t the best idea on marketers’ part. Many people who tune in to the big game don’t even care about football, the watch for the good food, half time show, and commercials. In fact, about half of the people who attended the superbowl party I went to admitted they were most excited for the commercials. It’s possible that with those especially funny commercials available ahead of time, viewers may have been lost from the game; therefore viewers missing other commercials put on by the same advertisers. If the commercials for the superbowl were just every-day commercials, do you think less people would tune in to see the game?

T-Mobile Valentine's Deal

This new commercial by T-Mobile follows the same idea as the others, the beautiful girl in pink with the short dress telling you about deals that the phone company is having. T-Mobile’s most recent commercial is for Valentine ’s Day, promoting a phone sale for February 11^th. The commercial starts out with a man dressed as cupid saying that he wanted to surprise his girlfriend, but the T-Mobile Girl suggests he give her a smart phone from T-Mobile because they are on sale for the holiday. And then the narrator continues saying that all phones are FREE including smart phones. But if you look really close and you pause the video, you’ll read that the phone is only free with a purchase of a 2-year contract. Is this false advertising or just really good marketing? Because technically the actual phone will be free on that day but you have to pay at least $100 for the two year contract.

In Response to Christine's Post: "Importance of Surveys"

At the end of Christine's post she proposed the questions, "What type of surveys do you take? How do you think marketers can get more responses from customers?"

Christine mentioned in her post that she doesn't enjoy taking surveys and only really takes them after ordering a product online. I actually love taking surveys. Absolutely love it! Almost every time I order a product online I will fill out the customer survey about the product in order to help others decide to buy it or not. And on the other side of the survey, I often read customer reviews before buying an expensive product because I find them useful. So I understand how this information can be useful for marketers to know how to improve their product if necessary. I agree with Christine that having an incentive would help marketers get more people to take surveys. I may not go as far as to say a gift certificate but I think a discount would work sufficiently. I think a lot more people would be willing to take a customer appreciation survey or stay on the line for telephone surveys if they were guaranteed a 10% off coupon. Do you think customer surveys are affective or a waste of time for the company?

"Say Yes to the Dress" But At What Price?

I watch the show Say Yes to the Dress frequently with my mom when I am home from school. Like many women, I enjoy the show because I like to dream about my future wedding dress. But does the show portray the wrong image about wedding dress prices? On the show, the bride meets with a consultant to discuss budget and the type of dress they are looking for. Research has shown that the average price tag on a wedding gown from Kleinfeld’s is $4500; quadruple the amount that the typical New York woman spends on her dress. Whereas, the average wedding dress price at David’s Bridal is only $550 (which is still expensive for one day!).  So why is it that women feel the need to spend so much money on one dress? Moreover, why are women so willing to fall for the wedding industry’s marketing schemes that weddings need to be extravagant and expensive? I think part of it is relationship marketing: establishing a long-term, mutually satisfying buyer/seller relationship. When a bride goes to Kleinfeld’s to buy her wedding dress, the consultants do everything in their power to make that bride look as beautiful as possible. They build up the relationship to help encourage the bride to purchase the ‘dress of their dream’. When in reality, that bride could probably find a similar dress for half the price somewhere else. I think Kleinfeld’s is a successful company because they have a centralized organization and they focus on finding that dream dress for the bride. They establish performance standards and actually match up to those standards by doing whatever they can to make the bride happy. This definitely helps encourage brides to spend those extra thousand-or-so dollars to find the perfect dress. Can you think of another company that is so successful because they are good at what they do?

In Response to Nicole’s Post: "Why a Course in Marketing?"

At the end of Nicole’s blog post, she asked the question “What do you think is the most important reason why one may take a class that does not have to specifically do with their career path?”

I think it is very important for students to take courses outside of their major, like ISP courses at Keene State. By taking courses outside of your interest, you broaden your horizon of knowledge. If anyone has ever said that they learned absolutely nothing after completing a semester in a course, I don’t believe them. Whether you enjoy the subject or not, the professor or the reading materials in the class are going to teach you something you don’t know and it will most likely be something you can take with you for the rest of your life. For example, last semester I took an environmental studies course on food and health. I didn’t think I would learn much in the class and besides, what did that have to do with management and accounting? Absolutely nothing, but I learned so much on healthy food intake and the importance of choosing the right foods.

I think the same goes for a marketing course. I think students who are not management majors or minors could benefit from taking a marketing course. No matter what your career path may be, you will always need to sell yourself to a prospective employer. You will always need to prove that you are worth having as an employee.

What are some courses you have taken outside of your major? And did you learn anything worth while?

5 Things Every Entrepreneur Should Know about Marketing

Whether you’re planning on pursuing a career in the marketing field or if you want to become an entrepreneur, the knowledge of marketing is very useful to have. There are five things you need to know in order to be successful in your company.

1. Understand Your Market:
By understanding what market your product lies in, you can better solve a problem in that marketplace. Ask questions like “How does my product solve a problem?” and “Are people willing to pay for my product?” in order to test your knowledge of the market. 

2. Define Your Goals:
Along with your goals, you need to define yourself. You need to know who you are, what you are, and what you are not. You must figure out what you want to accomplish before stepping into your career or creating a product. At this point you already know that there is a need for your product in the marketplace. It’s up to you to also figure out how you can fulfill that need.

3. Understand Your Customers:
You also need to understand who, individually, is in need of problem-solving. Know who you want to market to and who can benefit from your product.

4. Create Your Brand:
Your brand is how people (customers) relate to your company. This is how you are perceived in the marketplace. Plan your marketing strategy in advance and make sure that every marketing activity you do works towards the same goal. A good goal to have is to persuade your customers to buy your product. This usually happens through advertising. Advertising is best when you figure out what your brand is!

5. Your Marketing Should Lead To Sales:
You must track your success and your failures. If your marketing plan fails, you need to know why! If marketing activities do not drive sales then you need to figure out where you are lacking and build up that part of your plan.

Can you think of a company that didn't follow these guidelines, and failed because of it?


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Marketing Mix: The Four P's

Within the marketing mix, there are four P’s: product, place, promotion, and price. If I were to consider myself to be the product in order to try to market myself to a future employer, I would use these four P’s into consideration.

The first topic is product. I am the product. Here I would describe my strengths in the workplace such as my patience, organization, and drive to succeed in any challenge I face. I work well with a team as well as individually. I would also tell the employer about my past work experience and talk about some of the qualities I gained from working within those environments.

Place: In this section I would talk about where I live and how close I am to the job.

Promotion: Here I would use personal selling to market my skills I have for the company in order to get the promotion. I would show how I have progressed in previous jobs through examples and also mention references from employers.

Price: Here I wouldn’t name a desired salary from the potential employer. I would let them know that I was open to any salary in order to get the job. Because even if I received a low wage, I could always work harder to achieve a higher pay.

This sounds like it is similar to a resume, which it is. Within a resume, you market yourself as a product to try to 'sell' yourself to an employer. Have you ever thought about the marketing mix when looking through your resume?