Sydney_Chp1

Social Media Marketing

In Chapter 1, it primarily talks about internet marketing (social media, how to promote publicly, how to sell, public relations, etc.). I decided to touch on social media marketing, but that has been a way of marketing for a lot of people in the last couple of years. In terms of marketing, I feel as though most brands and businesses will turn to this aspect, instead of marketing on T.V. -- people are always on their phone no matter the occasion.

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/293123/social-media-seen-as-best-to-boost-brand-awareness.html

The article I posted is about the percentages of brands and businesses that use social media marketing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. It also states that social media is the best way to boost brand awareness. The article also says that people who post videos to keep their audiences engaged, might have to look at another way to engage their audience, because so many videos are being posted everyday.

Kayla_Chp2

The Risk of Re-branding

I thought that for my post, I would expand on the concept of branding, and why rebranding can actually be risky. I'm actually a psych major finishing up an elective requirement, and I've studied marketing before, but from the perspective of manipulation and the way that people make decisions, rather than business.


The link that I chose is:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/unconscious-branding/201306/how-marketers-manipulate-you-without-your-knowing


The article is talking about how our minds make associations between everything from stoves being hot and painful to touch to various brands having certain traits that make us happy for whatever reason. These associations even become unconscious (most of us probably don't actively think every time we see a stove that we shouldn't touch it because we'll be burned). His discusses how the color green is associated with "minty freshness" and so companies dye their toothpaste and mouthwash green to encourage people to buy their products.

I thought that the following segment was particularly interesting:

"People may not really know why they love one brand and not another, because conscious thought may have had little to do with the emotional tags that were formed when their preferences were learned. For example, a leading beverage company created a sound when opening the can that was subtly different from other cans to trigger a unique craving for their brand’s drink. The manufacturer redesigned the can to create a differentiating snapping sound, a branded cue of delicious anticipation. They then recorded the sound in a studio and incorporated it into advertising. The manufacturer would play the sound at major concerts and sporting events, seeing an instant uptick in sales for their brand when they did so. Yet when consumers were asked why they suddenly choose that particular beverage over another they would say things like “I haven’t the faintest idea, I just fell for it.”"

On the topic of re-branding, it can be risky because of these associations. The article also talks about how a re-branding effort to make soda seem more healthy by making it clear, failed miserably. The consumers had come to connect the brown color of the soda to the taste of the company. When the manufacturers chose to make it clear, the drink was no longer associated to the delicious flavor that the consumers loved, and so sales dropped tremendously. 

There are lots of other interesting concepts that are connected between psychology and marketing. So much so that one of the women in some of my psychology courses did an entire project, I actually believe it was her thesis, on the connection between the two and how to use psychology to market things more successfully. 

Rachel_chp2

http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing-strategy/your-target-market/six-steps-to-defining-your-target-market

This is an article about selecting a target market. They talked about this idea in the chapter and this article puts it into clear basic steps so you can find your target market on your own.

Elissa_Chp2

The chapter mentions the importance of packaging in product development. This concept is particularly important as consumers have many products trying to grab their attention. A more modern issue in packaging is how to make packages delivered from an online purchase interesting. My personal favorite packaging is ipsy. Ipsy is a monthly membership for make-up products. The make-up samples are put in a small decorative make-up bag, which is then put into a shiny pink envelope. The packaging grabs your attention instantly, and when you see the pink envelope you always know exactly what it is. It's great marketing, because it gets the original purchaser excited whenever the monthly package arrives and sparks a conversation with whoever sees the shiny, pink envelope.
https://www.boundless.com/marketing/textbooks/boundless-marketing-textbook/branding-and-packaging-10/packaging-75/the-purposes-of-packaging-379-4135/

Katelyn_Chp1

In class on Tuesday, a concept that was touched on was IMC's, Integrated Marketing Communications, role in branding of a company. The role includes identity and customer connections including trust, transparency, and authenticity. When these three subcategories were mentioned, I immediately thought of a brand that keeps these ideals at the forefront of their campaign: Everlane (link to about page). The company does a great job of keeping their customers informed and included in the process from start to finish. One glimpse at their frequently updated Snapchat story shows this example.

Stephanie_Ch.2

Brand Identity

Brand is how the company presents itself. This is important since you want your company to be memorable to its consumers so that relationship can be maintained. When its easier to recognize a brand based on elements such as its logo or packaging, trust is formed and awareness of the company can be progressive. Good design supports an effective brand identity. The link I posted shows off many great designs that are good examples of consistency and a pleasant aesthetic that encourages people to become their customers. They are presented in such a clean and professional way that you are able to form that trust.

http://www.draward.com/best-corporate-identity-design-packages-branding-projects/

Monica_Chp1

Personal Selling

Personal selling is the final element of an organization's promotional mix. It is a form of person-to-person communication in which a seller attempts to assist and/or persuade prospective buyers to purchase the company's product or service or to act on an idea. Personal selling can be found everywhere. Door-to-door services such as Girl Scouts selling cookies or salespeople selling AT&T Internet service are examples of personal selling. Other examples include perfume salespeople at the mall who try to get customers to sample the perfume in order to buy it. In an article explaining 8 tips to improve personal selling, they use people working at farmer's market booths as an example. There are a lot of cool and easy tips in this article that start with the seller's attitude and personality. A big tip to being a great salesperson is to show that you care about the customer you are selling to rather than selling them an item just to make the sale. Here is the link to the article:

http://gredio.com/blog/8-tips-to-improve-your-personal-selling/#.WIAzz7YrK1t

Molly_ch2

In chapter 2 one of the main ideas that  I took away from the chapter was the idea of values relating to the product. An example of this is the one that the book gave by telling us why mothers loved Kraft. I think this is interesting that if you dive in deeper to why someone likes something then that can help you develop a brand value. One brand that a really like is Coca Cola. It's refreshing and makes me happy. One of Coca Cola's core values is to make people feel good and you can see that they achieved this. Coca Cola wouldn't know how their product effected people unless they did research just like Kraft. If consumers like myself didn't let them know why we enjoyed a product then  they wouldn't know what their product's core values should be.
https://hbr.org/2002/07/make-your-values-mean-something

Alyssa_Ch2

Branding


In Chapter 2, it talks about the importance of branding to a company. It expresses how the company has to keep up with an image and and identity of sorts in order to keep it's audience and it's consumers. It has to have brand equity which is added value or goodwill that results from a good image, impression, or strength of consumer attachment to a company name or trademark. Some companies that have good equity, and have shown over the years that a good image helps with consumers are Coca-Cola, Porsche, and Starbucks. Their image shows and enforces quality control in order to have the best outcome in service. The article I have chosen goes into more depth about the brand equity of these companies.

http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/020915/what-are-some-examples-companies-or-products-have-outstanding-brand-equity.asp

Kendra_Chp2

Repositioning

In chapter 2 there was a section that talked about positioning strategies and the last strategy the book talked about was Repositioning strategies. Repositioning means altering or changing a product's or brand's position. It usually happens when sales decline or because of other opportunities in other market positions. The book gave a lot of examples like Gatorade, JC Penny's, and MTV. The link I posted below talks about how MTV repositioned their brand in 2010 by changing their logo after 30 years by dropping the part of the logo that said Music Television. MTV was always known as a music channel but after they premiered multiple reality shows such as The Hills and Jersey Shore, they started to go more into a reality show channel rather than a music channel. They knew being just a music channel wasn't relating to their viewers and needed a change in their brand.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/mtv-removes-music-television-from-iconic-logo-20100209

Jilda_Ch2

 A Position Strategy

http://cultbranding.com/ceo/create-strong-brand-positioning-strategy/

Ch 2 mentions developing a positioning strategy. After figuring out the target demographic of the product, the next step would be to create a brand positioning. The ultimate goal is for the statement to create a distinct impression in the consumer's mind to help and distinguish the product from the competition but also encompass the product or company's value. There are so many factors that have to be taken into consideration and I chose this article because it talks about how to create a good brand positioning statement following a 7-step process.

Mackenzie_Chp. 2

Target Market Selection

http://www.netmba.com/marketing/market/target/

From reading Chapter 2 in the book, I decided to talk about the process of the target market selection. When selecting a target market for the segment, I learned that it is important to consider the attractiveness of the segment and the resources and capabilities of it. The target market becomes the focus of the firm's marketing efforts, goals, and objectives when the company is trying to set where they want to be and what they hope to accomplish. These accomplishments will determine the company's sales and profitability. From there the company will start working on advertising and how to promote the company that will attract the target market. Marketers rarely go after their target market with one product or brand, instead they go for a number of different strategies.

Brynn_Chp2

Page 47 of chapter two talks about target marketing identification which "isolates consumers based on lifestyles, needs and the like." The book uses the example of beers and the way the market to specific groups which I recently have seen a lot of on television recently. One commercial I have seen a lot of is Miller high life which is marketed as "the champagne of beers." This is a really great example of target marketing because it is very obvious they are marketing it as "a high-end beer." Thus marketing to people who live fancy, sophisticated lifestyles. Miller high life is specifically identifying their target market as those who wish to be sophisticated and fancy and to those who are. The link below is to the Miller website which actually explains and identifies their target market and goals directly.

 High End Market Identification

Allex_Chp1

Allex_Looper

Finding Your Target Audience

https://blog.crazyegg.com/2014/01/14/find-your-target-market/

 This article talks about the importance of finding your target market for your business, product, etc. It discusses how many people skip this step without doing the proper research and finding out who is really is that they need to be targeting. Demographics play a big role in this in that they completely define who it is that you're selling your product to. This also talks about really narrowing down the basics of who and what it is that your selling to (Ex. 25-34 years old, female, $10,000-$30,000 a year). Also, psychographics are a big part of finding your target audience. This article says that "psychographics are what motivates the buyer to take action." Lastly, it talks about finding your brand's personality which includes reflecting on the brand's ideals.

Madison_CH1

Marketing When You Have a Small Business

http://www.marketingforsuccess.com/ic/marketing/small-business-marketing-strategies/

I found this article about helpful ways small business owners can market to the community because as a child I had always pictured myself owning my own business (whatever that business may be) and making loads of money off of it. Obviously, my plans have changed and I've grown to realize it isn't that simple. None the less I find it interesting to see the differences in marketing when you own a small business and marketing when you're a big corporation.

Chloey_Chp.1

Product placement is when manufacturers of goods or providers of a service gain exposure for they products by paying them to be featured in movies and television programs. A great example of product placement is Back to the Future. In back to the future you see the main character Marty drink from pepsi, sport a new pair of nike self lacing shoes, read from a USA Today newspaper and stop by a Texaco. Without even realizing it you're being exposed as a view to a form of marketing tactic. Product placement can also have benefits even after a film is complete, for example even years after the filming and completetion of Back to the future pepsi sought out to reel in fans by releasing a limited time pepsi bottle in a futuristic pneumatic tube as shown in the back to future movie when Marty goes to the future. So on October 21st 2015 as shown in the movie they released the 6,500 of the bottles selling them for $20.15 a bottle. Even the pricing is drawn from the movie. So there you have it, that is a little bit of product placement for you.

here is a link to an article written by USA Today I used for most of my additional pepsi information that talks even more about the product placement between pepsi and back to the future.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/10/05/pepsi-perfect-back-to-the-future/73224922/

Kaitlyn_Chp1

Touch Points

Touch points are how consumers hear, experience, or encounter a business. The books lists four types of touch points: company created touch points, intrinsic touch points, unexpected touchpoints, and customer-initiated touch points. Company created touch points are things like ads or other materials that a company produces. Intrinsic touch points occur when a person is in the process of buying or using a company's product. Unexpected touch points happen when a person hears or learns about the company from somewhere other than the company itself, like gossip. Consumer initiated touch points occur when a person specifically contacts the company. Touch points are extremely important and are the main reason advertisements work.

This link shows the ways Apple uses touch points to benefit their image.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michellegreenwald/2014/05/21/20-ways-apple-masters-customer-touchpoints-why-its-great-for-business/#3db3aed93b35

Madelyne_ Ch.1

Recently I have been really into "Mad Men", and it has a very clear representation of the Advertising industry throughout the 60's. So I thought it would be prime time to post about the impact of  advertising since chapter 1 mentions the classifications of Advertising. This link is about what you can learn about advertising through "Mad Men." The first point and probably one of the most important points in this article is, "Know your market. Know your audience." This is relevant in nearly every aspect of marketing in basically industry. http://www.advertise.com/2013/11/25/what-mad-men-can-teach-us-about-advertising-today/

Cinthya_Ch1

Benefits of Direct Marketing



What is direct marketing? It is a form of advertisement through direct mail, catalogs, Tv ads, telemarketing, print media, and the internet. It encourages consumers to purchase directly from the manufacturer. Many companies have databases that contain customers names, mail, email addresses, geographic, demographics and psychographics information. They also track  media preferences, purchase patterns, and other customer characteristics to target specific ads to customers. Direct marketing is important because it targets ideal customers. Marketers can connect with customers and build personal relationships. It also allows businesses to test new markets and review sales results.  Not only does it benefit the customers it also helps business target their intended market. Examples of companies that use direct marketing are Nordstrom,Kohl's, GEICO direct, and Bank of America.



 https://www.business.qld.gov.au/business/running/marketing/direct-marketing/using-direct-marketing/benefits-direct-marketing

Michelle_Ch1

The Old Way versus The Winning Way

http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-new-advertising-vs-old-advertising-2014-6

There is a chart in chapter one that compares the old types of advertising to the new and more personal way. This article explores how Apple went from impersonal ads to advertisements that engage the viewer. It displays how Apple used to be more concerned about what the brand did than why the brand actually exists, which is to innovate and create. The chart in the book compares how brands can either present themselves positively or authentically, with authentically being in the winning way column. The new ads that Apple used showed their personality and explored the brands identity, which is a crucial part to advertising. Personally, I really enjoyed the way the book displayed the chart and I agree with the content of it. The old way of advertising was about trying to make money without creating consumer relationships. The new and "winning way" contains more information about how brands can build themselves up and create an authentic identity that will create lasting relationships with their customers.

MeganS_Chp1

What is Integrated Marketing?

http://www.marketing-schools.org/types-of-marketing/integrated-marketing.html

This article describes what integrated marketing is by using the example of the Apple computer brand. Their company is promoting products that are smarter and faster than any other product. All of their products come in clean and crisp white boxes. Their stores are white, clean, and simple. By branding their products as elite and futuristic they are able to charge more for their product than their competitors. This article points out that integrated marketing should be the strategy that companies use who want to reach out to a specific audience, advertise to consumers and other businesses, and if they're wanting to advertise across multiple medias. The article then goes on to list careers that are available in this field.