In response to Chris Beland

I think that the "advertise yourself" idea is so simple, yet so effective. I once saw on ebay, somebody sold their forehead to a company, and got a tattoo with the company slogan. Any person walkin down the street would be mind bottled if they saw a tattoo on somebody's head for Budweiser.

It is extremely effective, because it is so odd, it will cause a stir. The only problem is finding people crazy enough to do it. I don't know about you but I think $750 a day would be quite a pretty penny.

Soon they will have electronic forehead sized billboards that they will employ people to wear.

Technology Accelerating Marketing

The other day somebody was talking about a cell phone which was only about a year old, but they were remarking about how it was so slow, so out dated, and such a P.O.S. Technology changes and evolves so quickly nowadays its near impossible to keep up with it all.

This must pose an extreme challenge to marketing departments who are trying to grow awareness around their product. Strategies must be short term if you sell technology, and they must focus on generating excitement around your brand name, not necessarily the individual item. Because, that product, if it is a cell phone or something of that nature, it will be irrelevant in a year.

Products used to be a more long term fit in the market place. Nowadays however, its, iPhone, iPhone 2, iPhone 3, etc. Company's have adapted to this unique problem, they simply update a single device, giving it the latest and greatest technology for that time, and then they can directly advertise the iPhone. 

It used to be, once you added something game changing to your product, such as say a camera phone, you would create a new product, such as "Moto Razr" or something. But, due to the rapid acceleration of technology, new innovations happen at a level unheard of in past societies. 

So I end the blog asking this, think back to your last cell phone, how old and decrepit do you think it is? Now, picture back in say, 1970. Do you think that citizens felt the latest and greatest product from a year ago was a P.O.S. the next year?

In response to Chris Beland

I also believe Facebook going public was a foreseen action. They are an extremely profitable company, with a long term future. Going public would only help Facebook's cause, as they bring in new money from investors they can expand their capabilities and ensure their future.

However, with the way technology accelerates change in the world today, Facebook is not a certain bet. Remember Myspace? Me neither, it will one day leave its place in society, it will no longer be trending. Once mainstream America decides there is a new, cooler item to be used, Facebook will crumble, and the billion dollar network will leave our minds with Myspace and Napster carrying it to the grave.

Verizon Sucks

So, I recently broke my phone, six days after my purchase. It is one of those fancy Razr smartphone type deals. I discovered Verizon's marketing strategy through this debacle. Apparently, their warranty starts coverage a month after the purchase date. Also, their "indirect distributor" Wireless Zone, gave m their own version of a warranty.

Now, I could switch to a less "cool" phone, with no 4G and all that, but if I do that, Verizon does not allow you to get the data plan back. Verizon locks their customers into a data plan, and if you ever break your phone, you can not use any other phone than a 4G model.

So, after Verizon gets a new customer, they lock them into their plan, with the idea that the customer can't leave his $30 a month data package, or else he will never get it back on that line. How does that make sense?

They are limiting their ability to get new customers, because their service is not "customer friendly". It is just another way in how corporations screw their customers, unknowingly. So, for the next month I cannot get a phone, until my insurance plan "Starts", because I broke my phone too soon. If a life insurance policy operated in the same way Verizon's warranty works, then you wouldn't be able to receive benefits for dying unexpectedly soon.

So thank you Verizon for telling me to wait three weeks before I ask for the service I purchased with my phone.

In Response to Aislynn Sherry

I also feel that Wal-Mart has begun to reach maturity in its lifecycle, however, I think they will remain a cash-cow for years to come. Their portfolio of products literally satisfies any need for a consumer, and their ability to offer cost saving deals, across their store, will allow them to stay competitive.

If their were a global downturn, it is hard to picture Wal-Mart going under, they would quite possibly flourish if there were a recession. Shoppers, who are pathetically targeted by Monadnock Buy Local, would quickly turn their dollar to the cheap stuff, Wal-Mart. Small business would sink, and Wal-mart would swim.

They are too big to fail at this point, and as society transforms, I believe Wal-Mart will consistently change their strategies to grow their share of the customer wallet.

Branding

This week in class we spoke about branding a lot, and so I just wanted to look at something I noticed during the week.

My friend and I were talking about how it is such a great deal if you buy the Market basket turkey, in the Tupperware, since you get a free Tupperware outta the deal. Then he pointed out to me that Tupperware is actually just a company, and not the name of the product. Having the branding power to essentially place your company name on the "universal" name for a market, is extremely effective.

Think about what other company there is that makes Tupperware products? Nearly impossible, they have taken control of the market with a simple naming of the brand.

So what other markets have companies placed their name strategically, WD-40? Vaseline? There are many examples in the market today, many subtle marketing strategies that just happen to stick.

In Response to Ethan Gage

I just wrote out an entire blog on your "Evolution of marketing" and my computer decided to delete everything so I am rewriting it.

I agree with your perspective on how markets have been changing and would like to bring up some examples of how it is changing in real time, and many consumers do not yet realize it.

For instance, when you look on your Facebook, how often is it that you find advertisements for things you often search? When I had a Facebook I would receive advertisements for lacrosse gear, since I used to search it often. As the world becomes more tech savvy, we also begin to keep track of our data, without even noticing it.

There are countless forms of "data-analytics" that analyze consumers data in real-time, and they are then used by companies to create marketing strategies. The world is slowly moving towards individualistic advertising, rather than "Mass Marketing".

Think about the days when all that consumers had was a radio. Now, we have cell phones, that can keep track of our every move, they know our location, our preferences, and what we talk about.

What will happen when they give technology the ability to "think" like a human? Computers are only as smart as we make them, when you continually add to their abilities it can only lead to unknown results, especially to the people who don't create them

Using Clothes to Market

While observing my house-mates bar activities over the last couple weeks I noticed that bars do alot of advertising. It seems like every night they come home with new swag, such as t-shirts or hats that are some sort of beer slogan or caption. 

This made me wonder how many people actually purchase more beer(of the shirt they are winning), and if it actually is effective. It is an interesting tactic when you think about it. The bar probably receives the shirts/hats etc for free from the company, and then raffles them off, creating more business for themselves while using these free clothes from the company.

The company who is offering the shirts etc have to be realizing some sort of profit from the tactic. Quite frankly, when bar-goers are hammered and see "Guinness" or "Budweiser" every ten seconds they must buy more of that beer, since it is in their mind. While intoxicated, when somebody says, "LETS GET MARGARITAS" who says no? Generally, I feel, that people will go with the vibes and simply drink the promoted beverage.

So, offering shirts and hats, in my opinion would be a very effective method of reminding consumers that  there is...Budweiser, or Blue Moon at this bar. 

And so, I end this blog with, if you saw a bunch of people wearing "Blue Moon" shirts, and you were intoxicated, would you be encouraged to buy that beer?

In Response To Aislynn Sherry

The idea of a car that can operate itself is an exciting prospect, but is it really a good idea? I feel as if relying on technology to the point where it takes you from point A to point B on its own, would only weaken society. Technology already runs humans lives more than they realize. People would be lost if they didn't have their cell-phones, or a GPS. Imagine giving 100 college students a map, and telling them to find x destination, without using ANY technology.

How many times have you been in a car with someone who doesn't read road signs, or highway markers. To a point you could make an argument that technology greatly decreases a humans capacity to think. Technology thinks for you, and that is a dangerous prospect I feel.

Technology should be a tool to humans, it should not be an answer. They should use the technology to assist them, not to do the entire job for them. Having a car that can take away all your needs to think, "problem solve" on how to find a location, would only weaken society. I say we bring back the horse and buggy and wagon trains.

X-Box Cutting their Membership Fees

The other day I saw an ad on TV saying how Xbox is cutting the cost of its membership fees for its online gaming. The costs went from $60 a year, down to about $40.

Xbox has transformed the way people now use the Live platform, transitioning the product from a teenage target market, into the everyday setup for living rooms. They offer the news, movies, games, Facebook, and you can even connect your computer to the device. They have expanded their addressable market into adults, who they hope will use their credit cards to watch movies and other cost-related features.

I feel like Xbox is hoping to reshape how consumers use the device. Blockbuster was wiped out by Netflix, is Xbox attempting to target cable companies and even Netflix? By lowering their prices it will allow them to generate more demand around Xbox Live, as more age groups begin to find the usefulness in the device.

If Microsoft can power sync your laptops, your cell phones, your living room entertainment system(Xbox Live) and be the sole provider behind it, they will provide dangerous competition to companies within the US. Will Microsoft continue growing the Xbox platform?

In Response to Chris Beland

I found your article on Pepsi firing 100 out of 150 advertising agencies interesting. I personally feel this is a good move by Pepsi for a few reasons.

Everybody knows the brand of Pepsi. At this stage of their product cycle it is safe to say that it's a "cash-cow". So having extensive advertising doesn't seem very effective in my mind. Instead maybe they could use the money that they'll save on advertisements, and look to pioneer partnerships to extend the reach of their can of soda.

For instance, why not partner with say, Southwest Airlines. You get a guaranteed customer base, and it would be an effective form of advertising new soda-types as they come out. For instance, a business man who has had a long and tiring day could drink some Pepsi Max, and see the "energy" it brings him. This would work better than running a commercial showing a Cheetah race a human who just drank some Pepsi.

False Advertising and its implications

Today as I was watching a commercial for "No-No" hair removal I began to wonder why companies are not more severely punished for false advertisements.

The commercial stated it uses a form of  "electric therapy" to kill the hair follicles, allowing for the permanent removal of hair. It then did a time-lapse and showed consumers hair magically vanish as they ran a $20 controller looking object over their skin.

How many times are their commercials on T.V. where objects claim to do this or that, and nothing actually happens? In our world of instant-satisfaction consumers often see an advertisement, are given a phone number while in the background it blinks, "ONLY AN HOUR LEFT ON THIS OFFER" and they run to their credit cards, "charge it to the game" and have a worthless product that doesn't do as it claims.

In my opinion, if a product cannot do exactly as it is advertised on T.V. then it should be instantly shut-down. Since when did it become "ok" to lie about your products capabilities in order to gain more customers? America used to be creative, designing products that were truly applicable in the ways that they were advertised.

Now almost daily you see paid-programming where some buffoon exclaims that you can spread this rubber-based product on the bottom of a row-boat and you will be A-ok. Or, for those who have heard of "magic-putty" you can tow a Mack Truck because this product is so strong. But when you buy it, attempt to hand a three pound picture on your wall, it doesn't work, instead you have a broken picture frame and a shitty, useless product.

I personally believe that consumers should get the most accurate "claims" by companies on their product. If the entire world falsely advertised their solutions, how would consumers ever know what they are actually buying? If you say I can do something with what I'm buying, then I should without a doubt be able to do so.

So I end my blog with the question, do you think that companies should receive penalties and fines if they are found guilty of false-advertisement?

I think the death-penalty would be a good starting point.

In Response to Ethan Gage

I find your topic very intriguing. I actually thought that online marketing would have surpassed print a long time ago.

Maybe a couple factors come into this. Quite simply it must be far cheaper to advertise online, because what physical components are you paying for? Whereas when you decide to say, throw your company on a billboard you need to spend more for the man-hours needed, the actual bill-board, and I'm sure there is some sort of monthly fee involved.

Your post brings up, in my opinion, a hint of the future. Nowadays cell-phones and smart-phones rule the world. Every human from he age 12-100 owns a phone, and they are valuable tools to market solutions on customers. I just finished reading a piece on how Salesforce.com is creating a tool for companies, that allows them to, "Sift through social-networking data". Imagine how easy it would be to find customers if you...knew who they where already?

Companies no longer need to hope there ad's work, they simply find customers that run alot of google searches on say....puppies, and then a company who specializes in puppy posters knows who they should be focusing their ad campaigns at.

Advertising and marketing departments are in a constant state of evolution, but never at this rate.

Beer Companies Marketing Strategies

The other day in class, some classmates and I were discussing beer commercials, and I brought forward the point that Beer companies are not allowed to show in their commercials, the consumption of alcohol. None of my classmates believed this at first, as they thought back on commercials they all could have sworn they had seen the consumption on T.V.

This made me wonder how beer companies work around the problems proposed by regulatory agencies. After viewing a few more commercials it became apparent that the companies choose to switch frames frequently, especially as the people within the ads begin to raise the beer/glass to their lips.

Why then, would it be illegal to portray the consumption of alcohol on T.V. What drives regulatory agencies to ban this? There is no cement reason.

Why is it legal to portray commercials for "vibrating rings" for enhanced sex, or propagated ads against abortion. What about watching somebody take a sip of beer is so detrimental to society?

Social-norms in society dictate to companies what they can market, what they can get away with and so on. For instance in many European countries it is not uncommon to find nude weather channels, if we had those in America, I can only imagine the "sexist" protests that would arise.

It does not seem right to me, that an agency can provide guidelines to companies on how they can market their products. We are a capitalistic society, who promotes freedom of speech and the right to make our own decisions.

So I finish this blog by asking, How free, is our freedom of speech?

In Response to Ethan Gage

After reviewing your stance on the social media world, most notably Facebook, I must say I have to agree with their decision to go public for various reasons. Facebook by no means had bad finances since it has been founded, but by going public they open their ability to capture new revenue instantly.

Furthermore, they will most likely enter into new lines of business in order to continue increasing revenue share. It would not surprise me if Facebook began designing software which more accurately tracked consumer trends, valuable information to vendors. Facebook could then bring in a team of analysts to continually monitor customer internet traffic and other nit-picky tasks to generate marketing models for firms.

Think about it, when you open up your web-browser, doesn't it seem like the advertisements you get on the side of your screen are targeted towards you? I do a lot of online research at my internship, and all the advertisements I have been seeing recently are about searches I run, on a large scale, for work.

Imagine what companies could do if they had the type of information that your Facebook contains. The world of marketing would become real-time, advertisements being played which cater to the type of individual that your mobile fun depicts. Bill-boards changing their message based off the greatest target market of consumers in the area.

The world of marketing is in its greatest evolution, I believe.

The Snookie Continium

The other day after witnessing The Jersey Shore's "Snookie" on a commercial I found myself wondering why a Marketing Department would ever consider placing their product behind, quite frankly, an idiot. The product she was trying to sell was actually not an endorsement, but a campaign by...Snookie herself, to design her line of various products, such as Slippers.

Furthermore, she hopes to branch her, brilliant brand-name out into the jewelry market, clothes, shoes, essentially everything she wears. This all struck a cord with me, as she is able to use her status as an idiot to create a customer base to displace her products upon.

So what would the "Snookie" target market be, I began to ponder. Most likely, a parent watching the brilliant show, "Jersey Shore" would not want their child to grow up like them. If I myself had a girl, why in the world would I want my child to be looking up to somebody who is regularly cited for drunken tomfoolery, or getting punched in the face at bars because she is annoying other people.

Somebody like Snookie should be sheltered from children, of course this is not an easy-task due to the availability of media to children of all ages. The days when consumers received all their advertisements via newspaper and radio are over. I believe that the media world has started a new era of role-models, nowadays negativity sells, trust me, go ask Charlie Sheen.

The only way to win the war against Media warlords such as Snookie is to fire back with your wallet. Refuse to buy her products and eventually she will go away. Unfortunately some of her intellectually-sound phrases won't, since she's tried to patent many of them, such as "Snookit".

Another way to try and fix the problem with media today is to shelter your children from things like Snookie and The Sitch(fellow intellect from Jersey Shore). Promote positive role-models, if your a religious family, then Tim Tebow is most likely your new lord and savior. I wish marketing departments within organizations would try and bring out the best in their products by using positive endorsements, it would help buffoons like Snookie realize they should go Snookit. Copyrighted by an idiot.

In response to Ethan Gage

After reading your post I personally feel like this is a necessary risk, and it will allow customers to have a simpler means of using shipping. By turning the postage into credit, big businesses with prepaid packages, such as Verizon Wireless, will be able to more easily organize packages and postage.

Also, this is a good example of how a marketing department sees a way to specialize their product, to be more effective than competitors. In order to achieve long-term success companies need to be able to continually adapt to changing market structures. With the world becoming reliant on the internet, having a credit-based mailing service enables USPS to offer an attractive alternative compared to their peers.

Salesforce.com's Pricing Incentives to Boost Quarterly Profits

Through my Internship with TBRi, a research analytic company based in Hampton, NH, I recently wrote a scenario topic on Salesforce.com's announcement of a pricing incentive on their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) portfolio. In this blog entry, I will give an overview of the CRM marketplace, so that my readers can understand the marketing strategy behind the announced pricing incentive.

Over the past year or so, as the topic of cloud computing began to create excitement within the software industry, Salesforce.com reconstructed the ways in which customers can utilize solutions to promote business productivity. With the release of the first SaaS solution, Salesforce.com brought enterprise class solutions to Small businesses and Mid-market customers, in an inexpensive format. To understand the effectiveness of SaaS solutions, I will offer a brief summary.

Traditionally, software would be loaded onto corporate PC's by selling the solutions bundled with hardware. For instance, Microsoft Office, a renown portfolio throughout the corporate world, would need to be loaded to customer infrastructure through a CD or some sort of hardware based product. With the release of Office365, Microsoft's SaaS Office solution, customers can now download the solutions they have been using for a number of years, straight to their network.

As vendors began to see the effectiveness of SaaS solutions, they too began to transition their portfolios to be software based, rather than hardware based. A prime example of this would be Hewlett Packard, announcing in their 3Q11 earnings call that they would be focusing on becoming a software-centric company.

With more vendors beginning to release cloud-based CRM solutions, Salesforce.com began to see demand for its portfolio fall, since the market was now becoming saturated with competitor solutions.

Salesforce.com made bold projections for its 4Q11 financials, and with market share slowly going to competitors, they needed to revamp their pricing model. And so, they cut the prices by 40% for the CRM portfolio, telling customers that the new pricing model would last into the following year as well.

By undercutting competitors pricing schemes, Salesforce.com will attract additional customers to sign, they hope, multi-year deals in order to meet their projected figures for the quarter.

This is a prime example of a marketing department analyzing a given market, and modeling their solution in new ways in order to maintain a strong share of the market. Furthermore, Salesforce.com is making numerous acquisitions, such as of cloud based vendor Rypple, to build out their portfolio into new lines of business. If Salesforce.com failed to adapt to the changing market, their CRM portfolio would not allow them to maintain competitiveness within the Software Market. By building into new lines of business, Salesforce.com will drive additional revenue and ensure long-term success.

This is just one real-life example of a marketing department revamping an aspect of a solution in order to maintain competitiveness in an ever-changing corporate world.

Difference between Marketing, Advertising, and Propoganda

The terms of marketing, advertising and propaganda can be both very wide and generic, yet simple and quite clear. There are many different aspects which play into each term. For instance, the term marketing can be used to help define both propaganda and advertising, because it is in my opinion that they are parts of the marketing process. I will break down the overall definition of the three words separately to build a more accurate picture.

Marketing- Marketing is in my opinion the word with the broadest, most encompassing definition of corporations  strategy to target customers with their product portfolios. Marketing departments do vast amounts of research in order to determine the target markets for its products. Research and development firms are a part of the marketing process in that the division needs to bring to the "market" a solution which answers the customers needs. For instance, if your designing a new toy, it is up to R&D to determine an emerging market where the toy would succeed, essentially they need to read market trends. They do of course have assistance from other departments within the corporation. But, for that reason I feel like both advertising, and propaganda are an aspect of Marketing, if you are trying to sway customer attention from a competitors toy, you may launch a propaganda ad, which states that x product is built in China, not America. While advertising is crucial to companies because it is how they spread the word and build customer excitement over the given product.

Advertising- Advertising is an aspect of Marketing, it is generally meant to bring forth certain facts of the product they are attempting to sell. For instance, a form of advertising is to use an Authoritative figure to promote your product. An example of this would be when a Colgate commercial says "6 in 10 dentists sponsor this toothpaste". They say this as if it is a fact, but this stat may not actually be true, it is simply meant to stir excitement around the product. This, is simply an aspect of the marketing process.

Propaganda- In my opinion, this form of marketing is the most defined aspect, and has the most direct function. Propaganda is often used in a negative, or "up-front" manner. The most common form of propaganda would be political ad's which consumers often see, they generally attack the politicians competition and are meant to drive popularity from the given candidate. This can also be used for products, for instance with how China often put lead in their toys, American retail stores would release propagated ads meant to sway customer market share towards their own products.