Blog 10-Final Reflection

            

Spending a semester taking a marketing class at St. Michaels College has made me much more educated on the area of marketing in the business world.  In our BU113 class, we got a good introduction to marketing by learning some of its basic concepts involved with the 4 P’s of marketing.  In this course, we were abele to take a much closer look into marketing and the many functions it serves to keep businesses alive and prosperous in a competitive market.

            One important marketing concept that I got out of this course was learning about market segmentation.  Market segmentation is what companies use when they want to target multiple different markets from different demographics or lifestyles.  I wrote about market segmentation in my blog and talked about Chevrolet and how they have a vast variety of car models that target all different demographics and lifestyles.  Looking at market segmentation, you see that it is everywhere and many companies use it in their marketing strategy. 

            Taking this course allowed us to dive deeper into how the 4 P’s of marketing take effect from the price, promotion, and place side of things.  From pricing, I learned about all the different pricing strategies companies use when trying to sell their product such as price skimming, penetration pricing, and prestige pricing.  From place, I learned about how the distribution channels work and how products get from the producer to the consumer either through wholesalers, retailers, or agents.  For promotion, I learned about the multiple ways in which companies can promote their products such as through advertising, sales promotion, and public relations. 

            In the process of learning these concepts, we were able to apply them to our practice marketing simulation.  In our practice marketing simulation, we were responsible for selling our own backpack and a target market we wished to sell it to.   Throughout the simulation we had to come up with ways to promote our product and set a price that our target market would be willing to pay.  I learned a lot from this experience because it made me better understand the concepts we were learning in class and the situations in which they work and don’t work in the marketing world.  Having us to a simulation like this and getting the opportunities to make our own marketing decisions was definitely beneficial in retaining the information taught to us in class. 

            With being part of this marketing class came a number of presentations both with groups and individually.  During the course of the semester we had to present a TED talk and two advertisements on our own without any use of notes.  We also had to make group presentations with our team from the practice marketing simulation.  Having done all of these presentations, feel that I have better learned how to prepare for a presentation.  For me, it is important to put in extra preparation for my presentation by practicing multiple times what I am going to say.  I still feel that making presentations is something I need to work on, however by taking this class I definitely feel more confident talking in front of a class then I did at the begging of the semester. 

            Overall I really enjoyed taking this course and feel that it was beneficial for me moving forward into my future in and out of St. Mikes.  Being a Media Studies major and Business minor, marketing could be a field I could pursue and work in someday, therefore taking this course and learning all that I did was a big step for me. 

Blog 9- The Marketing Mix During the Holiday Season

        Tis’ the season to be holiday shopping.  With the holiday season fast approaching, many people will be heading to they’re nearest shopping malls or browsing online shopping sites to find the perfect gift for their friends and family members.  Therefore, the holiday season is the perfect time for marketers to get the word out about their products in hopes that they will cash in big with all the holiday shopping that will take place within the next month. 

            For the holiday season, marketers tend to make adjustments to their marketing mix, many times spending more time and money on marketing their products and coming up with incentives to get people to buy their products as a Christmas gift.   The marketing strategies start with Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  Black Friday takes place the day after Thanksgiving where companies will offer huge discounts on their products only on that one-day.  Therefore consumers will buy a mass amount of their product on that one-day where the price of their products is significantly lower than usual.  The following Monday marks Cyber Monday where companies offer discount prices online so people have the opportunity to get discounts on products online, since many people may not want to wake up at the crack of dawn on Black Friday to go shopping and have to deal with the huge crowds. 

            Black Friday and Cyber Monday may be the day for companies to make the highest amount of sales on their products however in order to sustain successful sales and profit throughout the holiday season, companies will offer sales on their products right up until New Years Day.  For many companies, it is very important to have sales on their products to give consumers an extra incentive to want to buy their brand.  I think of all the different clothing companies during the holiday season and how they will want to make efforts to offer sales on items that will stand out in the minds of consumers.  Car companies offer many discounts as well like Lexus’s December to Remember sales event, which offers top discounts of the year on all Lexus vehicles.

            Along with the Christmas and New Years sales that go on during the holiday season comes the endless advertisements for products and brands.  Many companies will add extra promotion to their marketing plan during the holiday season to get the word out to Christmas shoppers about their products.  Almost all of the holiday discounts companies offer has many commercials to promote their big sales.  Even if companies aren’t offering sales, they will still often times spend more on marketing to promote their products during the holiday season.  Christmas time is also a great opportunity for companies to release new products since it is a time where consumers are more likely to purchase a hot new product on the market.  Therefore the holiday season is a great time to test out how successful a new product could be. 

            The holiday season is the last opportunity for the year that companies have to make big sales on their products.  Since it is a time of big spending for consumers, marketers make sure to do all they can to get their product added to your Christmas list. 

           

Blog 8- Is the Price Right?

Many people relate successful marketing campaigns with funny advertisements and memorable promotion techniques.  Through funny advertisements are great for a marketing campaign, a good pricing strategy is essential for a company to be successful and make a profit on their product or service.   There are many strategies marketers can use to come to a final price.  Two very common ways to go about a pricing strategy for companies is through demand-oriented approaches or cost- oriented approaches. 

Demand- oriented pricing strategies examine what consumers tastes and preferences are and coming up with a price that will satisfy those tastes and preferences.  One pricing strategy many marketers use is price skimming.  Price skimming is when a company will set an initial high on the product because of the fact that customers are still willing to pay a high price.  That is why many times when a new product hits the market; the company will set the price high cause consumers still want to buy the product no matter what.  One example is the PS4 and the X-Box One.  Since these are still fairly new gaming consuls and the demand for them is very high right now, they are able set PS4’s and X-Box One’s at a high price because despite these products being expensive, consumers still want it.  Another pricing strategy marketer’s use is penetration pricing.  Penetration pricing is a strategy of setting a low initial price on a product to get consumers to want to but their product.  One corporation who uses penetration pricing on all their products is Wall-Mart.  Wall-Mart’s low prices gives consumers an incentive to want to go to a Wall-Mart and score big on a bunch of products for very cheap.  A third demand-oriented pricing strategy that is used frequently with luxury products is prestige pricing.  Prestige pricing is a strategy of setting a high price on a product to attract consumers who desire the highest quality product available on the market.  One example of prestige pricing is Rolex and how their watches are very expensive yet consumers who are status- =conscious will still be willing to purchase their watches because they know they have the most expensive and high quality watch a consumer can get. 

Cost-oriented pricing strategies are concerned with production and marketing costs of a corporation and making sure the final price that is set will cover expenses, overhead, and profit.  An example of a cost- orientated pricing strategy is standard markup pricing.  Standard markup pricing entails adding a fixed percentage to all products in order to ensure a profit gain.  An example of corporations that would use standard markup pricing are grocery stores.  Since grocery stores have so many products they cannot determine the demand for all the products they have.  Therefore by putting a fixed percentage on all the products in a grocery store profit will be made. 

The main goal for any corporation is to gain profit and come out on top against competitors in the market.  Therefore coming up with a successful pricing strategy is one of the best ways to ensure those goals.  However coming up with the perfect price isn’t always easy.  I have found that in our practice marketing simulation, coming up with a price for our backpack has been one of the hardest decisions our company has had to make.  However when a company arrives at the perfect price, it can make all the difference and will result in a successful and profitable product or service. 

Blog 7: Repositioning a Product

In our marketing class we have been talking a lot about the repositioning of products in the market place.  Product repositioning changes the place a product occupies in a consumers mind relative to competitive products.  Many times in order to keep a product successful in the marketplace, a company will need to make a changing one or more of the four marketing mix elements.  Many times it involves finding a new target market or finding a way to better suite consumer needs.  The four main factors for repositioning a product are reacting to a competitor's position, reaching a new market, catching a rising trend, and changing the value offered.
Reacting to a competitors position involves a company changing the style of their product to find new target markets as a result of competition in the market.  Our marketing book uses an example of how New Balance were having trouble competing with Nike and Adidas in their style of athletic shoes. Therefore New Balance repositioned their product to focus on fit, durability, and comfort for their sneakers; separating them from Nike and Adidas's style of shoes.
Reaching a new market involves a company changing part of its product and placing it in a new market.  If a company is not having success in a particular market, they may decide to change a feature of its product to have better success in a new market.  The book uses the example of Unilever introducing a brand of iced tea in Britain that did poorly in sales. Therefore the company decided to make the tea carbonated which repositioned the brand as a soft drink, which resulted in improved sales.
Company's will also reposition their products in a response to consumer trends.  One major consumer trend currently going on are consumers desire for healthy food and drink options. This trend has been a big struggle for fast food companies like McDonalds, who are seeing their sales drastically decreasing.  Therefore McDonalds will need to figure out a way to reposition it's product to meet consumer demands.  In response to the trend of healthy food and drink options, Coca-Cola recently came up with a new brand of Coke called Coca-Cola Life that is made with cane sugar and and stevia-leaf extract, which targets consumers looking for a soda that has reduced calories and is made with natural ingredients.  Cape-Cod chips is another example of company that offers reduced fat options for their chips to appeal to consumers looking for low-fat options.
Companies can also change the value of their product when repositioning.  Trading up involves adding value to the product through additional features or high-quality materials. An example of trading up would be Macy's adding designer clothing lines such as Polo and Lacoste to their department stores.  Companies can also trade down which involves reducing the number of features, quality, or price. The book uses an example of how airlines have added more seats on their planes, which reduces legroom and limited snack services.

Blog 6-Marketing in Movies

Many reasons why movies are so successful are how effectively they are marketed and promoted to the public.  Every major Hollywood studio has a department that is entirely dedicated promotion for new movies being released mostly through advertisement.  These advertising campaigns include theatrical movie trailers, Internet advertisements, and billboards. The effectiveness of an advertisement campaign for a new Hollywood movie can determine how successful the movie becomes and how much profit they make.
One of the first marketing strategies a movie goes about is when they release it.  Many movies tend to come out during the summertime or holiday seasons since it is the most popular time for people to be going to the movies.  For major studio movies there is also a lot of pressure to make big money on it's opening weekend release. Many Hollywood studios will make 40 percent of their gross profits on the first week of release.  This importance to do well during a movie's opening week can relate back to our practice marketing groups. Our sales were the highest during our first week selling backpacks and has since declined. Therefore it was important that our backpacks sold well in the first week.
Many times a movies marketing strategy will first start with the opening trailer. The trailer is a way to spark interest in the moviegoer and to give a good idea of what the movie will be about.  After the trailer is released and buzz about the movie begins to stir, movie marketers begin to try and get press coverage to help further promote the movie. The main movie publicity tactic is to have journalists, reporters, and movie critics come to a special location to interview the cast and creators of the upcoming film.  Weeks before the movie is released, the promotion departments will do as much as they can to get as many advertisements and commercials out to the public to get people excited about the movie.  A lot of times advertisements for movies will also be placed on products such as bottles of Coca-Cola or a bag of Doritos.
There have been several movies that have had massive success thanks to great marketing campaigns.  The Harry Potter Series are movies that stand out to me.  The Harry Potter movie series is the highest grossing film franchise of all time grossing over 7.7 billion dollars worldwide.  By releasing all of the Harry Potter movies either during the summer time of the holiday season definitely helped bring a greater popularity to the movie franchise as well as many effective advertising campaigns.  The success of the Harry Potter has allowed the franchise to expand into other markets by creating Harry Potter merchandise, apparel, toys, video games, and much more.  Harry Potter also now has its own amusement park at Universal Studios called Harry Potter World.   The Star Wars movies are another example of a successful movie franchise that has been very successful in expanding into other markets.  Overall marketing and promotion is an extremely important part of the success behind a great Hollywood film.

Helpful links:

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/movie-marketing2.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_(film_series)

Blog 5- Product Classification and The New-Product Process

            Chapter 10 of our marketing book discusses developing new products and services.  It first discusses the many different kinds of products that are available in the market.  There are convenience products, shopping products, specialty products, and unsought products.  Convenience products are items that a consumer purchases frequently without considering the brand or price such as milk or shampoo.   Shopping products are items consumers compare different alternatives and prices before making a decision such as shoes or cloths.  Specialty products are items that consumers make a special effort in making a purchase such as a car.  Unsought products are products that consumers do not initially want.  Each product has very different marketing mix characteristics.  For example convenience products can be found at a large variety of stores and outlets, but specialty products can only be found in very selective and limited outlets.  Products are also classified in to consumer products and business products.  For example a product like a computer can be viewed as a consumer product for someone buying it for personal use or it can be viewed as a business product when companies buy computers for their office. 

           

The next main theme of the chapter talks about coming up with a new product.  It is very difficult to come up with a new product that will be successful and be able to compete with similar products in the same market.    That is why in a new product or service needs a protocol, which is a statement that identifies a well-designed target market, specific customers needs and preferences; and how the product will satisfy customers. 

            New products also go through what is called the new-product process, which are the seven stages an organization goes through to identify business opportunities and convert them into salable products.  The first step in the new-product process is new product strategy development, which are the firms overall objectives for the product.  It takes SWOT analysis and environmental scanning into consideration.  The second stage is idea generation, which involves developing various ideas and concepts for new products.  New ideas can be generated though company research and development laboratories or by asking feedback from customers or suppliers.  The third stage is screening and evaluation.  This stage is where a firm internally and externally evaluates new products and eliminates ones that have no further use. Stage 4 is business analysis, which discusses the features of the product and the marketing strategy needed to bring it to the market and make financial projections.  Business analysis looks at how the product or service will do in the market along with how costly the product will be to make.  Stage 5 is the development stage, which turns the idea for the product into an actual prototype.  Stage 6 of the new-product process is market testing which exposes the product to prospective consumers.  The seventh and final step is commercialization, which launches a new product into full-scale production in the market.  Overall companies spend a lot of time and effort into coming up with products that will hopefully become successful in the market place.