Automated Shopping

http://www.coloradodaily.com/ci_17312418?source=most_viewed#axzz1KMkL05IF


In class, Prof. Johnson showed us this new invention.This is nuts!  It minimizes need for dressing rooms, and possibly jobs!  But how does the computer know how the dress will actually fit the person? Does it show a "good" fit in order to sell the product?  Or would it show baggy areas, to short, to long?  I think this is a dumb idea and doesnt actually give the customer the ability to feel the fit.  How do you feel?

Valvoline Commercial

This commercial I think, is a great marketing ploy.  They state that driving shouldn't be frowned upon using their recycled motor oil.  It really hits a consumer by making them feel less guilty for driving.  Valvoline's marketing executives put a lot of thought into their new commercial, showing that race car drivers, the average driver can contribute to going green by buying their oil that has been innovated to be environmentally safer.  There are so many commercials these days that have been targeting the environmental crisis.  Have you seen any that have effected you in a way that you remember their brand?


I tried finding the commercial for you to view, but couldnt find it.  Watch out for it on tv, if you do see it tell me how you feel about the commercial?

iN RESPONSE TO ANDREWS BLOG: PRICING

In response to reasonable price verses high prices.  I would say for the companies benefit selling an item at the highest price will bring in the most money.  Example the XBOX 360 when it was a brand new gaming system people were on waiting lists to receive the item.  Why would the company want to lower a price when there are completely sold out?  I would recommend a price decrease when the said company produces a upgraded item such as Apple does. The company wants to receive as much revenue as possible.  The consumer of course wants to get a better deal on items and thus thinks it would be better to start at a reasonable price.  What if the company markets the item for far more then intended and then marks it down shortly after to their revenue price?  This would make customers believe they are getting the deal. Don't you think?

Just a thought.

As I'm sitting here studying for a psychology exam, I notice one of the questions asks about John Watson.  John Watson is the founder of behavioral psychology.  Also noted he was the first to produce infomercials and use emotion to advertise.  This hits me as I am reading on.  Advertisement has a long history and coincidentally has a lot to do with psychology, my intended major. How can you incorporate your major into marketing?  Is there a specific assignment or paper that you have done that makes you think?

In response to Andrew Muller

I know exactly what you are talking about.. AD's everywhere! My IPOD touch does the same thing, but even if you buy a app it still has ADs.  I think that for the company it is something they can profit on especially if they are offering free games.  Funds are limiting at this point and companies need to get all the money they can in order to upgrade games, pay employees etc.  Though it is irritating its becoming a commodity for businesses to participate in the advertising world.

Every Day marketing!

The other day my car broke down.  I had to call AAA to come and fix the problem.  AAA, I thought was just a car service, but now that I look at their website they are more then a service.  They sell product and service including

Nationwide Emergency Road Service 
Auto Travel Planning 
AAA Travel 
Attraction/Hotel/Resort Discounts 
AAA Insurance 
Financial Services 
Show Your Card & Save® Discounts 
Fee-Free Travelers Checks 
Passport Photos 
AAA/Visa® Credit Card 
Legal Service Reimbursement 
Personal Accident Insurance 
Theft Reward 
Arrest and Bail Bonds


They go as far as bail bonds and passport photos?  I think this is very random and a marketing tool to widen their ability as a company.  They offer car rentals and discounts just for being a member of AAA.  They pull in a customer buy points that can work towards free offers. 

Are you involved in a point system company that offers rewards??

RE: Johnson's Green Marketing

"Going Green"  a new fade with businesses.  This is a very good idea and a way to get the consumers involved

http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/marketing/a/greenmarketing.htm

Website provided by Professor Johnson.

The three necessities to ensure the company is participating in green marketing are to be genuine with the choice of green, educating customers and allowing customers to participate in the process.  The example given is the use of plastic bags.  The company must first get rid of all usage of plastic and make sure customers do not see any because this would result in lack of proper practice.  Informing the customers in the next step and so on.  I think the three rules are exactly on point.  There is no reason to post going green if the company is not committed.  To be committed, advocating to customers how and why they are doing what they do is a good way to draw them in.  Also to support your choice, adding facts to explain the customer will also help them understand and want to join in too!  I once learned that throwing lighters away can be very destructive.  Because they float and can get trapped in the oceans, birds and fish will mistake them for food and die.  It is happening on little deserted islands.  They are becoming filled with trash where birds lay eggs.  Any way, the dangers of trash and destroying our world is evident.  Businesses trying to promote green should educate their customers in a way that will make them want to help.

What are your thoughts and concerns?  How do you think a business should operate around going green??

Impulsive buying

Take  a look at this article.  Skim through it.
http://www.uie.com/publications/whitepapers/ImpulseBuying.pdf by Jared Spool

Impulsive buying happens to nearly all of us.  Ever catch your self on a website scrolling through and thinking hum... I want that?  Ever think, "well its on sale, and there is no shipping cost." How much do we buy that we do not need?  I know that when I am browsing a online catalogue, I tend to go through all the categories, whether it be bathing suits, shoes or what ever, I like to look at all my options.  But, so many options can lead to buying extra items that are not necessarily needed.  With "sales" and "buy one get one" and other offers it is easy to get sucked in.  Ever find your self doing this?  Or you see a ten dollar coupon and you enter in the code, but you end up paying shipping so in reality it didnt save you anything.  Read the article and tell me what you think.

Dinner Outing

I know it is hard to see, but the first picture says "Free Appetizer" and in small print it says "Your information is safe with us. LongHorn Steakhouse will not sell your information."

Like the case study,the question whether it is ethical to sell information is pointed out here in LongHorns ad.  This is a survey that, I believe, is addressing age groups and gender that come into their restaurant. A free appetizer is given to those who fill it out.  This is used to reel the consumer into being apart of their survey.  I thought it was very socially responsible for them to add that they will not sell customers information.  What do you think?  Would this persuade you to fill it out?

The second photo is at the end of the table. It says "step down" because there is a step from the table to the floor. As a safety precaution they have to put this up so that if some one where to fall they wont get sued.  Can you find any other places that do something like this?

Just a thought.

Cognitive Dissonance: an uncomfortable mental state resulting from conflicting cognitions; usually resolved by changing some of the cognitions (world english dictionary).


Cognitive dissonance is when you splurge and buy four Victoria Secret bras at $45.50 a piece.  You knows this price is far to much for a bra, you could go to Marshals and get four bras for $40 all together. You feel guilty for buying name brand at a high price but you console your self by saying they are "better" and last longer.  Just recently I got my hair done at a salon when I know that I could have boughten box color for $7.  


Have you experienced the feeling of cognitive dissonance?  Tell me a story.

NO MORE FREE PRETZELS!!!

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/03/04/continental.no.more.pretzels/index.html

Read this short article.

As the years have gone by, being a frequent flyer, less and less is being offered on airlines.  JetBlue my usual flight company has taken a stand and would rather cut the money loss that to eliminate passenger comfort.  When did airliners become less luxury?  Continental Airlines, US airways and American have all down sized and are no longer going to serve free "snacks" or beverages. I can remember when a meal was custom on a plane ride!  This is all a new part of their strategic plan to cut costs.  In a way it is minimal and will save $2.8 million annually. That is a lot of money saved that will allow for employees to stay.

But, for customer satisfaction is this a good plan?! We have Jetblue, that not only services basically every where in the US, they serve snacks, beverages and movies.  Is this really a good move for Continental Airlines to do?  Whose to say people wont switch to Jetblue or Southwest?  Is this marketing plan a detriment to these airways?  Also with the rising price of gas, airline tickets are about to skyrocket, will people really want to pay more and receive less?

What do you think?  Is this a good plan?

Respond to Andrew Mullers post-

How do I feel about sampling, telemarketing and other surveys? Some times it is interesting to be apart of a survey, to know that what you have to say is relevant to someone or some company.  Telemarketing is the worse because they somehow get your number and call repeatedly until you pick up. Recently I had a bank/promotion telemarketer call me.  They called more then ten times before I finally answered.  Upon answering, they explained they were calling on behalf of a promotion for banking, by simply signing up for 5 magazines for ten years (paying nearly $5,000 over the course of 5 years) you will be entered into a world trip, receiving over $200 in gas cards.  The promoting continues. At the end of the telemarketers promotion he explains that I must provide my credit card number and send in my I.D via fax.  I bring up the question if this is ethical?  Should a company that is promoting its self ask a potential consumer for this information on a informal basis?

Another example,  I had applied for a Capital One credit card.  The company called me and offered me a card if I were to fax them my social security card, I.D, and Birth Certificate.  Now, I am not sure if this was a scam (I did not do as they asked) or a way to know their customers?  But I felt like this was invasion to privacy, very unethical and scary even to give a company I am not affiliated with all of my personal information.  The question is, was this a scam?  If not, I will never apply to Capital One again for this reason.  There marketing was unacceptable to me.

Big Bucks, Big Pharma

This movie, http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=224 <-- preview, was shown to me in Brain and Behavior.  It really ties into the whole marketing scheme.  This is an excellent example of marketing at its worse.  A little summary of the movie is that big pharmaceutical corporations are taking over the marketing world and not for a good reason.  These companies make over $550 billion dollars just in marketing the prescriptions.  The content is intended to market to the viewer in a such a way that they will go to their doctors and asked to be prescribed these medications.  Keep in mind these medications are "brand name" and cost nearly quadruple the amount for generic brands that are exactly the same.  The company also markets "new" products to entice the viewer and uses scenes that make you think the pill will provide happiness.  in most cases this is not true.  Doctors and patients are being hypnotized by pharmaceutical corporations into thinking their product will solve all problems.  In reality these drugs can cause serious risks.  Lets take one example form the movie.  we all know what Prozac is.  The company that produced it advertised for another medication when Prozac's patent ran out, this medication is called Sarafem used to treat PMDD (which may not even be a real disease.  Both Prozac and Sarafem are exactly the same in chemical compound.  Yet they were advertised to treat different things.  Do you think this is a good thing for consumers to be marketed this way?  How do YOU feel about being bombarded by these advertisements? Next time when you sit down to watch tv, notice how many commercials there are for prescription drugs.

Christina Bernales: watch it online

Christina bring up a great point, Hulu allows the viewer to select ads that are more relevant to them. I have also see ads that allow the person to click on multiple "scenes" which I think is amazing.  One ad has four different views to "entertain" the viewer during the commercial.  This interaction with the ad is more convenient and is all around better so that you are continuously watching the same ad.

The new facebook allows you to like an ad or dislike on the right hand side.  They attempt to target the consumer in a way that intices them instead of "pregnancy" ads or make up ads, you can dislike them and they will put up different ones like t-shirt company ads.  The whole point of marketing is to get the attention of the consumers and by being able to see ads that interest me makes me want to click an ad and see what is out there.

has anyone else experienced a "new wave" ad that targets them, to the point where you might think about it later??

Valentines Day

The valentines scandals is all around us. Every product has designed ways to promote on valentines day.  Lets take all jewelry stores, they thrive off valentines day, mothers day, christmas and any other present giving day.  But for jewelry stores, valentines day is a hot seller. Commercials are filled with mush-gush propaganda insinuating that if you buy your significant other an expensive piece of jewelry they will love you more.  The ad's show all the glory in expensive gifts and they say thats how to win someones heart.  Well yes the gifts are nice but is that really what valentines day is about? I guess valentines day began with Hallmark as a money making day.  Do you think the jewelry stores jack up their prices during these "money making" days?  Do people always fall for it?

New Technology?

The strengths are the technologies ability to see what men vs women get, young vs old, and in general categories of people that buy particular products.  As in the article, the billboard can see what soda product is bought and by whom.  This helps the company to target those groups of people that are seen buying certain products, it provides them with the information needed to up sales.  Using this as a marketing tool, i think it infringing on privacy, but then again we have surveillance cameras every where. So how different is it really? Healthy? Well it could be good for the companies to provide the products that consumers want, and really consumers always have a problem with new things but if its an up and rising tool for the marketing world eventually consumers wont even care.  I mean the government can already track us at a touch of a button. If this new technology allows a better out come fro companies and consumers then I dont find a problem in it. do you?

Then and Now

In my Economics class my professor presented this ad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtYpnGZr6TA&feature=fvw

It is an ad about the election in 1964 between Goldwater and Johnson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYspqV-nGks

An ad from 2008 election of Barack Obama

Looking from an ad in 1964 to more then 40 years later we can see the differences.  Both include children in their ads.  The first is attacking the opponent by showing an innocent girl and the effects that Goldwater will have if he were to be elected. This uses propaganda which was commonly used in the 60's.  Though it could be true because Goldwater was a communist, Johnsons ad conveys that Goldwater will kill man kind. Obama's ad also uses the interest of the people by adding children in his campaign but his is more of a promotion of what he will accomplish if elected. Can you decipher the major differences between both ads?  Whats your reaction, if Johnson and Obama were against each other who do you think the public would choice if given those two ads?

Four Ps of Marketing

In attempts to sell myself to a future employer, the four P's can help.  First we have product, which is me.  In an interview or resume, I would want to describe my qualities as a whole.  In describing my qualities, I would touch upon my features as an employee and person out side the business.  One thing I might want to offer is a warranty that in the first three months of my employment if I do not meet the above average standards there will be no questions asked of a discharge.  The second P is place or distribution. Depending on the type of job, location is a deciding factor. Being available (coverage) for any time or on call will let the employer know that I am dedicated to work. If there is some type of carpool, I would join in on that as well.  The third P is promotion.  If it was a PR related job, I would have no problem getting out and advertising for the company.  Personal selling would also be included, which would include loyalty of my whole family and friends.  I would be able to deal with publicity because of my out going skills and experience in public service.  The last P is price.  As Prof. Johnson said in class, giving the employer a ultimatum oh say $10, which is $1.00 less than hourly wage assigned for three months and if my work is excellent a raise of $2.00 will be given.  I think this is a good way to sell myself and an offer that might give me leverage. I would also be open to any type of payment periods offered, whether hourly, salary or bi-weekly. In conclusion the four P's are a good way to market ones self and of course a product, idea or service.

marketing, advertising, and propaganda

Marketing- i define marketing as selling, advertising and distributing a good or service that an economy wants or needs. Marketing is the over view of advertising and incorporated much more then simply putting out a good.An example would be Pepsi product and how they come up with new inventions of say Mountain Dew.

Advertising- Usually targets a group of people that are looking for a specific need or want.  Most advertising is done with the media such as tv, movies, newspapers, catalogues, magazines and other varies media sources.  Advertising is a part of marketings goal to bring consumers in for the purchase of the product. Advertisement is used to intrigue people to buy their product. An example would be a kids toy shown on the Disney Channel, they are advertising the the right group of consumers along with where to get the toy so that the child can tell their parents.

Propaganda: I am not entirely sure what this is.  I would assume its a way to bring in consumers with false information.  It could also use an "exciting" "gift" to bring in consumers, such as a $200 gift certificate if you sign up for 5 magazines and pay $29.95 a month. It could also advertise a person as being a huge success that will being success to those who follow, such as in elections.

Marketing

Professor Johnson

http://mo-blog-kjohnson.blogspot.com.