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?