Promotions!

Last week of class!!! We talked about viral marketing and guerrilla marketing today. I think both of these tactics are very interesting. It requires the companies to be much more creative than the traditional ways. I think the ads on the street, like the coffee cup on the man hole and Mr. Clean on the crosswalk are very clever ideas. I would like to have a job coming up and implementing ideas like this. I actually prefer these kinds of promotions rather than just the regular commercials or radio ads.

Being a maven sounds really cool to me. I would love to get free stuff just for introducing my friends to it. Being in a sorority would make it easy for me to talk to others and show them new products. I might look at that website and find out more about becoming one.

Distribution Sytems II

We continued to talk more about distribution systems this week. We also started talking about promotions. Promotions is a very interesting topic to me. I especially like it because we talked a lot about PR and that's what my major is. Promotions are a very important part of selling your product. We also talked about buzz marketing, which I thought was interesting. Buzz marketing is when promotion of a product is done by word of mouth. I think that buzz marketing can be very effective. I am much more likely to believe something my friend tells me about a product than a representative of the product.

In my PR class we are currently learning about viral marketing. I think viral marketing can be very effective. One example of viral marketing we talked about was Fred, that is on YouTube. Fred is a weird teenage boy that started making videos and putting them on YouTube. Zip-It became a sponsor for him for product placement. Fred was the number 1 most subscribed to video of all of time in 2008.

Place: Distribution System

This section was about where to sell the product. A supply chain is all the steps it takes to turn the raw materials into goods or services and getting them to the consumer. It starts with the supplier providing raw materials and parts to the manufacturer. Then the firm manufacturers the product and the products are sent to a distribution channel. The chain must move quickly because some products are perishable. There are independent and manufacturer owned intermediaries.

There are four steps in distribution planning. Step one is to develop distribution objectives. The objectives should support the overall marketing goals of the firm. The next step is to evaluate internal and external environmental influences. This is done to develop the best channel structure. The third step is to choose a distribution strategy. There are different intensities for different strategies. The last step is to develop distribution tactics. In this step partners for the channels are chosen. They are usually long term relationships.

Logistics is the process of working the plan. Logistics include purchasing, manufacturing, storage, transporting, order processing, and inventory control. Things can be transported by airplanes, ships, trains, trucks and even the internet and pipelines.

Pricing

Price is the amount the consumer must pay for the product or service. Price means something different to consumers than the sellers. The consumers view the price as what they have to give up to receive the product or service. The seller views it as the revenue they will receive. The first step in price planning is to develop pricing objectives. There are different types of objectives, depending on what you want to do. The next step is to estimate demand, which is based on previous sales, test marketing and other things. Demand can either be elastic or inelastic, depending on how other factors affect it. The third step is determining costs. Costs can be fixed or variable. The next step is to evaluate the pricing environment, where the price is adjusted depending on cost and competitor's prices. The fifth step is choose a pricing strategy. There are different pricing strategies depending on the company's goals and needs. The last step is to develop pricing tactics. This is where how to charge, bundle and discount is decided.

Marketing Services

Services are acts, efforts, or performances bought by consumers. Services provide benefits such as peace of mind or convenience. Bad service happens when customers aren't satisfied with their service. It may be because the service performed wasn't as good as last time, the service providers are unreliable or untrustworthy or if the tangibles are bad. Services can be B2B or B2C. Radio stations, banks, tv stations, and cell phone companies are all examples of services. Services are a huge part of the US. Services are different from products in four ways. They are intangible, inseparable from consumption, can't be stored for future use, and the quality is more variable. There is a core service and a supplementary service, similar to with products. Services are evaluated using a Gap Analysis Approach. There are five gaps which a service is place in.

Managing Product Lines

I found this week of class to be very interesting. I did not expect to like marketing as much as I do. This week we talked about brands and the attachments we have with them. I think that is very true. Most brands of things I buy, I have some sort of a relationship with. For example, the PINK brand from Victoria Secret, I am especially attached too. I love most things they sell. Many of the products I own are PINK brand, including perfume, lipgloss, sweats and other things. To me PINK is cute and girly. Another brand I am attached to is Nestle, particularly Nestle Quik. Ever since I can remember my dad would make this chocolate sauce made from it and other ingredients to put on my ice cream. It was always a special treat we got to enjoy together. Now when I come home from school, I wait for him to get off work and we make it together. I always dish up the ice cream while he makes the sauce. When he was young, he had the same tradition with his mom. To me Quik represents home and my family and special time with my dad.

Creating New Innovative Products II

Innovation is a product that is thought to be new or different. Continuous innovation is a small modification to an already existing product, such as hybrid cars. Dynamically continuous innovation is a large modification to an already existing product, such as a plug-in car. Discontinuous innovation is a disruptive or major change to how we live, such as the invention of the car. Many innovations do not make it at all.

There are 7 steps to develop a product. The first step is idea generation, where you figure out how to meet unmet needs. Then you develop the initial concept and test it with focus groups. Third you develop a marketing strategy, including the 4Ps. Next is the assessment stage. You analyze competitors, find a differential benefit and analyze potential demand. In step five, the product is refined and a distribution plan is created. Test marketing is the next step. The product is tested in limited markets. The final step in developing a product is commercialization. In commercialization the product is fully launched and full production is made.