EOC Week 10: Benifits VS Features

     Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between benifits and features that a compmay offers. For instance: a product can have the latest software, best quality materials, cool design... but how does in benefit the customer. Is it simplicity? Accebility? Money Saving? Time Saving? What are the benefits? Consumer-oriented marketing means that the company should view and organize its marketing activities from the consumer’s point of view. It should work hard to sense, serve, and satisfy the needs of a defined group of customers, both now and in the future." Most good marketing companies that all have some similar traits : passion for providing value to customers. Attempting to view the world through the customers’ eyes can help the company create and maintain a secure customer relationship.

     "According to the principle of customer-value marketing, the company should put most of its resources into customer-value-building marketing investments."  By creating value for consumers, the company can capture value from consumers in return.

"A principle of sustainable marketing that holds that a company should put most of its resources into customer-valuebuilding marketing investments. A benefit answers the question "What's in it for me?," meaning the feature provides the customer with something of value to them. So-and this is where most businesses go wrong-that must mean" -http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/34942

    No one wants to waste their time or money on something that brings them no benefit. Most consumers are more than smart enough to realize this. A successful company and marketing team will realize this and make sure to have value and benefit in their service, or product.

    The benefits of Beauty and the Bully are mainly to help the victims of bullying in schools. Each school that the team of speakers reaches out to, will have a lower rate of bullying. This will not only benefit the victims, but it will also benefit the schools as a whole. The school will have a happier atmosphere, higher attendance rates, less drama, and less hurt feelings. It almost hard to find what is NOT beneficial of "Beauty and the Bully."

EOC Week 9: Three Great Mission Statments

"To be efficient in the raising of funds and resources to provide financial support primarily to the excellent existing charitable organization Patriot Outreach. This is a non for profit charitable organization that we will begin to support through our hopefully annual rides. Vets Ride will continuously evaluate other worthy charitable organizations that serve our military personnel and we will be flexible in shifting our financial support when applicable." -Kathryn Lynch
  http://ngpstudio.blogspot.com/

"To create awareness to show that we care by donating time, talent, and most of all LOVE!" -Petrina Magee

  http://pilar-duray48219.blogspot.com

"To raise awareness by supporting needy organizations through a form of art." -Nico Poblete

 http://ngpstudio.blogspot.com/

Out of all the bloggers in the class, these are the three mission statements I founf to be the best. I like Kathryn's because it sounds well thought out and seems to have much potential. The second mission statement stood out to me because it has passion. It's easy to see that Petrina has a lot of heart in her organization. I like the third mission statement because it is easy to understand, it is simple, and to the point. all of these are well thought out and well done mission statements. I see these organizations having a ton of potential.

BOC Week 9: Top Hits

1. Call Me Maybe – Carly Rae Jepsen




2. Payphone - Maroon 5 Featuring Wiz Khalifa




3. Somebody That I Used To Know - Gotye Featuring Kimbra




4. Wide Awake - Katy Perry




5. Lights - Ellie Goulding




The songs listed above are the Top 5 Summer Hits according to http://www.billboard.com/charts/summer-songs. The reason these songs are so popular is not simply because people like them. So why do songs become popular? What makes a song become a hit. Of course it could be because the song gets played over and over on the radio, but that doesn’t necessarily make a song a hit. The songs get popular because they are memorable. They have catchy or memorable lyrics. These reasons cause the song to get stuck in a person’s head, therefore they start to want to hear the song and requests radios and DJ’s to play them. The reason these songs became top hits is because of the use of social media.

EOC Week 8: Creative Content

My creative content for Beauty and the Bully will be awareness bracelets. The bracelets will have anti bullying sayings not them such as "Words Hurt" “Sticks and stones hurt less” “Kind is beautiful” etc. The bracelets are a good promotion idea because both boys and girls will want to wear them. They will be a simple little reminder that people can carry with them to either remind them not bully, to stand up to bullies, or to not let words bring them down. These bracelets will be handed out at the assemblies held when the team goes to speak. 

On the inside of the bracelets it will have our logo and website. This is so it doesn't take away from the message on the bracelet but people will still know what the campaign is behind the message.

Awareness bracelets are very popular and most kids won’t have a problem wearing them. The bracelets could even be designed to have a few different looks and go for girls and guy instead of just a co ed looking bracelet. Maybe the girl’s bracelet could have more sparkle and beads and the guys could be more plain. Or we could stick to just having latex stretchy co ed bracelets. Either way I definitely think the reminder / awareness bracelets are a low cost, easy way to  encourage anti bullying.

EOC Week 7: The Pitch

Beauty and the Bully

Typically when we think of bullying, we picture a large intimidating kid who steals peoples lunch money, and shoves nerds into lockers, but the reality is, bullying is so much more than that. Bullying comes in different levels and forms - Physical, verbal, indirect, and cyber bullying. (Cyberbullying can happen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and reach a kid even when he or she is alone. It can happen any time of the day or night. - http://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/what-is-it/index.html) No matter what form of harassment is used, it's all bullying, and it all hurts. 

One in seven students, from kindergarden through 12th grade has either bullied, or been a victim of it. An estimated 160,000 children miss school every day due to fear of being harassed by fellow students. One out of every ten students who drops out of school, does so because of repeated bullying. Bullying forces some to turn to self mutilation, such as cutting themselves. At least half of suicides among young people are related to bullying. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among youth, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year.

Bullying is a subject that easily grabs my attention. I have personally been on both ends of the pendulum when it comes to bullying. I have been the victim, and unfortunately also the bully at times. Looking back I still regret not treating people kind. 

("No single factor puts a child at risk of being bullied or bullying others. Bullying can happen anywhere—cities, suburbs, or rural towns." - http://www.stopbullying.gov/at-risk/factors/index.html) I hate seeing children have a low self esteem due to the mean words of peers. Bullying is something that needs to be fixed, it is only getting worse. These days with the internet and sites like Facebook and Twitter, cyber bullying has become out of hand. Kids don't see how damaging their words can be, especially when they can't see the persons's reaction.

I would love to come up with a group of inspiring speakers, including myself, to go around to middle, and high schools to speak to the students. The goal of the team will be to bring awareness about bullying, encourage kids not to bully, to stand up for victims, and victims to have a support group to talk to. The group would be called Beauty and the Bully. This is a good name because Beauty and the Beast is a name people recognize. Changing the word beast to bully not only goes with the theme, but makes the bullies compare themselves to a "beast." Kids, even adults, need to learn that being kind is beautiful. A person cannot be truly beautiful with an ugly soul.

EOC Week 6: Me x3

Whenever I purchase anything it is usually because it speaks to me in someway. Be it a pair of pants, a shirt, jewelry. To be more specific, there are three item that I own which I can say definitely show my personality.

The first item I can think of is my school bag that I use for school. The heart is black and sparkly. It has a huge hot pink heart on the front. I bought the purse from "G by Guess." I remember passing the store and spotting the bag. I purposely went back into the store after work because I liked it so much. Now when I carry it around on my shoulder everyday at school, people can recognize it and assume my personality right off the bat.

Another Item of mine that portray me, is my mac laptop. Not only does my lap top go almost everywhere with me, it also has everything I need on it. On the front of my Mac I have a decal of Snow White. She is holding the apple logo just how she held the apple in the movie. This decal is the main reason my laptop shows my personality.

The final thing that I own that portrays my personality is my car. I drive an Audi TT. It is small and cute and silver. The car looks cute, but is honestly not the most perfect car out there. It has it's little scratches, glitches, and flaws, but I love my car anyways. This "hot mess" of a car is the exact reason why this car is me. But also, my car gives me personality as I drive around the town. When people spot the little car they can automatically try to assume what my personality must be like. If they judge me by my car, they would be correct.

I'm sure I own many other possessions that are "me"and portray who I am, but these would be the top three. I think it's important and smart to use items to describe you. People will get a feel for you before even meeting you. People are going to assume and judge anyways. Why not make their assumptions a little more accurate? 

EOC Week 5: Super Bowl Commercial (Midterm)

   Needless to say... how could anyone (at least that is female/goes after the male gender) NOT like this commercial? I must say - next tot he M&M "Sexy and I Know It" ad, this was the BEST commercial of the Super Bowl Commercials. I was attention grabbing of course, even for those who aren't interested in men; it caught viewers attention noe the less. Although a majority of the Super Bowl's viewers are primarily men, there are lots of women who also watch it. Not to mention those poor uninterested ladies who are forced to watch it with their boyfriends or dads. Those women happen to get more excited for the creative commercials during the breaks. What a surpise this one was! How could you not be excited for the commercial breaks after this ad?
    The ad was an interesting approach for H&M. It  was for the men's underwear line. The commercial featured David Beckham standing, posing, flexing, and modeling the H&M men's boxer briefs. It couldn't have cost that much to make. I'm sure the profits off this commercial were phoenominal. It appealed more to women, however, it was a men's ad. Honestly, it wasn't a bad idea. What an out of the box way to appeal to both genders at once. Imagine all the ladies who zoomed to H&M to pick up their boy a set of these David-Beckham-Worthy briefs! Also, what guy wouldn';t want to look like David? I'm sure it cause a good mass of men to purchase the underwear as well. Hat's off to H&M, David Beckham, and the Creator of this ad. Well done.

EOC Week 4: Business is Consumer Buying Behavior

          Businesses can call themselves a business all they want. They can have the logo, the name, the employees, the products or service they provide; but without consumers to utilize what their business provides, their company is nothing. Businesses need customers more than customers need businesses. It’s almost like the food chain, or more like the circle of life of marketing (thank you Lion King for those comparisons). Above all else, businesses need to have appeal. Without public appeal, customers don’t care about what they business is trying to offer. Marketing is all about making yourself/your company/your products appealing. If you have a business, you most likely have a competition. "Understanding buying behavior is an essential but very difficult task." - 5 Understanding Consumer and Business Buyer Beh... (page 1 of 59 — printed page 135)

There could be three identical companies, selling identical products and services, how would those companies gain customers. Appeal. A company has to make their products seem worth having.  "To affect the whats, whens, and hows of buying behavior, marketers must first understand the whys." - (page 1 of 59 — printed page 135) No one NEEDS a toaster oven. If you have a microwave, a regular oven, and a normal toaster you’re good to go. But what about having a gadget that cooks faster than an oven and is easier to use! Not to mention makes your toast and other toaster items that much more delicious. It’s like the revolution of the toaster. A two in one MUST HAVE... See what I did there. Dang, I almost made myself want to go out and buy a toaster oven.

When consumers purchase products they go through a decision making process. They ask themselves multiple questions. Do I need this? If I don’t need it how will I benefit from it? Is the cost reasonable? If it’s expensive is the quality or brand name worth the extra money? The steps of the buying decision process includes need recognition, then the information search stage, purchase decision, and post purchase behavior. The product adoption process is made up of five stages: awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, and adoption.

In conclusion, the consumers and company’s appeal can make or break a business. Business who recognize this are over all more successful. "Buying behavior is never simple, yet understanding it is the essential task of marketing management. First we explore the dynamics of the consumer market and the consumer buyer behavior." - 5 Understanding Consumer and Business Buyer Beh... (page 3 of 59 — printed page 136)

EOC Week 3: Making Money For Good

Typically, I company’s main focus is making money. Money, money, money! But what about those few companies who not only make money but also give back to their community. Dawn dish soap is a good example of a giving company. For the past year or so Dawn has been donating money to help animals affected by the oil spills in the oceans and lakes. For every bottle of soap purchased the company will donate $1. They also have a website called dawnsaveswildlife.com where people can make donations by signing up. For every activation of an account, Dawn donates $1. Over the past year Dawn has donated $500,000 total to two wildlife organizations donating $250,000 each. Dawn willing to sacrifice some of their own profits to help wildlife is truly kind. It also may bring in more customers especially animal lovers.

A second company I’ve found that gives back to the community it Tide. Tide came up with an organization that called “Loads of Hope.” Loads of hope provided a portable laundromat to the victims of extreme natural disasters. These were the people who lost their homes, and almost everything along with them due to the awful storms in March and other months. Since these families were practically homeless at that point that also included having no where to wash their clothes. I’m sure the victims were extremely grateful to have Tide’s Loads of Hope campaign there to help. Over 34,000 loads of laundry were cleaned for families. Tide Loads of Hope is always available when a natural disaster strikes. Once one does they send out a loads of hope mobile laundromat and spend multiple days at the disaster sight washing and drying clothes for people. 

Companies that give back to the community should be admired. Companies like this are not only whole hearted but also an inspiration to the world around us. More companies should take after businesses like Dawn, and Tide, and find out how to give back to their community, not just how to take.

EOC Week 2: Video Game Industry

It’s almost unbelievable to think that the video game industry is struggling. "It's not just us, but the industry as a whole." Says that Wall Street Journal in WSJ.com Video games used to be all the rage of teenagers. I mean I personally couldn’t even drag some boys away from the controller long enough to take me on a date. I think for some the enjoyment and consistency of playing video games hasn’t changed. What has changed is the way they purchase their games. The need for consoles  is definitely fading. These days it is faster and easier to simply download the games off the internet. It honestly makes way more sense!

With the need for consoles fading, this definitely puts makers of xbox, play station, and Wii at risk. It is going to be hard for them to come up with a way to stay ahead of the times. I would say these companies are part of the cash cow category.

 "When the recession hit, you had this massive downdraft [and everyone] stopped buying Wii games. Then, you had the rise of the Apple, iPad, and smartphones and suddenly the casual business changed from a $35 business to a $1, $3, $5 business." - http://www.cnbc.com/id/47614501/Is_the_Videogame_Industry_Dying

A huge reason the industry is struggling is people these days are always on the go. The average person doesn’t have time to sit around and play video games stuck to a screen. Smart phones are something that is the major cause for the down fall of video games. “There’s no question, people are shifting time — and their money — to mobile.” - http://www.cnbc.com/id/48178100 It’s much easier and more convenient to whip out your cell phone or ipad to play a game. You can use it anywhere, anytime, and any place. Now what video game can do that?

EOC Week 1: Great Customer Service

Week one EOC: Great Customer Service

               “This legion of loyal shoppers is largely a result of the store’s passionate approach to customer service. Rule #1: At Stew Leonard’s—The customer is always right. Rule #2: If the customer is ever wrong, reread rule #1!^” I don’t know what it is, but I have always had a place in my heart for Walgreens. I could list all the reason why I love Walgreens: It’s small, easy to navigate around, has great products. The only thing I can’t do in Walgreens is grocery shop; Although, I can easily run in and grab a gallon of milk or carton of eggs when needed. Needless to say, Walgreens has it made. I think – overall – the main quality I love about Walgreens is their great customer service. I’ve rarely ever had an experience in Walgreens where I have felt mistreated or displeased with their service. They are always kind, friendly, and extremely helpful. Although majorities of the Walgreens I shop in typically have friendly staff, there is one store in particular that makes me excited to shop their each time.

                About a block away from my school there is a Walgreens right on the corner. There is a lady that works there who makes me hope I go in during one of her shifts. She is always exceptionally kind and always has a smile on her face. She always has a story or a conversation starter at the register every time she rings me up. It’s not just me who she is like this with; I’ve seen her treat the customers before and after me in line with the same amount of respect. On Valentine’s Day of this year, I walked in to Walgreens to buy myself a box of Chocolates, a soda, and rent a Red Box movie. Yes… I was stood up. I walked up to the register and of course it was my favorite Walgreen’s lady. I was thrilled! She asked about my plans for the night, and I told her my pitiful dateless story. She actually showed some legitimate sympathy. She talked to me for a minute and told me a story of her daughter’s Valentine’s Day tragedy. It actually made me feel a lot better. She made me feel like she actually cared, and even helped me realize I wasn’t the only one who had it bad. "By creating superior customer value, the firm creates highly satisfied customers who stay loyal and buy more." (1 Marketing Creating and Capturing Customer Value (page 30 of 52 — printed page 21)

This is just one example of my good experiences at this store. I have a number of other stories where I have been pleased with the customer service. I believe a major part of customer service is caring for your customers - whatever their situation is. "Simply put, marketing is managing profitable customer relationships." (1 Marketing Creating and Capturing Customer Value: page 1 of 52 — printed page 3) This woman that works at Walgreens along with a number of other Walgreen’s staff members has always proven to me that they enjoy their jobs, and their customers. It will definitely be a store I continue to visit monthly.