WEEK 15- Finals

Studying for Finals-- Fun Stuff

WEEK 14- Markup Pricing

As I was reading this week in the text, the part the caught my attention was the markup pricing section. This section explained in detail the process by which price markups are established. The formula goes as follows: Retail price = Cost over 1 - Desired return on sales. So, if the cost is $5.00 and the desired return on sales is 45% then the retail price must be $9.10. The text continues by stating that this simple function is the most commonly used method to establish product markup among retailers and wholesalers.

WEEK 13- Product Publictiy

BMW Hit the Hammer on the Head in this Mockumentary Vide..... Product Publicity




As you have probably noticed, I'm a visually person. I enjoy finding pictures and videos that further envelop the concepts taught in class. One of the sections I enjoyed the most in the text for the class was on Product publicity. The text explains that product publicity is key to introducing and setting apart new products. This technique is used generally during the infancy state of the product, but can have long lasting effects on the life cycle of the product.

WEEK 12- Corporate Blogs

Corporate Blogs are blogs that are maintained and sponsored by a company or corporation.

GM has created a amazing corporate blog. The truly have caught the correct vision on what a corporate blog should be. They don't just repeat what is said in press releases, they talk about what really matter to their business..... Car, Trucks, and SUVs. What they are currently doing to improve them, and what design and efficiency changes are coming down the pipe line. GM is a great example of what a corporate blog should consist of.

Check out GM's blog @ http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/

WEEK 11 - Mass Customization

According to the text MKTG 3rd edition, "Mass Customization is a production method whereby products are not made until an order is placed by the customer; products are made according to customer specifications."

The company that came to mind the first time I read and heard about this concept was Dell Computers. They're a market leader in this type of production. After a customer places an order, the product, in this case a computer, is built as the customer specified. This reduces the amount of unwanted whole products in Dell's inventory.

Week 9-10 Supply Chain

The Midterm was on 3/12

Bigbox behemoth Wal-Mart recently unveiled an ambitious plan to cut 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from its global supply chain by 2015. Though the world's largest retailer is generally unloved by greens and left-leaning folk for promoting sprawl, crushing mom-and-pop stores, and paying low wages, its move will have measurable positive effects equivalent to taking more than 3.8 million cars off the road for a year. Wal-Mart with its huge supply chain is attempting to make a difference

Wal-Mart aims to achieve this by working with its 10,000 suppliers to identify reduction opportunities buried in the design, sourcing, manufacturing, and transportation of their countless products.

WEEK 8 Product Life Cycle

In class this week we watched a video on the product life cycle (PLC) of Kodak products. This video went through the PLC of a number of different products. The one that drove this concept home for me was the PLC of a digital camera. The gentleman in the video explained that some cameras are designed and built with the fact in mind that there life cycle will only be a few months. This concept is especially true in most technologies fields.

WEEK 7- Branding

I currently work for Impact Payments as the Lead Project Manager for IT and Design. As a subsidiary of Impact we offer through ASAPadvantage a financial benefit to employees as aggregate part of their employer's fringe benefit offering. I work with a very talented team of designers who have produced amazing branding schemes. Visit the ASAP site at ASAPadvantage.com. He class this week we discussed branding, and brand equity

WEEK 6 - New Products

The best new product of 2010:

WEEK 5 - Product Items and Lines

After class I came across this article that discusses the topic of this week Product Items and Lines.

Excerpt from Article:
"Apple has a history of finding niche markets and making products to fill that void. However, slowly after Steve-O took over, the product lines condensed into distinct segments geared for a different buyer. You want a basic Macintosh computer? Buy the Mini. The iMac is available for all-in-one solutions and the Mac Pro is truly for the professional. The same thing follows into the notebook and iPod realms showing vastly different strategy than other companies". Enjoy

Apple’s secret sauce: A simple product line

Posted using ShareThis

WEEK 4 - Marketing Research

By now you will have noticed that I like to search out short clips that correlate with the topic of the week. This week's class was interesting in the fact that it discussed the importance of timely and accurate information and the affects this information has on how, when, and where you will market your products. As part of this, the marketing process was induced: The following clip covers 5 of the 7 steps

Included in video
1)Identity and formulate the problem
2)Plan the research design and gather data
3)Specify the sampling procedures
4)Collect Data
5)Analyze Data

Not in video but in text
6)Prepare and present report
7)Follow up

WEEK 3 - Segmenting and Targeting

Demography-The study of people’s vital statistics, such as their age, race and ethnicity, and location. (MKTG 3rd Addition, page15)

* Tweens- 8-14
* Gen Y-Born between 1979-1994
* Gen X-Born between 1965-1978
* Baby Boomers-Born between-1946-1964

Each of these demographics is a very different market segment to market to. They have different buying capabilities, tastes, attitudes and expectations. Marketers must learn to create appeal/need for whatever demographic they're trying to target.

WEEK 2 - Twitter

Twitter

As part of the second week of this class we were required to create a twitter account. To say the least, this class is making me branch out. Up to this time, I have never been interested in Blogging,Twitter, or FaceBook However, now that I'm actually sitting down to create these accounts, I'm finding if very interesting.

Intersting Twitter Facts
# 27.3 million tweets are sent each day
# Twitter is the fastest growing member community site for the month of February.
# Zimbio (240%) and Facebook (228%) were the second and third-fastest growing online communities.
# Twitter is not just for kids: In February 2009, adults ages 35-49 had the largest representation on Twitter – almost 3 million unique visitors from this age group (almost 42% of the entire audience).
# 62% of the audience access Twitter from work only, while only 35% access it only from home.
# It’s all about mobile: In January 2009, 735,000 unique visitors accessed Twitter via their mobile device.
# The average unique visitor went to Twitter 14 times during the month.
# They spent an average of 7 minutes on the site.
# In Q4 2008, 812,000 unique users sent or received Twitter text messages (via AT&T or Verizon cell phones).
# The average tweet per person for the quarter was nearly 240.

Below is a funny video I found on you tube about Twitter.

WEEK 1 - Overview of Marketing

"Marketing-Is the activity, set of institutions,and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large." (MKTG 3rd edition pg. 3)

Initially, before reading the first Chapter in the text, I thought of marketing as only advertising. However marketing is a all encompassing endeavor that begin with the idea, and grows into a product that is then delivered to fill a specific need.

Also, I learned that Professor Allen lives in a mansion with a sweet swimming pool- " A marketing career does pay well" =)