Week 7 EOC : The Pitch

In today’s society how do you get a man to buy something they don’t think they really need? Well to my knowledge sex sells and anyway you can attract the opposite sex will usually sell. Most men out there are all trying to get the attention of the opposite sex. So I feel that if you can convince a man to use your product because it will help make a female want to get closer to him. He will most likely want to buy your product. We already know that women purchase over 50% of all products designated for men."(teacher Frank Pinto class lecture). Most of the commercials and advertising out there is all geared toward the female consumer.  Most of us women buy our men all their good smelling stuff. I did a little research with a bunch of my male friends and 90% of them said that their wives or girlfriends purchase all their facial products. My friend Steve said his wife bought him face cleanser and moisturize for the first time and now he can’t live without it. He said it makes his wife want to get closer by having nice fresh skin. So how do we get the man to go out and purchase these products on their own without a woman? That’s the question here!  Well that takes me back to my original theory that sex sells. Most men want to buy what attracts woman so they can get closer to them. My idea is to make a pitch something like this: “Men don’t usually care about smooth, fresh smelling skin, But the women they want to get close to them, Do…. So men,  it is time to get closer to your woman and give them what they want by using Clinique's new mens 3-step system. It will make them happy and you even happier, when they can’t keep their hands off you.”

Week 6 EOC: 9 Aps

I did a little research in to the iphone and ipad apps.  There are millions of applications out there and many more on the way. There are apps for anything and everything under the sun. Many are to play games, organize your life, monitor your health and fitness, trade stocks and help with your finances or stay in touch through networking on the web.

The top game for iphones or ipads is the crazy game “Angry Birds.” You slingshot the birds to attack the green pigs who stole the bird eggs. It has about 100+ levels and can run as much as $4.99 for this app. I have played this game and it is fun and highly addicting. Another top app. That people are using is the Kindle app. This application allows you to download ebooks to you elibrary and you have them right at your fingertips. No more waiting in line for the new releases or lugging around a heavy book bag. You can shop for a new read at any time or place. Plus the book is lit up so no need for a light to see your pages. This is so convenient and the wave of the future. One favorite that I tried out and also liked was the app. Called “Urbanspoon” This one can help you find a place to eat.  It will show you all the restaurants in your city at the same time. It lets you pick by the type of food you are hungry for say Italian and show you just them. It gives you an idea of the price you may pay too. (http://www.businessinsider.com/best-ipad-apps-2010-12#yelp-for-ipad-is-a-good-way-to-find-restaurants-13).

On the flip side of the coin there are many applications that are worthless and stupid out there too. One of the dumbest is the eShaver app. It shows a picture of a razor and makes noises as you rub it against your face. The developers say it works but we all know rubbing your phone on your face or legs does not shave the actual hair off! You just end up looking like an idiot rubbing your phone on your face. Another stupid one I found is the R U Drunk app.  It gives you a series of five tests to help you determine whether you’re drunk or not. Dah if you have to ask or take a test you probably are drunk!  I honestly think if you need this app. The iFart Mobile, you must be silly. It plays a variety of flatulence sound effects labeled with names like “Burrito Maximo.” I guess if you were ten years old this app. would be the best and completely funny. (http://www.mainstreet.com/slideshow/smart-spending/technology/15-worst-iphone-apps).

After putting some thought in what kind of app. I would develop; it would have to be something that would help me out in my life. Everyone has a wallet full of rewards cards from grocery stores, department stores, hair product stores; you name it there is a card. They should have an app. That allows you to scan in each one of these cards, and then you just open the app, pick which one and scan your card. You wouldn’t have to carry around 20 different cards, making my life easier. Another helpful app. would be an app. That not only just lets you plug in your health information to track it but say actually took your blood pressure. That would maybe save lives. Last but not least I would develop an app that would work just like a baby monitor or nanny cam. It would stream to some type of device like one hide inside a teddy bear that you set up in a room where the baby is and it would stream you live video and sound directly to your phone. You could check in on the baby at any time or place. These may seem like some farfetched ideas but would be great if they were developed and make life safer and easier.

Week 5 EOC: Best and Worst Superbowl Commercials

With more than 100 million people tuning into watch the Super Bowl, mad men working for different companies rolled out all sorts of goodies from rock stars to pooches, all in the attempt to snag us hook, line and sinker. I think the commercials most people were talking about on the days to follow after the big game, were some of the Doritos commercials. Doritos launched a contest called Crash the Super Bowl, which allowed customers to create their own Doritos commercials. This was smart because it got the consumer involved and thinking about your product. The Pug Attack ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpjaOUjUPUc  ) one was hilarious and the Guy Licking the Fingers (  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBNnD5kuHUE&NR=1 ) was funny too.  They were both tasteful and made you relate to the product in a great way. Pepsi (who owns Doritos) did the same contest. This is a smart thing to do by involving the customer in your product. The Love Hurts Pepsi Max commercial was funny ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iCryRWyEcc&feature=relmfu ).  Even though the other spots were funny and made you want to watch them again, the Volkswagen commercial starring the young Darth Vader was one of my favorite ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kkyGyZD-D0&feature=fvwkrel ). It seems the public felt the same way because the commercial was leaked before the game and it had over 5 million hits on YouTube and 62,000 likes on face book. I wonder if Volkswagen leaked it on purpose. Hmm? The people who came up with linking Volkswagen to Star Wars were smart. Star Wars is an iconic movie and by making that connection to their product was smart. This spot may turn out to be a classic. Everyone relates to Star Wars in one way or another.  Then there was the commercials you just did not quite get or thought they were completely stupid.  So it makes you wonder if the $3 million dollar price tag for a 30-second spot was worth it for the companies willing to pay that much for air time. The worst commercial of the day was for the web phenomenon Groupon, starring Timothy Hutton (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVkFT2yjk0A ). Critics called it offensive, tasteless and patronizing by mocking the Tibetan Crisis at such a sensitive time. Many people can’t even believe Timothy Hutton agreed to do the commercial himself. Another one that was ridiculous and a big mistake was the Joan Rivers, GoDaddy.com spot ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQnhFxyikXg ). It was meant to be funny but it left a bad taste in your mouth, which is now associated with their product.  The Bieber/Ozzy spot was plain stupid and what was the company they represented….Oh yeah! Best Buy.  I would think when spending this kind of money on advertising  your product during one of the most watched events on TV, you would want to make sure it made a great impact on the consumer. The marketing department could blow their whole advertising budget and leave the consumer thinking about your product in a bad way.

Week 4 EOC Business to Business VS Consumer Marketing

Business to Business marketing is the practice of individuals or organizations including commercial, government and institutions to resell or use their product.  Consumer marketing is all the individuals that buy and acquire goods and services for personal consumption (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management, Armstrong and Kotler).

GE is a very familiar brand to most of us and you probably have one of their consumer products in your home as we speak, but most consumers would be surprised to find out that GE’s consumer products that range from refrigerators, microwaves, coffee makers and hundreds of other products bearing their name, contributes to less than one-third of the company’s total $183 billion in annual sales. Most of GE’s business comes not from final consumers but from commercial and industrial consumers across a wide range of industries. Beyond light bulbs and electronics, GE sells everything from medical imaging technologies, security solutions, aircraft engines, and diesel locomotives (Pg. 39, Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management, Armstrong and Kotler).

To GE marketing to the general consumer who purchases home goods compared to a big business consumer purchasing a locomotive with a price tag of $2.2 million is quite a bit different. Losing the sale of a washer and dryer is disappointing but compared to losing the sale of the big business consumer could mean the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Another big difference between B2B marketing compared to consumer marketing is the decision making process. A regular consumer may go online and do a little research on what refrigerator to buy and compare prices. Where the big business consumer buying jet engines may have hundreds of decision makers involved in the process at all different levels.

GE works hard to build their relationships with consumers. They feel the real challenge is to win buyer’s business by building day-in, day-out, year-in, year-out partnerships with them, based on superior products and close collaborations(Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management, Armstrong and Kotler). That’s probably why they have stuck around so long and their cash follow has remained strong through these tough economic times.