BLOG POST 10: WRAPPING IT UP

The day has come, my last post! This post is going to be different than the rest, being my last post, it is going to be a reflection on all the things I have learned and how they relate back to my marketing class's objectives and outcomes.

1. To examine and convey basic and emerging marketing concepts and terminologies

I believe I have achieved this class objective many times while writing this blog. A lot of the time, my posts were influenced by the current chapter we were learning in class from our book, Marketing by Kerin, Hartley and Rudelius. By writing about the chapter in the book in my blogs, I feel as though I examined marketing concepts and terminologies in depth, and by posting a blog about them I conveyed them to others as well.

2. To study and understand the marketing mix, target markets, consumer behavior, service marketing, social media marketing and the strategic and financial implications of marketing decisions on the other functional areas of business

In multiple posts, I discussed the marketing mix and how important it is to marketing. I also discussed target markets and consumer behavior as well. Simply by writing about these topics, I studied and learned to understand each topic very quickly. These blog posts were a good way of making sure I understood the material before I shared it with people I may not even know. I even had to use social media marketing to get people to follow me!

3. To have the opportunity to put marketing into action via team and individual projects, research, reports, and presentations

These ten blog posts definitely helped me put marketing into action via an individual assignment. I was able to learn about marketing and then convey it to you, my readers. Just by promoting my blog to the outside world through social media, I had to put marketing into action! In order to get followers on my blog I had to advertise to my friends and family, and even strangers. After each post, I copied my link to my blog into a tweet and a Facebook post. I quickly gained followers, and I even got comments on my posts about how cool it was I was making a blog about my class and sharing it with the internet world. 

4. Analyze and evaluate marketing opportunities in the internal and external environment across a variety of settings

Again, writing about marketing and posting these blogs helped me analyze and evaluate all different kinds of marketing opportunities both internally and externally. Internally, I had to write each post and understand the concepts before I exposed them to my readers. Externally, I had to market my posts to the outside world! One of the parts I am being graded on for these posts is to have 5 followers on this blog that weren't in my class. In order for me to do this I had to advertise that I was creating a blog and writing posts to my friends and family through social media. 

5. Critically evaluate, at a basic level, marketing issues and the marketing literature

By writing these ten posts I most definitely evaluate marketing issues and marketing literature at a basic level. Each post discussed marketing and the issues that went along with each top. I feel this outcome was one of the easiest to achieve.  

Well thank you all very much for following my blog through this past semester. I hope you all learned a little bit about marketing from these posts! Thanks again! 

- Aly Kibbee 

BLOG POST 9: PRICING (part two)

Here we go, on the final stretch of the semester! Only one post left after this, I hope you all enjoyed reading my blog!!
This post is a continuation of the discussion we had about pricing in my last post.

pricing approaches

Even though to a consumer it may seem easy to set a price for a product, there are many different approaches to go about pricing a product.

To start, you have to choose an appropriate price level. This is just a ball park guess of the range you want the price of your product to be in. From there, you choose one of the four pricing approaches I will go over in the following paragraphs. 

demand-oriented

Skimming pricing- Setting the highest initial price that customers really desiring the product are willing to pay.

Penetration pricing- Setting a low initial price on a new product to appeal immediately to the mass market.

Prestige pricing- Setting a high price so  that quality and status-conscious customers will be attracted to the product and buy it. 

Price lining- Setting a line of products made by a single company at a number of specific pricing points.

Odd-Even pricing- Setting prices a few dollars, or cents, under and even number.

Target pricing- Setting an estimated price that the consumer is believed to be willing to pay, and working backwards to adjust the price by looking at markups by retailers and wholesalers to determine the final price they will charge wholesalers for the product. 

Bundle pricing- Setting a price for two or more products as a single package price. 

Yield management pricing- Setting different prices to maximize revenue for a set amount of capacity at any given time. 

www.clipartpanda.com

cost-oriented

Standard markup pricing- Add a fixed percentage onto the cost of all of the items in a specific product class. 

Cost-Plus pricing- Summing the total unit cost of providing a product or service and adding a specific amount to the cost to arrive at a price. Generally there are two forms... cost-plus percentage-of-cost pricing, which is a fixed percentage added to the total unit cost, and cost-plus fixed-fee pricing, which is when the supplier is reimbursed for all costs, no matter what they are, but can only receive a fixed fee as profit that is completely independent of the final cost of the project.

Experience curve pricing- Based on the learning effect. This means that the unit cost of the product declines by 10% to 30% each time a company's experience at producing and selling the product doubles.

franthony.com

profit-oriented

Target profit pricing- Setting an annual target of a specific dollar volume of profit.

Target return-on-sales pricing- Setting a typical price that will give the company a profit that is a specified percentage of the sales volume. 

Target return-on-investment pricing- Setting prices to achieve the target ROI that the company has previously set for themselves. 

dreamatico.com

competition-oriented 

Customary pricing- Setting prices based on tradition, standardized channels of distribution, or other competitive factors.

Above-, At-, or Below-market pricing- Intentionally pricing above, at, or below the market price for a certain product.

Loss-Leader pricing- Setting the price purposely lower than the products customary price to attract attention to it. 

www.gofrugal.com

Thanks for reading guys! My last post for the semester will be along shortly.. !

BLOG POST 8: PRICING (part one)

Hello! I am getting close to finishing up this blog! After this post I will only have two more left!
Today we will start talking about pricing products.

what is price?

What do you think price is? Price is the money or other considerations exchanged for the ownership or use of a product or service. To a consumer, price is just the amount you pay for a product. But what goes into coming up with the amount thats shown on the price tag?

Final Price = List Price - (Incentives + Allowances) + Extra Fees

Using this equation a company can easily determine the final price of a product. Depending on the product, the name of the price can change. 

value

Value is the ratio of perceived benefits to price. How is value different than price? Value is simply what you are willing to pay for a product, where as price is the amount of money a company is going to make you pay if you want to acquire the product. Most of the time if you think the price is more than what the product is worth, you will not purchase the product. For this reason, value is directly related to price. 

Value-pricing is the practice of simultaneously increasing product and service benefits while maintaining or decreasing price.

Value = Perceived benefits / Price

www.coachandgrowrich.com

profit

Pricing becomes really important when it comes to how much profit you'll be making because pricing has a direct effect on a company's profits. 

The profit equation is:

Profit = Total Revenue - Total Cost

          = (Unit Price x Quantity Sold) - (Fixed Cost + Variable Cost)

There are 3 different objectives that relate to a firm's profit. They are 1) managing for long-run profits, 2) maximizing current profits, and 3) target return. 

1) managing for long-run profits

In this objective, companies give up immediate profit by developing quality products to penetrate competitive markets over the long term. Products are priced low compared to their cost to develop, but the firm expects to make more profits later because it has a high market share. 

2) maximizing current profits

This objective is common in many firms because the targets can be set and performance can be measured quickly. 

3) target return

This objective happens when a firm sets a profit goal for themselves, meaning they set an amount they would like to have as profits at the end of a period and try to reach that goal.

Part 2 coming soon..!

BLOG POST 7: TECHNOLOGY AND ITS IMPACT ON SOCIETY

Hello again!! For this post I have decided to talk about how much technology has overtaken our lives.

how we use technology

Technology has slowly overtaken our everyday lives and it has somehow managed to work its way into everything we do. For example, even in this marketing class that I am writing this blog for, we have to take a quiz every Monday. Now when I tell you we have a weekly quiz you must think pen and paper right? Wrong! Our quizzes for this particular class are done on our computer. The school uses a program called Canvas and each class you are enrolled in for the semester has its own page. The professor is able to use it as much or as little as he or she wants. Our marketing professor chooses to use it quite a bit, so our quizzes are done through this program. 

Another example is our cell phones. Everyday the first thing I do is look at my phone when I wake up, and the last thing I do before going to sleep is the same. I am constantly on my phone, whether it be for checking my texts or for keeping myself updated on social media. I also find that even though I wear a watch everyday, I rarely look at it for the time because I always just look at my cell phone. I even use my cell phone as a calculator when I am doing homework, or out to eat to calculate the tip. 

Plain and simple, technology has become a party of our society and it just keeps getting better... (or is it getting worse?)

new technology

APPLE WATCH:

A cell phone on your wrist....? Really? Yes. Apple has yet again advanced its technology to make something bigger and better.... and more expensive! Remember how I said that I often find myself looking at my phone for the time rather than my watch? Now, I don't even have to take out my phone to look at a text message. Personally, I don't see the point in the watch if you have a cell phone already, but that is just my personal opinion. Our cell phones can do everything that this watch can do, and we are able to put it down and walk away from it if we so please. This is just one example of how technology has continued to advance and integrate into our everyday lives.

BMW i3:

This example just goes to show that even car technology is advancing. A car with no engine? Who knew... Pretty soon everyone will be driving a eco-friendly car. This car is just the beginning of the direction that cars are going to go in. I think its a great idea simply because people are going to jump all over saving the environment. Once a group of people start to buy these cars, everyone will start to buy them.

Thanks again for reading guys! Only 3 more posts left of the semester!! 

BLOG POST 6: BRANDS

Hello everybody! Today we will be talking about brands and how important they are to a company.

what is branding?

Branding is the process an organization goes through to create a unique name and image for their organization. Branding aims to create a significant differentiation between certain companies. This is so important in the marketing world because if branding didn't exist, a consumer wouldn't be sure which brand of a certain product they were buying. 

For example, when you think of athletic attire many different brands pop into your head, correct? There is Under Armor, Nike, Champion and Adidas. Each organization does its own branding to make the consumer be able to differentiate each organization from the other.

logos

Logos are a very important part to an organizations branding. Without the logo the consumer wouldn't be able to tell which product belongs to which organization. 

Under Armor:

Nike:

Champion:

Adidas:

branding strategies

Multiproduct Branding Strategy:

When only one brand sells multiple different products.

Multibranding Strategy:

When one organization distributes multiple brands of similar products.

Private Branding Strategy:

When a private organization sells many different brands in their store.

Mixed Branding Strategy:

When a brand sells not only their own product, but another brand of the same product.

Thanks for reading! Another post is on its way... :)

BLOG POST 5: MARKETING RESEARCH

Hello... I apologize for posting two readings within a couple hours of each other! I am trying to get better with time management...

Today I would like to discuss Marketing Research.

what is marketing research?

Marketing research is the gathering of information about a consumers' preferences when it comes to buying products and services. This research starts with a company looking at who they would like to market too. Teen? Adults? Children? After they decide who their target market is they have to do research on what products and services they are wanting to buy. This will help the company know how to market their products to this specific target market. After the product is researched and decided on, the company must do research on how the consumer behaves while purchasing an item. A lot of the time this information is gathered through surveying their target market through online surveys, or ones mailed to them.

(source: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/marketing-research.html)

five-step marketing research approach

As with a lot of things in marketing, theres a step by step process that goes a long with market research. 

1) Define the problem

2) Develop the research plan

3) Collect relevant information

4) Develop the findings

5) Take marketing actions

1) define the problem

To start off, the company must set research objectives and identify possible marketing actions.They must have a clear research purpose. If their research purpose is not clear, it is quite possible their research may not ever turn into marketing actions, which is the end goal of this process. There are multiple different kinds of research that can occur in this step. 

www.businessinsider.com

Exploratory research helps the company determine which is the best method for collecting data they need.

Descriptive research is the research that is done to determine why the consumer behaves the way they do. 

Causal research determines the cause of the consumer's behavior. Why did the consumer stop buying a certain product? Why did the consumer decide to buy this product in the summer but not the winter?

2) develop the research plan

How are we going to collect the data? Which form of research are we going to use? First, the company must identify the data they need to take marketing action. This may be information such as who is going to buy their product, so their target market. 

Next, the method they are going to use to obtain this information is decided. Do they survey their target market? If so, how? By phone, or in person? These are all questions that need to be answered in this step of the market research plan.

cce.clark.edu

3) collect relevant information & data

In this step, the research is actually conducted. The company can look at two types of data to help the collect information.

Secondary data is data that was already recorded before the project started. Examples would be the U.S. Census, or surveys conducted for magazines and newspapers.

Primary data is data that is collected specifically for this project. An example of this would be a putting an ad out on social media for people to respond to and comment on, or holding a panel or an experiment to find out certain information.

Companies can also use observational data, or mechanical methods. Observational data comes from observing people's behavior, where as using mechanical methods would involve the company to use social media such as Twitter or Facebook, or to create a survey.

ozil-conseil.com

4) develop findings

Here, the company analyzes the data. How are the sales? What factors contribute to the sales trends? Their findings are presented and it usually tells the company what kind of marketing action is needed to occur. 

5) take marketing actions

www.webpresencegroup.net

Marketing actions occur. Ads are put out and the company hopefully starts to make sales. The results of the marketing actions are evaluated and then it is determined if the marketing research process was successful or not. Usually the decision itself is analyzed along with the decision process that was used. What changes can be made? What can we do better? 

upscaledmarketing.com

Surveys can be given to consumers about how they liked the product, and what made them buy it. This will show the success or failure of the market research that was previously done. Changes to the marketing actions that had previously taken place can also happen, making the marketing strategy for the company stronger. 

I hope you are all enjoying my posts... Thanks for reading...

Blog Post 4: CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Hello! Sorry it has been so long... These past couple of weeks have been really busy as it is the middle of the semester, so work has been piling up!

Today's topic that I will be discussing is consumer behavior.

the purchase decision process

For every purchase a consumer subconsciously goes through a process in order to decide what they are going to purchase. It is a five step process that goes through everyone's head when they are making serious purchase decisions.

Step One: Problem Recognition

This is the step where a consumer realizes that they need to buy a product, whether it be a car, or shampoo.

Step Two: Information Search

This is the step where the consumer does research on whatever product they want to buy. They gather prices and information on different brands or different companies of the product they want to buy. If they are buying a car, they may do research on what kind of car they want, and the prices of this car at different car dealerships.

Step Three: Alternative Evaluation 

In this step the consumer compares the different options he or she has. Which one has the better price? Which one would work better for me? By comparing different brands or companies, the consumer can decide which one they like the most and makes the most sense to buy.

Step Four: Purchase Decision

This is the step where the consumer decides which item they are going to buy, and makes the purchase. They decide where to buy the product from, and when to buy it. Do I wait for it to go on sale? 

Step Five: Post-purchase Behavior

After the consumer has decided which purchase to make, and makes the purchase, he or she may feel regret. Should I have bought the other company's product? Should I have purchased the cheaper version of this product? If they are dissatisfied with their purchase, they are likely to tell at least nine people about their purchase.

The consumer could, however, decide that they are completely happy with their purchase decision, and not ask themselves any of those questions. If they are satisfied with their product then they are likely to only tell three people about the satisfaction that came from this purchase.

http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~renglish/370/notes/chapt05/

hierarchy of needs

What is the hierarchy of needs, and why does it apply to marketing?

The hierarchy of needs is a description of the types of needs that a person looks to fulfill if they are going to make a purchase. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

The hierarchy of needs relate to marketing because depending on the product a company is selling, they must decide how to market it. If they are a restaurant they know they have to market towards people who are looking to fulfill their physiological needs. However, if they decide sell flowers, they will try to market towards those looking to fulfill social needs because flowers make a person feel loved.

Physiological Needs

This need is the need that people look to fulfill first. They consist of food, water, shelter, and oxygen. This obviously applies to any company that is looking to sell food or shelter, such as a fast food restaurant, or a hotel. 

Safety Needs

This need is the need people look to fulfill after they fulfill their physiological needs. They apply to anything having to do with providing people with a freedom from harm, or financial security. A company that sells car seats, or provides a service that installs home security systems would be examples of companies that fulfill the safety needs of people.

Social Needs (Love and Belonging)

Social needs are fulfilled after the consumer has fulfilled their physiological and safety needs. These needs are those relating to friends, love and belonging. Example of companies that fulfill the social needs of a person would be a flower shop, or a cell phone company.

Personal Needs (Esteem)

Fulfilling personal needs comes after fulfilling social needs. To fulfill this need the company needs to make the customer feel a sense of status, respect and prestige. A tailor that creates custom suites is a good example because they make the suite based off of each individuals wants and needs, making them feel special.

Self- Actualization Needs

This need is the most difficult to fulfill as its the last need a person looks to satisfy their need. For a consumer to fulfill these needs they have to make the consumer feel a sense of self-fulfillment. These are a consumer's biggest dreams. College is a great example because people go to school to pursue an education in something they want to do for the rest of their lives.

That's all on this topic!! Thanks for reading...