Marketing Class blog for 4-11-2012

We didn’t have class last week due to Entrepreneur week.

This week we read chapter 15 in our book, it was on Advertising and public relations.  We learned about: The effects of advertising, Major types of Advertising, Creative decisions in advertising, Media Decisions in advertising, and public relations.

The part I found most interesting is, the major types of advertising.  Before reading this chapter I hadn’t realized all the different forms of advertising and what the most effective was.  I had thought that one of the best ways to have market selectivity would have been television (I was proved wrong on the exam), instead it is magazines, because magazines are selected according to such things as: age, hobbies, sex, race, and marital status.  So there for advertising in magazines can be geared to that exact group of people you are looking for.  The different kinds of advertising will become useful knowledge in my future; therefore, I know my choices for how and where to advertise.

Weekly class blog for class on 3/28/2012

           I had a hard time rapping my head around this week’s chapter, it could have been due to all the other work I had in my other classes. Anyway, this week we studied chapter 14 it was on "Integrated Marketing Communications." The chapter was mainly about one of the 4 p's, Promotion (Communication by marketers that informs, persuades and reminds potential buyers of a product in order to influence an opinion or elicit a response).

The four elements used in promotion are: Advertising, Public relations, sales promotion, and personal selling.

There are also some different kinds of Advertising Media.  Some listed in the PPT both traditional and new advertising medias, such as: Television, radio, newspaper, magazines, books, direct mail, billboards, transit cards, internet, banner ads, viral marketing, e-mail, and interactive video.  This is an interesting the thing how the advertising has changed over just the last few years with more and more advertising using the internet and e-mail.  It will be interesting to watch and see how it changes more over my lifespan.

I really like this graphic and how it demonstrates the promotional mix.  It accurately shows how the mix and mingle together.

      

                Much of this chapter was review for me from one class or another, either my business communications or my managerial accounting (Maybe that is why I had a hard time getting into it this week).  This chapter also talked about the Communication process, which I covered last year in my communications class.  This chapter talked about “pull” and “push” strategies again, which I also covered in my Managerial accounting class last year. 

                Even though this chapter was partly review, the main thing I think will come in handy in my future is the different kinds of advertising and promoting you can have your any business.  Your case this week “Wicked” talked about different types of promotion, and showed some great examples.

Marketing class 3/21/2012

This week we where able to study chapter 12 in our book on “Marketing channels and soppy chain management.”

We learned about the marketing channel functions which are: specialization and division of labor, overcoming discrepancies, and providing contact efficiency.

We also learned about different discrepancies and how to overcome them.  There are discrepancy of quantity, discrepancy of assortment, temporal discrepancy, and spatial discrepancy.

I love this graphic, it shows how providing contact efficiency works. (Except change circuit city since they went out of business a few years ago.)

We learned about channel intermediaries

We defined supply chain management which is: “A management system that coordinates and integrates all of the activities performed by supply chain members into a seamless process, from the source to the point of consumption, resulting in enhanced customer and economic value.”

The responsibilities of supply chain managers are:

·         Channel strategy decisions

·         Sourcing and procurement of raw materials

·         Production schedules

·         Order processing

·         Inventory management

·         Finished goods/supplies transportation and storage

·         Customer service coordination

·         Supply chain information flow management

·         Partner relationships

This is a graphic of the supply chain process. (I have covered this in a few of my other classes too.)

We also learned about Levels of distribution intensity. The intensity levels are mainly designated by the number of intermediaries they have.  For instance intensive level has many intermediaries; the selective level has several intermediaries, and last is the exclusive level with only one intermediary.

I think this chapter with learning about the place of the product will come in very handy since if the product isn’t in the right place at the right time then the product has a potential loss of sales.

(all slides and information taken from "MKTG" Lamb, Hair, McDaniel)

Marketing class 3-7-2012

Blog for class on 3-7-2012
We covered chapter 10 this last week after taking the midterm. Chapter 10 talks about

Developing and marketing products. We first defined a new product as: A product new to the world, the market, the producer, the seller, or some combination of these. Then we discussed the categories of new products that are: 1- New-to-the-world, 2- New PRODUCT LINES, 3- Product Line Additions, 4- Improvements of Revisions, 5- Prepositioned Products, and 6- Lower-priced Products.

We also discussed the new product development process, and how at you do all of the steps it works like a cone and funnels it down to the new product. According to the book only 4.3 percent of all new products succeed.

Then we talked about why products fail

·         No discernible benefits

·         Poor match between features and customer desires

·         Overestimation of market size

·         Incorrect positioning

·         Price too high or too low

·         Inadequate distribution

·         Poor promotion

·         Inferior product

So there are many reasons why your new product might be one of the 95.5% that fail.

We defined Diffusion as The process by which the adoption of an innovation spreads.

The different categories of Adaptors are: 1- Innovators, 2- Early Adopters, 3- Early Majority, 4-Late Majority, and 5-Laggards.  This categorizes how fast people adopt new products such as a new Ipad.

We also learned about a products life cycle and how it is similar to the biological life cycle such that the product is born, matures, and dies. Just like animals, plants, and people.  Below is a graph showing both the diffusion and life cycle of a product.

I think this is the most important part of this weeks lesson.  To understand how the diffusion curve and the product life cycle curve coincide.  This will come in handy in any type of product situation.

For marketing class 3/1/2012

We didn't have class tonight; instead we had to take our midterm exam. I tried to study and properly prepare for the exam. I got an 84% (B) on the exam. Not too bad, if I do say so myself. Next week we are going to talk about chapter 10 which is "developing and managing products."

Marketing Class blog for 2/22/2012

We studied chapter 9 this last week and it was about product concepts, the professor had assigned the chapter to be read, along with having 3 other articles to read.  It all became very confusing by the end of the week.  But I managed to make my way through it.

Some of the main concepts we covered where:

-what is a product? Product is the starting point of marketing mix. The 4 p’s Product, Price, Promotion, and Place

-The different types of products:  Business product (A product used to manufacture other goods or services, to facilitate and organization’s operations or to resell to other consumers.) and Consumer Product (A product bought to satisfy an individual’s personal need or wants.)

-The types of consumer products

-we also learned about Product items, product line, and product mix

This week we also learned about Brand (a name, Term, symbol, design, or combination there of that identifies a seller’s products and differentiates them from competitors’ products.) and the different kinds of brands

We also learned about Packaging that is meant to: Contain and protect, promote, facilitate storage, use, and convenience along with facilitate recycling.   Then we focused on labels and there usefulness.

And finally we learned about product warranties and the different types of warranties.

All in all I think the most important part we learned this week is that on your product the most important thing is the label and packaging.  On the label you have your brand and trademark along with any extra warranty.  So I feel the most important part is the label.

(these pictures and information came form the textbook listed previously of MKTG by Lamb, Hair and McDaniel.)

Marketing class this week 2-15-2012

Marketing class this week 2-15-2012

This week we discussed Chapter 8, Decision support systems and marketing research.
Marketing decision support systems.
This week my marketing, Economics, and Statistic classes seemed to merge together for market research.  Because lets face it statistics is the main market research tool. 
Marketing research studies all of these things

Here are the steps to the marketing research process

I also learned about second data: data previously collected for any purpose other than the one at hand. Where as primary data: is information that is collected for the first time; are used for solving the particular problem under investigation.

Second data

 

Primary data



















All of this information will be vital to me later when I’m working in business.  Knowing how to get data and access it from secondary sources can help save money and time.