As discussed in the article posted on Blackboard, President Barrack Obama was able to market himself extremely effectivley during his presidential campaign against John McCain. His campaign seemed to be similar to that of Coca-Cola or McDonalds in the way it was orgnaized, rather than that of a presidential election. Obama was able to market himself in a way that almost established him as a brand name rather than a presidential candidate.
Obama attracted followers to his product (himself as president) in the way that all firms do, by establishing a need for the particular product. Obama used the idea of Change as the need for his services. Amidst two wars and one of the worst econmic recessions since the Depression, most Americans wanted someone who was the exact opposite of former president George W. Bush. Obama realized this and strived to set himself as far apart from the struggling president as possiblle by establishing many slogans revolving around the idea of change. Obama attracted followers, like most businesses, by building relationships with customers. Most Americans found Obama to be a very likeable guy, and if it wasnt his political ideoligies and policies that you liked, it was his charisma and confidence when he spoke (yet another change from our previous president).
Obama, like firms forming a marketing stratregy, also chose his demographics wisely. He noticed his appeal to the younger demographics of voters and attempted persuade them to support his product by keeping in constant contact with the demographic through social media channels that his competitor, McCain was not using. As a result, Obama won the younger demographics vote overwhelmingly.
Barrack Obama became, in a way, a brand name during his presidential campaign and his brand continues to grow even after his election into office. Barrack Obama designed his campaign in a way very similar to that of a business trying to promote a new product, and he did it very successfully. How does Obamas campaign stack up against more traditional marketing campaigns used by firms like Coca-Cola or Nike? Is it better, worse, or identical and why?
3/23/2011
Response to Doug Sacks Week 9 Post
I would have to say that both sides are to blame for the overspending in America, but primarily it is marketing that has lead to this overspending. It seems as though over the last couple decades marketing as taken on a much more important and aggressive role in business. With sex apeal and the need for social status at the forefront, marketing agencies are constantly instilling images of what society expects of you more or less. By saying buying this body spray will get you the hot girl, or buying this car will put you in a higher social class, marketing firms are basically poking at the consumer and telling them they are not good enough unless they have this item. Though this has almost always been the marketing trend, I feel over the last few decades it has taken on a much more aggressive form. The idea is no longer to make you want the product, but to make you need the product in order to fit in with society.
The Overspent American response
After watching the film “The Overspent American“ in class on tuesday it provoked a lot of thoughts about our country, our culture, and our way of living. The narrator makes some very interesting points about about the spending habits of Americans and how it has effected us negativley. We are spending more than we make in process she refers to as “competitive spending“ in which we are constantly trying to establish ourselves as wealthy and succesful in the eyes of others by buying big expensive items with fancy brand names that we can flaunt. She discusses how Americans are never satisfied with what they have and are constanly trying to attain more posessions in what she refers to as “keeping up with the Jones“.
While I do agree with many of the points the narrator and the film are trying to make about overspending and its role in our most recent recession, I also feel she is failing to see that this “striving to be the best and biggest“ mentality is exactly what caused America to become one of the richest and most powerful countries in the world. The narrator refers to what she calls the “work and spend model“ which basically states that productivity leads to more work, which leads to more spending, which leads to more work to cover the extra spending, which leads back to more productivity, and so on. Throughout the film she refers to this as a bad thing. However this is a classic example of capitalism at its finest and how both consumers and businesses alike grow and flourish. If it were not for this “work and spend“ model, our form of economy would not be effective. Of course there are examples of consumers and businesses that take this model to the extreme which often causes more harm than good, but as the old saying goes “You cant have your cake and eat it too“.
So what do you think? Is the over spending we are doing in America something that is potentially detremental to society or is it simply capitalism running its course?
While I do agree with many of the points the narrator and the film are trying to make about overspending and its role in our most recent recession, I also feel she is failing to see that this “striving to be the best and biggest“ mentality is exactly what caused America to become one of the richest and most powerful countries in the world. The narrator refers to what she calls the “work and spend model“ which basically states that productivity leads to more work, which leads to more spending, which leads to more work to cover the extra spending, which leads back to more productivity, and so on. Throughout the film she refers to this as a bad thing. However this is a classic example of capitalism at its finest and how both consumers and businesses alike grow and flourish. If it were not for this “work and spend“ model, our form of economy would not be effective. Of course there are examples of consumers and businesses that take this model to the extreme which often causes more harm than good, but as the old saying goes “You cant have your cake and eat it too“.
So what do you think? Is the over spending we are doing in America something that is potentially detremental to society or is it simply capitalism running its course?
3/09/2011
Response to Britney Perkins: Narcissistic Websites
I completley agree with you and the article you found. In todays society, where the internet is growing more and more everyday as means of marketing for businesses, it is crucial that a firms website be informative, helpful, and visually appealing. As we see in the example you gave of the t-shirt company, the combination of internet and Fed-Ex has created a market in which competitors are found all over the world, not just in your geographical area. This creates the need for a well put together, easy to use website that is helpful for the customer and not just means of bragging to the customer. Websites are a crucial part of todays business world and an effective one could be the difference between making profit and going out of business.
My Marketing Mix for My Summer Business: Any Suggestions?
This summer a friend and I will be starting our own powerwashing, window washing, and deck staining company instead of getting a summer job working for someone else. Both of us have a good deal of experience in the industry, and we are confident that we will deliver a high quality product. So it is just a matter of marketing ourselves properly to make homeowners aware of our services. Our marketing mix for our company is as follows.
Product: The products our firm will offer are powerwashing services, window washing services, deck staining services, and small paint job services. Last year I managed a company that focused a majority of its efforts booking full exterior paint jobs. I found managing jobs of this magnitude to be very difficult and harder to turn a decent profit. Therefore, this year my friend and I will focus our efforts on smaller less time consuming jobs and a higher turnover. As far as the products we will use to complete our jobs, we will try to only use the best. For powerwashing jobs we will purchase the leading brand of powerwashing bleach solution, and for painting jobs we will purchase either Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams paints, unless the customer prefers something else. The quality of the products we use on the clients home will be a large selling point for our firm, and the quality of our services will need to be an even larger one.
Distriubution: Starting over spring break and continuing up until the start of summer break we will spend a great deal of time marketing towards homeowners in New Haven County, CT. We will use a differentiated marketing strategy, as we will be offering multiple different services to homeowners of varying levels of income. We will most likely focus a majority of our effort on vinyl houses because the focus is high turnover and powerwashing is the fastest of the services we offer. We also focus a majority of our efforts in Guilford, CT (a town in New Haven County) because it is our hometown and we already have somewhat of a name for ourselves. We will make the public aware of our firm through door-to-door flyer dropping, putting up fliers in businesses, taking out adds in the local newspaper and yellow pages, and on the internet via a website and facebook.
Price: The goal of our firm is to offer the best value (combination of price and quality) in the area. In order to come up with a price for each job I will go to the house to do an estimate. The price is effected by the size, difficulty, and materials needed to complete the job. Typically a powerwash ranges from $200-350, a deck job ranges from $300-1200, and a window job ranges from $150-300. Price is probably our biggest advantage over competing firms that have been in the market longer than we have. Because we are college students with fewer expenses than owners of professional painting and powerwashing companies, we can afford to offer much lower prices, and due to our previous experience in the field the quality of the work will eqaul to that of our competitors. Based on my experience managing a similar company last year our target socioeconomic market is middle to upper-middle class homeowners because they are more willing to pay than lower class home owners, and also usually more trustworthy of college students working on their homes than upper-class homeowners.
Promotion: One of our main marketing objectives is to sign a majority of our clients before the start of the summer. This is the goal because (1) It is easier to sign a client if you get to them well before the competition does, and (2) it is easier to focus on production during the summer when there is no need to worry about marketing to get more clients and keep the business going. Therefore, we will offer a majority of our promotions during the pre-season as incentive to sign with us before the summer starts. We will offer a 10% diescount for any clients that sign with us before May 1st. Also, because networking is one of the most effective and cost efficient forms of marketing, we will offer another 5% discount for any client that refers us to another client.
This is our marketing mix for our business venture this summer. We hope to turn this mix into a well oiled marketing plan that will allow us to book a majority of our clients before the work season begins. Do you have any other suggestions that could make our marketing plan more effective?
Product: The products our firm will offer are powerwashing services, window washing services, deck staining services, and small paint job services. Last year I managed a company that focused a majority of its efforts booking full exterior paint jobs. I found managing jobs of this magnitude to be very difficult and harder to turn a decent profit. Therefore, this year my friend and I will focus our efforts on smaller less time consuming jobs and a higher turnover. As far as the products we will use to complete our jobs, we will try to only use the best. For powerwashing jobs we will purchase the leading brand of powerwashing bleach solution, and for painting jobs we will purchase either Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams paints, unless the customer prefers something else. The quality of the products we use on the clients home will be a large selling point for our firm, and the quality of our services will need to be an even larger one.
Distriubution: Starting over spring break and continuing up until the start of summer break we will spend a great deal of time marketing towards homeowners in New Haven County, CT. We will use a differentiated marketing strategy, as we will be offering multiple different services to homeowners of varying levels of income. We will most likely focus a majority of our effort on vinyl houses because the focus is high turnover and powerwashing is the fastest of the services we offer. We also focus a majority of our efforts in Guilford, CT (a town in New Haven County) because it is our hometown and we already have somewhat of a name for ourselves. We will make the public aware of our firm through door-to-door flyer dropping, putting up fliers in businesses, taking out adds in the local newspaper and yellow pages, and on the internet via a website and facebook.
Price: The goal of our firm is to offer the best value (combination of price and quality) in the area. In order to come up with a price for each job I will go to the house to do an estimate. The price is effected by the size, difficulty, and materials needed to complete the job. Typically a powerwash ranges from $200-350, a deck job ranges from $300-1200, and a window job ranges from $150-300. Price is probably our biggest advantage over competing firms that have been in the market longer than we have. Because we are college students with fewer expenses than owners of professional painting and powerwashing companies, we can afford to offer much lower prices, and due to our previous experience in the field the quality of the work will eqaul to that of our competitors. Based on my experience managing a similar company last year our target socioeconomic market is middle to upper-middle class homeowners because they are more willing to pay than lower class home owners, and also usually more trustworthy of college students working on their homes than upper-class homeowners.
Promotion: One of our main marketing objectives is to sign a majority of our clients before the start of the summer. This is the goal because (1) It is easier to sign a client if you get to them well before the competition does, and (2) it is easier to focus on production during the summer when there is no need to worry about marketing to get more clients and keep the business going. Therefore, we will offer a majority of our promotions during the pre-season as incentive to sign with us before the summer starts. We will offer a 10% diescount for any clients that sign with us before May 1st. Also, because networking is one of the most effective and cost efficient forms of marketing, we will offer another 5% discount for any client that refers us to another client.
This is our marketing mix for our business venture this summer. We hope to turn this mix into a well oiled marketing plan that will allow us to book a majority of our clients before the work season begins. Do you have any other suggestions that could make our marketing plan more effective?
2/15/2011
Phish: A Marketing Strategy that Every Band Should Follow
Ever since I first heard the progressive rock/jam band Phish in my sophomore year of highschool I instantly became what many people refer to as "a phan". Since they returned from their short breakup in 2009 I have seen the band perform live 19 times and I plan on continuing to go to shows for as long as they are together. For those of you who are not familiar with Phish and the Phish culture, I may sound crazy for wanting to see the same band 19 times, but the truth is the band has a nation wide following of fans who are just as/ if not more dedicated to the band than myself. I beleive the reason why Phish has become one of the best selling live acts in the country comes from their ability to market themselves and their product (their live performances) as well as their ability to build such strong and long lasting relationships with their "phans".
Phish has become so succesful at what they do because they know exactly what kind of product they offer and they know exactly what kind of people like their product. Since their formation in the late 80s, Phish has known exactly what kind of band they were and they have never strayed away from that and tried to become something they were not in hopes of making a few more dollars or a few more fans. They stuck with the marketing plan and saw it through to the end. Though they do produce albums like every other band they realize that their niche in the music market is the ability to put on a live act that is unlike any other band in the world. Phish is known for never playing the same show twice. Though the band has probably played more live shows than almost any band ever, their versatility in styles and catalogue of well over 200 songs, interlaced with periods of total improvisation, practically gurantees a completley different experience at each show. This, in turn, has created a target market of no specific gender, ethnicity, or age group, but simply true music fans. Phish attracts people with a wide preference and understanding of music on a deeper level than a catchy pop beat or love lyrics. Phish has realized this about their fans and continue to give them exactly what they want, a different show every time.
Along with their firm understanding of their product and their target market, Phish is very good at the promotional aspect of marketing as well. One thing they do is offer instant downloads online of every show they play the day after for just 10$ (unless you payed to see the show, then the download is free). They do this rather than publish each show as "LIVE PHISH ALBUMS!" and charge upwards of $25 because they realize what their true fans want, and that is as many different Phish experiences as they can possibly get their hands on. If they werent at the show they want to listen to it and hear what new and inventive things happened at the show that have never been done before. So, while they may not make as much money as they could be making by selling recordings, they understand that they will make it back through maintaining that steady relationship with old fans as well as constnatly making new ones in the process. Check out http://www.phish.com/ or http://www.livephish.com/ and look at all the promotions they offer on the site/
You may still think im nuts for seeing one band 19 times and probably always will (unless you see them for yourself), but it is a fact that their are hundreds of thousands of people all over the country like me that Phish has established a lifetime relationship with. Phish is as successful as they are because they know their niche, they know their product, and they know their customers. What are some bands that you like that you think have a great marketing strategy?
Phish has become so succesful at what they do because they know exactly what kind of product they offer and they know exactly what kind of people like their product. Since their formation in the late 80s, Phish has known exactly what kind of band they were and they have never strayed away from that and tried to become something they were not in hopes of making a few more dollars or a few more fans. They stuck with the marketing plan and saw it through to the end. Though they do produce albums like every other band they realize that their niche in the music market is the ability to put on a live act that is unlike any other band in the world. Phish is known for never playing the same show twice. Though the band has probably played more live shows than almost any band ever, their versatility in styles and catalogue of well over 200 songs, interlaced with periods of total improvisation, practically gurantees a completley different experience at each show. This, in turn, has created a target market of no specific gender, ethnicity, or age group, but simply true music fans. Phish attracts people with a wide preference and understanding of music on a deeper level than a catchy pop beat or love lyrics. Phish has realized this about their fans and continue to give them exactly what they want, a different show every time.
Along with their firm understanding of their product and their target market, Phish is very good at the promotional aspect of marketing as well. One thing they do is offer instant downloads online of every show they play the day after for just 10$ (unless you payed to see the show, then the download is free). They do this rather than publish each show as "LIVE PHISH ALBUMS!" and charge upwards of $25 because they realize what their true fans want, and that is as many different Phish experiences as they can possibly get their hands on. If they werent at the show they want to listen to it and hear what new and inventive things happened at the show that have never been done before. So, while they may not make as much money as they could be making by selling recordings, they understand that they will make it back through maintaining that steady relationship with old fans as well as constnatly making new ones in the process. Check out http://www.phish.com/ or http://www.livephish.com/ and look at all the promotions they offer on the site/
You may still think im nuts for seeing one band 19 times and probably always will (unless you see them for yourself), but it is a fact that their are hundreds of thousands of people all over the country like me that Phish has established a lifetime relationship with. Phish is as successful as they are because they know their niche, they know their product, and they know their customers. What are some bands that you like that you think have a great marketing strategy?
Response to Lia Moreggis Customer Service Post
Lia I couldnt agree with you more. Good customer service is something that is very hard to find nowadays. ESPECIALLY when it comes to dealing with a firm over the phone. Poor customer service and weak/unhappy relationships with customers is simply bad business. The term "The customer is always right" may not be true but it is how you should run your business. After all, what is a business without customers? Probably the worst customer service experinece(s) I have ever had was with Dell Computers Inc. My computer was randomly shutting off in the middle of me using it, and I kept losing things I was workign on for school. So I called Dell to help me fix the problem. My experience began with close to a half hour wait before I talked to a real human being. Once I was finally connected with something that wasnt a machine I found myself talking to an indian man with an extremely heavy accent. Now I dont really have a problem with outsourcing certain parts of a business overseas to save money, but when it comes to the customer service hotline I think it is absolutly ridiculous to outsource something like that to people who dont have a full grasp on the language of the people they will primarily be helping. Now I am on the phone with someone walking me through steps to fix an extremely complicated peice of eqiuiptment and I can barley understand him. On top of this everytime I asked to him repeat himself he seemed as though he was getting frustrated with me. This proceeded to happen several more times when I called with different problems that I had with the computer. Needless to say I will never purchase another Dell computer again. I think good customer service is something that is really overlooked by managers and business owners and is really an essential part to a succesful business.
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