Price Skimming

Price skimming is a pricing stretegy in which a marker sets a relatively high price for a product or service at first, then lowers the price over time. In the case of the Iphone and apple this kind of pricing strategy was used to the extreme. AT&T was the only company that carried the phone so they were able to charge a rediculously high price for the item. There was no other place to purchase the item so if someone wanted the phone then they had to pay the high price. This really seems weird to me because it is almost forcing someone to pay more for something then they really should. When the Iphone first came out it was sold for $599 which is insane for a cell phone. Now they are sold for considerably less, yet there are still all of those people that had to pay the high price at first, Do you think it is the faul of the company for charging that high of a price or the fault of the people for paying that much for it?

Response to Social Media Article

When I was reading the article about social media I was thinking about how it would be for me. I do think that it would be kinda of hard for me to do especially at school. I think that at school it is used in almost everything we do from looking for assignments on blackboard to texting or e-mailing a fellow classmate on what time to meet to finish a group project. I think that social media it made extremely assessable to all of us and now that we are used to it it becomes difficult to just stop using it. I think that this was a very interesting assignment that this teacher tried and really shows us how addicted we are to these things. On the other hand when I am at home it would be much easier for me to go without. I like to hunt during the fall and snowmobile during the winters which are two things that you can't be on your cell phone while doing, yet when I go hunting I always bring my cell phone. This is for safety reasons mostly or to get a hold of someone if I need too. Do you think you could make it a day without social media?

Response to Brenden's Post

When purchasing a product so you look at the products actual features, or does the brand name or the person endorsing it have an effect on your purchasing decisions?

I think that there is alot of good things that Brenden mentioned about how the NBA picks certain players to represent the whole league. I also think that companies that have signed these athletes have had a lot of sucess with using them as walking billboards. If they are able to use them with sucess then I say good for them and that they have done a good job asvertising. If someone decide to buy a product because of the person that is in the commercial then it is their own fault if they get a product that is a lesser product then another that they could have purchased. I know that there are going to be sometimes where children may be tricked by something like this, yet in most other situations you need to look at the product not the people in the commercials. Do you think those who buy these product have no one to blame but themselves?

Customer Service

Customer Service is human or mechanical efforts or activities that add value to a product as defined in our book.

I was thinking about all of the things that I have purchased in my lately and realized that the customer service is just as important as the product that I purchased. Take my cell phone for example. I had a phone that I was having problems with so I took it into the store and tried to get it fixed. This went on for six days and at the end of those days my phone still did notwork correctly. I was extremely frustrated at this point and couldn't understand what it was a had to do to get a phone that worked correctly. I had full coverage on my phone, but because it was only two months before I was up for renewal they didn't want to give me a new phone. Needless to say when my two months were up and it was time for a renewal I switched services and haven't had any problem since. This is a clear example where bad customer service made me not enjoy the product. What I'm trying to say is that good customer service could gain you customers where as bad customer service could lose you customers. Do you agree?

Customer Channels

As I was reading through the chapter I came across Channels for Customer products. This deals with how products get fromt he producer of the idea to the customer that wants to purchase it. They can either go directly from the producer to the consumer or they can go through different spots acting as middle men. Examples of stops that the product might make before it gets to the customer are agents, wholesalers, and retailers.
Personally if i were in charge of deciding where I got all of my producs from I would make sure that I recieved them right from the producer. By doing things this way it gives the items less stops which will cut down on damaged products which is a very big part of things. I also believe if you were to work things out with the producer you could get a cheap price because there would be no marks ups where people are trying to make money.
If you were in charge of decided which channel to use would you do the same as me?

Response to Bobby's Post

Do you think the use of sites like facebook and myspace is beneficial for getting your brand out to the public?
I do think that sites like facebook and Myspace can be used sucessfully to get a certain brnad out there if those who are in charge make sure that they keep a close eye on the sight. You must make sure that you keep enough new information on the page to keep everyone interested and checking the page on a regular basis. If you are able to accomplish this, you can then target those who follow the brand and give them deals. One way you could do this would be to offer a coupon to the first 100 people that comment on a posting on the page. Any sort of sales promotion like this can be very valuable and also help for people to gain more interest in the company. If you don't take good care of the sight then you are going to have people that become friends or fans of the product, and then just stop paying attention to the page. In this case you are accomplishing nothing like you wanted too.
If you were a CEO or in charge of this sort of thing, would you use facebook as an option?

Response to JB's post

Do you feel that Nike's marketing has been successful over the past years? In response to John's post I think that Nike has been extremely successful with their marketing efforts over that pass several years. They have gotten the biggest stars in every sport to support and promote their brand, along with they have continued to sell top of the line products for reasonable prices. Not only have they made better and better versions of their existing products, but as John mentioned they continue to set themselves apart with the new options and versions of their products that they offer. The question is what are they going to come up with next? As I'm sure we are all in the middle of working on our papers what is a product that you think Nike could offer to continue their success?