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?

Brand Insistance

As i was reading through chapter 10 I came across the brand insistence which is the degree of brand loyalty in which a customer strongly prefers a specific brand and will accept no substitute. As I thought about this I was trying to think of the things in my personal life that I insist a certain brand. The one thing that first came to my mind is the brand of snowmobile that my dad and I ride. Since the day that I can remember the only brand that we have ridden is Arctic Cat. They make a great product that fits the needs of both my dad and I. I have had two different model and my dad countless other every time getting exactly what we wanted. The other thing that I was thinking about it why I am so passionate about that brand. I think that the reason is because I have grown up knowing Arctic Cat and Only Arctic Cat. What my question is do you develop brand insistence because it is the best product or the fact that it is the brand you have been introduced too like in my situation?

Response to Kelcy

This is in response to the question about what ointment I would buy between Butt Paste A&D ointment and Vaseline. I think she has a very good point Butt Paste is very short and to the point which is good, yet I also think that the name hurts it a bit. If I were in the store I think that I would look at the Butt Paste laugh to myself and grab for the Vaseline. My reasoning being that the it is a funny packaging or name but realistically I want the best product that I can get which is Vaseline to me because it has been around a long time and I have used their products before. Would anyone else do the same?

Look Beyond the Brand

I recently read an article that was about a woman who recently had a discussion with her children about looking past the brand of someones clothes. She wanted to make sure that her children were not stereo typing others because of the brand names on their clothes whether or not they were something they thought was fashionable. I think this is a very important lesson for children to be learning. I believe a lot of the time we get caught up in what the latest and greatest brands are. Yes i know that it is nice to have nice clothes to wear but really all they are is something for you to wear. There are several other companies that sell the same thing with their logo on it. I thought this article was pretty interesting because I had never thought about it like this. I'm not saying that I have never stereo typed someone because of something they wear, but i will do my best from this point on because it is something I wouldn't want anyone to do to me.
Do you or have you ever stereo typed someone because of something that they were wearing?

Picking the Brand

As I was reading through chapter ten of our text book and learning more about Brands it really made me think about what brands mean to me when i consume. It seems to me that every Brand has a lifestyle that they are trying to support and portray to the people. So therefore by buying the product from that company you are seeing yourself as part of that lifestyle or at least wanting to be part of that lifestyle.
When it comes to me I think that at some points I fall into this theory. A lot of the clothes that I wear are from the same few companies. I am not saying that this is a bad thing one way or the other but it is just very interesting that if you think about it you only pick your clothes no matter if it is a t shirt or a pair of shorts you get them from that company.
I guess that my question is as consumers do we buy these brand names on purpose just because of the name on it or are we buying these brands because of the style that they portray and the status that comes from some of these brands?

Response to Laura

I have also been looking into the whole discussion of Internet privacy. I think that it is unreal the information that could be found on the Internet about a person. It is as easy as typing someones name into the google search engine. This really does bother me because in a lot of cases people don't have anything to do with the information that is out there.
When it comes to facebook I think that is a little bit of a different story. It that case you have the choice of what you want to put on your page and what you don't. I think that it is a very good idea to change your profile so that only friends can view them along with only putting the minimum amount of personal information on the page. I am not saying that facebook is a bad thing because a lot of people use it to keep in touch with their friends from high school while away at college. The reality today is that there are those people who are out there that would take advantage of the information that you have put on your page.
I personally am going to make the changes to my profile to ensure that only my friends are looking at my profile. Also when it comes to looking for a job I think i will get rid of some pictures to make sure that if an employer were to check they would see something professional and that represents someone they would want to work for them.

response to mallory

This is in response to Mallory’s post. Her question was would you shop in a store that was trashed on the outside?
I think that personally if I were to go to a store and it was trashed on the outside I would be very hesitant to enter the store. I think that if they don’t want to take the time or effort to keep the place keep the place clean then I shouldn’t waste my time in the store. If I were to own a business I would want to make sure that the establishment was as clean and as comforting to the customers as possible. As Mallory mentioned if a customer is not comfortable in the environment they are shopping in then they are not going to spend any time or money in your business which in turn makes you no money.
I truly think that part of owning a business is taking care of it and giving the customer the best possible experience that you can offer them. Part of the experience is having a clean and safe environment for them to look at the product that they want to buy. If you cant take the time or effort to do this then you really shouldn’t own a business. It is a very simple thing to do but it many times over looked.
Do you think that a cleaner environment would sell more of the same product then one that is not taking care of as well?

Toyota How are they handling it?

The topic that I want to cover is that of the Toyota Car Company. In early 2008 the company was having problems with several models of their pick-up trucks. The frames of these trucks were becoming very weak and sometimes breaking. This is obviously very unsafe and could happen at any time even when you are going down the road. I will give Toyota credit they stepped up and paid all those whose trucks were within the years of question top dollar for their vehicles no questions asked. This shows just how much Toyota cares about their customers, and that they will always stand behind their products.
Early this year as many of you probably know Toyota ran into another problem this time with a couple of models of their cars. The problem was that the gas pedals were sticking. Again, this is a defect that is very dangerous and could ultimately hurt someone. Toyota again backed their products and fixed any of the cars that were suffering from these problems along with those who wanted to get the update before something bad did happen. I do think that Toyota has done the right thing by fixing all of these cars, but there is a much deeper issue. Toyota must take more time in designing and testing their cars to insure things like this do not continue to happen. Do you agree?

Response to Kyle's post

As for Kyle's response I think that he has touched on some very good points. Marketing online is something that all companies should do if it fits into the marketing plan that they have. You are able to get your advertisements out to many different people quickly and cheaper then sending out fliers and other sorts of physical advertising. I also agree with the fact that there are times like the pop up advertising that are very annoying and accomplish absolutely nothing.
The one thing that i want to mention is that you could take your advertising to the next level if you use a combination of both online and physical marketing. I think it is smart to send your monthly news letter or something of that nature online or through an email, but in situation where you may have a customer already that has purchased from you before you could send them a letter in the mail to make it a little bit more personal. Also by doing this you may make the customer feel more appreciated which would make then a more loyal customer of the company.
Do you think a combination of online and physical advertising would be more effective then just online advertising?

Scenario Questions

Should John Smith sell the names?
I think that is John were to sell the names of the individuals that were surveyed it would be morally wrong. Those who took the survey believed that their information would be kept private and only used for the purpose of the survey. On the other hand I do think that John might sell the names because of the state of his business. He also would hate to have to lay people off and doing this even though morally wrong would save some of those jobs. He might feel as though he owes that to his employees.

Foster trust in the marketing system. This means striving for good faith and fair dealing so as to contribute toward the efficacy of the exchange process as well as avoiding deception in product design, pricing, communication, and delivery of distribution.
I picked this piece out of the AMA statement of ethics because I believe it covers the whole scenario with the selling of the names very well. It mentions striving for good faith and fair dealing which is really the dilemma that John is having to deal with. He knows that the money would be very key to keeping his business a float still he must understand that if he were to sell the names it would be unfair to those who gave their names for the survey. Also this piece mentions avoiding deception. It is very clear to me that if John were to sell these names it would be a sort of deception. Those who took the survey were under the understanding that their information was to be used for gathering information and nothing else. If John were to sell the names then the car companies would be calling these individuals. Yes it is true that they are interested in buying a car, yet they may not want to be called or contacted until they first go to the dealership. Buying a car is a process that is very important and should be handled in a way that you know exactly what your getting into. The last thing you need is a car salesman calling you every day trying to get you to agree to something you truly don’t want.

Response to Brendan's Post

My response is to the question that Brendan asked at the end of his post that talked about professional athletes and them being role models. Who are the athletes you look up to, and would you want your child, or future child looking up to that same person?
First off I want to say that I do agree with some of the things that you said about how there are many professional athletes that do some pretty stupid things. You would think that if someone was a professional athlete they would be a little bit more cautious about the situations they put themselves in. I also have one thing to add and that is that you are going to have the bad people in any situation that you have in life whether it be professional athletics or simply life.
I am going to give you an example of two players in the NBA that have come from nothing and made themselves what I call role models and someone that I would want my child to look up too if they so choose. The two players are Lebron James and Kevin Garnett. In high school Kevin Garnett couldn't even afford shoes so he had to borrow some not to mention having to hide the fact that he was playing basketball from his mother. In Lebron's case he moved from housing development to housing development throughout his childhood in Akron, Ohio.
These two player play with such passion and effort that it is had for anyone who is watching to appreciate them. As an athlete you must appreciate the accomplishment of both players. They have set themselves apart from many in the league as two of the premiere players. They lead both of their team by example and are very active in there communities.
I believe that it is all up to the person on what they want to do with their lives. Professional athletes are given very unique opportunities to play the sports that they love. It is up to them whether they want to work hard and be a good athlete and human being or waste the opportunity they are given. I don't think you should make and assumption about a whole organization because a couple of bad seeds.
Do you think it is the decision of the person whether they want to be a role model or not?

Articles Response

I thought the discussion on direct mail verses e-mailing was very interesting. It noted that many companies had switched from the hand signed direct mailing to e-mailing because direct mail had gotten to costly. What they didn’t realize was the fact that customers really appreciated the idea of the direct mail and were concerned when they didn’t receive their cards. The benefits of direct mail are that they are much more appealing then an e-mail which would encourage more customers to take the time and read them. The other benefit is that by sending the direct mail firms are able to add a personal touch to the cards or special offers that larger companies may not be able to offer.
Barcodes seem like a good idea because as you are reading a magazine you are able to scan the bar code right off the page in the magazine and look into the item in more depth. One issue that I can see is the fact that people may not have and I Phone or Blackberry that has internet capabilities and a down load specifically for this process. I know that it mentions making the process possible for the simplest phones through texts, but it just seems unlikely to me.
I do believe that maybe some day e-marketing will that the place of direct mail, but I don’t think that it will happen for a long period of time. Everyday it seems like there is a new technology that makes something faster or more efficient which is good for this country, yet in the business world there are still going to be those people that want a personal connection to those who they are buying from. This is why I believe you will see a lot of companies using e-marketing along with direct mail so they can continue with the personal aspect of things.
The two business areas that come to mind when you think of successful direct mail marketing are Golf Courses and Car Dealerships. Every year right around Christmas time I always get a letter from the golf course that I play at saying they were very happy to have me as a member of the club and hope to see me back next year. Inside the letter is a list of the rates that they are going to be charging and a membership application to be filled in and sent back out. I know almost all of the people who work their by name so they fact that they take the time to send these out show a bit of appreciation and also makes me want to renew my membership with them the following spring.
The second area that I can see direct mail marketing working is in Car Sales. When you go out and spend anywhere from fifth teen thousand to forty thousand dollars on a new vehicular you expect to get some good treatment from the dealership. I am not saying they have to do big things for you, but it would mean a lot at least to me that they take the five minutes of their day to call me and ask me how my new truck is working rather then an e-mail. Even a letter sent to me would mean more then an e-mail they could be sending to hundreds of other customers at the same time. By doing this they could be adding a personal feel to the purchase and also make you feel better about going back to the same dealership when it is time again to get a new vehicle.

Should Facebook be fair Game?

I know that there are a lot of students at KSC that are a part of facebook. It is a great way to stay in touch with friends from home that go to other schools along with friends here at Keene State. Your are able to put personal information, and pictures from activities that you have been apart throughout your life. I think that facebook is a decent idea because I am able to keep in touch with my friends as i mentioned before.
There is one aspect of this that does concern me. Most of the students that are in our marketing class are either junior or seniors which means in the near future we are all going to be looking for a job that we can use the skills we have learned here at KSC. I know this sounds like it has nothing to do with Marketing or business but it really does. I was talking to my uncle who is Vice President for a company back in my home town. He had just had a conference with some individuals that showed them how to look someone up on the Internet specifically facebook.
The whole point of them looking people up was to check out people who had applied for jobs and see what they have been up too. I was really caught off guard by the fact that there really are companies that are doing this as a sort of back ground check for those who what to become a employee of that company.
Do you think this is a real fair or accurate things to measure and applicant by?

Response to Kyle's Post

This post is in response to the post that Kyle had about technology in this day and age. I completely agree with everything that was said. Kids these days are always inside playing their video games or talking to their friends on their cell phone instead of kicking a ball around the from yard or doing something active. This also is a factor in our nation being so obese, but that is and entirely different issue in itself. It is really surprising to me how young people are getting their children cell phones. I know we had a discussion about it in class and it is a topic in many house holds but kids that are in middle school don't NEED a cell phone.
The one other area that I want to talk about is the fact that technology could take the place of workers. Technology is getting so advanced that in some industries such as the machine industry there can be machines which can run without any human assistance. The real question is can we afford to lose anymore jobs than we already have. With the economy in the shape that it is the last thing we need is for many more jobs to be lost to machines.
My question is if you were a CEO of a business and these types of machines would help your business would you take the opportunity or leave the work for your workers instead of firing them?

Response to Mallory

I think that Mallory has hit the nail on the head. She said that companies need to take a little bit of a loss by not sending their work outside of the country. It is extremely important that companies in the United State take care of the people in our own country rather then save a few dollars which in turn will put thousand of people out of work across the country. I hope that many of the CEO's in companies across the United States have a similar mindset to that of Mallory because I think there are some points where CEO's forget to think of their employees and just make decisions based on how much money can be saved or made as a result of their decisions. Do you think CEO's can lose sight of important issues like this?

Should we be outsourcing?

Outsourcing can be a good outlet for companies that are looking to cut costs. This is done by sending manufacturing jobs out of the country to places where the supplies needed along with labor are both cheaper. It all sounds good, but we must stop and think whether this is the right thing to do during the economic times that we are suffering right now. If more and more companies were to take this route then that would mean lease jobs for those who live in the united states. It is clear that we can not afford to have any more people without jobs. Also if we are ever going to climb out of these trying times then we are going to need money to support ourselves. If you were a CEO would you outsource right now?

Environmentalism Response

I really do believe that it is very hard and expensive for companies to beocome eco-friendly. It takes extra effort, time, and valuable resources to sucessfully handle this kind of situation. There are serveral companies that are making an effort to move in this direction which is very good news from a consumers stand point.
I want to discuss a point that was brought up in a post that I read. It asked the question why has it taken companies this long to make an effor to become more eco-friendly. I do believe the key to this question is the fact that our world as a whole has recently become more aware of the issues that are unavoidable if we continue to use up the resources we have at today's current rate. So the fact that us the consumers are much more aware of the problems at hand it has forced companies to step up too the plate and do something about this problem.
Would you not purchase a product because the were NOT eco-friendly?

Environmentalism a threat or opportunity?

Is environmentalism a threat or an opportunity? I believe that this is a very tricky question. If you were to ask ten people it would be very easy to get ten completely different answers. There are some people that believe keeping the environment in mind while making business decisions it important and ethical. There are also those who believe you must make business decision soley based on the sucuess of your company.
Personally I believe that the most important thing you must do is make the decision that is best for the company that you are running along with the customers and employees that are accosiated with your company. I am not saying your should make decisions that are harmful to the environment on purpose because that is unethical, but it also doesn't have to be the deciding factor in all your decision.
Anther piece of this topic that I want to touch on is the area of which your company is involved. If you work for a company that makes Vitamin Water then they may want to make sure that they are more enviornmentally conscious. This is so because there is always a life style or perception that each company is try to portray. Therefore, if you are trying to protray the life style of being healthy and saving the eniornment and then make business decisions that contradict that then you may lose customer support.
To answer the question at hand I believe it depends on the environment, the message, and life style that the company is trying to portray wheather being environmentally friendly is important with regards to the sucess of the business. Does anyone else think this is true?

Advertising, Marketing, and Propaganda Response

I completely agree with all that Kyle said in his post about the three different terms. I do believe that they are all different, and have there different aspects. One thing that I have noticed is that these three terms are also very closely related. It seems that for an aspects like marketing to work to its best you must have a strong commitment to advertising to get the individuals aware or your product. The same goes for propaganda. If you are not able to convince people to purchase your product and use it through your marketing then you will not be able to continue on with propaganda. This is just an observation that I had. Does anyone else feel the same way?

Job searching and the 4 P's of Marketing

The product that I am in search for is that of a Job. The first of the three remaining P's that want to discuss is that of price. I am concerned about the price that I am going to get paid, because as we all know in these times money can we hard to come by. I know that as a new employee I can't expect to recieve alot of money right at the beginning, yet I also want to make sure that I will be recieving a wage that is reasonable for the skills that I have along with the work that I will be doing.
The second area that I have concerns with is distribution. I know that the location of the job I will have an opportunity to have might not be just down the street from my house, yet I want too make sure that its not too far away that it will start to effect the way I live. It would make my job alot less satifying if I had to comute two hours both ways, and with the way gas prices are I proubly would spend all of my pay checks on gas. It could be a deal breaker for me if I had to choose between two jobs with a conisderable difference in the distance.
The third and final area that I want to touch on is that of promotion. When I am looking for a job I want to make sure that the job I do decided to take is one that I can go to everyday have fun, and be proud of. I want to work for a company that promotes something good, and can have a positive impact on the area inwhich it is involved and the entire world.