Response to Parker Haye's Post

How awesome are .99 Cent Arizona Iced teas? 

Arizona Ice Teas are the true north in the American economy. With the recession in the United States a lot of our beliefs in George Washington greenback have been shaken, nay rocked to their very foundation. We thought gas would never go above 3 dollars...we were wrong. We believed our dollar menu was unchangeable...yet here we stand, dollar burgers with no cheese, the wendy's junior bacon a buck 1.19, and proably worst of all 4 piece chicken nuggets 1.25 (you know we've hit a low when the most processed meal, possibly possessing 0% chicken, is more than a dollar. And yet, fear not Mr. Washington for there is hope . There is one thing that refuses to yield, one thing that will always be 99 cents--Arizona Iced Tea.

T-Mobile Deceptive Ads

T-Mobile announced last month a new type of wireless plan with no restrictions, no annual contracts and no asterisks attached. It now appears that this may not be entirely true. As the new plan stands customers must pay full price for their own phone, but could pay for it over time with a payment plan. The catch is that those who decide to go for the 24 month payment plan need to sign a wireless service agreement for the entire 24 months of pay the balance owed on the phone if the service is cancelled before the phone is paid off. Because of this T-Mobile has had to agree in court to end the advertising and refund customers who paid for phone equipment under this plan.

Companies that deceive customers risk getting found out which means they may have to pay back their customers, lose customers, and damage their public image. Why then do companies risk it? 

http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2013/04/25/17916413-t-mobile-ads-were-deceptive-washington-attorney-general?lite

Response To Greg Matthews post

So the question i'd like to bring up is why our generation so likely to not oppose or fight against music piracy? 

Our generation is not going to oppose or fight against music piracy because we all do it. Music Piracy is considered a normal way to get music and it's become so universally accepted by everyone as a way to get music that there's really nothing that can be done to stop it. It is gong to be up to the music industry to find another way to make money off of music because as time goes on less and less people are going to be paying for music.

Fortune 500 Hewlett-Packard Goes to the Dance Floor

Hewlett-Packard has decided to take a radical approach and invest in new toward coming up with new ideas for their computers.This approach is hiring dancers to motivate and get employees to think outside the box for new innovations. Dancers design dancers based around whatever the project is, enact the dance, and then answer any questions the employees have. Other companies are also implementing this tactic, with some of them giving the dancers an expanded role by having them give motivational speeches and helping improve customer interactions.

Do you think that this will help improve creativity and innovation for workers? Is there a better way to inspire and motivate employees to come up with new ideas?








http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/23/technology/innovation/trey-mcintyre-project-hewlett-packard/index.html?iid=HP_River

Response to Kerri Hinkle's Post

Do you think these new groups are an invasion of privacy or beneficial to Facebook users?
Why or why not?

I believe that it is not an invasion of privacy because anything you put on the internet is basically out there for the world to see. Facebook is, for the most part, a public social media site. It will be beneficial for companies to better understand their customers and be beneficial to the customer, however, it may also be negative in that it may lead to the customer to feel pestered or molested by the company that is trying to market their product to them. Overall though, it is up to the Facebook user to decide what they would like everyone to know about them and as soon as they post, like, or join a group they are telling everyone what they think about it. As long as all the company is doing is reading or analyzing what the user posted then they are not invading their privacy. 

The Fashion Industry

In an article by WellHeeled, an investigation into the markups and discounts of clothing are explored. The initial question is how is it possible for a company to make a profit if they are selling below the MSRP (manufacturer suggested retail price). What they discovered is that  the price gets marked up several times by the time it gets to the retailer from the manufacturer. That means that an item sold at a store may only cost them an eighth of the MSRP price to make. That is why a product that that starts out at an expensive designer, such as Ralph Lauren, at high price can eventually be found later at a discount store or wholesaler for half the price and that store is still capable of making a profit. It is interesting to note that the article does not answer it's own question and only gives a vague hypothesis.


Do you believe that the initial price of clothing is established with the belief that the clothing will not be sold at that price so that the store may offer discounts to make the customer believe they are getting a better value? Do you believe, as a customer, that you would be getting as good a value or as good a quality product if they started at the lowest discount price?



http://www.wellheeledblog.com/2009/08/22/profit-margins-in-fashion-industry-banana-republic/

Response to Will Redding's Best Buy Question

Do you think this is a good market strategy for Best Buy? Do you think this policy will help with Best Buy's poor stock performance? 

I believe that it is a good strategy to decrease the loss of sales of their physical store locations. The question will be in the effective implementation and marketing of this new policy. I had no idea that they had changed their policy to that and it appears that as of now they have not openly marketed this policy. The major area of concern will be where do they cut off matching the price of online competitors (some of them sell at wholesaler or manufacturer pricing) and Best Buy will not be able to stay profitable if they match those extremely low discounted  prices.

Marketing JC Penney

             JC Penney finds itself in a crisis as they have reported losses in sales of 25 percent, share price reduced in half, and a 522 million dollar loss. These losses have caused them to fire CEO Ron Johnson and seriously reevaluate their marketing strategy. under Johnson, JC Penney removed their coupon and discount sales and altered the image of their relate stores as mini stores within a store. The new objective of JC Penney will be to continue this remodelling while also bringing back their old customer base they lost. This dire situation that JC Penney has found itself is the perfect situation for a marketer or PR specialist to come into and become the hero. The only question is what is the next move for JC Penney in order to get back into become competitive again.

If you were a marketing professional for JC Penney what would you recommend the company and what direction to take? 




http://www.nbcnews.com/business/what-jc-penney-must-do-fix-itself-1C9284003

Response to Drew Farrar's blog

Do you think public service announcements are beneficial? Why or Why not? 

          I believe that public service announcements are beneficial. While they obviously don't have the money backing the advertisements like the advertisements by companies, people know that the purpose of the advertisement is to inform. Also the bias is not to sell a product but rather to improve the general welfare and welbeing of the individual viewer and society as a whole. Most people know that and that allows the advertisement to resonant stronger with the audience because they are not as wary of being lied to or tricked.

Samsung Vs. Apple Cell phone Battle

                  Samsung and Apple are in total war in the smartphone market. Apple in one corner with the reliable, tested, and true iphone; Samsung in the other corner with the more advanced Galaxy. The latest battle waged between these cell phone titans took place in the courts, where apple sued Samsung and won major victories over their patent designs. The patents were over touchscreen technology and the generic look of a smartphone. The Galaxy SIII and other android and googled powered phones have lost major ground, as they now risk being sued for future phones that use touchscreens and the standard rectangular look that almost every smartphone has.While Samsung has staggered back significantly, they are now back on the offensive through various marketing tactics and one simple message. That message: it doesn't take a genius to see the the Galaxy S III is better than the iphone 5. In fact all the ads Samsung has for the GSIII in print, internet, and television exist only to educate the consumer on the features both phones have. Apple fired back in their marketing campaigns by mocking their competitors attacks and focusing on the advantages of the iphone. While on paper samsung appears to have a better phone and a great marketing strategy for it, long term they may find themselves unable to compete with apple if they can't overturn the verdict for the touch screen patent. Consumers will also find long term problems as well, with the risk of existing products that infringe on the patent risk being removed and companies having to pay for the licensing agreement. Basically consumers will have less choice and have to pay higher prices.

Do you believe that the verdict on the patent infringements by apple's competitors should stand Why/Why not? Also do you think Apple's competitors will be able to compete against apple without the touchscreen feature that has become standard to all smartphones and all users.

• http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/business/media/samsung-apple-fight-moves-to-the-marketing-arena.html?_r=0

• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/24/apple-samsung-lawsuit-verdict_n_1829268.html

Response to Pam Galante's Post

Has a negative stereotype or expectation of a specific group of people ever caused you to not buy a product? What about completely boycott a company because of their actions? 

The only company I have ever gone out of my way to not buy from is NEstle becuase of the plethora of illegal activities they've conducted and are continuing to conduct. usually I do not go out of my way to find the ethics of a company to determine which company i am going to go to to buy a product. Neslte is the only exception for me and the only reason I even found out about their unethical practices was from a report a student did for school. After that I looked into the company and decided that if I can help it i will pick their competitors over them.

Pizza Hut Crazy Cheesy Crust

Pizza Hut has an answer to get bigger sales and increase profits...More cheese. This answer has inspired a new pizza that The chain on Wednesday is introducing a new pizza that comes surrounded by 16 semi-circles of cheese that can be pulled off and eaten separately. The "Crazy Cheesy Crust," which will be available for several weeks, is 16 half circle breadsticks with cheese on them. Pizza Hut has always been know for pushing the limits and possibilities of crust and cheese, and this latest creation may very well be the "monalisa" of cheesy crust pizza they've been working toward. it will be interesting to see if they can market it in a way that makes it the new standard of their pizzas.

How and to who should Pizza Hut market this new pizza to, and what techniques should they implement?

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/pizza-hut-rolls-out-crazy-cheesy-crust-1C9157768

Response to Jocelyn Fredrick's Lean In Post

            

Do you think it is important for woman to be working together to make a stand in a man’s world? 



               While I'm not sure how these "Oprah sessions" work or how one would go about to get into one, I do believe that it is important for women to work together to make a stand in a "man's" world. There is a large disparity between men and women in the workplace that favor the men and (speaking from a male perspective) men are not going to go out of their way to fix the gap. Life is full of inequalities that a person is given at birth; it will only be changed by those that must endure those inequalities. For inequalities between men and women that means that women must be the ones to change and fight these inequalities, not men. Seriously, if you have an advantage over your competition are you going to go out of your way to "level" the playing field? That's a rhetorical question by the way because the answer to that is NO. If that's not your answer then you, my friend, are in for a rough trip as a business major. This "book club" kind of social group will increase women's connections within the business world and bring them one step closer to and equal playing field with men.

Sex Sells for Airlines

                  In an article by Ramy Inocencio Frances Cha the age old question of "do sexy flight attendants sell seats" is asked. The answer for the Thailand airline, Nok Air, seems to be yes. Early in the year they began a campaign with a photo shoot of their flight attendants in bikinis (for those who don't know, Nok Air's flight attendants start their job at the age of 23 with beauty and weight regulations, and don't last more than 5 years on average). They posted the shoot on Facebook and immediately received 200,000 likes. It also increased their international passenger percentage from 10% to 18% and created huge publicity for the small domestic airline.  While the "sexy" stewardess has long gone the way of the dinosaur in America and most countries in Europe, it is standard practice in Asia. Most airlines in Asia have similar unofficial requirements for their stewardesses and aviation schools of the region preach physical fitness. For me personally I do not take issue with this. The labor pool to pick from is so vast that airlines can make whatever requirements they want and there will still be too many qualified applicants to hire. While there are moral and ethical issues behind such practices, there is no legal issue at stake. Nok Air and other Asian airlines are trying to be more appealing to their target market and they feel that this way is the best way to do so. Who are we to say they're wrong?

My question to whoever read what I wrote is this:
Do you believe that there should be laws in place to stop this? Also (if you are against the above mentioned practice) in America why aren't there laws that don't prevent models from having unofficial physical requirements?

Or, with the above question in mind, answer me this:

 If a company is trying to promote or create an image for themselves what makes it acceptable/unacceptable for them to promote/create it?  

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/20/travel/asia-flight-attendants/index.html?iref=allsearch 

Response to Gina Palomba's Post

Do you think reference groups reduce the search and evaluation of decisions? 

Speaking from a personal perspective i believe reference groups do reduce search and evaluation. The first source of information I go to in deciding a product to purchase are my friends. I go to them first because I know time personally and know that the only bias they have with products are from their personal experience with that product. With expensive or long term products, like a laptop, I may then go to other unbiased sources such as personal reviews or third party and specialist reviews of product. Overall though in any product in which I need help in evaluating a product I will go through primary reference groups.

Zip Code now considered Private Information

          In an article by A. Pawlowski of NBC news two states have declared that asking for an individuals zip code violates their privacy laws. The reasoning behind this is that companies are using people's zip code, along with the other information the customer provides, to find out the customer's address, phone, number, and other personal information. With this information they can bombard the customer with advertisements such as catalogs, discount cards, and other such marketing techniques. While the article does not go into identity theft, it is another aspect of this issue that should be considered. If companies can take that information to find where someone lives, how much would that information help someone steal your identity? While I have never considered my zip code as personal information--if it can be used to track where someone lives and make it easier to attain personal information that would otherwise be unknown to someone--it appears that with the continuous advances in technology it is just as important to protect as personal information. It also makes me wonder what other seemingly benign information that I wouldn't hesitate to give out can be used to get my personal info and steal my identity.

 http://www.nbcnews.com/business/should-you-tell-stores-your-zip-code-privacy-advocates-say-1C8912007

A company asking for a zip code is just another tool they use to better understand and target their customer. Do you believe that companies should be allowed to ask for zip codes or do you think it should be considered personal information and why?   

Response to Allison Ray's post

Have you ever gone to buy something online, and once you see the shipping price decide not to buy it anymore? Are you more likely to search for a product offered on a website with free shipping site wide, rather than a website not offering free shipping site wide? 

I have shopped online and and decided not to buy something because of the shipping price. The only reason I chose to buy online over going to the store is because there is a significantly cheaper price. The shipping cost only factors into buying something if it makes the overall cost is more than or close to the regular price of the item at store value. This usually type of scenario happens when i need something rushed. If I need it rushed, but the price for it is more or about the same as the price at the store, I will always buy it from the store. Like any consumer I am more likely to shop at an online store if there is free shipping than one without free shipping. I have also at times bought more items than i originally intended because the store offers free shipping/free express shipping if you buy a certain amount.

Branding in America

          The article by Naomi Klen about how branding has entered every part of American culture. It was interesting to look at elections, war, and politics from a marketing perspective. Normally you don't think of war from a marketing perspective, but with the amount of coverage possible today to show citizens back home what is happening over there it is important to market the war so that the government continues to get support. Learning from the Iraq War, the government changed their marketing tactics to make it and strategy so that they gain support not only from people back in the United States but also in Afghanistan. With the "Hearts and minds" campaign the marketing tactic has been not show strength, but rather aid. Through marketing their brand which this philanthropic approach the American government is attempting to garnish support from the locals to win the war.             

 Even though branding is usually exclusive with corporations it seems that there is branding with everything in the world, from religion to individuals. Can you think of other areas that practice branding and how do they do it?









http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/16/naomi-klein-branding-obama-america

Response to Parker Hayes Post

Do you think government agencies are always thinking about what is best for the consumers? Or is there something or someone else at the top of their priority list?

I believe that government agencies are not always thinking best about consumers. In any type of system of structure that involves money and power there will always be some form of existence of corruption. No structure is perfect, and thus even in government agencies policies and rules will be put in place that will not have whats best for the customer in mind, but what's best for the company. While these imperfections are unavoidable the existence for these agencies is still necessary because without them then there would be no one thinking about what is best for the consumer in ethical terms. While companies do self regulate, it is more the fear of getting caught doing something wrong and paying for it than the actual well-being of the customer--especially when it could negatively affect their profits.  

Losing Manufacturing

             In a recent article by Katy Barnato of MSNBC a US CEO told the French people why he will not invest in tire factories in France. Maurice Taylor, CEO of tire manufacture Titan, replied "How stupid do you think we are ... Titan is going to buy a Chinese tire company or an Indian one, pay less than one Euro per hour wage and ship all the tires France needs, You can keep the so-called workers." When asked if he was interested in purchasing a Goodyear tire factory that was going to close and put 1,000 workers out of work in Amiens, France. This trend of manufacturing jobs going overseas to countries like China and India is a problem not just in France, but in most of the developed countries of the world.
             More and more businesses send their manufacturing away because the costs to keep a domestic plant are too expensive, with high employee wages and government restrictions. While the manufacturing jobs going overseas means the customer has to pay less for what they want; it means the customer is out of a job. Much of middle class America was founded in blue collar jobs—jobs that are disappearing. Today it seems that the middle-class workforce of America is white collar. The problem is—or rather the question—are there enough white collar jobs to sustain the American middle-class population?  Looking to America's neighbors in Europe, the answer appears to be NO. Since the industrial revolution employment and prosperity of a nation has rested in the manufacturing sector, and while we believe we've moved onto the next revolution with the internet, that fact hasn't changed.
             The European Union's unemployment rate is 11%, France's is over 10%, Italy 11%, German 5.5%, United Kingdom 7.7%, Spain 26.2%. The United States is 7.8% as of now. As for the countries that these manufacturing jobs are going to: China 4.1%, India 3.8%, and Vietnam 2.9%. As demand for companies to have workers in the United States and Europe decreasing it appears the governments need to find a new way to market their workforce to a company.

Do you believe that a country’s prosperity is tied directly to its manufacturing industry? Why/Why not? How can countries like Spain and France re-market their workforce to attract business back to their country?

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/us-ceo-france-you-can-keep-your-so-called-workers-1C8448612

Response to kristin Shea's Generation Y Post 2/13

Do you find yourself in need of a constant new item or toy? Do you find yourself to be a big spender or saver? 

              I find that for me personally I consider myself to be a saver. To me it is more important to have money in the bank for unexpected events and obstacles than to have the latest gadget. While most of our generation grew up as children in an age of American prosperity the recent recession that has affected this whole nation has changed many within our generation from  spenders to savers. Especially within these last five years the value of a dollar is better understood by our generation and the realization that it is better to be comfortable and not worry about money or debt than to have an expensive or new product. While this is not true for everyone I think more people, not just in our generation but in every generation, have noticed a change in their spending habits and have become more wary and frugal with spending.

Regulations 2/13

Do you believe self regulation is more or less effective than governmental regulatory agencies?  Why?



           Self regulation is more effective than governmental regulatory agencies. A company can look internally and assess the ethics and legalities of its own business better than a Government agency because a company's sole interest is in its actions; whereas a government agency has to look over every company, and thus are more likely to miss an unethical practice. Evidence that self-regulation works better that governmental regulations can be found in companies that used to be unethical and made steps to make themselves the top ethical company’s in the country such as GE and GAP. Companies like Nestle are working on their own to try to leave behind their notorious reputation and become more ethical demonstrate the success of self regulation. The main reason self regulation is more effective is that companies that truly self regulate and have become ethical not only follow the law and do no harm to the community, but they are actually helping improve it. The difficulty is in making a company self regulate itself.

 Companies such as Monsanto, Enron, Phillip Morris USA, and Halliburton are companies that refuse to self regulation even with the penalties they receive from government agencies. Phillip Morris, the largest cigarette company in the United States, didn’t put Surgeon General’s warning label on their cartons until government regulations forced them. the government also had to force them to no longer sell cigarettes in vending machines or be marketed toward children in any manner. in the past 20 years Monsanto has sued farmers that use their seeds for saving seeds from one season's crop to plant the next, which is a standard farming practice. They also tried to patent pig breeding techniques so that any farmer who bred pigs would have to pay Monsanto a gratuity. Monsanto has also been sued for dumping of toxic waste, committing corrupt foreign practices, and the harm that some of their chemical products has cause the community.  It is for these types of companies that don't self regulate that the governmental agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, and Consumer Product Safety Commission exist to at least make sure that the company is not harming society. 

 Government Regulations have only existed and been implemented in a relatively short amount of time. Since then many companies have become more environmentally, socially, and ethically conscious. Do you think there will ever be a time when we won't need government regulations? Why?