Guerrilla Marketing

When talking about guerrilla marketing and how it "ambushes" the consumers with their product or advertisement when the consumers least expect it, it make me think of the Truth commercials. The two in particular that come to mind are the one where at a certain time everyone falls over in front of the tobacco company and the other one is like thousands of plastic babies are crawling around and if you pick it up it talks about being able to escape second hand smoke. These anti smoking adds really catch the bystanders off guard and are very effective.

Inventory Control

Inventory control is a way to ensure that the goods demanded by the consumers are readily available. Often times the inventory on record will be incorrect if the merchandise is not monitored regularly. At my summer job in a gift shop we did inventory twice a year for both the shop I worked in and the shop inside the hotel. Our numbers were always different then what was currently on record. Often times the variance was due to stealing or incorrectly damaging and transferring items. Since the shop had so many things, many of which were small items such key chains, better inventory control would entail doing a large scale inventory count more often throughout the year.

Distribution Center

As mentioned in class the goal of distribution centers or inventory rooms used to be to have everything very stocked. Now days companies have been able to minimize their amount of distribution centers and create a higher turnover rate for their products. The electronics company Panasonic previously had three parts distribution warehouses in the US. One in New Jersey, one in Texas and one in Washington. About 13 years ago Panasonic made the distribution center in Kent Washington the only parts distribution center and shut down the operations of the other two. This enabled costs to go down, revenue to go up, and for better control and efficiency.

Pricing

In class we discussed "what makes you pay the price?" and that really got me thinking. Everyone holds a different sense of value for how much a product is worth, so how does anyone settle on the perfect price? One thing that i came to realize is that a customer will pay the higher price when they feel a greater value for a product. Sometimes this can even be applied to a store, for instance Nordstrom's will capture their customers by being known for excellent customer service. Therefore even though the items are more pricier there then at other department stores, its ok because you feel so much more appreciated and respected when you leave. In addition to high quality service Nordstrom's invites customers that meet a set amount on their Norstrom's credit card to an exclusive Christmas party. Here they get the first look at upcoming sales while enjoying complimentary appetizers and champagne. Perks like that definitely help to set a high price that is easily met by loyal customers.

Variability

Variability of a service means that you can go and order the same type of service or product and have it taste or feel differently than the last time you experienced it. This is most common in service industries, as mentioned in the text people will often order the same mean they had before and it will taste differently then it had previously. Other instances that you would experience variability might be getting a massage, effects on your skin from tanning, purchasing produce or meat, interacting with a client etc. Although most businesses strive on consistent service throughout all their stores or cliental the truth is that absolute consistency is very uncommon. Many hotel and fast food chains guarantee the same satisfaction, pricing, customer service etc at all their establishments but that is generally not the case, especially with customer service.

Packaging

Although packaging had initially just the purpose of protection, instructions, and contents it is now much more then that. The packaging of a product is often a main selling strategy. Expensive jewelry HAS to come is a box that applies to the items, often times with a bow around the box, and then placed in a distinguishable bag. Therefore everyone will know where you just made your purchase. Tiffany & Co makes sure that their products packaging is very noticeable compared to their competitors. When you carry around your turquoise bag everyone notices what brand is associated with it, and it makes your feel good holding it.

Retro Brands

A retro brand is a well known brand that has been around for among time but continues to re-invent itself in order to stay popular. Nike has been around for about 40 years and is a well established sports brand. However just like "chuck taylors" for converse, the Nike Dunks have continued to be a popular product line throughout Nikes history. Being available in a high top and low top, this shoe has stayed popular by continuously redesigning its available colors and patterns. The Nike Dunks have gone from being strictly for the basketball players, to everyone for fashion, and are now creeping into the skateboard population. These shoes are here to stay!

Family Brand

A family brand is a brand that a group of individual products or individual brands share. This made me think of Clean & Clear facial products. Clean & Clear have an array of products from facial scrubs, blackhead treatment, oil removal pads, and medicated treatments. Even though they have multiple products for different types of stuff, everything is labeled with the big Clean & Clear logo. However, most people dont realize that Clean & Clear is a Johnson & Johnson product. Johnson & Johnson makes all kinds of "bathroom cabinet" products, including their baby products, listerine, Band-Aid, Tylenol etc. Each product carrying their own banded label. However the only true family brand line, is the Johnson's baby products.

Trialability

Trailability is the ease of sampling a new product or its benefits. This is most commonly witnessed in taking a car out for a test drive before purchasing it, but trialability takes place for all sorts of products and services. Gym's commonly advertise free week membership in hopes that you will decide to join after your week is up. Or allow members to have a limited number of "guest passes" in hopes that when their friend comes and tests out the gym they will like it enough to commit.

Target Market Strategies

When talking about target market strategies and segmentation we discussed things such as; who should your target market be? Where is there a need? What segment do you go after? Listening to this lecture made me think of my previous neighbor Ed Wyse. Ed was living in Chicago as a salesman when he discovered the need for african american beauty supplies. All the beauty supplies were targeted towards white women and so he found his 'niche.' Starting as an entrepreneur and having huge success he has grown to establish 24 beauty supply stores throughout Washington, Idaho, and Oregon over his life.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is defined as the business buying process of obtaining outside vendors to provide goods of services that otherwise might be supplied in-house. The parts warehouse in Kent for Panasonic used to be completely run and maintained by Panasonic employees. Due to the economy and tight budgets they were forced to release all the warehouse employees and hire employees under the Kelly Services company. This way the new workers were coming in being paid much less then the previous workers.

Learning to Tip

One of the terms addressed was the concept of learning. It is explained as "a change in behavior due to experience or acquired information." One of the first things that came to my mind was the act of tipping. I have herd that often times women are more generous tippers than men as a whole, and the reason for this is that women are more commonly found in service positions such as a waitress. It is these past experiences that cause them to tip more generously.

Causal Research

In the discussion of causal research, it is described as a lab research and an example could be changing the music at a grocery store. So this made me think of the gift shop that I worked at over the summer. We always had items for sale but rarely ever had a "sale" table. My manager found that having items for sale in normal priced sections is much more appealing to the customer than having an exclusive sale table. This eliminates the possibility of the customer clumping everything together as crap, instead of thinking that item is a good buy.

The Market for Hard Alcohol

This past week we have been talking a lot about Market research and figuring out what is the best way to sell your product. Jagermeister was developed in 1935 and a man named Sidney Frank received importing rights to it in the 80's. Through heavy advertisement and promotion of this liquor being the best drink in the world, it became a mainstream success. Frank then decided to create a premium vodka for Americans. Using market research to uncover the idea that Americans felt the French produced high quality goods, he put a team together in Europe to create Grey Goose. Although it was evident that Frank was a great advertiser through the success of Jager, it was his market research that led him to gain almost instant success with Grey Goose as well.

Stars, Cash Cows, Question marks, Dogs.

In class we discussed the market share matrix and compared the different categories to types of cars. So for my blog this week I thought I would come up with my own examples and hope that they are right. SOOO for my STAR I have the Panasonic brand to represent the Panasonic Plasma TV. Although there are a small amount of companies that make plasmas, I considered it a high growth rate market because everyone and everywhere has TVs and Panasonic is number one in plasmas. My cash cow is the Titleist Pro V 1 golf balls. In the low growth market of golf balls the Pro V 1 is a top ball not only within the titleist brand but of all brands and types. My Question Mark is the Cadillac Escalade because it is is in the high growth rate of vehicles but the product has come to be a miss in todays economy. Last but not least I have a portable CD player as my Dog. Peoples only listen to CDs on their Car stereo or in a Boom box, but even that is becoming uncommon.

The need for designer bands

In class we talked about "when you buy something, what are u really buying?" This made me think immediately about the need for designer brands. Sure you can say the designer jeans fit better then generic, or that designer purses and earrings are just "better quality" but that is often not really your purpose. When you wear these designer brands it is often the identity that you want to portray. Perhaps you want to be seen as classy, confident or wealthy. People often go to great lengths to appear to have the designer brand even when they don't. There is a store that i have been to before called Last Chance in Arizona that sells the returned items from Nordstroms at a very discounted rate. They will have juicy zip-ups for like 25 dollars, however even at that price it is hard to find the good stuff because people will come in and steal the little "J" zippers off the coats to put on their jacket at home. Although it seems crazy, i guess it really is that "feel good" response you get when you look the part that your want.