EOC Week 7: Pitch Air Freshener

http://www.febreze.com/en-us/product-group/febreze_extreme_odor_eliminator.aspx

Febreeze Sport Extreme Odor Eliminator

The point of this EOC is to pitch an idea of an existing product to men. To be more specific to have men buy the item for themselves.Air freshener is an item typically bought by women on their routine visits to the super market. It is my intent to market air freshener to men by making it an important part of their daily lives. I believe that by creating an angle that men can relate to promote a need to buy air freshener they will in fact buy air freshener. The one thing that binds all men together is their need to impress women and make the other men look less manly than themselves. How can I exploit that fact to create the need to buy air freshener? Air freshener is to become the new “air of masculinity”. When a woman enters a man’s house his “air of masculinity” captivates her. When she is seated in his automobile, his “air of masculinity” beseeches her. In fact, his “air of masculinity” follows him around even when he is not at home or in his car. The “air” is so powerful that it even causes other men to become jealous and have feelings of inferiority around the “air fresh” man. Women want him, and men want to be him but they do not understand why. It is just “something about him” that they are all drawn to. It’s the “air” around him that causes the reaction from men and women alike to either love or despise him. It’s something “in the air”. It’s air freshener that creates the “air of masculinity” around him.

EOC Week 6: 9 Apps

The world of phone apps is ever expanding throughout the market. There is just about an app for anything you can think of. Here are three apps that I believe to be great,  Urbanspoon, iShred LE, and -9-Tool Box. Urbanspoon helps with the ever important question, ‘what are we going to eat’. The app suggest restaurants that meet your criteria for type of food, location and cost. Or, if you're completely undecided, just give it a shake and see what comes up. (howstuffworks).  It also links to the phone’s GPS to locate the restaurant for you. Because I am a musician it is always important to get your ideas down when they come to you. Not always easy to do. IShred LE allows you to make music with your iPhone in a realistic way. The app uses actual guitar sound samples and passes them through your choice of eight effects pedals and a simulated amplifier. (howstuffworks) I am definitely getting this one. 9-Tool Box is an all in one app that can actually be helpful in getting stuff done. It includes a currency converter, date calc, Days until, Holidays, two inclinometer, Loan, My Girl’s Day, Tip Calc, Units, and price grab. Now for three not so great apps. Girlfriend caller is an app that allows you to set up one number for speed dial. That’s it. Help Me is an app that allows you to speed dial emergency numbers. I guess 911 is too long. Pour one out is app that allows the user to pour a virtual 40 ounce of beer. Wow. If I were to develop an app it would be one that would link to Avid’s Media Composer to let me know when files are done exporting. That would be sweet.

EOC Week 5: Best and Worst Superbowl Commercials

If we are discussing the 2011 Super Bowl Commercials, best and worst I think we should start with the best. In my opinion it has to be the Volkswagen ‘Darth Vader’ commercial. I have to admit my take on why I enjoyed this one so much has nothing to do how funny it was or anything like that. It was the sound! Or should I say the lack of sound. The commercial had no dialogue and was solely dependent on its soundtrack. The entire commercial was based on music that moved the story along. The music rises and falls to create feeling and movement that you do not typically see in commercials anymore. It had humor, and really portrayed the vision from a child’s perspective. The interaction between the objects and the child were fantastic. Check it out <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/R55e-uHQna0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>.  This commercial will definitely stand the test of time as being one of the best.  Well since we talked about he best commercial, lets look at the worst. The Go Daddy commercial featuring Danica Patrick and Jillian Michaels was just so cliché and dumb. I have to admit that I think most of their commercials are bad, but this one really tanked. I understand they are trying to capitalize on Patrick’s and Michael’s sex appeal but really what was the point. It was just a re-hash of all the other “naked” girl commercials they do that really go nowhere. Until I actually went to their site, I was not really sure of the services they provided. I love beautiful women just as much as the next guy, but this is just ridiculous. Maybe it would have been good if they would have done a spin off the previous commercials. No sense of creativity shown. <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/WqbTpzoagRk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Week 4 EOC: Business to Business Consumer Marketing

When analyzing any market companies must first begin by knowing their demographic, and the particular needs of that demographic. In the consumer market the factors that influence their buying is based any many things. For instance, cultural factors, personal factors, and psychological factors. As the Armstrong and Kotler explain in Marketing: An Introduction, “It requires a deep-down understanding of customer needs and customer-driven marketing strategies that create superior customer value. But that’s about where the similarities end. (reference to business to business). The action of buying from a company’s standpoint can be a long arduous process that requires approvals from many levels. The buying process for the consumer consists of need recognition, information search, and evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and post purchase behavior. The process for B2B is much longer including proposal solicitation, supplier selection, orders routine specifications, and performance reviews. The consumer also goes through stages of adoption and diffusion. The process of awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, and adoption are part of the consumer experience. In the B2B world there is much more scrutiny involved in this process, which requires many more checks and balances by businesses. In a B2B situation, we see many more influences that the consumer would not have to think of, such as political or regulatory issues. Organizational factors such as procedures and such come into play. The normal consumer does not usually have to think of such things. The business market can be looked at as a few larger companies buying in volume from a manufacturer, rather than a number of smaller companies buying in smaller volume. These companies again have to scrutinize every aspect of buying in bulk, looking at factors such as cost, efficiency, and reliability. These factors are fostered by the manufactures and the business to business relationships they develop.

EOC Making Money for Good

Companies that give to charities, or have direct philanthropy are far more prevalent than people think. It is important to understand that companies can benefit financially through donations and/ or philanthropy through expanding their company’s vision and name in the world. According to Forbes.com "Corporate 'philanthropy' is a really misnomer, because it benefits the company through a number of different ways," says Indiana University's Burlingame, who prefers "corporate citizenship."  (Forbes.com)  One of the best companies known for its philanthropy is Target, owned by Dayton Company, a founding member of the 5% club, which donates 5% of its earnings back to the community.  The following companies are known for their donations around the world, Coca-Cola Fund: $1 million to the Red Cross, United Parcel Service Inc: $1 million in aid, half in cash and half in services,  Lowe’s Cos Inc: Donating $1 million to the Red Cross, Google Inc: Donating $1 million, Bank of America Corp: $1 million, Abbott Laboratories: $1 million in humanitarian aid, including donations of medicines and nutritional products. (http://www.businesspundit.com).  It is easy to see why companies would donate to charities, because of the social implications that go with it. If a company looks bad to the public for something they have done, then they will sometimes make donations to that group to show the public that they do care. It is important to make a good public image to the world, and maintain a high level of integrity. I hate to think of charity as buying something, but for some companies it is. On the other hand you have companies like TOM Shoes that make it a part of their business model to donate to charity. These companies perform at the highest level of charity in my opinion. Who goes into business to give parts of their profits away? Good ones.

Week 3 EOC; My Demographics

Generation X, is defined by, “The 45 million people born between 1965 and 1976 in the “birth dearth” following the baby boom.(Marketing: An Introduction Armstrong & Kotler). This are my people. To truly understand Gen Xers are defined by the following, “defined as much by their shared experiences as by their age. Increasing parental divorce rates and higher employment for their mothers made them the first generation of latchkey kids. Although they seek success, they are less materialistic; they prize experience, not acquisition. For many of the Gen Xers that are parents, family comes first—both children and their aging parents—and career second (Marketing: An Introduction Armstrong & Kotler). I have to admit I hit almost every criteria in this statement. My wife and I (both Gen Xers) grew up on opposite sides of the country but still share so many experiences it’s scary.  As far as divorce, I was fortunate to have my parents stay married, only to separated by death. I didn’t know as a child that I was a latchkey kid to many years later as an adult. I thought caring for myself was something that “big boys” did. I have never been materialistic. I am not sure if that is a product of my generation or my parents practical sensibilities, but it exist. Experience has always been key. My younger friends remark to me all the time, “what haven’t you done”. I have never had much, but to be honest, things always seemed like more trouble than they were worth. Being a good son, has always been very important to me. At times more important than my own happiness. As I watched my mother pass away last year the first thought that came to my head was, taking care my father.

Week 2 EOC: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

According to the above mentioned article the video game industry is suffering in the current economic market. The value for video games seems to be in question. People seem to be downloading more games for phones and other handheld units rather than buying game consoles. “ … higher sales from used games, digital downloads, games for smart phones and games played over social networks kept video game content sales at $15.4 billion to $15.6 billion for 2010, flat with 2009.” (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Video-Game-Sales-Decline-in-zacks-3332226628.html?x=0&.v=1)  The consoles are very over priced and the more they require add on’s  to play these games seems to be driving the industry further down. According to seeking alpha.com, “declining hardware sales, which declined 13.0% year over year to $6.29 billion “(http://seekingalpha.com/article/247116-video-game-sales-decline-in-2010). As a parent it is impossible to keep up with all the add on’s for each console but it makes more sense to allow my child to play a free game on the internet. According to casualgaming.biz, “The free Lite version of Angry Birds has been downloaded more than 11 million times; YouTube videos relating to the game have topped six million views; and more than 77% of players grab updates when they're made available. (http://www.casualgaming.biz/news/30380/Angry-Birds-iPhone-passes-65m-sales-milestone). Gaming consoles have been a cash cow for a very long time. No longer is this the case. With the IPad, and various multi-format phones that are available there is not that direct need to have a true gaming console. The video game companies need to look at gaming from a different point of view if they want to capture the ever growing market of internet gaming. The ability to enjoy these games, especially for families on the go (such as mine) requires something new. Something to be accessed anywhere, anytime, at the touch of a button.