Week 5 EOC: Social Networks and Job Hunting

Business' are now starting to try and find employees through the social networking website of Facebook. While it has not grown very rapidly quite yet. There are people who believe it will sky rocket. And why not? I personally believe it is a smart idea for companies to start looking for employees on Facebook. With today’s digital age there are not many companies that still handle paper or even kiosk applications. And while applications are on the internet, people have to put their personal information and resume’s onto unfamiliar job sites, or search directly for a company and hope they have an online application. Facebook however, people are on it mostly every day. It is where they connect with their friends and family and play games and post pictures. So why not while they are already on a website they love, go send resume’s to companies too. In reading the article, however, there was one thing that I did notice, people tend to be a lot more relaxed about what they put on their Facebook account, but, when searching for a job you need to be professional. In my opinion if the idea of companies hiring people from Facebook takes off, people should consider making a secondary Facebook account that isn’t so let loose. However, this is a great idea. Most companies, such as McDonald’s or Sony etc., already are on social networks anyway, this would simply be another way of putting your company out their more.
"But if current growth trends continue, Facebook could rival traditional job boards in 2012, said Jobs2Web analytics manager Phil Schrader. Matt Mund, Monster.com's vice president of product management, acknowledged that Facebook as a recruiting platform is growing rapidly." The Wall Street Journal Joe Light
" Once selected, the ambassadors are trained with real brand knowledge to go along with their passion for the brand. The ambassadors then tap into friends, family, groups, and broader audiences through personal conversations, blogs, live events, and online social media." Marketing Armstrong/Kotler Pg 143

Week 4 EOC: Business to Business

 GE sells products such as refrigerators, light bulbs, clothes and many other appliances. These are bought by regular every day consumers. These consumers will possibly do a little bit of research. Look at cost and quality of other products, will look at them and compare in stores but ultimately right then and there the decision on what is to be purchased is made right there. "GE’s consumer products contribute less than one-third of the company’s total $183 billion in annual sales? To the surprise of many, most of GE’s business comes not from final consumers but from commercial and industrial customers across a wide range of industries." Marketing Armstrong/Kotler Pg 158 Most of GE's  consumers come from commercial business. The difference between every day consumer and business to business is the length of time it takes to make a decision on the on which company, the money spent, and the bulk amount of what is to be purchased. Companies will more or less take more time to decide which product is best by which company. They way pros and cons much more carefully. They will research products for months with many people on board to do so as well. This isn't as simple as picking out which appliance will work best in someone's kitchen, this is a company spending millions of dollars on a product that is needed to do business or even personal for a company. "Rather  than selling to large numbers of small buyers, GEsells to a few very large buyers. Whereas it might be disappointing when a refrigerator buyer chooses a competing brand, losing a single sale to a large business customer can mean the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in business." Marketing Armstrong/Kotler Pg 158 Such as in buying locomotives from GE. A company has to way pros and cons such as fuel efficiency, value, use, reliability, or performance. Buying a GE locomotive is to spend two million dollars or more. So this is not an easy decision. "Also, with GE’s business customers, buying decisions are much more complex. An average consumer buying a refrigerator might do a little online research and then pop out to the local Best Buy to compare models before buying one" Marketing Armstrong/Kotler Pg 158

 

Week 3 EOC: My Demographics

Millennials (or Generation Y)

The 83 million children of the baby boomers, born between 1977 and 2000. - Marketing Armstrong/Kotler Pg 73

The Millennials, larger than the baby boomers in World War 2, make up a huge attractive market. Millennials  have a common comfort with digital technology. It happens to just be a way of life because that is what we grew up with. A recent study shows 91 percent of Millennials are on the web making up 32 percent of the population. This is definitely something I agree with. While my age group still did play outside as young children, we also grew up into the world of technology were most of us had a cell phone at the age of 10 and   the internet in our house. While the technology is changing into flat screens, smartphones and tablets, the technology is nothing new and easy to comprehend because in a way our generation evolves with the technology. I have to say as much as I do agree with these statistics I also partially disagree. A lot of this generation was still born in the 80’s or me in 1992. In my age class we were still playing outside. We would ride bikes, roller skate, play house outside, kick the soccer ball, play street hockey, play tag in our neighborhood. The most digital thing I can remember was an old school computer and digi pets (Key chain pets that had a little digital face). We still had tape players and furbys and beanie babies. While cell phones became more popular while I was 10 so I was still young enough to grow into the digital everything age, I still had the outside world when I was younger. 

Week 3 EOC: Making Money for Good

Paul Newman's company, Newman's Own, takes the profit from the sale of their products to charity. All of the after tax money is given to Newman's Own Foundation which around the globe and in the U.S. has raised over $350 Million and has been given to thousands of charities since 1982. Newman's Own Foundation supports the National Military Family Association, National Alliance for Hispanic Health, Green Chimney's, SeriousFun Children's Network and much more. Newman's Own is all about supporting people with great ideas that can transform lives and do great things. The first time I had heard of Newman's Own doing charity was when it was publicisized on the television show "The Biggest Looser". They had a competion (in 2012) where the seven standing contestants had to load 30,000 pounds of Newman's Own product into trucks (Number of pounds total lost on The Biggest Looser". After the competition Newman's Own had decided to go to each one of the contestants home towns to donate 60,000 pounds of their product to each towns Feeding America Food Banks. Since, and before, then Newman's home has done wonderful things, giving money to needed charities, donating food to the hungry and so much more to give back the amazing oportunities this company has been given.
"What could be better than to hold your hand out to people who are less fortunate than you are" - Paul Newman
http://newmansownfoundation.org/

Week 2 EOC: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

In the world of gaming consoles, once popular systems have taken a turn on the BCG scale (Boston Consulting Group). For starters the Xbox while considered high on demand and Microsoft trying to constantly refine and update new games, the Xbox has now found a plateau. The growth rate for the Xbox has pretty much stopped with nowhere to go and the market share while still making money is in the end going nowhere. At this point they have landed themselves in the "Cash Cow Market"

“Xbox 360…quickly capitalized on a strong demand that translated into continued sales growth. Without looking back, Microsoft has continually made refinements and improvements to the Xbox 360” http://video-game-consoles-review.toptenreviews.com/xbox-360-pro-review.html

The PS3 has also landed itself in the cash cow place. While the Play Station 3 has done much better than the Xbox, there is not much farther it can go. They did revolutionize game systems by putting in the Blu-ray format, and Sony has mentioned bringing streaming to the PS4 but for now the Play station word is stuck in the Growth rate. 

“The PS3 has taken a step beyond the typical range of video game consoles to offer full compatibility with the popular Blu-ray format while also enhancing its online capabilities. In other words, the PS3, with its online capabilities and excellent gaming features, is capable of serving as the anchor for any entertainment center.” http://video-game-consoles-review.toptenreviews.com/ps3-review.html

The one thing that seems to be holding up in the gaming industry are tablet and mobile games. This is because of the fact that they are mobile and instead of getting caught up on a long and tedious story line they can have a quick short spurt of fun. 

“The rapid spread of smartphones and tablet computers over the past few years, coupled with faster cellular-network speeds, is changing the business model for games played on mobile devices. Instead of selling apps as a one-time purchase, a new global audience has enabled the rise of "freemium" games—titles that are free to download with options to make in-game purchases for new weapons or other virtual goods.” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303410404577463990080511160.html

Week 1 EOC: Great Customer Service

I myself am a very particular kind of person with a certain personality. When I think of great customer service I not only look for how well they can help me find what I need or get what I want the best they can but to also match my tone and personality. I love finding someone who is easy going and comfortable to talk to and most likely a sense of humor. Finding this person is in fact difficult which means I don't have many great customer service experiences. But one imparticular happens to be at my dads favorite restraunt. Chippewa Family Restraunt in Wisconsin. There is one waiter there, not only is he on top of everything, refilling your drinks, making sure you have what you need, but he is also very sociable. He is easy going and actually takes the time to interact with you. Because my dad goes there so often, this man doesn't just treat him like any other customer but like he is apart of the family at the restraunt. 
"Most marketers, however, give the concept of customer relationship management a broader meaning. In this broader sense, customer relationship management is the overall process of building and maintaining profitable customer relationships by delivering superior customer value and satisfaction." Marketing Armstrong/Kotler Pg 13

Week 1 EOC: My Voice

A professional in advertising v.s. a professional in marketing. Is there a difference? Very much so. An advertising professional knows their product and finds a way to sell that product. A marketing professional knows their customer base and sell a product to fit the customer. I am the advertising professional. I can throw my own artistic spin on the need to sell a product. I create a design for a product, promote it, and therefor sell it. On the other hand I have a decent background in customer service. I have an instinct to meet customer’s needs. To find what makes them happy and go full force to do what I can to satisfy their need. The greatest time I had doing this was being a concierge for a flash sale high end website. In my professional career I have both of these backgrounds to my advantage. Not only can I make a product pop, become eye catching and make you want to buy it, I’ll also look into what makes you happy about a product. I am delighted to put both of my backgrounds to the test and see what comes of it for my careers future.