Final Exam (Fund. Of Advertising)

                I am definitely leaving this class with more knowledge about advertising than when we started. I’ve learned how advertising works, and what it takes to make an advertisement successful. Advertising has taught me to look outside of the box when it comes to creativity. This class has taught me that communicating to inform customers about products and services goes beyond just promotion and a catchy tag line. I’ve learned how to determine strengths and weaknesses in advertisements when comparing products between competitive analyses. Digging deep into ethic’s and audiences, and knowing about the message you are trying to convey is key to setting your advertising aside from the rest. I’ve learned a lot from the wide amount of material we have gone over in the past eleven weeks. I’ve participated every week in reading, which helped a lot in gaining a better understanding of advertising, and how it affects me. My tweets, and blog entries are all in place, and I’ve yet to miss a day of class, there for I feel I deserve and A.

Post 2: Competitive Analyses (Fund. Of Advertising)

“Learning about you client’s business is paramount. Listen carefully to the information the client offers; the client is expert about his or her business.” After some in-depth searching of my cookie company I decided to take a gander on what the competition had to offer. I found that they all use the same advertising techniques. All of the brands use some sort of cartoon character or characters to advertise their product. “Most competing brands are of equal quality-that is, they are parity products of services. Effective advertising could persuade you that a particular brand is better or more appealing than the competition.” With the similarities throughout the different cookie brands, targeting a different audience is what sets Chips Ahoy! Cookies apart from the rest. Chips Ahoy! Cookies has many different competitors, but they all share the same strategy, selling to a younger audience by making their commercials, packaging, and website’s “kid friendly.” This has been something that all cookie companies have not changed throughout the years. By targeting adults Chips Ahoy!, a company that has already got the attention of a younger generation, will give them the perk over competitors by expanding their clientele. "All students, novices, and professionals should be aware of criticisms so that advertising can be made more ethical."  About 98 percent of all cookie companies use ads that are targeted towards children. Since this whole advertisement campaign is targeted to an older audience, I had to change up Chips Ahoy! traditional cartoon advertisements into something deferent. Something that only adults would see the humor in. To avoid harsh criticism the adult ad campaign has been done in a tasteful way, that would be hard for anyone to raise any concern over.

Implementation Evaluation Control (Fund. Of Marketing)

Men are the targets of this strategy, executing the strategy through advertisements directed to males cracks into the niche of the male audience. "Using a concentrated marketing of niche marketing strategy, instead of going after a small share of a large market, the firm goes after a large share of one or a few smaller segments or niches." Creating change in the traditional detergent market is key. This new way of forming trust with the products consumers prevents uncertainty of any kind. "Service intangibility means that services cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or smelled before they are bought. For example, people undergoing cosmetic surgery cannot see the result before the purchase. Airline passengers have nothing but a ticket and the promise that they and their luggage will arrive safely at the intended destination, hopefully at the same time. To reduce uncertainty, buyers look for “signals” of service quality. They draw conclusions about quality from the place, people, price, equipment, and communications that they can see."

Price (Fund. Of Marketing)

The price for Tide is changing for this specific marketing plan. The price $7.77 is considered to be lucky to a lot of people. After seeing the advertisements that go along with this plan it will make a lot more sense to the consumer. "A belief is a descriptive thought that a person has about something. Beliefs may be based on real knowledge, opinion, or faith and may or may not carry an emotional charge. Marketers are interested in the beliefs that people formulate about specific products and services, because these beliefs make up product and brand images that affect buying behavior. If some of the beliefs are wrong and prevent purchase, the marketer will want to launch a campaign to correct them." Based off of the message that the advertisements gives off, the price $7.77 seems to make sense, especially to the people that need Tide for things that need to be put down the drain for good. The belief of a lucky number for the price of something that could save a man from a bad situation puts a lot of faith upon this product. "The buying process starts with need recognition—the buyer recognizes a problem or need. The need can be triggered by internal stimuli when one of the person’s normal needs—hunger, thirst, sex—rises to a level high enough to become a drive. A need can also be triggered by external stimuli. For example, an advertisement or a discussion with a friend might get you thinking about buying a new car. At this stage, the marketer should research consumers to find out what kinds of needs or problems arise, what brought them about, and how they led the consumer to this particular product." The price of $7.77 is a fair, cheap price for laundry detergent that works. The low price just feeds the need for it. "Price is the only element in the marketing mix that produces revenue; all other elements represent costs. Price is also one of the most flexible marketing mix elements. Unlike product features and channel commitments, prices can be changed quickly. At the same time, pricing is the number-one problem facing many marketing executives, and many companies do not handle pricing well. Some managers view pricing as a big headache, preferring instead to focus on the other marketing mix elements. However, smart managers treat pricing as a key strategic tool for creating and capturing customer value." Handling pricing for this marketing plan doesn't differ from most other prices. The couple dollar price drop for this marketing strategy goes along with the creative content involved in this project, capturing customer value by a low effective price.

Distribution (Fund. Of Marketing)

"Social Class is relatively permanent and ordered divisions in a society whose members share similar values, interests, and behaviors."The distribution of this product is the only part of this marketing strategy that isn't going to change. Tide had done a good job at selling a product to a wide range of people. No matter how much money you make or how old you are Tide is a product for everyone. "Consumers around the world vary tremendously in age, income, education level, and tastes. They also buy an incredible variety of goods and services. How these diverse consumers relate with each other and with other elements of the world around them impacts their choices among various products, services, and companies."

Promotion (Fund. Of Marketing)

Some men live a life style of class and fame. Other men life an outdoor, hard working life style, What ever lifestyle a man may live Tide products are sure to handle any dirty mess that may come from it. "Lifestyle is a person’s pattern of living as expressed in his or her psychographics. It involves measuring consumers’ major AIO dimensions—activities (work, hobbies, shopping, sports, social events), interests (food, fashion, family, recreation), and opinions (about themselves, social issues, business, products). Lifestyle captures something more than the person’s social class or personality. It profiles a person’s whole pattern of acting and interacting in the world." Many of men's hobbies involve getting dirty. By promoting this product as a product fit for a man, it can handle any dirty laundry that comes from your activities of life style. "Personality refers to the unique psychological characteristics that distinguish a person or group. Personality is usually described in terms of traits such as self-confidence, dominance, sociability, autonomy, defensiveness, adaptability, and aggressiveness. Personality can be useful in analyzing consumer behavior for certain product or brand choices." The promotion of this product is short and to the point. It doesn't have any subliminal messaging telling you to choose Tide over any other brand. It sends a message that is true and to the point. If a man needs clean laundry, Tide is the way to go. "Interestingly, although most marketers worry about whether their offers will be perceived at all, some consumers worry that they will be affected by marketing messages without even knowing it—through subliminal advertising. More than 50 years ago, a researcher announced that he had flashed the phrases “Eat popcorn” and “Drink Coca-Cola” on a screen in a New Jersey movie theater every five seconds for 1/300th of a second. He reported that although viewers did not consciously recognize these messages, they absorbed them subconsciously and bought 58 percent more popcorn and 18 percent more Coke. Suddenly advertisers and consumer-protection groups became intensely interested in subliminal perception. Although the researcher later admitted to making up the data, the issue has not died. Some consumers still fear that they are being manipulated by subliminal messages."

Product (Fund. Of Marketing)

Tide has numerous of competitors. All have shared similarities through out the years, and all have developed the same market. "Competitive marketing intelligence is the systematic collection and analysis of publicly available information about consumers, competitors, and developments in the marketplace. The goal of competitive marketing intelligence is to improve strategic decision making by understanding the consumer environment, assessing and tracking competitors’ actions, and providing early warnings of opportunities and threats." A man's natural behavior and actions provide plenty of opportunities for the product to apply to men. The decision in targeting men for this marketing plan is goal that other brands should consider. "A person belongs to many groups—family, clubs, and organizations. The person’s position in each group can be defined in terms of both role and status. A role consists of the activities people are expected to perform according to the persons around them. Each role carries a status reflecting the general esteem given to it by society." Males have earned the reputation of being dirty since childhood. Weather a man belong to a golf club, or a football league, a usual man's group is dirty. What ever a mans status is the expectations of a man will inevitably need a good laundry detergent. "People usually choose products appropriate to their roles and status. Consider the various roles a working mother plays. In her company, she plays the role of a brand manager; in her family, she plays the role of wife and mother; at her favorite sporting events, she plays the role of avid fan. As a brand manager, she will buy the kind of clothing that reflects her role and status in her company."