Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Implement Evaluation Control

Our product is a crispy bar side snack that provides the Australian flavors of ostrich and local seasoning. it will be sold at $5 USD in America and similar prices in other country currency in that country that is equivalent to $5 USD. everything will be made from sustainable farms in Australia, from where the product got its insparation. it will be sold in all middle price range bars, the "everyday bar" where most of the middle class economy class customers will go. the starting countries are Autralia and America due to the origin of the food, and Americas people who love to try new things and are known for having lots of bars and clubs. We have future goals to move into other countries after the launch of the product in our starting countries. The products promotions will be through classic styled commercials based on the original Philleas Fogg commercials.

Price

"Price
The amount of money charged for a product or service, or the sum of the values that customers exchange for the benefits of having or using the product or service." ( Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition Page 275 )

The price of the product will be around 5 American dollars. for other countries a calculated match will have to be made to keep the product price relatively even between all countries based upon the American cash value.


"The price the company charges will fall somewhere between one that is too high to produce any demand and one that is too low to produce a profit. Figure 9.1 summarizes the major considerations in setting price. Customer perceptions of the product’s value set the ceiling for prices. If customers perceive that the price is greater than the product’s value, they will not buy the product. Product costs set the floor for prices. If the company prices the product below its costs, company profits will suffer. In setting its price between these two extremes, the company must consider a number of other internal and external factors, including competitors’ strategies and prices, the company’s overall marketing strategy and mix, and the nature of the market and demand." Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition Page 275)


"Author Comment
Setting the right price is one of the marketer’s most difficult tasks. A host of factors come into play. But finding and implementing the right price strategy is critical to success." Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition Page 275)

Promotion

"Sales promotion is the most short-term of the promotion mix tools. Whereas advertising or personal selling says “buy,” sales promotions say “buy now.” "( Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition page 431 )

For promoting our product we will have a wacky commercial that will attract peoples attention while still keeping the classic style of the older commercials about Philleas Fogg's adventures when he spent 80 days to go around the world to all the different countries.



"Sales promotion
Short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of a product or service." Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition page 430)

Distribution

We will be distributing our product by plane and by truck. this will be more efficient when we expand to other countries other than Australia and America. the reason for us distributing this way is because Australia is where the product will be made because that is the best place to have a farm for the animals to be used in our product.

"Marketing intermediaries help the company to promote, sell, and distribute its products to final buyers. They include resellers, physical distribution firms, marketing services agencies, and financial intermediaries. Resellers are distribution channel firms that help the company find customers or make sales to them. These include wholesalers and retailers who buy and resell merchandise. Selecting and partnering with resellers is not easy." ( Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition Page 65)



Product

"Product concept
The idea that consumers will favor products that offer the most quality, performance, and features and that the organization should therefore devote its energy to making continuous product improvements." (Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition Page 10)

Our product is crispy ostrich puffs. it is based on a delicacy from Australia. this product is a crispy bread puff that is flavored with powdered ostrich seasonings. Everything is made from sustainable farms that are organic. Wild ostrich will not be in any danger, since all animal used for the product will have been bred and raised in captivity for human consumption only.


Target Market Strategy

"Market
The set of all actual and potential buyers of a product or service." (Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition page 8)

"Marketing management
The art and science of choosing target markets and building profitable relationships with them." (Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition page 9)

The target market of our snack is people who visits the average bar. the average bar is more in the middle class income tier. this is where a majority of the population goes. we want to have the majority of people have access to this product. In the future there is a possibility for this product to make it into higher end bars and clubs.

"Marketing means managing markets to bring about profitable customer relationships. However, creating these relationships takes work. Sellers must search for buyers, identify their needs, design good market offerings, set prices for them, promote them, and store and deliver them. Activities such as consumer research, product development, communication, distribution, pricing, and service are core marketing activities." (Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition page 8)

Situation or SWOT Analysis

"SWOT analysis
An overall evaluation of the company’s strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T)." (Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition Page 54)

Strength: Our strengths are that we are starting the product in countries that are either the inspiration of the products creation or are culturally diverse enough that they would enjoy it.

we use sustainably sourced ingredients. all ostrich used to make this product are farmed specifically for human consumption and is 100% organic.

"Strengths include internal capabilities, resources, positive situational factors that may help the company to serve its customers and achieve its objectives."  (Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition Page 54)

Weaknesses: Some weaknesses that we have run into is that we are only starting in two countries. We will in the future be branching out to bars in other countries.

"Weaknesses include internal limitations and negative situational factors that may interfere with the company’s performance." (Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition Page 54)

Opportunities: The opportunities we have with our product is huge. We plan on selling this product in many if not all standard bars in America and Australia. Opportunities to spread to other countries are open as well, starting with Europe and then moving to Ireland and then Germany, other countries where pubs are a very common occurrence.

"Opportunities are favorable factors or trends in the external environment that the company may be able to exploit to its advantage." (Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition Page 54)

Threats: The biggest threat to the company is that other companies are also selling snacks in bars, as well as some bars making their own brand of snack. we can overcome this just by having this unique snack, it's something that no other competing company has as a flavor.

"Threats are unfavorable external factors or trends that may present challenges to performance." (Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition Page 54)

Objectives

"The company needs to turn its mission into detailed supporting objectives for each level of management. Each manager should have objectives and be responsible for reaching them." ( Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition Page 40)

The objectives are to provide our snacks to as many of the everyday bar guest as possible and to make it taste great despite its seemingly low price. we strive to market this snack for bars primarily in Australia and in America, but wish to spread out to Ireland, England, and Canada in the future.

The reason we wish to start in Australia and America is because the snake is based on an Australian delicacy, the ostrich, and the Reason we want to also be in America is because Americans are very adventurous eaters and will always try new things or will be attracted to something strange and new.

Business Mission Statement

"A statement of the organization’s purpose—what it wants to accomplish in the larger environment." (Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition page 39)

Our mission is to provide the taste of Australia to the United States as well as giving a snack with flavors from home to the people of Australia. we want to spread our snack to these two key places for the best profit as well as possibly seek to branch out to other countries such as England, Canada, and Ireland. we also want to provide an affordable product that tastes great and can be sold and many if not all bars of average price tier. we want to make this product as available to the general bar visitor as possible, the best way to get the best profit from the snack for the company.

"Mission statements should be meaningful and specific yet motivating. They should emphasize the company’s strengths in the marketplace. Too often, mission statements are written for public relations purposes and lack specific, workable guidelines." (Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition page 40)

"These goals then become the company’s current marketing objectives." (Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition page 42)


EOC: Week 7 The Pitch

I want to add a new product to the Phileas Fogg snack brand. I want to capture the flavors and the experience of Australia in a bag of bar snacks. My idea for a snack is based off of a delicacy of Australia. this is ostrich, i would like to use ostrich flavor and seasoning on a puff style snack. the snack would be sold in bars around the Australian and United States areas. Americans like to explore new and interesting things when they go to eat at places or go on vacation. The product would be sold for $5.00 at normal basic price range bars that most of the general public would be able to afford to eat and drink at.

Monday, May 9, 2016

EOC WEEK 5:

I think it is very important to keep customer satisfaction. In my opinion it is more important to have happy customers than broad advertising. Broad advertising is important, but it's pointless to advertise when you cant make your customers happy. many companies like Nike, have different inclusive programs and clubs for their most loyal and most common customer, the frequent buyer and long term guest. GameStop has something like this, they have what's called the Power Up Reward card. it is a point based system, every time you make a purchase, you will earn points, these points can be used on anything from discounts, to game apparel and merchandise from affiliate nerdy websites. there are two different kinds f cards, r basic black card. this card s mostly for the occasional buyer, it gives them points and small perks that ill hopefully bring them back more often, with larger purchases. when they keep coming they will most likely want to upgrade to the second card, the PRO card, this card is silver. membership, guests must pay $14.99 a year. it may seem li a lot, but the card will pay for itself rather quickly, PRO members get bonus discounts  all pre-owned products, as well as special offers and coupons ONLY available to Pro members. the PRO card is what most of GameStop's frequent customers have. these a the people that come in 2 or more times a week and attend many of the game release events. it's these cards GameStop to be more personal with their customer, by giving them perks and other specialties. every time a member purchases something, up their name, the cashier then uses that name to the guest and starts a small conversation, asking about games for any systems they own or to tell them about new promos that pop up for games they own or have interest in, based upon the different guests.  it is this ability to keep customers feeling special and making them happy that really earns money for companies, it even becomes self advertising, when a customer is happy they become more inclined to tell their friends, who will each tell more friends, then even more friends.

Armstrong, Gary, Philip Kotler, and Gary Armstrong. Marketing: An Introduction. Boston: Prentice Hall, 2011.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Week 3 EOC My Demographic

Week 3 EOC My Demographic



I would consider myself to be in the young artists demographic. I am creative, spontaneous and thrive off of imagination. I create costumes and cosplays as a hobby and as a job. I love what I do, as do most other people in the young artist demographic. I would also consider myself in the Furry Demographic. Furries are a type of subculture and a fandom. Furries are creative people who are fans of anthropomorphic animals (animals with human like qualities) Most enjoy it for its art style or how easy it is to create your own custom character in the fandom. not all furries wear fursuits, and even fewer make them, like me and a hand full of others that specialize in that craft. Furries are also big charity goers. Anthrocon, the largest of all furry conventions brings Pittsburgh millions of dollars to their local economy, and will also donate millions of dollars into any charity of their choice that goes with that cons theme for the year. Furries are the center of many misconceptions. Through TV and the vast growing population that is connected to the internet, furries have been poorly betrayed as all being sexual deviants, this however is not true. Although some furries can follow this, its only from ~>17% of the fandom, the rest either don't care or absolutely hate it. another misconception about furries is that all of them are homosexual, again this is not true. but what is true, is that compared to the general population, homosexuality is in higher amounts. in the U.S. the general population is about 1.7%  homosexual and 1.8% bisexual, while in the furry community 23% are homosexual, 41% bisexual, 38% heterosexual, and 4% undefined.

Week 4 EOC: My App

Week 4 EOC My App


The one problem i see time and time again with people, is being on their phones while driving or walking in the street. it is very dangerous and very stupid. the app i would like to create would use blue tooth technology to sink with your car and disable the screen so you cant use it as long as it is in the car and the car is on. for those people that don't have cars with blue tooth, the map function on smart phone should be able to detect the speed and location of where the owner/ driver is at. if the driver is moving faster than a walking pace, the phone will not work, if the user is in the main portion of the street, the phone will not work. I am pretty sure technology like this is possible to achieve, but it will be hard to get people to down load the app just because they love using their phones too much. every day the news is turned on, there is always some kind of car accident and many end up being fatal, for wither the person that caused the accident or some poor innocent person who didn't see it coming. the app would be available for all windows, androis, and Ios phones, to make sure that as many people can be as safe as possible.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Week 1 EOC: My Voice

My Voice

Hello there, My name is Shyla, AKA Rain Feather. I'm a fashion major. My hobbies include: drawing, cosplaying, and gaming. I am part of a fandom called Furry. I'm a furry because I like making the costumes and wearing them to charity events. it makes me happy to bring a smile to a child's face who might be having a bad day, or any person for that matter. it has become a passion of mine to make these costumes so that other people can spread the same joy and happiness to others like I do. an instance of a time I did this was when I was out with just a couple of friends wearing my first fursuit, just for fun. A young child was with her parents at the park, she seemed upset, I guessed it was because it was about 6pm and they were probably going home since they were walking in the direction of one of the parking lots. I heard her say "puppy!" quite loudly and looked over, the young girl, about 4 or so was pointing at me, a large smile on her face. she ran over to me before I had time to react and gave me a hug. I took some pictures with her while she was there. It was then that I realized that I have the power to make some ones day better, just by putting a smile on their face.

Week 2 EOC: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

PlayStation is better than Xbox in regards to gamming and sales points. I work at a GameStop, and the reason for this is because the playstation4 released a few months before the Xbox one, and they revealed everything that was going to be happening while Xbox kept their console specialties and features a secret even on the day of release. Both Xbox one and playstation4 belong to the star category, console gaming is a high sale high growing industry. This is also apparent from the new release of the VR headsets from Sony on their PlayStation line.

“Sony revealed Tuesday it sold 5.7 million PlayStation 4 units through the holiday season, giving the console a great chance to surpass the PS2 as the world's best-selling gaming system.

As of Jan. 3, Sony stated it has sold 35.9 million PS4 consoles globally since launching the product in November of 2013.  The PS4 could eventually challenge the lifetime sales of 155 million PS2 units.” (http://www.ibtimes.com/ps4-vs-xbox-one-sony-has-sold-over-35-million-playstation-4-consoles-2013-launch-2250196)


Microsoft also announced strong results for the holiday season, but did not mention sales figures for the Xbox One. Microsoft focused on its exclusive games, noting "Halo 5: Guardians," "Rise of the Tomb Raider," "Forza Motorsport 6" and "Gears of War: Ultimate Edition" sold more than one million units during the period.  The last estimate of Xbox One consoles sold -- based on earnings reports -- was around 15 million units.” (http://www.ibtimes.com/ps4-vs-xbox-one-sony-has-sold-over-35-million-playstation-4-consoles-2013-launch-2250196 )


The older systems from the PlayStation and Xbox family such as the 360 and the ps3 are still used and are functional in the way of multiplayer and wirelessly like the days when they were supreme in gaming before the release of the next gen consoles. Even back then they had a rivalry with play station still having a one up on the Xbox with play stations free PSN that still functions today. Both of these systems now belong to the cash cow group. Both no longer grow and are slowly starting to fade into the shadows, but are still owned in many gamer’s households and still make a lot of money of some multiplatform games that are still being made for them.


“Playstation 3 comes with a built-in Blu-Ray player that provides HD output with high-quality sound. Xbox 360 is known for its community experience and offers a friendlier environment for Windows, as it is tightly integrated with other Microsoft applications. Both are 7th generation gaming consoles and offer online gaming services, Play Station Network (PSN) and Xbox Live. While the PSN Network has no monthly fee for playing games online, Xbox Live has a subscription with flexible pricing options.” (http://www.diffen.com/difference/PlayStation_3_vs_Xbox_360)