online marketing

The use of technology these days are booming! Using social media to market your company or promote your brand is a great way to the get word out. You have the world at your fingertips. By using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. you have the opportunity to share with everyone things about your company, how it is helping people, answer questions they may have and you can also use the technique of attraction by posting "attractive" things about how your life and others lives are affected by your company and/or products. I am currently in a Network Marketing company called Limu and I am learning how to do this very thing with my company right now. The possibilities of what you can do using technology is endless.

Chick Fil A VS McDonald's

I recently read an article about how Chick Fil A has out sold McDonald's in kid's meals. It seems that kid's are more attracted to the Chick Fil A Cows over Ronald McDonald. With Chick Fil A serving grilled chicken, it is also more attractive to parents as well. Restaurants are needing to have healthier items on the menu to keep up with the changing demands of the food industry. People are more health conscious now and to remain in the race, places like McDonald's need to always stay on top of what consumers are wanting.

Make money by branding

People use word of mouth advertising for everything from their favorite restaurant to their favorite shoes. A way for businesses to get their name out is by advertisement. But sometimes companies choose to steer away from the traditional commercials, billboards, magazine and newspaper ads, radio station ads etc. and they put the money that would be used for those things, into the pockets of people who "spread the word" about their company, product etc. This not only helps the company grow but helps families financially. With the unemployment still a issue and the difficulty of opening your own business. People can promote a company brand and become their own boss. This is a growing industry and I feel that it will have a higher growth as more and more people struggle with the everyday decline of the economy.

Consumer's View

When you talk about market research and what it is that consumers want or need, especially when launching a new product, it is important to truly find out what it is the consumers are looking for before putting your new product out on the market. I have seen where companies will send you a select product to try for free if you become a member or preferred customer. This is a great way to not only get the feed back that you need about the product but you also get new customers and members this way and people will also do word of mouth advertising for free for you. To me it is a win win.

Who is your target market?

I was listening to a morning radio show the other day and they had made mention of a certain heating and air conditioning repair company, (I don't remember the name of the company, ironically) but in the advertisement, they said if at any point during your service call, the repairman uses foul language or smokes then you get your service call free. This was interesting to me because I'm sure it may offend those people who smoke or who use foul language but it seemed to me that this company took absolute pride in their servicemen and targeted those consumers who valued respectful service from a company.
This says something special about this company, in my opinion, and I think it is a great marketing technique for this company because a person with these standards and values will more than likely call this company over the next company just because of this guarantee of service. This also shows that the company takes pride in who they hire and what they do.

City living

The need for convenience is growing, because of this, people are looking into living in the city and using public transportation for their everyday commutes. The good things about this movement is that it would help the city revenue; in that, people would be visiting shops, restaurants and stores more often. The structure of the city would need to change to accommodate the demand for town houses and studio apartments. This would create jobs for the construction of the new structures.  Also, Housing in the rural areas would become more available with the people who are moving to the city. This would cause prices to drop for easy sell.

On the flip side of this, the city could become over populated, making prices of the town houses and studio apartments go up because of the demand. Housing in rural areas could be hard to sell if not many people are wanting to live there.

In my opinion, I would not like living in the middle of the city like this. I currently live in town and the convenience is nice with driving a few minutes to the store or to work. However, I would love to live in the country with lots of land and no close neighbors.

Share a Coke!

When Coca Cola came out with the Share a Coke with a friend theme, I noticed that everyone, including people who didn't normally drink Coke, was searching for and buying Cokes with their names, friend's, family, children's names. Sales seemed to skyrocket! Very smart move on Coca Cola! Everyone loves personalization and this just proves that it works as a great marketing technique.

 I, myself, am not much of a soft drink drinker and have not bought a coke with my name on it. But I will have to say that I have been looking for my name on one and when I find it, I can't truly say that I won't buy it... because I probably will. :)