AT&T's Big Screwup!

This week's blog assignment for school deals with the unethical practice AT&T used on subscribers called "Mobile Cramming" in which they allowed unauthorized third party charges to be added to customer's bills.

The Federal Trade Commission ordered AT&T to pay refunds to customers that were affected by this unethical practice to the tune of 88 million dollars. The refunds stem from the practice where two companies Tatto and Acquinity charged customers without their consent for joke text messages, ringtones, horoscopes, love tips, etc.

This unethical practice is still in use today except it takes the form of unethical apps that make it extremely difficult to cancel an ongoing service that might have been unwittingly signed up for. One of my co-workers dealt with this app issue last week in fact when his daughter got an app and made an account for it and wound up signing up for a weekly charge service without knowing it. It was almost impossible to cancel the service and he had to make several dead end phone calls and finally found a way online to cancel it when he found a complaint message board with people that had the same thing happen to them.

AT&T allowed this to happen to it's customers in 2014 and paid the price for it in the form of refunds to the consumers as bill credits which averaged $31.00 each. An ethical marketer should have to have permission or an opt in list for consumers to be marketed to rather than phishing for customer information to sign them up and sell their data to other marketers.

FTC Providing Over $88 Million in Refunds to AT&T Customers Who Were Subjected to Mobile Cramming. (2017, September 26). Retrieved December 7, 2018, from https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2016/12/ftc-providing-over-88-million-refunds-att-customers-who-were

Marketing Objectives!

Yet again one of my favorite forms of assignments is here! Writing on my blog, updating my progress in my quest for my degree and keeping my readers informed of what's going on since I dropped out of my social circles in 2015 to accomplish this task.

This week the assignment is to blog about marketing objectives, what they are, and how to apply them. To break it down very simply marketing objectives are the organized goals for a marketing plan. They define the purpose and goals in clearly stated ways so everyone can get on the same page and they know what they are working towards.

For example if the goal is brand awareness and you lay out a social media strategy then everyone knows what the goal is, they'll know how to measure that goal with the amount of comments, shares, likes, etc. and they'll know where to improve.

That's just a rudimentary example but to more clearly define the goals they should be measured against the acronym, SMART. SMART goals are the measuring stick so the team doesn't get off track.
S - Specific goals must be defined.
M - Measurable so you can quantify the results in such a way that you know where you stand and where you need to be.
A - Achievable means that they must be realistic goals. You can't just say you're overtaking the brand awareness of Coca-Cola with your brand in two weeks. Doesn't work that way, that's not achievable.
R - Relevant means that your marketing goals must align with the brand, the company's objectives, and stakeholders.
T - Time Frame means that there must be a starting point, middle, and end point to the goals. They can be broken down in smaller, more achievable goals but each one must have a time frame in which they are accomplished and measured.

Let me give you an example of what worked on me. I purchased a Yeti colster which holds a 12 ounce can and keeps the liquid either very hot or very cold for hours and hours. Much longer than you'd need to worry about with just 12 ounces. Well I registered this product for the lifetime warranty and enjoyed it so much I'm buying several of them for Christmas presents and having them personalized.

Since registering Yeti has offered me deals on free shipping, I got a pack of free stickers (good and free advertising for them, a t shirt would have done much more in that regard for me) and of course the warrant. The point is they email me about every three or four days with some kind of information about their products so they remain relevant. It just so happens it gave me the idea for Christmas presents as well when I got an email about the customized products.

Their marketing worked on me! Their plan is good, and they have quantified my purchases and measured them to be able to tell if their strategy is working or not. Again if they sent me a free shirt, I'd wear it and then there would be even more marketing and brand awareness. Perhaps they should incorporate that into their next plan.

Market Segmentation

I had no idea so many blog posts would be necessary for my degree but I'm glad that I'm a veteran blogger as this is a snap to do! In this assignment I'm defining market segmentation. Market segmentation is how groups of people are defined in order to market to them more effectively.

This can be geographically, gender, race, by income, psychographically and more. For instance if you had a fresh out of high school kid with their first job in retail earning maybe ten dollars an hour, chances are they don't own a house yet. Maybe they own a hand me down car but it's on it's last legs and needs costly repairs and it's more cost effective to buy a new used car in which you will have a better asset.

They go to the car lot and see this kid and what they drive and likely will not market a high end vehicle to them that they can't afford, so they'll ask such questions as what's your income. Do you own or rent, How many incomes are in the house. Do they have any down payment money, questions like this to gauge what they should be showing the new client.

They probably can determine pretty quickly what someone can afford by just a few questions, this is segmentation. Essentially they are asking for a verbal survey. A survey is a great tool to determine how your product can be marketed. You can find out who is interested in your product, what do they like or dislike about your product, is the price high or low, and with a survey you can start to gauge which segments your product can appeal to and how to broaden that appeal to a larger audience. A survey can be done pre-purchase or post-purchase making it a very valuable tool!

Another great tool to help is to develop a target consumer profile. This tool goes from the basis that your consumers have things in common. Whether it's geography, income levels, genders, or perhaps belief systems there is something that prompts your consumers to buy your product. When you determine who your average consumer is with a consumer profile you will be able to market your goods or service much more effectively.

Both are very effective when it comes to finding the sweet spot for your marketing campaigns!

Mobile Marketing

The streak of having a class which requires blog posts continues! As I've said in previous marketing posts, this is a great way to measure where I am in college while accomplishing an assignment! This term I took Mobile Marketing as one of my degree requirements. This seems to be a very practical class that I can apply in future marketing endeavors! I'm excited to be in this class and so far after going over the assignments and final milestone, it meets everything I was hoping for!

This is module two and my assignment is to discuss the advantages of mobile marketing devices such as phones and tablets over traditional marketing channels. Then address how mobile campaigns lead consumers to the point of sale, generate contacts, or enable consumer loyalty programs along with some strategies that fixes the common constraints of mobile marketing.

The advantages of mobile marketing over traditional channels is blindingly bright! Years ago you had to place an ad in the paper to get noticed or buy radio or TV ads, even when the consumer version of the Internet was growing into its own in the mid-90's. Even in the dial-up days the traditional methods were more convenient and garnered much more attention.

When broadband started to roll out, the Internet still wasn't a for sure bet for marketing. You had places where you could place ads but if they had no traffic, well no one would notice. Gradually overtime classified websites popped up like Craigslist. A site dedicated to selling what ever to whom ever. Again after another evolution pop up ads started which annoyed everyone and made the marketers probably among the most hated people on earth.

Thankfully after the development of popup-blockers they caught on and started to embed their ads into the site itself. Ads that seemed to have mystery audio and you had to scroll the page to find the video and turn it off. Then the big evolution, the world shaking evolution began. The invention of smart phones! All of a sudden there was a device that had unlimited potential for marketers! One device that allowed you to browse the Internet, check your email. send text messages, download apps and use them anywhere there was a cell or wi-fi signal and all of that fit in your pocket!

A few generations later the smart phone is probably the most common thing in the world that everyone has! The homeless guy at the quick shop I frequent has a smart phone that he listens to baseball games on in the summer. He has a bike, backpack, and a smart phone. It's a necessity in today's world. I have a co-worker that is very rare in that he does not have wi-fi at home but he's got a 5 thousand dollar smart TV and he watches cable on it but that's another story, anyway he's got a smart phone!

I can't think of anyone I know that doesn't have one in fact. All of that means to a marketer that they are potential eyes to see a marketing campaign. I've gone weeks without turning on my TV where as I use my iphone and ipad each day, many times per day! I've typed out assignments on my ipad at work, that's how much I use these devices and I can imagine many of my fellow students do the same on their devices!

Personally I believe email marketing is the most effective form of mobile marketing. Not unsolicited email spam but email from businesses you are interested in. For example one site I frequently check prices and opted into their email list had a flash sale that was site wide for Election Day yesterday. Whatever you bought you took an additional 5% off with the email code which made for some really good bargains and I took advantage of it! I got a couple of really good deals on some supplies I use a lot of! That one email lead me to the point of sale and I might have even spent a bit more than I had wanted but the prices don't get that low normally, or haven't in the past few months that I follow their prices. So I'd call that very effective and they got me to pull the trigger on some items I've had in my shopping cart for a while, then taken out, then replaced again.

That is something I could never do with a newspaper ad, radio ad, or TV ad. You'd have to make an ad buy and plan out the sale before it happened, record or shoot the commercials, schedule when it'd run, and then direct consumers to your website. With modern turn key shopping sites you can adjust your prices, develop a discount code, and send out an email to everyone on your list in less than five minutes, maybe a bit more with an HTML email with graphics and the cost would be practically free. A marketing agency in town usually starts a campaign around ten thousand dollars and it goes up from there. Mobile Marketing wins easily!

Having a mobile optimized version of your website is essential. No one wants to scroll around on a smart device because you're only seeing 15% of the site on your screen. You want to see everything you need and be able to check out with a minimum of hassle.

Lately another advantage of mobile marketing that I caught onto was fast food places that offer mobile only deals on their app menus. You can usually find QR code coupons that you can't get by walking in but if you have that specific chain app you can find them and get some nice discounts. I've gotten discounted meals or been able to buy one sandwich and get a free side and drink with the mobile QR codes. More businesses can catch onto this and be able to likely expand their clientele.

A common disadvantage of mobile marketing is unwanted messages, robocalls, or thousands of unwanted emails that fill up your inbox. When that happens it is hard to distinguish your product from the scams and fake emails or texts campaigns. When the consumer knows that your business won't sell your email to other companies or require you to opt into their email list, they feel much more secure about the legitimacy of your business. Being up front with their security, to me, is essential. This is also a way to generate a large marketing list which got me to spend more than I had bargained for, darn my impulse buying!



Advantages and Disadvantages of Mobile Marketing. (n.d.). Retrieved November 7, 2018, from https://www.thebrandonagency.com/blog/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-mobile-marketing/

DeMers, J. (2016, May 25). 4 Mobile Marketing Strategies That Will Boost Engagement And Sales. Retrieved November 7, 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2016/05/25/4-mobile-marketing-strategies-that-will-boost-engagement-and-sales/#4c0343be2514

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Bacon, Sausage, and Eggs

Anyone that knows me knows I've been enamored with a hearty breakfast. Anyone can tell you that if I've made you breakfast (and you all know who you are) you eat well and you eat hearty! Sausage is the foundation.

Two or three thick slices of J.C. Potter's sausage, any variety will do, I choose hot. Smash it thinner and start the frying process. After a couple of flips put in the bacon. Bacon will cook faster than the sausage so it doesn't need as much frying pan time. Then pull off the bacon, flip the sausage again and add an egg.

The egg will cook really quickly so you can now start to plate your food and then enjoy! This is a common everyday breakfast that keeps me full in the mornings. But if you aren't a big sausage fan you can use ham and I sometimes do and tend to add in some hash browns if the weather is really cold out!

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and if I've eaten this first, then I can easily get by on a lighter lunch and a few small healthy snacks for supper combined with the gallon of ice tea I drink in a day.

So in summation, Breakfast! I love it!

The Taurus Debacle

Those of you who know me know I'm a "guns" guy. I am familiar with the safe handling of firearms, both long rifle, shotgun, and pistols. Firearms are something like the brakes on a car, they should work every time, they way they are designed to work, without fail.

One maker, Brazil based Taurus, ran into some problems with the safety mechanism in nine models of their pistols. They would fire sometimes when dropped even though the safety was activated. They have always had a dubious reputation of working or not working when they should for a long time with their semi-auto pistols. They have a lower price tag and people figure they are getting what they are paying for, which is not a quality firearm that they could trust their lives to.

In the fall of 2015 they started a recall of pistols manufactured between 1997-2013 on nine models. Soon after a class action lawsuit was filed and won when Taurus settled and agreed to pay 39 million dollars in damages. The effect on their brand was very bad. When you start to get a bad name around something that you could someday trust the life of you or your loved ones, well people talk.

Because Taurus has always been considered a budget brand, I never would have purchased one and after reading about their legal problems on defective parts, I still never would purchase one. A coworker enjoys them but tends of have the spring break in his semi-auto pistols. Again a brand that uses cheap parts, likely no or a very bad quality assurance team, and probably very little oversight on the process and testing.

Taurus should have used quality parts from the start. Their testing process should have been very rigorous and results should have been analyzed for a better product. Taurus will suffer from this for a very long time to come as it takes decades to build trust in the firearm community for quality.

Gillem, J. (2018, August 25). What You Need to Know About the Taurus Pistol Recall. Retrieved from https://guncarrier.com/the-taurus-pistol-recall/ 

Taurus Agrees To $39 Million Settlement In Defective Pistol Case. (2017, June 21). Retrieved from https://www.grandviewoutdoors.com/guns/taurus-agrees-to-39-million-settlement-in-defective-pistol-case/

The Post Celebrity Society

It's an odd thing. When I've read about stories of the Greatest Generation there were so many successful people that would be celebrities that put their careers on pause and risked everything to fight for a common cause. The defense of America, Freedom, Liberty, and a world free from tyranny.
A world free of nazism, imperialism, and eventually communism (but that one still lingers which I'll get to in a minute.)

There was a common cause for everyone to rally behind as I said. They were patriots, highly paid, lead very wealthy lives, were cheered for their artistry and dropped it all when Uncle Sam needed another hand. Today's celebrities that would do that are few and far between. In fact I'd argue that most of them don't really like the country but love the fruits it has given them. Most consider them elites and have earned more money than everyone in the town I live in have earned in their lifetimes, combined.

I see very vocal celebrities that are uneducated yet very emotional creatures. Hyperbole is their opium and accusations their wine. The elites, and yes I believe they consider themselves elites, are happy to talk from fortresses about how you should live. When reason has no value anymore and they have a microphone in front of them, odd things are said.

Let me give you an example, Jim Carrey has recently advocated for a socialist society. He's not the first to grab a Che' shirt and hop on board the socialism fad. What he lacks in knowledge about such a system would make me guffaw if he were forced to live under such conditions.

His wealth would be frozen and confiscated to give to the state (in this case the dictator) his property would be given to the state. Now with no survival skills available to him he'd be forced to fight for food which he would no longer find in the finest markets.

Let me break it down for you in a couple of ways, socialism is only for the elites and guess what? No one is the elites except for the dictator in power. At that point everyone is subject to the state's whims and cruel machinations. Their closest lieutenants are expendable if the state demands it. The socialist state is god, the population its sacrifice. Elites are always the first to call for some way of living they are always unwilling live for themselves.

When the elites start to tell the common how to live, lead movements against the will of the people, and place themselves above law and order then their place as "celebrity" is hanging by a thread. I see an America where the common become the stars, the watched, the celebrated, the well known. I'm not deluded enough to believe there will never be someone to find as a celebrity, that's not who we are as people.

However I can see an America where the movie stars are shunned, when pop stars are unheard, and when elites have no voice and hold over the hard working people that have paid to see their work for decades.

Again and Again and Again Again!

One more time in my career as a student my personal blog will serve as a delivery tool for an assignment. I've explained before that someday this blog will allow my daughters to go back and see what I was thinking and why. I wished the Internet was around for my grandparents so I could get a deeper level of understanding about them and how they lived when they were young and in their prime.

In this assignment I'm to pick a brand and explain how they succeeded or failed to position themselves at any point in the brand's cycle (development, growth, maturity, decline, or reinvention) and examine the brand's mission and vision. Look at the logo and slogan and see what could be different or better if the logo and slogan fail or if they are successful why it connects with consumers.

My brand shall be the NFL. I never shy away from controversial topics on my blog and while I can't guarantee every reader will not be offended I can guarantee you'll get little "t" truth as I see it since truth is a relative thing to the individual.

The NFL shield is an iconic logo but the NFL is failing for me. The main reason is not the kneeling protests (however that is a contributor) but the way the sport is being ran now. The commissioner Roger Goodell and the competition commission have convoluted the rules of basic play so much that the spirit of the sport is missing now. Legendary hard playing players would have no place in today's game and the likes of Ronnie Lott, Steve Atwater, and Jack Lambert would be tossed out of each game for some non-nonsensical hitting rules. The catch/no-catch rules are so crazy that instead of simplifying them they made what constitutes a catch harder by defining what control is even further.

"“I am just as lost as any fan or any player,” says Andrew Hawkins, the Browns’ 5-7 everyman wideout, who has played five NFL seasons. “There is no real definition. It just doesn’t make sense. You can’t quantify it.”"

In all honesty it's hard to feel sorry for a couple of thousand millionaires that play a game for a living. They know they are gladiators when they hope and wish to be signed or drafted into the NFL. The players know they won't have twenty year careers and the sport will take its toll on their bodies. The players also know that they will earn more money in a season than the average blue collar family in ten years and get praised and adored all the way to the bank.

The sport is becoming too modernized and the hard hitting roots are gradually fading away which is a contributor to the lower than average ratings slump. While one of the main contributors is how pay TV has evolved to more of an on demand format through subscription services. "This larger decline has been going on for over a decade now; is rooted in a fundamental shift to anytime, anywhere viewing on broadband devices; and affects all legacy TV programming to one degree or another. In short, contrary to the hopes (or delusions) of some in the TV industry, the NFL is not immune to these larger societal and viewing dynamics (Espeline, 2017).

How the NFL is still a ratings force, don't be mistaken but that force is eroding now and isn't as invincible as it was a decade ago. The chinks in the armor are more pronounced, the game less accessible for fans and more frustrating for players. The price the NFL will demand of their new agreement will probably be record breaking but there will come a day when the networks that purchase the NFL packages won't see the value anymore and start to make demands of the league for a better product.

Simply put, the best strategies the NFL could utilize would be to simplify the rules and the sport. Let hard hits happen again. Structure contracts in a way where the players know how privileged they are and there's tens of thousands of average people that would trade lives with them if possible. Guaranteeing the contracts would help this happen but pay the players less average money. What they sign for is what they'll get and they'd better invest it wisely because a career doesn't last long.

Kaplan, E., Benoit, A., & King, P. (n.d.). Deconstructing the NFL's Convoluted Catch Rule. Retrieved from https://www.si.com/mmqb/2016/03/17/themmqb-catch-nfl-rulebook-dez-bryant-no-catch-larry-fitzgerald-golden-tate-tyler-eifert-odell

The NFL Can't Keep TV Afloat Anymore. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2017/09/20/nfl-monday-night-football-tv-ratings-decline/

Adivce For A New Marketer

My advice after going through three years of college for marketing and being half way through my senior year is be different. Marketers seem to suffer from a lot of group think and attempting to market to the lowest common denominator.

A great exercise is to find any random product in a store, look at the packaging, the marketing, maybe watch a few commercials about it. Then re-envision it the way you'd market it if you were in charge of that product. For example I eat a LOT of beef jerky products. Jack Link's uses the "Messing With Sasquatch" spot for promoting their brand.

I try to think about it differently from an alpha male point of view and not try and be Bud Light humorous. Let's be honest, not a lot of man-bun wearing "men" are walking around with their man purses eating preserved beef products.

I'd promote that brand as something to live on while you're in the wilderness exploring desolate mountains or rivers in solitude. I'd promote the brand with other manly activities such as tearing down an engine in your garage, rounding up cattle to brand, building a house, things that appeal to men.

So new marketer, if you've read this blog you know its author is a natural born non-conformist and as such approach my ideas from that standpoint. Think of something differently and when you establish that strategy, tear it apart and see what will not work about it and make it stronger! Be scary, be intelligent, be informed, and do it your way!

Ben and Jerry's

This week's assignment is to pick a socially responsible retail company and outline how that stance is incorporated into their marketing strategy. This week is a home run! I picked Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Company. Their entire structure top to bottom is all about incorporating their ethical socially responsible practices into their marketing!

Just a quick visit to their website and you'll know first hand that it seems that ice cream is almost an afterthought to their socially responsible vibe. They post every step they use to be socially responsible such as fair trade, a caring dairy, cage free eggs, and a section to read more about their values. They might trumpet their social responsibility more than any other business I've ever seen.

Just by reading about the company you can tell they are (more specifically were since they sold to another company in 2000) very conscious about their social image. For example in 1985 The Ben & Jerry's Foundation is established with a gift from Ben and Jerry & 7.5% of the company's annual pre-tax profits to fund community-oriented projects.

I've read a lot of articles and I can find no situation, scandal, or case of any unethical practices by the original owners, Ben Cohen or Jerry Greenfield. I'd say they are definitely on the up and up about how they ran their business and were honest about it all. The company pioneers the pursuit of business with a double bottom line—profits and people—that Cohen and Greenfield called the “double dip.” (Page & Katz, 2012) Clearly they were concerned about their people and their profits which they tended to funnel back into the business and the community.

Page, A., & Katz, R. (2012, October/November). The Truth About Ben and Jerry's (SSIR). Retrieved from https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_truth_about_ben_and_jerrys

The Innovator vs. The Disrupter!

My blog assignment this week is for Consumer Behavior and it's an analysis on the Top Dog vs. The Underdog brands. The top dogs are usually the market leaders. They are your Coca Cola, Ford and GM, Apple (modern day Apple) Mars Candies, Annheuser - Busch, brands like that. You see their products prominently on shelf spaces in grocery stores, quick shops, and super centers.

The disrupters are the underdogs, they saw a product and tried to make it different or better in some way. Apple became a top dog but started as a disrupter with a new style of computer and a new operating system. Microsoft was, or perhaps still is, the market leader and therefore the top dog still in the personal computing/operating system game. However at one time they were also the disrupter! They started with DOS, made a graphics based interface and called it Windows and then that turned the world upside down!

Apple could not even come close to competing with Windows and Microsoft grew into one of the best top dogs of all time. Apple stayed a niche product at best until they turned the world upside down with a handheld device that disrupted everything in the iPhone. They became the dominant company they are today because of that and are clearly top dogs in their industry now.

There is a clear difference in marketing strategy used by the top dog and the underdog. The top dog strategy is very clearly put by saying, "This works, we are dependable, we are always here, we are always reliable, no reason to change." They know they have the shelf space, market share, and have developed their product or service to the point where they are at their optimal.

The underdog strategy is, "We are new! We are exciting! We innovate! We are the future and you should join us!" They are disrupting the status quo, they give the Pepsi Challenge, they shake up the market, and they put themselves in front of your eyes constantly for your attention.

The next question for my assignment is to provide three recommendations on how an underdog can surpass the top dog. I've given one, Apple focused on a market that Microsoft ignored, the cell phone, and became a very big top dog! Microsoft struggled to produce any cell phones worth a mention, the same thing happened to the Microsoft Zune, basically an iPod style device that just never took off.

However Microsoft does own one segment that Apple has never attempted, the home game console. The X Box is a monster product! They came to the market when Nintendo was slipping away quietly with a next generation product that was so innovative that it rescued the home gaming market from another bust like after Atari went bankrupt. Microsoft is no slouch by any means and still have top dog product lines but they fail as well from time to time.

Another recommendation for an underdog to become a top dog is to stay embrace technology. You know what the status quo is of your product, it's time to think of it in a new way. It's time to take the old Ford approach to Model T colors (you can have any color you want as long as it's black) and make something hot rod red metaphorically speaking. Innovators, underdogs, disrupters need to embrace new technology. Technology is constantly changing, to the point that change is the only constant. Find technology to innovate your product, make it faster, make it higher quality, make it cheaper and you'll find your inner top dog! Maybe it's a new flavor combination for a potato chip no one has tried before. Maybe it's the Ranch Dressing innovator upstart that's about to take on long time established and top dog Thousand Island for the title of best dressing in the world. Think about your product a bit differently, maybe you can revolutionize your underdog into a top dog!

 Innovate! The top dogs were innovators once! Be the innovative leader and you can become the top dog! Take the NBA for example, teams used to run set piece offenses in the 1970's, if you watch the game replays now you might die of boredom. Pat Reilly build a team that was stat heavy and innovated offense with "The Showtime Lakers" in the 80's and started to dominate the game with a free flowing offense that accounted for much more offense than other teams were able to replicate or produce! They were exciting to watch even for the casual fan.

That team was a disrupter and quickly became a top dog to the point where today's modern NBA offenses are free flowing, reads, pick and rolls, and isolation offenses produce over a hundred points on average!

Why do I believe consumers choose the top dog over the underdog? That's pretty easy, people are creatures of habit. The more they grow the more they want to plan ahead and avoid surprises. They don't want the car to break down on the side of the road so they buy brands that are reliable. Brands that always start when you turn the key on. That's why I probably drink Bud Light (when I can't afford Lagavulin that is, which as a working class college student, not often) I see Bud Light along side Natty Light, Coors Light, Miller Lite, Michelob Ultra, and I generally pick Bud Light. It's tasty, drinkable, common, affordable and there's no surprises. You know what you are getting and sometimes that's good enough for me.

SMART Goals Ahead

As you long time readers know I've been combining my personal blog with my homework assignments for the past couple of years. Well anytime there is a blog post assignment. It lets me keep a record of where I am now at this point and time in my work and in my personal life, which lets me know how far I have left to travel on this journey.

This assignment if for Integrated Marketing, which so far has been a pretty interesting class even though it's only week three. I'm to describe SMART goals which stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. Then write about what role they have in marketing campaigns.

Then in another prompt I'm to write about the difference between goals, strategies, and tactics.

Well let me begin by explaining the difference between goals, strategies, and tactics. The goal is what you get up in the morning for. It's the prize at the end of the rainbow, the surprise in the bottom of the cereal box. How do you get to this goal?

Through a strategy! A strategy is a road map to the goal. You'll have to eat all the cereal to get to the plastic diving submarine that's powered by baking soda. If it's a huge box you'll need a tactic to get through the road map faster! This is where tactics come into play, it's how you get over the obstacles in order to implement your strategy to get to your goal!

So in this example you'll open your box of Lucky Charms to get to the submarine (goal) then you've got the problem of going through all the cereal because Mom won't let you have the toy until all the cereal is gone (strategy). So you've got an obstacle to overcome (tactic) and recruit your little brother to eat as much cereal as he can while you eat the rest! BOOM! Goal, Strategy, and Tactics accomplished and now you've got the baking soda powered submarine in your hands and ready for bath time!

You can map out your strategy a bit more by using the SMART acronym to help you out!
If your strategy specific? Yes! You need the toy!
Is your strategy measurable? Yes! You seen a known quantity of cereal to be consumed before getting to your toy!
Is your strategy attainable? Absolutely! You can practically see the little green submarine wrapped in clear plastic!
Is your strategy realistic? Sure is! You could cheat and reach into the box and get it but Mom is watching soooo, you got to play it straight!
Is your strategy timely? Yes! The box isn't the Grand Canyon! It's a cereal box and in a few short mornings your goal will be accomplished!

My next prompt is to explain how marketing tactics align with strategies! This is actually pretty easy if you think about it! So say you've got a client and that wants a thousand new clients knocking on their door in a year. They are a new business and have no client base at all.

They call you up and explain what they are after. You device a strategy of gaining your new client a thousand new clients! You do a SWOT, you find out what they are selling and who would benefit from what they are selling, in short you find the target audience that your client is after. Once you determine that audience you devise your tactics!

So perhaps your target demographic is aged eighteen to thirty nine, male and female. So you know people of this age group are pretty tech savvy and feel like an organic social media campaign is the way to go but you don't want to put all your eggs in that basket completely. This is where you also think about radio ads to reach your audience for example. Just to make give your client added value you also start a Facebook ad buy! You are confident in the next year these tactics will fulfill the strategy and accomplish the goal of gaining your client a thousand new clients!

What is also very important about all three of these advertising channels is that they are measurable using key performance indicators or KPI for short. KPI is likes on Facebook, or as you sift through the click through numbers on your ad buy, you can tell exactly how many people are seeing the new ads and who is clicking and how much time they are spending on your client's site.

This is just one form of a myriad of indicators such as subscribers on YouTube, Follows on Twitter, impressions, click through rates, ratings from radio advertisements, and a hundred more measurable indicators to tell exactly how you are reaching your audience. This is important as you might not be gaining any traction from one channel and can save money there by taking those resources to another channel that's got more promising indicators!

This is how tactics align with a strategy in marketing!

A few years ago I was hired by a local marketing firm to film some short videos with a couple of hosts and start a channel on YouTube for consumption. We did quite a few videos together around town to promote various things. After a few months I started watching the viewing numbers and they just weren't there. This was the YouTube of maybe ten years ago so it was a bit more primitive than it is today but I also knew the videos would soon be coming to an end because the KPI just wasn't favorable anymore. In today's more modern YouTube we could have done a lot of different things and gotten a lot of subs and views but it was a lot of fun for a while!

Well my friends this should complete the assignment and look for another blog post coming this week as my other course, Consumer Behavior requires one as well! So stay tuned! Same BluChannel, Same BluTime, by the Same Blugill!

Under Armour's Marketing Armor

My long time friends and readers that have joined me on my quest that began in 2015 to earn my bachelor's degree have noticed that from time to time I post updates in my blog. These updates are usually assignments or random musings when the need strikes to me extrapolate some random thought into typed words such as my last post, "The Beauty in Mediocrity."

This post will be assignment related and deals with the sports apparel company Under Armour and their woman focused "I Will What I Want" campaign from 2014. Following on the heels of an Adidas campaign that marketed to females "Unite All Originals" that failed to register much of a blip in sales, Under Armour decided to try to market their products to women which accounted for less than 25% of their total sales.

Both campaigns were social media focused with YouTube being the main method of delivery. Under Armour focused on an unusual athlete, Misty Copeland, a ballerina. She reads a rejection letter from a top school while the camera focuses on a powerful performance on stage that would put my middle aged and formerly athletic body in traction for a month. The ad was an instant success with four million views in the first week.

By contrast the Adidas ad was loud, unfocused, and frenetic. There were more men in the commercial than women which was counter to their intent to market to females. Compared to the peacefully scored piano piece that contrasted with the rejection letter and powerful physical performance it was easy to see what Adidas failed to garner sales. They might as well have set their marketing budget on fire and at least they could have roasted hot dogs with it.

Under Armour stayed on target with their intentions to market towards females. Every piece of their ad set meshed with every part. Their message was clear while Adidas' message was muddled at best. Their segmentation focused on athletic females that might not be perceived as athletic. More along the lines of the everyday female athlete that might go to the gym a few days per week.

When you market to a segment, you've got to actually keep them in mind and not throw frenetic images on a wall and see what sticks. How did Adidas believe such a campaign to move the sales needle after a very muddy message? I wanted to shut it off after the first thirty seconds but did my due diligence and stuck it out until the end and came away thinking "WHAT WAS THAT?!"

Segmentation marketing is around us on a daily basis. Web searches create patterns in what you look for, ad sets are matched to your searches, you see products that are then marketed towards your segment. If I search for concealed carry holsters for example, I'll start to see different brands pop up on the sides where the ads are on websites I visit. That means someone created an ad set that was looking for your segment of the population with your interests and has a product they want you to see and purchase.

The rubric asks me to identify a marketing segment I've noticed and how I would market towards that segment. This is very easy! Free to play games has got to be one of the most easily identifiable segment in today's world! You can't get away from ads for Candy Crush, Boom Beach, Viking Kingdom of the Lost World of Titans or whatever such bland titles they come up with next. The reality is these games are everywhere.

It's brilliant actually, they know everyone and their dog has a mobile device. They know you will be looking at it constantly. They also know for Millennials being bored for more than two seconds is like death to them. However give someone constant affirmation in the form of a game, pleasant sounds, and constant rewards and they have you hooked. Micro transactions will eat into your budget quickly but these aren't mentioned much in the marketing design.

The marketing for such a game writes itself. Segment the Millennials born between 1994 and 2004, both male and female. Appeal to your segment with your product as THE boredom killer. Post game play videos on Instagram and YouTube where the focus isn't on the screen but the happiness of the player's face that is playing the game to create curiosity. The game play would never be shown in an ad as they are typically the same game in different skins with the same mechanics but focus on what the player is feeling and not what they are doing. That's how I'd create an a segmentation strategy.

The Beauty in Mediocrity

One of my favorite quotes is, "No one in the world gets what they want, and that is beautiful." I first read it in Ready Player One but I believe it's attributed to another author.
I'm more of a destination guy than a journey guy. I've always wanted to get to the next thing as I discussed in my last post. The next level, the next payday, the next milestone.

 I'm also an advocate of Americana. The American Dream, the great American novel, small town living where people aren't anonymous but recognize each other and form circles of friends. They form extended families apart from the family they were born to but also keep sacred the family they were born to.

When I was a kid I wanted my own place. A place where I could do what I pleased. A man and his castle with a truck where I could go where I pleased when he pleased. I never realized being an adult was such a pain though. Life kicks you around, grinds you down, takes your dreams and laughs at them and eventually you strive for the simple things and are happy about it.

You work. You look forward to the next three day weekend, Friday is a little easier, Monday or Tuesday a little tougher and Thursday is trash day. Some days you have nothing to look forward to. You have nothing to excite you and some days you forget the last time you were passionate about something, anything. That's the daily grind most of us live through while possibly looking forward towards a well planned vacation someday, a brief respite before going back to the grind.

John Cougar Mellencamp sang in arguably one of his top three songs in his career, Jack and Diane, "Life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone." Mellencamp seemed to tap into the feelings of middle America. Fly over country, exclusive of the coasts and where most Americans live their lives. 

Finding a passion for something is essential, necessary, vital to living. Myself I've been passionate about many things but they fade over time and I move onto something else to occupy my time and build upon my experiences. Sometimes I love watching street cooking videos, stir fry being my favorite, and learn to replicate those recipes. Sometimes I hear about a brand of scotch that's got a new offering and try to find a bottle. Maybe someday I'll be interested in wood working and build a wood shop, I don't know but the possibility is there and that's exciting.

Yes, sometimes you find beauty in being average, living an average life and filling it with experiences that can be extraordinary....at least for a little while.

Consumer Me

In my new course, Consumer Behavior a blog post assignment is required. As you will remember this has been part of my college experience and I chose long ago to integrate my long time personal blog into these assignments.

In this assignment we are exploring me as a consumer and I must answer these following prompts:

• What type of consumer are you? 
  I'm an impulse consumer. For example, I pretty much cook for myself now and go to the grocery store two to three times a week to buy something to cook, depending on my mood. Maybe one day it's a casserole, the next red beans and rice, grilling on the weekend. It all depends on what my current impulses are. 
  
  
• What influences your buying decisions, and how? 
  Easy, hunger and comfort are my biggest influences when purchasing something. I've been blue collar my entire working career and I feel I've worked pretty hard to get where I'm at in life and if I want to eat something such as rib-eye steak, I'll go get a really good one. If I'm wanting to see a certain movie to pass the time after the evening's homework is completed after work, then I'll buy it or maybe subscribe to a streaming channel that has it. Again impulse decisions that are influenced by two driving forces. 
  
  
• Which stage actually leads to your purchasing decisions? 
  Hunger or relaxation. When I'm out of something I'll go buy to refill it. I subscribe to a pet food service that sends regular shipments of foods that my pets enjoy so that is planned but saves me the time in the grocery store. Not to mention that I might go to buy more pet food and they might be out of that specific brand or flavor which would mean I'd have to go to another store to find what they like. It's very convenient to just have it delivered on a regular basis.
  
  
• When making a buying decision, how are you influenced by marketing research and marketing design? 
  Most of the times I'm not easily influenced by marketing. I tend to read about a major purchase product before purchasing which I realize flies in the face of my earlier stated impulse consumer behavior. I tend to read reviews, watch unboxing videos, or consumer views on an expensive product before purchasing. None of that is generally part of the company's marketing plan as most reviewers are uncompensated.
  
  
• Do you experience any post-purchase behavior? 
  Not so much although I'm not a big believer in recycling I have started saving my empty beer cans. I consume, move on and usually discard the packaging. 
  
  
  
  
  
  

When Does Being Mature Start?

Tonight I’m feeling some age. It’s always made me wonder why I always wanted to be older when I was young. I couldn’t wait to be a year older. I wanted the next milestone, the next grade, the driver’s license, the graduation, the drinking age.

When I was in elementary I wanted to be in high school, when I was in high school I wanted to be in my own and supporting myself. Now I want the next phase, whatever that may be. A new slate, a new  career, a new X.

Meanwhile, in my thoughts I feel I’m always about twenty eight. I still game while talking comics with friends and maybe trying to gather another D&D group one day. I binge watch cartoons as a reward for finishing my week’s worth of homework each module, that makes me feel like I’m 8.

Once in a while life creeps up and tells me I’m older than I believe I am. My knees tell me I can’t bend that low anymore. The age in my eyes tells me maturity is only a state of mind while thinking maybe today that unexpected event happens and everything changes. One day it will.

The experienced part of me wonders how my carefully planned next four years will disappoint me and give me yet another spectacular failure seasoned with regrets. Twenty six years. June 15, 2018 is my twenty sixth year at my job which leaves me four years to go before I’m eligible for my pension. I’ve been counting this down since 2000 when we got the pension at work rather than an employer 401k contribution.

There’s so much to do and so little time.

Lays Baked Sweet Potato Chips A.K.A My Marketing Research Class

Over the course of the past six weeks we have been working on a fictional product from a preselected list major companies. We were given the assignment to create this product and research it using various methods taught to us during the class.

The major company I chose was PepsiCo and the fictional product I came up with was Lays Baked Sweet Potato Chips! This is a growth area as I found out in my research, sweet potato recipes are becoming more common place rather than reserved for the Thanksgiving table in pie form.

Sweet potatoes are rich in many vitamins and minerals and a far healthier choice than the more common russet or golden varieties. Baking them rather than frying them in fat is an additional boost to the health conscious among the population is just an added bonus and would preserve many of the healthier benefits by not submerging them in vats of grease.

The trends I have found tend to make this more of a growth product. There are a couple of smaller potato chip companies that have made this in the traditional fried of kettle form but baked has been missed out on. Add to that no major company has a line of sweet potato chips, not Ruffles, not Pringle's, not Guy's. No one, which leaves a rather large market to be tapped by a national company.

My marketing strategy was to focus group the chips in their baked, fried, and kettle cooked formats and adding flavors such as BBQ, Ranch, etc. with the main flavor being plain and baked which is the idea. Testing to see how the various tweaks on the baked chip would work compared to the one variety that is the real idea.

Focus groups would be used in the southern states first where sweet potatoes are more common and harvested such as the Carolinas. Regional testing is essential as tastes and flavors change from state to state and region to region. Lays Baked Sweet Potato chips might fail in California but thrive in Florida, regional testing would help determine the size of the market.

Smaller markets would be chosen such as quick shops and maybe a chain of grocery stores and sales would be measured until a big enough sampling size could be determined as accurate. The sampling size would be one of the more easier of the products I've read about as it would be anyone that has eaten or would eat a potato chip! That's pretty much everyone in the United States.

This proposed marketing strategy aligns perfectly with any legal or ethical concerns, there are no sweat shops to be concerned about, there are no import tariffs as sweet potatoes are heavily grown in North Carolina. The only concern would be for a fair price to the farms that produced the sweet potato which a buyer on the scale of Lays is used to negotiating prices and contracts for delivery.

I have not encountered many limitations for the idea of marketing proposal of this product. On the contrary, it's been one of the more enjoyable classes I've had as I work towards my degree! Way better than Business Systems and Design which left me with a rather poor teacher. That was the worst experience I've had since I started back to school in 2015! This is the complete opposite of that experience! This class has been faced paced and enjoyable! I've found myself at work thinking about how I would market this product if I really were in charge of such a thing at PepsiCo and what I would do to ensure a successful marketing strategy!

I'm Digging The Blog Assignments!

Well here we are again! I've got another assignment in my quest to earn my bachelor's degree in marketing that requires a blog post! This is the kind of assignment I can handle, if only every course had a similar requirement.
Alas, my current course is Marketing Research or MKT 337 in technical academia slang. My goal is to chose a Fortune 500 company from an approved list and create a product idea for launch.

Well friends I have chosen PepsiCo. Those of you who know me know that I used to be a Coke man until I suffered just north of 20 kidney stones over fifteen years and since then I've drank around a gallon of water each day to stave off such nonsense. The past year however I have become an avid ice tea drinker and rarely touch any kind of pop anymore.

PepsiCo is a strong company with worldwide brand recognition. They own Lays potato chips which is important because my product will be Lays Baked Sweet Potato Chips to capitalize on this health crazed country in which we reside.

The Lays brand has been known in the last several years to have fans vote on unusual potato chip flavors such as Southern Biscuits and Gravy, Sriracha, Wasabi, and many more. They are limited edition chips and never added to the permanent product line. I have not seen a chip made by Lays out of sweet potatoes, let alone in the baked variety. I believe it would be a natural combination of sweet and savory in chip form and would fit hand in glove with how Lays has been market testing fan voted flavors to push the envelope in snack design. They've become known for adventurous flavors and this should be no different.

With the healthy main ingredient of sweet potatoes over the traditional russet and baked rather than deep fat fried, Lays Baked Sweet Potato Chips would appeal to the health conscious consumer that tends to work out rather than become couch potatoes. A large segment of the population is obsessed with healthy eating decisions but I'm sure like anyone, they crave a good chip from time to time! I can see potential value in a healthy chip!

To research this product I would look at surveys and focus group testing variations of sweet potato varieties, and see how they perform. This would be a fun endeavor indeed!