Week 5 EOC: Social Networks and Job Hunting

Facebook is becoming the everything in the internet world.  Recently, according to the Wall Street Journal, the “majority of social-media traffic to Waste Management inc’s careers website comes from Facebook, beating out LinkedIn.  Facebook users are also easier to get a hold of and they also spend more time on Facebook than do other users of other sites."  This is not to say, however, that LinkedIn should be casted aside, as again the WSJ states “Revenue in the second quarter at Monster Worldwide Inc rose 25%...LinkedIn’s revenue ….grew 170%” in one year’s time.

Perhaps the biggest tool that Facebook can be used for are the new Brand Ambassadors that companies like Sony, McDonalds, and Microsoft are using.  Brand Ambassadors are selected from bloggers, vloggers, or anyone who is out there sharing the love for a product or brand.  They are then recruited by a marketing agency like RepNation to help spread  the word of the product or brand and are compensated by gifts, free products, etc.  This is where Facebook can be a major player in the roles of Brand Ambassadors.  One ambassador, Rebecca Nelson, from Marketing: An Introduction on when she was on a phone interview with JetBlue explains “I talked about my enthusiasm for the brand, my life at Rochester Institute of Technology, and my Facebook profile with its over 300 RIT ‘friends.’”  JetBlue operates multiple flights out of Rochester daily, and to have someone who is sharing her passion with just those 300 potential JetBlue customers on Facebook is strong marketing for JetBlue.  Facebook, as according to the Wall Street Journal article, is also a great platform for organizing events since it has over 750,000,000 users as of August 8^th, 2011.  Although some critics say the ambassadors are deceptive and underhanded, most are encourage to admit they are representatives for the company. 

Together, brand ambassadors and Facebook could be the extremely positive marketing tool for many companies.  Doing what you love doesn’t always require monetary payment, just some love in return can pay the bill of passion.

References:

Light, Joe. “Recruiters Troll Facebook for Candidates They Like.” The Wall Street Journal. August 8, 2011. Print.

Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip. Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation. 10. VitalSource Bookshelf. Pearson Learning Solutions, , Wednesday, October 31, 2012. <http://digitalbookshelf.artinstitutes.edu/books/9780558851903/id/pg144>

Week 4 EOC: Business-to-Business

Consumer marketing deals with a business directly working with the end of the business chain – the consumer.  Businessdictionary.com takes it a step further and states consumer markets “are typically split into four primary categories: consumer products, food and beverage products, retail products, and transportation products.”  Businesses have many approaches in selling to consumers.  According to an article from Businessweek.com, there are five fundamentals to keep customers as a main focus.  Listed number three is “A customer’s journey is a circle, not a straight line.”  Procter & Gamble’s example paints this clear as they begin “finding women who are pregnant…and stay involved in their lives with a wide range of products…and as their families grow, these moms start their journey with P&G again.”  This fundamental almost guarantees secure income from a consumer as long as the customer is happy with the product. 

The importance in business-to-business (b-to-b) marketing is simply put this way from Armstrong & Kotler’s Marketing: An Introduction, 10^th Ed. Page 158: “Whereas it might be disappointing when a refriedgerator buyer chooses a competing brand, losing a single sale to a large business customer can mean the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in business.”   From the purchaser’s point of view in b-to-b, the more it can profit from purchasing from the seller also is a huge selling point.  Again from Armstrong & Kotler’s book page 158, GE’s locomotive’s “If every fright locomotoive in North America were as clean as GE’s…annual reduction of emmissions would compare to removing 48 million cars from the road each year.”  This is a huge selling point for a buyer, who can claim that its company uses eco-friendly equipment with it’s $2.2 milliion dollar purchase of GE’s locomotive!  As we spoke of P&G earlier, a visit to their website, www.pgpro.com, shows their b-to-b plan is “We’re committed to boosting your sales, increasing your efficiencies, and improving your profitability.”  B-to-b is the hidden side of business we don’t see, yet it plays a huge role in the businesses getting us the products we want and serves as a support system for the businesses.

Week 3 EOC: My Demographics

Born in the early 1980’s and having a father who invested heavily in video arcade machines, I’ve grown up with technology and have appreciated it for every shard of entertainment, dime it made for us, and assistance it gave me in getting through school.  My father bought our first family computer when I was 14 years old & I’ve been plugged in ever since.  I completely agree that the Millennials do find that technology is a way of life, but I don’t necessarily see that as a good thing all of the time.  I remember when I was a student in my first quarter in college and the school’s website went down.  Many of the students waited until the last minute to turn in their assignments, which had to be done through the school website.  Students panicking as though December 21^st, 2012 came months because the school’s site went down gave me more than a few laughs as I sat in the lobby and enjoyed the chaos!  It was as though there was only one way to solve this dilemma:  Wait until things worked again.  I spoke to the instructor aside and asked if anyone bothered to email the assignment to him, or hand it off to him on a thumb drive, to which he just shrugged his shoulders.  When I got tired of what I thought was an Ebola outbreak, I asked one of the students why she didn’t just email him the assignment.  I haven’t seen a face that excited since seeing the faces of my fellow flight attendants getting their wings pinned on them years ago.  I definitely fit the mold of the Millennials – I own 3 laptops, an Xbox, a smartphone, am on the internet at least a couple hours a day, visit facebook and twitter almost daily, have 5 digital cameras – but I also am aware of what life would be like without these things, a sense that I fear the vast majority of Millennials do not.

The book Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. explains Millennials “One thing that all of the Millennials have in common is their utter fluency and comfort with digital technology. They don’t just embrace technology, it’s a way of life. The Millennials were the first generation to grow up in a world filled with computers, cellphones, satellite TV, iPods, and online social networks. A recent study found that 91 percent of Millennials are on the Web, making up 32 percent of all U.S. Internet users. According to another study, 77 percent of Millennials frequent social networking sites and 71 percent use instant messaging. ‘All generations are comfortable with technology, but this is the generation that’s been formed by technology,’ says a Yahoo! executive. For them, ‘it’s not something separate. It’s just something they do.’”  The 83 million children of the baby boomers, born between 1977 and 2000.

Week 3 EOC: Making Money for Good

Having traveled all over the U.S. and seeing so many different department and grocery stores, I was shocked to find out that many stores to include Fred Meyer, Kroger, Food 4 Less, Dillon's, Kwik Shop, and Smith's were all owned by one company:  Kroger.  A company that large, to no surprise, is making money, and is generous with it.  An article from http://finance.yahoo.com/ highlights this fact that “Kroger, the largest grocery store chain in America, was the only corporation to give more that 10% of its previous year’s profits to charity in 2010.”  The article goes on to elaborate that in 2009, the company gave away 10.9% of its profits and in 2010, gave away $64,000,000, as well as many other charitable outlets through its Food 4 Less and Salvation Army units.  It speaks volumes that Kroger was willing to give over 10% of the money it made away!  

Kroger is also making things easier for its customers to donate to their desired charities, and probably most essentially that, as Wanda Willis from http://www.daytondailynews.com/ shared “Everyone has a Kroger Plus Card in their pocket, and it’s going to cost them nothing to donate.” It is important that Kroger not only reaches out to the large, nationwide companies but also to the local populace.  This is where they can keep their customer base, and people will continue to go to them as long as they see developments from their loyalty.  Kroger is also generous with its generosity.  

According to http://butlercounty.fox19.com, in Cincinnatti, Kroger allowed “each of the seven districts chooses organizations who serve the surrounding area to benefit from Coinbox collections.  Kroger’s Corporate Office makes the determination for the other 3 quarters.”  This is an extremely deep customer/charity connection Kroger has with them.  Instead of making all the charity decisions themselves, they entrust local community charities to decide where the money should go.

Week 2 EOC: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

"We're making sure that Wii U owners will have great games to play from the moment they open the box…” http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/story/2012/09/26/nintendo-23-games-launching-with-wii-u-console/57844666/1 Nintendo has been extremely innovative and successful with their products while remaining family friendly, but they also lag behind in hardware specs, their new Wii U Console and featuring the R700 GPU, “…the Wii U will be capable of outputting full 1080p graphics — but it is ultimately a four-year-old GPU.” http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/136121-nintendo-confirms-wii-u-specs-and-release-date-prices-it-above-xbox-360-and-ps3

“…does not allow Adults Only (AO) content to be certified for use on its platform, and would not condone this type of game for Kinect." http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106259-Microsoft-Ready-to-Crush-Kinect-Porn-Game The biggest paradox in America (Beheading = OK, Breasts = BAD) is an extreme miss for Xbox.  They’re missing out on a LOT of money here.  Xbox has 47% of the consoles out and “…has sold more than 19 million units and the company’s Xbox Live service now boast 40 million members.”  http://www.bgr.com/2012/05/30/xbox-360-kinect-sales/

“Amazon blamed weak quarterly results from its media business on a decline in videogame sales. ‘You're seeing an industry slowdown in games and consoles.’” “Video Game Makers Can’t Dodge Recession” (emphasis added).  PC’s settings can be set to be far greater than any console, can consistently be upgraded, and computers are now a part of our daily lives for everything as software and youtube are making things easier to do-it-yourself, from games, editing movies and pictures, email, etc.

For example:  Loading time on an PS3 for the game “Skyrim” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg7j11_tlBY&t=0m36s

VS. loading time on a PC - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQwkoc6Ivlg&t=00m5s

Even though mobile devices don’t offer real gaming experiences, they do offer simplistic, easy entertainment.  The Wii was done after the Kinect came out, and the 3DS still has Pokémon.

BCG Ratings:

Stars: All mobile devices

Cash Cows: Xbox, Nintendo 3DS

Question Marks: PC, Wii U

Dogs: PS3, Wii, PSP

I was part of a wedding party in Williamsburg, VA in the first weekend July in 2012.  I ended up flying out there on July 4^th because I saved over $100 on the ticket.  I wasn’t happy, as Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays throughout the year, but I was tight on money.  I bought a ticket on U.S. Airways, an airline from which I’ve never purchased a ticket.  It was a flight with a connection through Philadelphia and ended in Baltimore.

The first flight went smoothly until there was some commotion in the seat next to me.  The passenger across the aisle passed out and was unresponsive.  Having been a flight attendant myself and knowing how tough it is to work in cramped quarters, I got out of my seat immediately so they could have room to work.  One of the flight attendants thanked me numerous times and was very attentive to me for giving them the space to work.

The passenger ended up being in terrible condition and we had to divert to Indianapolis so they could get her to a hospital.  This resulted in many passengers missing their connections, including me.  Since this was not an event under U.S. Airways control (like weather), I expected having to sleep in the airport that evening until the next flight I could get to Baltimore.  Not only was I given a seat on the first flight to Baltimore the next morning, there was a hotel room at a nearby Hilton waiting for me.  This blew me out of my mind, and I made it to the hotel bar in time to watch fireworks with 5 Brits in “The Birthplace of America.”

This experience made me a believer in U.S. Airways and I look forward to flying with them again!

“Most studies show that higher levels of customer satisfaction lead to greater customer loyalty, which in turn results in better company performance.”  Page 14 from Marketing: An Introduction for Educatio Management Corporation, 10^th Edition.

Week 1 EOC: My Voice

"The person who makes a success of living is the one who see his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly.  That is dedication." – Cecil B. DeMille.  My name is Sean Corcoran and I began my career in video when he was 10 years old.  My father bought a video camera for the family and I had my hands on it from day one.  Up until my late 20’s, I worked numerous jobs in many fields and finally settled down in Las Vegas to study filmmaking and video production.  Like any other industry professional, I have been a part of many short projects, even getting an extra’s spot in an independent film, Territory 8, an experience that left me hungry for more.  Once settling down in Vegas, I began Vlogging, which changed my life when I started doing a weekly pro wrestling vlog called “The RAW Loaf,” providing commentary and review for WWE’s flagship show, “WWE Monday Night RAW.”  My dedication to this vlog, where I am consistently gain a lot of experience in editing and being creative, lead to me obtaining the position of Lead in Live Production at one of the local independent pro wrestling companies, Adrenaline Unleashed.  “If you aren’t doing what you love, then why are you doing it?”