Week 9

Today we learned about products. What it takes to come up with a new product and how long products stay in the market. We also learned what it takes to market new products and why some products fail. I thought one of the most interesting thing was that many new products fail. The statistic use was 3 in 4 new products will fail. That is very high and after learning that it can take years to develop a new product it is a wonder that companies are able to stay in business.

Week 7

This chapter pertained to products. What is a product, how companies use and distribute their products, and how products promotes the company they represent. I thought brand equity was very interesting as brand equity can be priceless. For instance, can you put a price on the Apple band name or logo? It would be hard to really project how much money that little apple logo has generated and will generate.  Companies use their brand name and logo as equity to sell their products. We see these brands everyday and learning how companies utilize their brands is very beneficial to a marketing perspective.

Week 6

This week we covered marketing research. One thing that really stuck out to me was how companies get their research. The video about the company "Ready Made" indicated they use both a forum and a blog. Both of these are almost 100% run by the users. This is a brilliant idea, as letting others run answer questions about problems in a form or blog is much more cost effective then having users ask the company itself. Plus you get valuable insight and user input for marketing research. It is a volunteer basis so very cost effective.

Week 5

This week we discussed market segmentation. Market segmentation is systematically dividing the market into segments to better market or cater to that segments needs. A people within a segment will have similar wants and needs. Very interesting how by segmentation, marketing is much much more effective.  

Week 4

We are now delving into how marketing is able to focus on specific attributes of individuals to better sale products. I really like learning about cognitive dissonance; which is where you feel anxiety or regret or doubt about a product you just purchased. I believe the best way for marketers to combat this is to tell the consumer they made a smart purchase.

Week 3

Week 3 in class was the first class that we were able to get through the entire class without any technical issues. What stood out to me the most this week was the statistic that more working women in todays world has changed the marketing mix more than anything else.

Week 2:

This week in class was a bit funny as we only got halfway through the class and the entire broadcast system went down in south eastern Utah. Still very informative as we reviewed and discussed chapter 1. The one thing that really stuck out to me was the difference between a product feature and a product benefit. This also applies to services, but I have never really thought that what I see when I see a product or service are the features and what I need to ask myself is what are the benefits for me. I think if I ask that I can better cut down expenses in my life.