It's finally over...

This semester has by far been my difficult yet, and I attribute most of that to this marketing class. I had no clue how difficult marketing is or how much actually goes into it.

I will definitely not be pursuing any more marketing. Let's just hope I can recruit someone who's better at it than me when the time comes to promote my business.   

pub·lic re·la·tions

/ˈpəblik rəˈlāSHənz/

noun

the professional maintenance of a favorable public image by a       company or other organization or a famous person.

• the state of the relationship between the public and a company or other organization or a famous person.

    "companies justify the cost in terms of improved public relations"

  Public relations can make or break a company. Negative pr, depending on how negative, has the power to either severely damage a company or completely kill it. Two recent negative PR incidents that come to mind for me are:

1. The email sent by ADIDAS after this year's Boston Marathon.
    

"Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon!"

 

Adidas representatives sent out an honest, heartfelt apology the same day owning the mistake. By doing this, they were able to avoid too much damage to the company.

 

2. United Airlines forceful removal of a passenger.  

 

This one didn't go so well. 

 

Mistake #1: Cold, unfeeling apology.

 

"This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers." 

-Oscar Munoz, CEO, United Airlines

 

Mistake #2: Munoz criticized the passenger and defended the removal.

 

United Airlines' customer perception dropped to a 10 year low following this incident. In addition to that, their stock plummeted. They lost customers and money. 

 

Negative PR happens, they way it's handled makes all the difference.  

Market Penetration... 

-Penetrating the market.

 I am such a child...











Anyways! Why is market penetration important? It is the key performance metric for determining the business growth strategy. According to the Ansoff Matrix, you can determine the next stages the company must take in order to grow and determine the risks associated.

Market penetration is used when a company seeks to increase sales growth. It is typically used in the development of the new company in order to prove the existence of a market for a particular product or service. In laymen terms, can you sell it? Does someone want what you're offering? If the answer is no, stop, reevaluate, and switch things up.

Competitive Advantage...

-What makes you better than your competitors?

How do you prove you're better? Know the benefits, the target market, and the competitor. Do the math and be able to articulate the benefits of what you're offering the target market versus what they're getting from your competitor.

Small business in a small town.

Why start a small business in a small town? My opinion, less competition, people like their money to go back to where they live, and everybody knows everybody so word of mouth travels fast.

Less Competion:

Simply put, there just aren't as many businesses to compete with in a small town as you would come across in a large city. It's going to be a lot easier to start up a business in Cullman than in Birmingham.

Money Stays Home:

Most people prefer their money to stay "at home." By starting your business in a small town, the money is going right back in to the town/city.

Everybody Knows Everybody: 

Word of mouth will travel quickly and get your business out there, but also, you can create relationships with your customers.


These aren't the only reasons, just the first things that came to mind for me.  

LET'S TALK PRICING...

 
What is entrepreneurial pricing? For me, a huge headache. Trying to figure out which strategy I should use:

COST BASED?
MARKET BASED?
ONE PRICE FOR ALL?
BUNDLING?
  I DON'T KNOW.




Cost based: Ensures I make at least some profit. That's good, right?
Market based: Since I don't have much of a competition in my area, this could bring a much larger profit, but the company is a new idea so is anyone going to pay for it?
One price for all: Do I just have an hourly base pay & hope people book more than an hour?
Bundling: Will this encourage people to book more? Scare them away?


Hell, I don't know. Being an entrepreneur is so scary! Like, who needs Halloween, just start your own business. omg.

**side note: Totally kidding. Halloween is the best time of year.

Delebs...

Deleb: noun
1. Advertising and promotional slang for a DEad ceLEBrity, especially one whose image can be used in advertising and, through Photoshop or other c.g.i. process, can be seen to advocate contemporary products or causes. 




 
Marilyn Monroe: died 1962
Posthumous earnings: $27 million
Products endorsed:
Chanel No. 5
Sexy Hair products
Three Olives Vodka
Macy's clothing collection
Will Rich shoe collection


Bob Marley: died 1981
Posthumous earnings: $21 million
Products endorsed:
Marley Beverage Company
House of Marley
Marley Natural

 
Elizabeth Taylor: died 2011
Posthumous earnings: $20 million
Products endorsed:
White Diamonds perfume
 

Running full force into a brick wall...

The title of this week's blog describes my week as well as where I stand in my product development stage of my company. I don't have a product to offer; I have a service. I have a service that everybody can use, but no one realizes they want. 

How do I convince you that you need and want this service? I show you how it can benefit you, right? But, how do I do that? It's not a tangible product for me to put in your hand and let you touch and see. Its a service I can do for you, but I can't afford to provide them at no charge. I can't really offer 'samples' per say... I suppose I've gotta talk real smooth; I've got to sell myself to you. The thing with that? I'm not a talker. I'm not a 'salesperson'.

Looks like I've got some work to do... and some learning.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Marketing

Where on the pyramid are does your average customer fit? Each section of society is going to respond to certain things differently. 
  

Sections of Society

POOR

  MIDDLE CLASS

RICH

Physiological: food, water, sleep, fresh air. - Don't market to these people. Help them. 

Safety: shelter, security, resources. - Side jobs, cheap insurance.

Love & Belonging: friendship, relationships, intimacy. - Teams, groups, fun.

Esteem: self esteem, confidence, respect. - Fulfillment, recognition, honor.

Self Actualization: morality, spontaneity, creativity. - luxuries, travel.

By knowing who your customer base is, what their needs are, and what your product or service can do to benefit them, you can determine your marketing path.

      

What do consumers want?

They want an experience. They want customization. They want to be happy.

People tend to spend more when they're happy. Customizing and making things more of an experience will make customers happy. 

Offer a lady a glass (or 3) of wine while she's getting her hair done and she'll hang out longer. Have a 'man cave' in large department stores that men/women (I don't judge.) can escape to while holding their wife/girlfriend/husband/boyfriend's bag as they try on their 13th outfit or pair of shoes. Daycare in the mall/department store (!!!!!) would be super useful for parents who have to get that shopping done, but can't get any help.

Any of the above would make my personal experience better. I would definitely spend more to do business with these companies.
 

Inventions ahead of their time...

**My random thoughts on what they were, why they didn't work (yet) & what their successor ended up being...

Did you know the vending machine was actually invented in the 1st century? Yep. It was originally invented to dispense holy water in exchange for a coin. Hmmm... Wonder why that didn't work out... It was another 2000 years before the vending machines we all know and love for our sweet & salty fixes was reintroduced. I guess there wasn't much of a market back then.

How about Ask Jeeves? Does anyone else remember that site or am I just showing my age now? Ask Jeeves was the bomb.com when it came out, but technology wasn't ready for it. Think of it as a pre-Google.

Handheld gaming. Did anyone else have the Electronic Quarterback by Coleco? My step-brother & I used to fight over that game constantly! Again, not a huge market yet. Parents weren't fans of these little distractions yet. Hell, the Nintendo Gameboy didn't release for another 12 years after this. We all know how that worked out. 

If you're interested, there's tons of things like this...

Parachutes
Picture phones (FaceTime, Skype)
Apple Newton (iPad) 
WebTv (Smart TV's)

 


 

Maximizing or Missing Marketing Opportunities - Your opinion versus mine.

This week I'm going to write a response to one of our classmates. Their stance was that UAB Football missed out on a marketing opportunity by letting people into the UAB House Party to see Sam Hunt perform for free. They felt that people should have been required to purchase a season ticket or at least regular game ticket in order to attend this show to financially support the UAB football program.

Some things to keep in mind, not all Sam Hunt fans are UAB fans or even football fans, and on the flip side, not all UAB fans are Sam Hunt fans.

 I see this as a maximizing opportunity for both the football program and for Sam Hunt. By allowing "outsiders" into this show with no purchase necessary, they introduced a lot of football fans to a new (to them) performer & a lot of country music fans to a damn good football team. Those country fans could not like football (unlikely) or be Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, etc fans who would've never went to a UAB event otherwise, but have now been introduced to a new team. A new LOCAL team. A team they can go see regularly, who's tickets aren't outrageous. That can introduce so much more income for the program; letting people decide they want to spend their money there vs. forcing them to do so. On the other side of things, Sam Hunt earned himself a lot of fans through this, I'm sure. People who had never listened to his music before, but happened to hear him at this event or people who heard of his support in doing this show at no charge are now downloading his songs, looking into future concerts, etc.

'Forcing' people to spend money isn't always the best way to market. The way I look at it, the UAB Football program and Sam Hunt probably made a lot more off of not charging for that show.

Were things really better in the 90's?

Ok, let's discuss the differences in marketing in the 90's vs 20XX's, for they are plentiful.

What I found to be the most eye opening, but also the most obvious was the different ways that technology affected the types of marketing needed. In the 90's the sellers had the advantage when in came to accessible information. They shared exactly what they wanted you to know, what they 'knew' would sell their product/service to you. With the turn of the century, technology took that away and with the help of the World Wide Web, put that information at our fingertips. We have to work harder & smarter in our marketing.

The cost of a web page... in 1995? $50,000!!! I created my own for nothing, but even to have a pro do the work, you can get a basic site for less than $2,000.

Visuals... have you seen the differences? The ads in the 90's were mostly family based, but only same race, nuclear families. Today, there are single parent families, mixed race families, same sex families; the difference in acceptance is staggering.

This blog is everywhere. I have no explanation. I couldn't get my thoughts to flow this week. It is a holiday weekend, perhaps that's it. My brain is on vacation. We'll be back on point next week. I'm sure of it.

How can color schemes, logos or signage affect other people's opinions of your business?

In choosing the name and background for my company, this was something I definitely had to consider. Here in Alabama, people get super serious about "their" football team so going with a crimson & houndstooth scheme was dangerous. I mean, my 8 year old son won't wear ANYTHING that has blue & orange on it. When coloring, he's very conscious not to put those colors together because, "Yuck. That's AUBURN colors!" (PLEASE DON'T GET OFFENDED!) I had to ask myself, "Am I going to lose business because I went with Crimson Concierge as my name or because my background is houndstooth?" Sadly, the answer is probably yes, but on the other hand, I could very well gain business for those exact same things.

The following info was taken from this site, which I found extremely informative.

**According to research complied by web design and marketing company WebPageFX, people make a subconscious judgment about a product in less than 90 seconds of viewing, and a majority of these people base that assessment on color alone. In fact, almost 85% of consumers cite color as the primary reason they buy a particular product, and 80% of people believe color increases brand recognition.**

The Logo Factory is another site that I found super helpful.

It all comes down to psychology. Every color brings some emotion out in a viewer. In the case of my business, the red will bring out love, passion, excitement, and power (ROLL TIDE!) for Bama fans, but it'll bring out the feelings of war and danger in the fans of other SEC teams. I kid... kind of. ;)

Until next week, folks, I hope I didn't create too many enemies today.

Here goes nothing.

This is my first blog entry in ... well, ever. I'm not a writer; I never have been and probably never will be. Seeing as how this is the first entry, I'll use it to introduce the company I hope to make thrive in the very near future.

http://crimsonconcierge.weebly.com/

I have so many random interests that I found it hard to answer when anyone asked, "What do you want to do when you grow up?" I decided to take them all & wrap them up in one pretty little houndstooth & crimson package. As the Crimson Concierge, my goal is to make your life easier. I can do anything from as small as coffee/lunch pick-up all the way up to event management & personal shopping.

If you have a minute, go check it out...