In response to Jonathan Tomachick

Do you find yourself doing the same when you shop? Have you ever had to cut another shopping trip short because of splurging for sale items the week prior?

Just like many other consumers, I get caught up in sales.  I work in a grocery store and I constantly find myself leaving work with items that I didn't intend to buy because I noticed during my shift that they were on sale.  The funny part is that the majority of the time I don't even end up using what I bought so I ended up actually wasting money instead of saving it.  

I have never found myself having to cut shopping trips short because of prior weeks sales, but rather I find myself having to cut shopping trips short because of the current weeks sales.  

One thing that working in a grocery store has made me wonder is how much is enough when it comes to sales.  I have watched a lot of people come in and buy a ridiculous amount of sale items, or items that they have coupons for, that I know they will never be able to use.  Just because an item is on sale does not mean that the item is necessary.  

I definitely believe that here in America we buy items just because they are on sale, and not necessarily because we need them.   Can you think of other countries where this is true?  Can you think of other countries in which their culture prevents them from buying lots of items that they don't need just because they're on sale?

Perception

Psychological factors influence consumers' buying decisions.  These psychological factors include perception, motivation, learning, and beliefs and attitudes.  Consumers use these factors in interact with their world.  Psychological factors are the only influence of consumer behavior that can be affected by the person's environment.

One psychological factor that I would like to specifically focus on is perception.  Perception is defined as "the process by which people select, organize, and interpret stimuli into a meaningful and coherent picture."  Basically, perception is used by consumers to produce meaning; it's how they see the world and how they discover that they need help in making a purchasing decision.

There are three parts to perception - selective exposure, selective distortion, and selective retention.

Selective exposure is what consumers use to decide which stimuli they are going to pay attention to and which ones they are going to ignore.  Selective distortion happens when information conflicts with a consumer's beliefs or feelings so the consumer changes or distorts the information.  Finally, selective retention is when a consumer only remembers the information that supports their personal beliefs and feelings.

Perception plays a huge role in marking because marketeers have to pick up on consumers' perceptions of products and play on them to help sell a product.  For instance, if consumers feel a specific way about how the packaging of a product should look, if marketeers pick up on this and change the product's packaging to match what the consumer perceives as something they want to buy, a product will be more successful.  Pricing and quality of a product can be dictated by consumers' perceptions of what they should be as well as quality and reliability.

When naming, packaging, advertising products, etc. companies should keep perception in mind.  You don't want to create a great product but have it flop because the name was associated with something that people perceive as bad, or the consumers' perceptions of the packaging were negative.

Can you think of any products in which consumer perception caused them to flop?

Response to Melissa Moriwaki

If logos had always been more simple, without hidden messages or clever abstract symbols, what effect do you think it would have on brand recognition today?

As I looked through the logos on the website that Melissa shared, I kept thinking how simple,yet clever these logos were.  I also thought about how these clever logos actually made me want to utilize the product or service that these companies were providing, even though I hadn't even heard of a lot of them.  With their hidden messages and clever abstract symbols I found that these logos were extremely memorable.

I believe that without hidden messages or clever abstract symbols brand recognition would not be the same today.  Of course we will remember the logos of really large, popular companies such as the McDonald's Golden Arches, but for brand recognition smaller companies need to get whatever competitive edge they can.  If these companies didn't use hidden messages and clever abstract symbols they would be easily forgettable.  Had the logos on the website not have been so clever I wouldn't have thought twice about them.  But, because these companies took the time to make clever logos they have made themselves memorable.  People take an extra second to look at the logo and understand it.  If it's funny sometimes they show others.  The logo then becomes recognizable to them because it made an impression.   Without the clever logos small companies may not be remembered.

What is a company that has made a lasting impression on you with a hidden message or clever abstract symbol in their logo?  Even if that company produces a product or service that wasn't quite as good as the competition, were they more memorable to you because of their logo?

Hyundai Assurance Buy-Back Program

In class this week we discussed how Hyndai had successfully created the Hyundai Assurance Program.  The program went on for 26 months and helped increase auto-sales for New Hyundais during the recession.  It helped assure people that it was okay to buy a new car because if they lost their job they would be covered. Although this program only lasted for 26 months in 2011 Hyundai started a new assurance program.

Hyundai's latest assurance program is the Hyundai Assurance Buy-Back Program.  Where before Hyundai guaranteed that they would take your car back if you lost your job, they are now assuring the price of your car for a trade in 2-4 years from now.  They give you a projected residual value for a later date when you go in to buy your new car.  When you actually go to trade in your Hyundai they view the actual residual value and the one that they projected when you bought the car and you get the higher of the two.  The only catch? You must keep your car maintained at the Hyundai authorized dealer.

These programs that Hyundai has created has increased their sales above the market's increased sales.  Other factors that have also increased Hyundai's sales are better designs, better reliability, and better mileage than before.

I found an article from CNBC describing the program called Hyundai's Latest Assurance Program Could Be Trouble for Competitors.  The following link can bring you to it to read more if you are interested,
http://www.cnbc.com/id/42748675/Hyundai039s_Latest_Assurance_Program_Could_Be_Trouble_for_Competitors.

What other companies have taken on programs like this?  Were they successful?  Why or why not?

Response to Katie O'Hurley

I think that humor is an excellent technique to use in commercials because it gets the viewers attention and makes them want to buy and support that product.  I think that creating a figure for the company such as Flo is also a strong advertising technique because it makes the company recognizable.

One company that I uses humor in their commercials as an advertising technique is Doritos.  They haven't done it with just one commercial, but they have a history of using humor as an advertising technique in their commercials.

Both of these commercials were shown this year during the Superbowl.  As you can see they chose to use humor, and did it successfully may I add, in multiple commercials on the same night.

What are some other techniques that are utilized in advertising?  What are some specific examples of these techniques?

Global Marketing

Global Marketing is defined by our textbook as "marketing that targets markets throughout the world."  Global marketing benefits companies by promoting growth opportunities, promoting innovation, fostering the marketing of better, less expensive products, raising productivity and living standards, promoting competition, and offering access to foreign capital and global export markets.

Because global marketing is such a positive thing and offers so many new opportunities, many companies would like to get involved in the global market.   In class we discussed ten different ways to enter the global market, they are as follows:

• importing
• exporting
• licensing 
• franchising
• contract manufacturing
• outsourcing
• joint ventures 
• strategic alliances 
• direct ownership
• and multinational enterprise

One company that has successfully captured the global market is McDonald's.  They have done this through franchising.  Franchising is a form of licensing in which the Franchiser grants a franchisee the right to market its product with the franchiser's standards in exchange for money.  In other words, McDonald's allows a franchisee to pay them to open up a new McDonald's restaurant somewhere in the world, and in that restaurant the franchisee must have the same menu, restaurant design, uniforms, etc. that McDonald's requires they have.

More than 80% of McDonald's restaurants worldwide are operated by franchisees.  They have been recognized numerous amounts of times for their franchises.  Some examples provided by their website are:

• Entrepreneur Magazine – Every year, Entrepreneur Magazine lists its Franchise 500. Over the last several years McDonald’s has been recognized as one of the Top 10 Franchises.
• Franchise Times Magazine – McDonald’s has been ranked #1 on its list of top 200 franchises.
• USA Today – McDonald’s has been selected by the National Minority Franchise Initiative (NMFI) as one of the 50 Top Franchises for Minorities.
• Black Enterprise Magazine – McDonald’s was listed as one of the 40 best Franchises for African Americans.

More information about McDonald's franchising is available at http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/franchising.html.

What are some other companies that have used franchising to enter the global marketplace? Can you find any companies that have successfully gained entry into the global marketplace through one of the other nine methods?

In response to Kaley DeBoer

I believe that it is beneficial for a company to focus on multiple target markets.  If they only focus on one then they are reducing the number of possible customers that they could have.  For example, in class we discussed Dr. Pepper coming out with a new product called "Just for Men."  By naming the new diet soda this, Dr.Pepper is excluding possible women consumers from becoming buyers.  If they focused their target market rather on those looking to drink diet soda, they would expand from just men who want to drink diet soda to men and women that want to drink diet soda.

I feel that focusing on one target market hurts a company rather than helping it.  Can you think of a time where a company focused on too slim of a target market and face unfortunate consequences because of it?