EOC Week 7 - Marketing Plan

Feed Your Soul Food Truck

Here at the Feed Your Soul Food Truck we offer fine soul food. We have chicken wings, peach cobbler, pork ribs, fried chicken and much more. We believe that our food should not only fill you up but also make you feel good. We also offer something for customers that feel a need to express themselves or just want to show off a talent or their artistic side. We know that people like having a little entertainment during a meal. So in the truck we have a DJ and sound system. At every stop a mic and a mat are set up right in front of the truck and anyone can approach it and show their talent be it poetry, singing, rapping or dance. It is somewhat like an open mic night at a café but here we offer it people who might not ever go to a café. With that people are encouraged to come up and show off their talent. In doing so the person gets a complementary drink and something of their choice from the menu (excluding combo meals). There are also weekly sign ups for rap battles and dance offs for anyone wanting to participate in them. We know that music touches the hearts of many people and that they use it as a way to express themselves and we provide that for anyone wanting to find an audience or find people with similar interests. We might be a food truck but what we strive to do is let the love of music bring people together. We want people to come not just for food but for entertainment or to be entertainment, to meet new people and find people with similar interests. We believe that expressing oneself through a talent is a way to feed their soul and make a person feel better about themselves.

EOC Week 6: Me x 3 products I Use

When people first buy a product, they usually buy something that think that they’ll like. If they like it, they’ll stick with it and keep on buying it and not want anything besides that product. The reason for that is because they want to stay loyal to the product because it satisfies them. I also have this loyalty to certain products. One of the products that I would pick over another is the iPod. The reason I would pick the iPod over another product similar to it is because it was the first mp3 player I ever got. It was the only one mp3 player I knew about the time I first got one and since then I haven’t bothered to try any of the other ones because I know pretty much everything about the iPod along with iTunes. And since that’s pretty much everything that is needed to operate an iPod, I’m happy with that. Another product that I’m loyal to is the iPad. Although I haven’t yet bought one, I’m saving up to buy one and I know I don’t want anything else. I’ve gotten to use one and mess around with it. It’s not much different from the iPod Touch and I already know how to use that one so the iPad is already sold for me. To me nothing else can compare to it. And another product that I am loyal to is the Xbox 360. It’s like the complete opposite to the iPod and iPad, with the iPod and iPad being from Apple and the Xbox being Microsoft, but I’m really satisfied with the Xbox. It has games I like and some good features. Most of the games and features are included in the other game systems but with the Xbox I just feel like I’m getting the most out of it. It wasn’t cheap to buy but also not too expensive and it comes with everything I could want, so it’s like perfect for me.

EOC Week 5: Social Networks and Job Hunting

Everyone now a days has a Facebook and job companies now this.  Companies are starting to use Facebook as a way to recruit new employees. “More companies are trying to tap Facebook Inc.'s 750-million-plus user base to find new employees, threatening traditional job boards and competing with LinkedIn Corp., which has dominated the online professional networking arena.” (Recruiters Troll Facebook for Candidates They Like, Wall Street Journal.) When a company finds a person to recruit and the person is interested, the company starts to recruit people that the recruited person might know. After carefully finding a someone they might want to recruit, the company might then make a brand ambassador out of that person. Companies are careful about picking these people. “Marketers select their brand ambassadors very carefully, based on customers’ devotion to a brand and the size of their social circles. They sometimes search blogs and online social networks to identify individuals who are already functioning as brand advocates.” (Marketing: An Introduction, pg. 143).  After the company has their brand ambassador they then let them  go and talk to people they know about the brand they are working for.  And they do this through different ways. It could be in person or through blogs, social networks, and so on. “The ambassadors then tap into friends, family, groups, and broader audiences through personal conversations, blogs, live events, and online social media.” (.” (Marketing: An Introduction, pg. 143).  This is a really effective way to recruit people to work for a company or to buy products from them. Looking for future employees through social networks is still pretty low. About 1% of employees are hired  through Facebook. But if the trend continues Facebook can rival the traditional job hiring by 2012. “Facebook hires account for less than 1% of the total hires companies are making, according to Jobs2Web, which

helps companies track the sources of candidates and hires.

But if current growth trends continue, Facebook could rival traditional job boards in 2012” (Recruiters Troll Facebook for Candidates They Like, Wall Street Journal.).

EOC Week 4: Consumer vs Business Marketing

EOC Week 4: Consumer vs Business Marketing

There are many differences in marketing and many different consumers. Take for example a single person buying a computer compared to a business buying a whole stock of them. A well known company that does this is GE. Many people buy GE products that are used around the house. “For more than 130 years, we’ve packed our homes with GE products—from good ol’ GE lightbulbs to refrigerators, ranges, clothes washers and dryers, microwave ovens, dishwashers, coffee makers, room air conditioners, and hundreds of other products bearing the familiar script GE logo.” (Marketing : An Introduction. pg 158). Along with these products, GE also sells to many different commercial and industrial customers. But the products it sells to these customers are completely different to what people would buy for their houses. ”Beyond light bulbs and electronics, GE sells everything from medical imaging technologies, water processing systems, and security solutions to power generation equipment, aircraft engines, and diesel locomotives.” (Marketing : An Introduction. pg 158). Though the products might be different the thing that GE wants to do is sell the product. Selling an aircraft engine to a company is still the same as trying to sell a refrigerator to a single person. But that’s similarity that a single customer and a company share. When it comes down to it, GE would rather lose a single person who decides to buy a fridge that’s only a couple hundred dollars than to lose a company that wants to buy  airplane engines that will cost millions of dollars in losses. “Whereas it might be disappointing when a refrigerator 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.” (Marketing : An Introduction. pg 158). And that’s something GE wouldn’t want.

Week 3 EOC Demographics - MINE

The demographic  group I belong to is the Millennials.  The Millennials are the 83 million children of the baby boomers born between 1977 and 2000. The group consists of several age groups inside itself such as: tweens, teens, and young adults. Millennials are the first age group to grow up with technology and are fluent in using it. “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.” (Marketing: An Introduction, pg. 17). And well this is true for me. I know how to use pretty much everything that has to do with technology nowadays. I use it every day whether I notice it or not. It’s just something I grew up with so it’s not something that I can ignore if I’ve been around it my whole life. It’s important to keep up with all the technology because it helps with everyday life. “The Millennials were the first generation to grow up in a world filled with computers, cellphones, satellite TV, iPods, and online social networks.”(Marketing: An Introduction, pg. 17). All this technology is very useful even for people born in a different age group. Knowing how to use these devices can make a lot of things easier. Being able to find information about something you want to purchase from you’re phone is pretty useful.  “Millennials are bombarded with marketing messages coming at them from all directions. And rather than having mass marketing messages pushed at them, they prefer to seek out information and engage in two-way brand conversations.” (Marketing: An Introduction, pg. 17).  

Week 2 EOC: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

In the video game market, most of the home consoles like the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii are losing sales due to people waiting for the price to drop. On the other hand, the games that appear to be the star in this decline is not even a game system, they’re the downloadable games on the smart phones. “In 2009 smartphone games accounted for 19% of the total money spent on portable games, with portable game devices like the Nintendo DS accounting for the remainder.” (http://socialtimes.com/smartphone-growth-in-mobile-gaming-continues_b59052). This is mostly because the games are inexpensive and because people like to be able to keep busy while they might be waiting for something and they always have their phones with them. The cash cow in this is the Xbox 360. Although it’s sales are in decline, people are still playing Xbox Live and able to play with people all over the world. “Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE service and Kinect have both helped Microsoft maintain a solid lead in the U.S. console market.” (http://www.winrumors.com/microsoft-parades-its-impressive-xbox-360-stats-ahead-of-e3/). T he only downside is that people need to pay to play online which is where the Xbox would get most of it’s money. The question mark in this is the Wii. People are still playing it and are still buying games for it but it’s not certain where it might go from there. The PS3 is the dog in all this. It’s sales are below both the Xbox and the Wii. It’s price is higher which would probably keep most people from buying it. And it’s live network work isn’t as good as Xbox Live, even though it’s free. “There are lot of issues on the PSN now and then and we hear a lot of people moan about it. In other words, PSN is one of the features that is unpopular among the PS3 gamers. Yes, of course it’s free but the price of free that makes everyone considering to buy this console.” (http://www.ps3crunch.net/5-reasons-not-ps3.html).