FINAL PROJECT: Creative Content

This is a magazine ad that was created for the beverage. The red background is to stop viewers dead in their tracks. The lack of information is used to leave the viewer curious about the beverage, especially after hearing people talk about it. It makes the viewer want to try the beverage and ask around for more information, which makes the customer think about us and drives them more to want to try the beverage.

EOC Week 10 - Working My Channels

Shotz is a beverage for the age range of 18 to 30. Why did I say that little piece of information if it’s irrelevant to you? If you don’t know what Shotz is then why would that information become of any use to you?  “Ideally, because the success of individual channel members depends on overall channel success, all channel firms should work together smoothly.” (Marketing: An Introduction). I plan to work with various markets to channel success accurately. A product, brand, company, etc. can’t be successful without other outsourcing channels. My created beverage will be pushed through convenient stores along with the highest distributor of all liquor, Lee’s Liquor. I plan to flood the magazines with advertisements so people can become familiar with the beverage and the brand itself. It takes money to make money so I also plan to buy the front spots on the shelves to push the product out the stores. I want the beverage to wipe away the market strictly from word of mouth. Advertising and pushing beer is a pretty intense process but when people talk about the beer? That’s what sells the product! Getting the consumer to spend their money on the beverage is the key problem to any new product; which is why I plan on doing all of the above processes to make Shotz a successful beverage for the market. It’s an enjoyable drink and I feel this beverage can go along ways. By taking over flooding the shelves in corner stores, Lee’s Liquor, and magazine advertisements, I should accomplish the goal of putting the beverage in many hands.

BOC Week 10 - The Volkswagen Lemon Ad

Advertising a product wasn’t as broad and humorous back in the day as it is today. In early 1960’s, “ads were either information based on lacking in persuasiveness, more fantasy than reality, or relied on the medium’s ability to deliver a repeated exposure. Beetle ads, connected with consumers on an emotional level, also conveyed a product benefit in a way consumers could relate to.” (http://www.syl.com/bc/advertisingcampaignforvolkswagenbeetletheno1advertisingcampaignofthecentury.html). The Volkswagen Lemon Ad broke that trend in various ways. Americans refer to the word “lemon” as being ridiculously bad but they weren’t implying that the car was terrible; instead, they were saying the overall vehicle’s long-lasting value and the constructive engineering was phenomenal.

They had to break through the “big car” culture of Americans by issuing this smaller car that brings more benefits than the bigger cars. While conveying that message, they had to produce a unique way to get the point across through the advertisement. “The ad agency, Doyle Dane Bernbach, successfully caught the viewer’s attention by using self-effacing humor. With any luck, these ads drew you into the joke, and you would read the rest of the copy looking for the punch line.” (http://designhistorylab.com/?p=1755). “The ad featured a black and white photo of the Volkswagen Beetle with the word 'Lemon' in bold san serif font…that this particular car was rejected…because of a blemish on the chrome piece of the glove box. The ad goes on to describe the rigorous inspection process…” (http://www.writingfordesigners.com/?p=1731).

They interpreted the words “thinking small” through their design by making the ad fairly small with a lot of dead space making the viewer more interested. They compared a Volkswagen to a lemon to represent how small the vehicle actually is. By doing so, this ad successfully became one of the most famous ads ever.

EOC Week 9 - Three Great Mission Statements

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EOC Week 7 - Creative Content Projects

I plan on creating a magazine ad for the Shotz brewery. The ad is going to consist of hard colors to stop the viewer in his/her tracks and glance at the page. Once the viewer has locked eyes on the page, mission complete! The most unique part about this product is that they have multiple “Don’t blame me…” sayings on the label to encourage the consumer to collect multiples bottles. The bottle is going to be a reddish orange and the label is going to be white and red, probably mixed with a little brown as well for the text.

FINAL PROJECT: Implemention Evaluation Control

Our company has many market strategies but what’s a strategy without executing hem? Since we don’t have any promotions, it’s kind of hard to have some sort of implementation for our market. As said before, everything about our product is natural except for the production. The production is sent through several tests so the product is more liable to promote more value o the customer. The more natural the beverage then the more the consumer can relate to.

FINAL PROJECT: Pricing

After knowing "how marketers choose target markets" (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong/Kotler), we figured our pricing should be affordable to your average joe. The price of one can of Shotz is $2.13 and a bottle is $3.29. It’s an affordable beverage that everyone can enjoy. It’s the beverage that everyone would save money for and/or use the last few couple of dollars on it. Since our company doesn't have any promotions, we eliminate the consumers who "wait until brands go on sale before buying them." (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong, Kotler). Let's just say consumers have no choice but to purchase our product now before later.

FINAL PROJECT: Promotion

The company doesn’t have any promotions. We feel as if we promote a “2 for 1” discount or any other form of a discount then we’re waving a white flag to the market, and our threats. Well, we would promote different sizes but that’s a no brainer. After the amount of sales we receive, I’m pretty confident in my company that we would be able to sell this valuable beverage and be successful. So successful to where we wouldn’t need to promote a sale or anything to get more sales. Everything is natural.

FINAL PROJECT: Distribution

Distribution plays a major role in a successful market strategy. How does a company sell without distributing their product successfully? Shotz are developed to distribute value to the customer through multiple "selling process" (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong/Kotler). What value you may ask? It’s the value of a consumer’s life. As said before, the product is developed to bring the middle age consumers to their younger days while keeping them from getting the wrong drunk. The definition of “wrong drunk” is the experience of going crazy from alcohol within your system. Being able to relapse to the memorable moments of your life for the second time holds more value than anything in the world.

We plan to distribute Shotz in local stores only. Shotz is a 12% malt liquor so distributing this beverage in any other destination would be irrelevant, inappropriate, and a waste of money. We plan on distributing this product to your typical alcohol distributors such as gas stations, mini markets, Lee’s Discount Liquor, supermarkets, etc. Even though our target audience is 18 to 35 years old, our company is not liable of any under aged consumers. The store is responsible of any alcoholic beverages sold to a minor.

FINAL PROJECT: Product

I’m not going to heavily brag about the product and say that it’s the best thing your tongue comes in contact with, high quality, and does everything your natural brew can do except more. Shotz is a 12% alcoholic malt liquor and is carefully put together. The product is designed to have a real smooth feel to it so the carbonation doesn’t cease anyone from experiencing great value. Once the product is developed, we perform multiple market testing. We figure we shouldn’t stop after one market testing because there’s many situations that could occur that can output false results. For example, you run an ice cream store and you want to add a new flavor. You’re not going to take a poll of one person and go off their judgment. You’re going to take a poll of hundreds of people and finalize the results as a whole. Shotz is produced the same way. With multiple market tests, we would have an idea of how well the product would sell in the market.

Our product is only made to be enjoyed; not to be heavily abused. Because our product is made carefully and responsibly, the consumer should also drink responsibly.

FINAL PROJECT: Target Market Strategy

Our company’s marketing strategy is pretty simple. Our motto is “Take over the market!” Executing the plan is where the target marketing plan comes into effect. We plan to distribute value to the customer by "understanding the marketplace and customer needs and wants." (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong/Kotler). It’s not the value that can be shared from one person to another. It’s a personal value that everyone can get connected to their inner persona. Once you take a few sips and get yourself a little buzz going on, then you’ll feel relaxed. The consumer will feel at peace and being brought back to their younger days. I guess you can say we promote a happy value with the substance. Our other marketing strategy is targeted to the younger crowd; preferably to the age group of 18 to 22. At this point in time, majority of young adults want to become party animals and get so drunk to where they wake up the next morning naked with their mother, then tell their friends about it the next day. The value our product can bring to the consumer is the value of staying mobile. Of course if you drink more than one can you’ll be thinking you’re superman but we want to impact the inside of a young adult to where he/she doesn’t need to get overly drunk for a good time. It’s the beverage you can utilize at a family/friend get together. It's our "job to create a compelling value proposition for customers" (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong Kotler).

FINAL PROJECT: Situation or SWOT Analysis

Strengths: We have a strong management and marketing team behind us, as well as a strong advertising agency. The product is processed carefully and responsibly to avoid health issues from the consumer. Before the product is shipped, we have specially trained workers who finalizes the product to make sure we have the right amount of alcohol. Also, the product was carefully priced to make a good quality beverage actually affordable.

Weakness: The Company’s biggest weakness would have to be time management. Since the product is carefully processed and managed responsibly, that may throw us back even with multiple workers. We can’t necessarily hire more workers to work faster because that would shorten the profit, thus throwing the company out of business. As long as we keep having a strong management team, this problem should be avoided, for the most part.

Opportunities: There isn’t a more perfect time to hit the market with our brand of beer. Our biggest competitor, the Four Loko brand, has recently been in trouble with the law. The beverage is a mixture of caffeine and alcohol and because of a recent lawsuit, they are ordered to take the brand off the market until their non-caffeine version hit the market. This is a wonderful opportunity to flood the market with a 12% alcoholic beverage since consumers wouldn’t be able to purchase Four Lokos. Consumers will walk into stores and see a 32oz and 40oz of 12% alcohol and be ready to go crazy. It gives us the opportunity to capture consumers in our beverage instead of the Four Loko brand.

Threats: As said before, the Four Loko brand is our biggest competitor. Four Loko hit the market and exploded! They’ve recently caught a lawsuit for mixing caffeine and alcohol together which caused them clear off the market. Four Loko is still a threat to us because they’re supposed to come back to the market but just without caffeine. Because there’s so many fans of the Four Loko brand, they have the potential of whipping us out the market.

FINAL PROJECT: Objectives

Our company has many objectives. We plan to connect with the youth as well as middle-aged people, "not simply seeking a sale." (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong/Kotler). When they take their first sip of our beverage, we want the consumer to be amazed by the smoothness of the beverage. After the first couple of sips, I want the consumer to relapse back to when he/she was a young man/woman. It’s common sense to shoot high and hope for the best but since Shotz is a new brand of beer, we don’t want to make the mistake of shooting too high and not reaching our goal. Our main objective is to break our annual sales, which is $50,000. We want Shotz to become the beverage that any and everybody can enjoy. We won’t stop until you walk into a get-together and see nothing but Shotz cans and bottles everywhere. Shotz isn’t created to make the consumer go wild like he’s at a Girls Gone Wild beach party. It’s created to soothe the consumer, relax his/her tendancies, and create a settle, enjoyable, and relaxing environment. We "recognize that winning and keeping accounts requires more than making good products and directing the sales force to close lots of sales" (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong/Kotler).

FINAL PROJECT: Mission Statement

Shotz's "overall purpose" (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong/Kotler) is to bring the life out in a social environment. It’s designed to make consumers feel like they’re drinking their typical juice beverage. There isn’t a lot carbonation within the beverage making the smoothness of the sip much more enjoyable. Shotz bring a new definition of beer because of the combination of smoothness with the amount of alcohol contained in the can. The main objective is to make the consumers enjoy the product at any moment of the day; whether you’re at a family get together in a park, a party, hanging out with friends at a bar, etc. There are too many malt liquor beverages that are too nasty because of the heavy carbonation. Alcohol is "all around you" (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong/Kotler) so we plan to make our stand out more by differing ourselves.

FINAL PROJECT: The Pitch

Imagine yourself at a party or some type of social gathering and your alcohol tolerance is pretty high. You’re intensions aren’t to get too intoxicated but to feel a little buzz or more. All the beer that is contained in the party doesn’t do anything to you except make your stomach feel like you’re pregnant with triplets. Wouldn’t you want to feel pretty loose as well? Well, introducing the new malt liquor called Shotz. Shotz is a 12% beer that comes in 16, 32, and 40 ounces. The 40 ounce comes in a bottle whereas the 16 and 32 ounce comes in a can. This malt liquor is target towards young adults or anybody who wants to bring out the young man or woman within them. The age group I’m targeting towards is 18 to 30. Before you freak out and think I’m out of my mind by targeting an under aged group, here the logic behind my decision. “3,360,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 drive under the influence of alcohol.” (http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/statssummaries/snapshot.aspx). There’s a seven year difference between 18 and 24 (counting the age of 18 and 24). If you divide 3,360,000 by seven then each age group (from 18 to 24) would have an average of 480,000 consumers of alcohol. Of the seven ages, there’s three ages that drink illegally, which are 18, 19, and 20. Since each age group has an average of 480,000 alcohol consumers, add up the sum of the three age groups. From the ages of 18, 19, and 20, there’s an average of 1,440,000 under age consumers of alcohol. That’s 1,440,000 more consumers that can be added to your market salary. Under aged young adults find some sort of way to consume alcohol, whether it’s using a friend or the front counter clerk not caring about his job. In conclusion, young adults from 18 to 20 will consume an alcoholic beverage of some sort. Why not add them to the market plan and make a beverage they could enjoy as well? They’re going to get a hold of alcohol anyway. Nobody needs to know that we’re targeting ages 18, 19, and 20. How would they?

WEEK 7 EOC - The Pitch

Imagine yourself at a party or some type of social gathering and your alcohol tolerance is pretty high. You’re intensions aren’t to get too intoxicated but to feel a little buzz or more. All the beer that is contained in the party doesn’t do anything to you except make your stomach feel like you’re pregnant with triplets. Wouldn’t you want to feel pretty loose as well? Well, introducing the new malt liquor called Shotz. Shotz is a 12% beer that comes in 16, 32, and 40 ounces. The 40 ounce comes in a bottle whereas the 16 and 32 ounce comes in a can. This malt liquor is target towards young adults or anybody who wants to bring out the young man or woman within them. The age group I’m targeting towards is 18 to 30. Before you freak out and think I’m out of my mind by targeting an under aged group, here the logic behind my decision. “3,360,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 drive under the influence of alcohol.” (http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/statssummaries/snapshot.aspx). There’s a seven year difference between 18 and 24 (counting the age of 18 and 24). If you divide 3,360,000 by seven then each age group (from 18 to 24) would have an average of 480,000 consumers of alcohol. Of the seven ages, there’s three ages that drink illegally, which are 18, 19, and 20. Since each age group has an average of 480,000 alcohol consumers, add up the sum of the three age groups. From the ages of 18, 19, and 20, there’s an average of 1,440,000 under age consumers of alcohol. That’s 1,440,000 more consumers that can be added to your market salary. Under aged young adults find some sort of way to consume alcohol, whether it’s using a friend or the front counter clerk not caring about his job. In conclusion, young adults from 18 to 20 will consume an alcoholic beverage of some sort. Why not add them to the market plan and make a beverage they could enjoy as well? They’re going to get a hold of alcohol anyway. Nobody needs to know that we’re targeting ages 18, 19, and 20. How would they?

EOC Week 6 - Me Times 3

I have a MyTouch Slide, which is a cell phone for T-Mobile. I love my phone because of how flexible the phone. The phone applications and interactivity moves me like no other phone did in the past. The MyTouch slide is a touch screen phone making it easier to use than your average phone, as well as iTouch, EVO, or any other phone that was created in the past year and a half or two. “A company should enter only segments in which it can create superior customer value and gain advantages over competitors.” (Marketing: An Introduction, pg 23).The target market of these types of phones is people who are business oriented, as well as young teens. Teenagers get touch screen phones because it’s the “hip” thing to do and there’s millions of games and interesting applications that you can download. The camera pixels are bigger because young teenagers enjoy taking pictures with friends and/or recording video. It’s targeted to business oriented people as well because a touch screen phone is just an office within a mobile device. You can schedule appointments, write notes, read books, surf the internet to retrieve helpful information and/or show clients your work (especially since you can display flash content now). A touch screen phone is basically a palm-pilot that can send and receive calls and texts. A lot of businesses are making mobile applications as well.

EOC Week 5: Health Care Reform

I’m suppose to go against the reformation of the health care in the United States, but personally, I’m having a really hard time understanding what is being asked of me. I took the honors to look up the definition of “reform” and it says “to form again.” According to the Annual Social and Economic (ASEC) Supplement, it says that a total of 46,995 people are not covered by health insurance at any time during the year. I personally believe that the government should reform the health care and decrease 46,995 to 0. What if one of the 46,995 people got shot in the back from a stray bullet? What happens? Nothing? I believe the government should reform health care and actually cover everyone! Some United State citizens can’t afford health care, such as homeless people or struggling families. At least have everyone covered by some type of health insurance during the year. The table shows that 2,771 people aren’t covered by health insurance at all throughout the year. I believe this isn’t right at all! How can someone be under the age of 6 and not covered by health insurance? It’s not he/she’s fault that his/her parents are screwed up financially and can’t afford health insurance. That’s pretty heartless of our government to not AT LEAST cover citizens under the age of 6. Overall, if the government had to reform health care, then I believe they need to reform the qualifications to where everyone can meet them; no matter age, race, height, disability factors, etc. Better yet, dismiss all qualifications and make everyone eligible to achieve health insurance at any time during the year.

EOC Week 4: Advertising is Based on Happiness & Dissonance

As a teenager, what was your desire of need? It could’ve been a game system, the most popular piece of fashion, money, etc. Well, mines were a video game. When I was the age of 18, I always wanted this video game called Saints Row 2. I played the first version when I was at a friend’s house back when I was in high school. Even though it was relatively close to Grand Theft Auto, the whole concept of the game provoked me to get it. When I got the game, I was the happiest man on earth. I used to sit in front of the TV for hours and play the game like there was no tomorrow. It wasn’t your natural game. The challenges you had to face were highly challenging and the fact that you were flexible to about anything was phenomenal. Being able to play the game and beat it made one of the happiest experiences with gaming.

As well as happiness, I also had the times where dissonance came into the picture. I remember back when I wanted Pokémon cards because it seemed like it was the biggest thing to get into as a fourth grader. I begged my parents to allow me to purchase the cards and start a collection. It took them a century before I actually bribed them into buying the cards but they did. I was the happiest nine-year-old on the planet but I felt something was wrong. By the time I got the cards, everyone in my neighborhood stopped collecting them. I tried my hardest to keep my pride but that didn’t last very long. Everyone on my block kept calling me lame, a loser, stupid, and every other insult you can generate. Eventually, I didn’t want the cards anymore.

EOC Week 3: Internet Privacy vs. Marketing Research

Internet privacy for marketing research has their ups and downs. “Marketing is managing profitable customer relationships” (Marketing: An Introduction, pg 5), as we all know.  I understand that conceiving private information on the internet helps construct a relationship between the customer and the market, but some information is going too far. Internet based websites should only market through the internet so why would they need my home address for?

Facebook, “the world's largest social network” (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/facebook_inc/index.html?scp=1-spot&sq=facebook&st=Search), “had been improperly sharing the data with advertisers and Web tracking companies” (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/facebook-admits-to-privacy-issue-and-makes-fixes/?scp=2&sq=internet%20privacy&st=cse). This issue is an outrage! Facebook has absolutely no right to share private information to advertisers and Web tracking companies. The site was developed to communicate with friends, family, businesses, and other miscellaneous reasons; not to exploit personal information to third party sources.

However, I do understand the reasoning behind such acts.

EOC Week 3: Making Money For Good

The Hot Topic Corporation stands tall with 680 mall-based locations in the United States and Puerto Rico. By the end of January 2010, they had a net income of $11.9 million and a sales income of $736.7 million. Hot Topic may not be the highest selling retail corporation but it’s on the rise to do so, especially since they’re giving back to the community as well. The “Hot Topic Foundation has granted more than $5 million to charitable organizations throughout the country” alone (http://community.hottopic.com/content/charities). They sell multiple branded clothing, CD’s, jewelry, wallets, purses, and more. The products advertise creativity, a passion for music, humor, personality traits, etc. on each design; overall a love for art. Their foundation is to “enrich kids' lives by enabling them to express themselves musically and artistically!” (http://community.hottopic.com/content/ht-foundation). By doing so, they allow teens and young adults to not feel condensed with life. Why take everything in life so serious? Why not express how you feel apparel wise and not physically?

Even though many people view Hot Topic as “the devil” (http://www.viewpoints.com/Hot-Topic-Online-Shop-reviews) with demonic products, Hot Topic isn’t only looking out for their customers, but for charity organizations as well. They support organizations such as Chicago’s International Children’s Film Festival, Little Kids Rock, Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), Mind Institute, Inner-City Arts, Big Thought, IFP Chicago, Chicago Humanity Festival, Rock Against Cancer, Spy Hop Productions, Footlights Inc., Carolina Studio Corp., KIPP Bayview Academy, Grammy Foundation, and Notes for Notes. For every transaction they encounter, they ask the customer if they want to donate to charity and give you a cool little gift bag along with a card that you can get stamped for future discounts. The Hot Topic Foundation is well on its way to successful marketing value.

EOC Week 2: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

“The tentacles of the recession have reached into the videogame industry, a business that was long considered downturn-resistant.” (Yukari iwatani Kane, Videogame Makers Can’t Dodge Recession, The Wall Street Journal). However, a few game consoles remain on top of the game. A couple of game consoles do well in both market share and market growth; a few does well in one of the other. The battle broils down between Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and Mobile. Even though it’s obvious that people are more familiar with Xbox and Playstation, the Nintendo gaming console still manages to be on top. “The Nintendo DS stayed well above everyone else for the majority of the year” (http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/01/looking-back-at-2009-console-sales-and-ahead-to-2010-trends.ars). According to Ars Technica, Nintendo remains on top with the DS and Wii, followed by Microsoft’s Xbox gaming console, then Sony’s Playstation 3, 2, and PSP.

The Wii is high in market share and market growth, the Playstation is high in market share but low in market growth, PC games are low in market share as well as market growth, but mobile gaming are high in market growth and low in market share.  Mobile gaming is the next best thing to hit the market.

EOC Week 1: Excellent Customer Service

 I was at the mall this past Saturday looking for an outfit to wear out that night. I usually shop at H&M because they have many stylistic products with excellent value. As I was looking at this button up, this lady sales associate approached me and told me that I would look really good in that shirt. Usually when a sales associate says that to me, I automatically think she’s trying to land a sale. I told her I wasn’t trying to buy the shirt because it wasn’t my style of clothing. She said she understood me and she does that a lot. From this point forward, we were having general conversation. The hysterical part about it is the fact our conversation didn’t have anything to deal with fashion or any type of apparel. She was telling me what she does on the weekends, the school she goes to, her career and long term goals, etc. I ended up buying a belt and when I was walking out the door, she stuck her hand out so I could shake it. She said it was nice to meet me and she hopes to see me again. I’m thrilled and because of how she incorporated her personality into her customer service skills, I’m willing to go back and shop more and hope I can see her again. She established a good customer relationship with me and “customer relationships and value are especially important in today’s tough economic times…” (Marketing: An Introduction, pg 2).

EOC Week 1: My Voice

What is there to voice about web design? Well, what is there to not voice about it? There are various fields under the design concept. There’s graphic design, interior design, fashion design, web design, and much more. I've been working within the web design field for quite some time. My knowledge towards web designing and scripting are phenomenal. Not only am I an excellent web designer, but an excellent coder as well. There’s an unexplainable rush of adrenaline as soon as you construct a website or design of some sort. You’re constantly giving yourself a creative workout. Once you open a document in Adobe Photoshop, you begin to develop a rush of questions. What are the main topics and/or products of the website? How do I want the user to interact with the website? How can I make the website user friendly? What am I going to do to accomplish that? As you start to develop these questions, you begin to figure out how to work them into your design; giving yourself a creative work out without having to pay a monthly fee for 24 Hour Fitness. It’s all about success. As I was always taught, the most successful people are the best of people.