In Response to Roland's Post

This has probably generated a lot of traffic to their web site and perhaps even some purchases of products that are “in stock”, which is their intent. But is this type of ad fair to consumers? Does it cross any ethical or legal boundaries?

I think it's bad marketing for the company. Situations like that have happened to me, and it always bothers me. Why promote something that you can't keep a good inventory on? It shows bad business skills and will more likely than not keep customers from coming back to shop with American Eagle. 

Target Markets

Target markets are an important part of selling a product or service. It's important to understand your target market in order to be able to sell a product. Much like packaging, you need to really know what will catch that person's eye. Marketers pay really close attention to things like this, and if you pay really close attention yourself, you'll be able to see what kinds of tactics they use to reach the target market they're aiming to reach.

 It's interesting to watch commercials on different T.V channels. You never really think about how tailored they are the you as a viewer, but the companies paying for those commercials put a lot of thought into which channel they will advertise on. If you're watching a channel like TLC, you're not going to see a lot of commercials for Nike's new running shoe for men, or the latest sports gear for sale at Sport's Authority. It would be more likely that you would see commercials for make up, skin care products or products for young families.  While if you were watching the SyFy channel, you most likely wouldn't see those types of commercials.

Advertisements on television are extremely catered to the target market of the channel. The ones that air not only have to be made in a way that will catch the target market of the product itself, but also in a way that will catch the eye of the other viewers watching, so it does not seem too out of place.

Which target market do you see things advertised to most often?  Have you ever though a commercial seemed out of place compared to the channel you were watching?

Packaging

Packaging can be one of a product's most powerful factors. Price, obviously, is important. If something is too much money than no one is going to buy it. But packaging has the ability to draw a customer in and convince them whether or not to buy the product. Packaging designers have to think about not only how to best protect the product inside, but also the flashiest way to present it. Packaging involves a great deal of understanding people. Once you pick a target market, you have to know what will draw that targeted group of people in. If the target market is seven year old girls, would you expect that dark, muted colors to draw them in, or bright, fun colors? Do you use mature language to describe it or a more basic vocabulary  Questions like that might seem pretty obvious, but the decisions made about packaging are a key role in whether or not the product will sell. We're always taught to not judge a book by its cover, but in reality almost everybody judges things by how they look, even if it's just a subconscious decision.

What do you think is the most important part in designing a product? Why?

In Response to Kerri's Post

I too am a huge fan of Naked juice smoothies. The Rainforest Alliance, I think, is a great way to market a product. Much like Kerri said, it's not always a factor in people's decisions to buying a product, but similar fads like Fair Trade and Equal Exchange are really starting to take off with today's society, and products that use methods like this as a marketing tool I believe will help in future sales. Not only are these methods better for the environment and the economy, but they're a way to reach a growing number of people who are extremely interested in the environment.

Gap: The Water Quality Program

After looking into the Gap for the Marketing paper due this week, I got really into the idea of how different companies use their business to help the environment. Gap, for example, has a lot of different ways they help the environment, including steadily conserving energy and keeping water clean.

One of the biggest parts of the research involving their environmental responsibility was their Water Conservation Project. In 2012 Gap was named one of the most ethical companies in the world. This is a huge deal considering the problems some global, factory-based companies have with ignoring human rights and the environment. The Water Quality Program is the Gap's way of ensuring they they don't just build a factory in a foreign country and leave all of their waste behind. According to their website, making jeans requires washing with a lot of chemicals and dyes. These chemicals can seep into the water in the areas around their factories, and the Gap makes it their mission to make sure that doesn't happen. 100% of their factories participate in this program. They all send their used water through treatment so that they don't pollute the waterways.

Have you heard of any other companies forming or participating in programs like this? If so, who?

For more info on the program, click here.

In Response to Heather Young's Post

In Heather's post, she talks about Target advertising swim suits to women in a Sports Illustrated issue. She brought up the question would you be upset if there was an ad in a magazine you read that was directed toward a different gender.

I'm not sure if I would be upset about it, but I would definitely find it confusing. Now that I think about it, I can remember seeing an ad in a women's magazine that advertised both men and women's fragrances. So while I did find it odd in a fashion magazine for women, I think the fact that they are sort of blurring the lines of gender roles is refreshing. Because we can't say that there are no men out there reading women's fashion magazines, and the same goes for Sport's Illustrated. As an advertising issue I don't think it's the smartest choice, but from a personal standpoint I don't find it bothersome at all.

Technology in Marketing

Within the past twenty years or so, technology as a whole has really changed how we perform everyday tasks. With things such as email, texting, cell phones, pagers and iPads, people can be connected to each other no matter where they are in the world.

It's interesting to think that even in my lifetime (being part of a generation that relies so much on technology) that something as important as the internet wasn't even a common, household luxury when I was younger. Now, we use the internet for everything. Need to know how to bake a chocolate cake? Google it. What is the state bird of Georgia? Google it. What movie was the top box-office hit of 2012? You can google that too. And with the constant use of the internet, comes an entire new way to advertise products. You see ads everywhere on internet pages. One of the coolest things I've noticed with my browser specifically, is that most of ads are centralized around interests of mine. For example, I was browsing the website of Chamilia Jewelry for charms for a bracelet  and since that day I notice most of the ads being centered around companies that sell charms for that. The internet can not only advertise products to you while you take care of other work, but it's smart enough to specify the ads based on the places on the internet that you've shown interest in. So unlike newspapers or magazines, where many of the ads have no relations to your interests, the internet can advertise products to you that you may be more inclined to click on.

How else do you think technology has changed the way products or services can be marketed? Do you find internet advertising more successful or less successful?