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?

Response to Gina's Post

In Gina's post (here), she talked about ethics in business, and how people's definition of what is ethical differ; which can cause conflict about what is right and wrong when it comes to operating a business. This means that if a company has an ethical issue, some people might not agree that it is an issue at all.

Gina asked: Do customers notice when a company makes bad ethical decisions?

When certain businesses makes the news for ethical reasons, anyone watching can interpret the situation depending on their own, personal code of ethic. Some of the businesses' customers might notice the bad ethical decisions made when they watch the news, but because other's might not consider them unethical, they don't notice.

Product (Red)

When the Product (Red) campaign started getting big, I remember a lot of kids walking around with those Inspi(red) shirts. They were everywhere, especially in the art community of the school. And I remember thinking how cool they looked. So, because I was a freshman high school and desperate to follow trends, I went out and bought one myself.

The one thing I remember most about wearing that shirt was that I really felt like a good person for wearing it. Not only was it a cool looking shirt, but it was going toward a good cause. And if there is one thing I learned from being in college, it's that everybody loves t-shirts. If there is an event on campus more people will go if they are giving away free T-shirts. I used to have people that were going to events pick me up shirts if I couldn't go just so I could have the shirt. I'm not really sure why people think it's so cool to have these shirts, but for some reason they do. And for organizations like Product (Red) it's a great opportunity for advertising  If you can come up with a cool logo for a shirt and you can get people to want them, you can not only make money off of selling these shirts (in this case money that can help fight AIDS) you can also get free advertising. This T-shirt design has become iconic in a way, and it was kind of like a win-win situation for them. For organizations like Product (Red), it's really important to get the word out there. This is just one way to do it.

Do you find yourself with a massive amount of T-shirts from functions? Do you think businesses using T-Shirts as advertising is a good idea or a bad idea?

Response to Sean Cowles Post

Sean's Question: Although customer satisfaction and customer value are interdependent, which one is more important?

For me personally, I think customer satisfaction is more important than customer value. I focus a lot on how I'm treated as a customer, so when I'm looking to purchase a product my overall satisfaction will go up or down depending on how the employee of the business treats me. If I'm satisfied with the overall experience of purchasing the product, then I will most likely do business with them in the future, and if not I wouldn't. 

Customer Value and Customer Satisfaction

Customer value and customer satisfaction are very often interdependent. When a customer walks into a business, they expect a certain level of customer service, as well as a certain price for the item they are planning on purchasing. If you walk into a wireless carrier, such as Verizon, there are a few different things you consider: the pricing of the phone you're going to buy, the quality of said phone, the helpfulness of the employees, and the way these employees treat you while you're in their establishment. If you're treated poorly by the employees and you still walk out with a phone, your satisfaction with the purchased phone will be less than it would be had they been friendly and polite, because you'll look back and remember their behavior. If you are in need of a phone and have to choice but to pay a higher price than you would normally be willing, your satisfaction would go down because you might not think the phone is worth what you paid.

While it is very possible for satisfaction to occur with low customer value, more times than now a customer will base his opinion on the value he sees fit.

Do you base your value of a product more on the physical product itself, or do you find yourself grading it based on service more? Are there any situations where you would find the service insignificant in the purchase of your product?