EOC WK 10: Benefits vs The Features

"In the often-quoted words of David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, “Marketing is too important to be left only to the marketing department.” Marketing entails processes that focus on delivering value and benefits to customers, not just selling goods, services, and/or ideas." MKTG Page 2. 

The product I am selling not only benefits, well humans, but it also benefits your pets. People worry about their pets so much when it comes to chocolate because the first thing they think is DEATH, or your pet getting very, very sick. Sweet Treats gives you that comfort in knowing your pet won't get sick.

"A market-oriented organization recognizes that different customer groups want different features or benefits." MKTG Page 10.

Week 9 EOC: Creative Content

My plan, as a photography student, is to set up something in my home. Make it casual. You don't want to see Chocolate for you and your pets at a bar location, or restaurant location. You would want to see it in a casual setting. Maybe have it in a glass candy bowl sitting on the side table by your couch, or sitting in the middle of your coffee table. All i need to do is get said glass candy bowl, chocolate, and then set up the scene how i want and shoot the photos. I will edit the photos, adding the name somewhere, like an add. But it will be casual, easy going, maybe I'll Photoshop a cat hanging out or something. Just to give it all a homey feel.

Implementation Evaluation Control

"Implementation is the process that turns a marketing plan into action assignments and ensures that these assignments are executed in a way that accomplishes the plan's objectives. Implementation activities may involve detailed job assignments, activity descriptions, time lines, budgets, and lots of communication. Implementation requires delegating authority and responsibility, determining a time frame for completing tasks, and allocating resources." MKTG Pages 28 & 29 We would control our marketing campaign by listening to customer feedback and doing a survey every 2 to 3 months to see what we can do to better our product. I asked around, and friends and family have told me that it's a great idea! Managers, which would be most likely be me or my partner, would have control over the budget, examining expenses and spending's, therefore controlling profitability.
"Although implementation is essentially “doing what you said you were going to do,” many organizations repeatedly experience failures in strategy implementation. Brilliant marketing plans are doomed to fail if they are not properly implemented." MKTG Page 29

Price

"Price is a component of value (a $4,000 handbag is perceived as being more luxurious and of higher quality than one selling for $100), but low price is not the same as good value. Instead, customers value goods and services that are of the quality they expect and that are sold at prices they are willing to pay." MKTG Page 7
The price for this product is expensive but not 20$ expensive. It's hard to make because we have to take out theobromine (which is the thing that causes the animals to get sick when they eat the chocolate) and replace it with a pet friendly supplement to make it ok for them to eat. I would say our prices would vary from five to seven dollars. Not crazy expensive, but enough to make a value off of it. And of course people are getting what they want for their buck.
"The basic strategy for a cash cow is to maintain market dominance by being the price leader and making technological improvements in the product." MKTG Page 18

Promotion

As previously stated, social media would be one of our big promotion/advertising tools. It's a great way to get word out these days and I feel like you would get your money's worth.

"Promotion is the means by which organizations communicate with present and prospective customers about the merits and characteristics of their organization and products. Effective promotion is an essential part of effective marketing." MKTG Page 12We would also have a system somehow to send out coupons and things to customers who have a subscription to our website, where they will receive an email with updates, and coupons. Just like many other businesses we would have holiday sales, discounts on birthdays (DOB provided of course), and also have sort of a black friday like other stores after the holiday. Giving out free samples is a plus as well, to give people that trial run to see if they will thoroughly enjoy our product.  
"Promotion includes advertising, public relations, sales promotion, and personal selling." MKTG Page 28

Distribution

"Marketing entails processes that focus on delivering value and benefits to customers, not just selling goods, services, and/or ideas. It uses communication, distribution, and pricing strategies to provide customers and other stakeholders with the goods, services, ideas, values, and benefits they desire when and where they want them." MKTG Page 2

We would have our deliveries go all over. We would have a little store that sold our candies, but we would also have our candies delivered to local small town stores, or little gift shops. If people order from home, locally, we would deliver to the homes as well. communicate with our buyers to keep them not only coming back for more, but to keep them happy.
"Solving promotional and product problems does not guarantee global marketing success. The product must still get adequate distribution." MKTG Page 86

Product

" In some situations, as when competition is weak or demand exceeds supply, a production-oriented firm can survive and even prosper. More often, however, firms that succeed in competitive markets have a clear understanding that they must first determine what customers want and then produce it, rather than focus on what company management thinks should be produced and hope that the product is something customers want." MKTG Page 4
Our product is a simple circular piece of chocolate, and it's plain, no fun colors, or flavors yet. We package it in clear bags, and tie it up with a tie with our label hanging from it. Very simple, and easy. But we want it to be eye catching so we add like a little paw print, to let them know that it is pet friendly, but also on the back of the tag it will say "Pet friendly."
"The two orientations can be compared in terms of five characteristics: the organization's focus, the firm's business, those to whom the product is directed, the firm's primary goal, and the tools used to achieve the organization's goals." MKTG Page 6

Target Market Strategy

''The target market strategy identifies the market segment or segments on which to focus. This process begins with a market opportunity analysis (MOA)—the description and estimation of the size and sales potential of market segments that are of interest to the firm and the assessment of key competitors in these market segments.'' MKTG Page 26

Our product focuses more on young adults to adults. Children wouldn't be the ones to see the chocolate and think of sharing it with their pets, because the mindset of "It's my candy and nobody else's." I would focus mainly local, maybe keep it in our small town, but if it grows to where more people want it, then we will spread maybe across the United States, and maybe globally later on.
"If the target market is international, it is especially important to describe differences in culture, economic and technological development, and political structure that may affect the marketing plan." MKTG Page 27

Situation // Analysis

"Performing a SWOT analysis allows firms to identify their competitive advantage. A competitive advantage is a set of unique features of a company and its products that are perceived by the target market as significant and superior to those of the competition." MKTG Page 23 Our strengths are that we communicate and deliver to our customers on a regular basis. One of the main weaknesses I would say our company has is we aren't well known so getting our name out there and getting returning customers would be the hard part. The opportunities we have are endless with having a website, or setting up various social media accounts to help get our name out there. Our main threats would be other chocolate companies trying to make a similar product, or even pet treats companies as well.
"When examining internal strengths and weaknesses, the marketing manager should focus on organizational resources such as production costs, marketing skills, financial resources, company or brand image, employee capabilities, and available technology." MKTG Page 22

Objectives

Sweet Treats Objectives:

"Societal marketing orientation is the idea that an organization exists not only to satisfy customer wants and needs and to meet organizational objectives but also to preserve or enhance individuals' and society's long-term best interests." MKTG Page 6
1. Profitability: It's going to be a difficult start with maintaining our profitability, but i believe we can make it, and do our best to stay ahead and move forward with our business.
2. Customer Service: Our obvious goal here is to make sure the customer is happy, human and pets! And if their is a problem, we will do our best to resolve it and make sure you are happy in the end.
3. Productivity: The training of our employees, the purchases to make the chocolate, and purchases to make the environment pet friendly, all go into the business' productivity.
4. Growth: based on our future outcomes, and data, and how well we are doing.
5. Marketing: more than creating advertising and getting customer input on product changes. It is understanding trends when it comes to buying, and being able develop partnerships.
"objectives form a basis for control: the effectiveness of a plan can be gauged in light of the stated objectives." MKTG Page 26

Mission Statement

• Who is your company?
• My company is Sweet Treats, it's chocolate you nd your pet can share.
• What do you do? What do you stand for? And why do you do it?
• We make chocolate not only you can eat, but your pets can eat too. I stand for making the chocolate edible for cats or dogs, so they don't get sick, if they happen to get into the chocolate bowl.
• Do you want to make a profit, or is it enough to just make a living?
• I would honestly just like to do it to make enough for a living, but if it gets bigger than that then that's okay too.
• What markets are you serving, and what benefits do you offer them?
• People and Dogs or Cats. That dogs and cats can share in the joy of eating chocolate that their owners have.
• What kind of internal work environment do you want for your employees?
• Pet friendly of course! Dog and cat friendly, where you have a pet bed next your desk, or the dog leashes hanging like you have your coats hanging. A bin with dog toys, and cat toys. A couple cat towers. Just all around fun environment. 

Week 7 EOC: The Pitch!

My idea is to make chocolate not only that you can eat, but that your pets can eat as well. The main thing in chocolate that makes your pet sick is Theobromine, but i want to make a chocolate that takes that ingredient out and makes it safe for your cat or dog to eat.
"The theobromine in chocolate, one of the substances that makes it so pleasant for us, is toxic to many animals, including dogs and cats. They are unable to digest this chemical, and, as it circulates in the bloodstream, it damages the central nervous and circulatory systems.
Animals, especially cats, are curious about all foods. They usually want to try what you are trying. Always worrying about your pets ingesting chocolate can be very stressful. But if there is a way to take the toxic chemical out of the chocolate, then it can be safe for them to eat. You can enjoy the chocolate and so can your best friend.

Week 5 EOC: This is what has my interest

Halloween Photo Trend
https://twitter.com/amylargephoto/status/789232835362033664

                This caught my interest because I’m a lover for Halloween and everything that comes with it. At the time of finding this trend, I was looking for ideas for a photoshoot with friends. I wanted to do something spooky, creepy, eerie, but all around fun and easy. In the article it explains how you can take a boring background, add lights or don’t add lights, add some creepy details in Photoshop, all while still being affordable and not really leaving your home unless you have to. Needless to say, I did not get to do the desired photo shoot, because almost everyone dropped out, but I am definitely keeping this in mind for next year or for whenever I feel like doing a spooky shoot.

The Best National Parks for Photography

https://twitter.com/amylargephoto/status/789228970428407808

                I like to travel. And when I do my traveling, I try my best to visit a National Park. But so far I’ve only been to one, and that was The Grand Canyon, it’s nice the first time, but once you go four or five times it’s extremely boring. Anyways, I found this article to be very interesting because it tells you the best places to go. A couple that I really want to go to, and were mentioned, are Yellowstone National Park located in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. Fun fact about Yellowstone, there is a super volcano located in the park, and there is even a movie on it. The next park I am dying to go to is Yosemite located in California, my brothers have gone, and it’s just a beautiful park.

Check out 14 Hottest Wedding Photography Trends

https://twitter.com/amylargephoto/status/789232307731177472

                I found this list of trends to be very interesting because I have recently become a fan of wedding photography. It’s what I want to do before touring with bands, if I ever get there that is. But showing a list of trends in the wedding photography world gave me a whole bunch of ideas. Shooting the Proposal for starters, it sounds amazing! Capturing that moment of excitement, and capturing the person’s reactions, it’s priceless.  Another interesting trend the article spoke of was “Day After Shoots” and that’s obviously done the day after your wedding. I think it’s a good idea, you don’t have to stress over picture on your special day, you can just relax and get through everything at your own pace. But it is also an iffy idea because the next day you have to redo everything. yours make up, hair, getting dressed, getting the bridal party and all the groomsman. It’s very stressful, but an all-around fun idea.

Week 4 EOC: There's an App for That!

"Help Yourself"

A “self-help” app. It could help the kids, teens, or adults get help. It could have success stories within it. One section could have contacts to the suicide hotline, a counseling hotline. Self-harm seems to be a growing problem. I hear about it all the time. It’s usually involved with either mental illnesses, or abuse, or bullying. Many of my “friends” have self-harmed and haven’t really known how to get the help they need because they are afraid of the judgement.

                Maybe if there is like a social media but not really social media app that could have positive helpful stories, or ways to not hurt yourself, many people could confide with those people and seek help. The app could have private messaging so you could talk to someone and maybe make friends and you could help each other out. Could also be a self-help for mental illnesses, such as depression, anxiety, paranoia, etc. Just a community of people who are there to help you, and help you understand that it does get better.

                The app could have a calendar; tracks how many days you’ve been clean of whatever you’ve been doing to take the pain away. And you get like a notification congratulating being clean for a month, or six months, even a year. When people get those positive feedbacks, they feel good and want to continue to get better. And with the friends you make, they can cheer you on, as well as you cheering them all.

                Another section of the app could have specific websites that can help you understand more about what you are going through. Ones that have steps to help you calm down from a panic/anxiety attack, or steps to just help you resist urges. In general, this app can be a positive community of people helping others. And if people are getting bullied on said app, they can report them and it will be taken care of right away, instead of waiting days.

Week 3 EOC: Making Money for Good

The company I chose is Staples. They give back to schools. They want to show support when it comes to teachers and students, and make a difference. I had some knowledge to this, because my mother is a teacher, and when we've gone to Staples, they have rewards for teachers. I found out through this website: http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/marketing/about_us/how-we-give.html and it's just Staples website explaining what they do and how they do it.

• Staples has donated more than $2 million to Donorschoose.org to fund nearly 1,800 classroom projects for more 2,000 teachers and impacted more than 200,000 students.
• Over the years, the Staples Canada Annual School Supply Drive has generated over $11 million dollars for schools, nonprofit organizations, and community groups.
• In 2015 alone, with the generous support of customers across the country, the drive raised more than $1.6 million dollars to assist thousands of students in need. All proceeds go to local community organizations and schools to help send students back to school with essential school supplies.

Week 3 EOC: My Demographics

I am apart of the Millennials group, people born between 1979 and 1994. We are the babies of the baby boomer generation, we've come a long way and we are a BIG generation. From the book, a quote, which says,
    "One thing that all of the Millennials have in common is their utter fluency and comfort with digital technology. They do not just embrace technology, it is a way of life.  “All generations are comfortable with technology, but this is the generation that’s been formed by technology,” says a Yahoo! executive. For them, “it is not something separate. It is just something they do.”
    I personally agree. I grew up not having the "latest technology", I had the outdoors. Yes, I did have TV, but my parents wanted me to go outside, play, and not just watch cartoons all day. But today's generation, a four year old knows how to operate an IPad, a four year old! A lot of kids don't like going outside anymore, all they want to do is stay inside, watch TV all day, or play on their iPads, iPods, computers, whatever. 
   I have to help my mom, or my grandma with certain technology, but even I don't know too much. I didn't get my smartphone until after i graduated high school, same with having my own laptop. I sometimes have to call up my older brothers to help me or even my ten year old niece knows more than I do.
   It's very mind blowing how far we have come with technology. Some good and some bad. It just depends on what you do with it and how it affects your choices.

Week 2 EOC: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

I believe the star game system as of right now would be the PS4  because you can do more than play video games on it, you can download Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube. Their customers can either purchase games online or at an actual game store, such as GameStop. 
"To determine the future cash contributions and cash requirements expected for each SBU (strategic business units), managers can use the Boston Consulting Group's portfolio matrix. The portfolio matrix (a tool for allocating resources among products or strategic business units on the basis of relative market share and market growth rate), classifies each SBU by its present or forecast growth and market share. The underlying assumption is that market share and profitability are strongly linked. The measure of market share used in the portfolio approach is relative market share, the ratio between the company's share and the share of the largest competitor." (MKTG 18)
In my opinion the cash cow would be a Nintendo DS . With the DS the games are slowly diminishing, not a lot of games are coming out for the DS anymore. But because the DS is portable, more people buy those, because you can take it on trips, or to school, and just play it anywhere you go. Next I would say the question mark is PC games just because it's only on a computer, only portable if you have a laptop. It's popular, but not as popular as the PlayStation and it's outdated and the games are not that great, but that's just my opinion. Finally I'd say the dog of the game world would be the Wii, it was fun while it lasted, but it slowly faded out and i think the only good use for it now is to watch Netflix on it. 

Week 1 EOC: My Voice

Hello,

                My name is Amy, and I am currently studying to become a photographer. What got me into photography? It’s crazy but I’ll tell you. Back when I was in fifth grade, my older brother wanted me to take a picture of him for myspace, and since then, I’ve liked capturing people’s emotions in photographs. Now my goal is to be a touring band or band magazine photographer. But until I reach that goal, I would be a wedding and portrait photographer. I love capturing the emotion of weddings, and just people in general. I have grown and learned to think outside of the box since going to college, and that’s helped me mentally and physically when it comes to meeting new people and taking their photos.

                Back to my goal. Band photography. I am very music oriented, and people always ask why I’m not in audio or music production, and that is because I can’t actually play any instrument. So the next best thing is taking pictures of the people who have all that talent. I’ve followed the photographers for my favorite bands to see what it’s like to take those pictures, and as tough as it looks, it also looks extremely fun.

                That’s  me, and I hope you enjoy this blog.

Week 1 EOC: Great Customer Service

                I received fantastic customer service when I went to upgrade my phone. The customer representative, Diane, was not only very helpful, but very kind and outgoing. When it came to talking about the phone updates, she went through every option. Talking about which phone was best for your buck and explained the different storage sizes and letting you know what’s best. When it came to questions, she listened to you with her full attention, and answered with full knowledge. Going into a store, and me not knowing too much about phone, and then getting a representative who actually takes the time to explain and listen, was refreshing. When it came down to actually buying my phone, she helped me understand everything they were going to do, because I have anxiety about the cloud, and she showed a different way of transferring everything without iCloud, which was very relieving.

                After purchasing and setting up my phone, my mother had questions, and she was very helpful towards her as well. Also showed us this device for the car, how it works, how they install, everything you need to know about said device. My mother was hesitant about it, but with Diane answering every question, it helped ease our thoughts about it. We ended up buying the device and got a great discount on it.

                At the end, as we were leaving, Diana thanked us for coming in and purchasing the phone and car device. She even gave us a business card, and put her name and number on the back, if we had further questions, or if something broke she would help use out. Having representatives that actually care was so nice to see, because the lady that was the greeter was rude, but getting Diane to help, made the experience so much more relaxing and easier.