Radio

As a college football fan I listen to a lot of sports talk radio. I have found myself calling local companies that market their business on these talk shows quite a bit. It almost seems subliminal as I may not call a certain company or do business with them immediately, but find myself later needing a service or product that I have heard and give them a try without even giving it a second thought. For this reason I believe the radio is still a very strong marketing tool.

Being Different

The one thing that sticks out to me the most in the two videos we watched this week is on the Guerrilla marking about being different. I can't tell you how many times I personally have made a purchasing decision simply based on what company or product offers something different than the rest. I can see how firms would be afraid to go against the norm for fears that it wouldn't work, but I think more consumers find difference refreshing. If it were all the same in any market then things would become very stale quickly.

Public Relations

Public relations can help large firms like the one I currently work for by creating an image of caring about the community. My company hosts and takes part in numerous fundraising events geared to genuinely help a certain cause and also to keep a positive image amongst the community. I am sure that every large firm or business does this in some form or fashion and it can also serve as a great way to get the company name out there to potential customers who might not have known about it otherwise.

Get in or get left behind

If you are a new company and are not using the e-market in some form or fashion then I believe you are at a huge disadvantage against other companies. The way technology and society is shifting towards a connected to the internet way of doing everything, companies that choose not to get on board will get left behind and lose so much opportunity in potential sales due the the marketing environment it opens up for them.

Penetration

I just heard last week that the company I work for will be laying out a plan to penetrate a market it has left untouched for some years now. I assume the business unit will weigh the costs and risks versus the rewards involved in such a venture. It will be interesting to get to see this play out and whether or not it is a successful venture or failure. If it succeeds it could mean huge profits and ramp ups in production which would in turn mean more jobs.

Location

I came to my parents to watch football with my father today and we got in a discussion about what to eat. Dad and I decided we wanted BBQ from this little place near here off of a back country road that was fairly new. This little place had great food and service, but from what I could tell did no marketing. Mom informed us that they had went out of business a few weeks ago. I believe it was due to a lack of marketing and definitely poor choice of location as this was horribly far from the high populated areas of town where someone can easily get BBQ if they wanted it.
I think this was a case of tough market to enter especially with such a horrible location.

Pricing

This is a good subject for me. My father and I used to have our own auto glass replacement business.
We based our pricing on costs of goods and perishables needed to provide the service such as the glass and materials and tools needed, along with the gas for our trucks as we were a completely mobile business. We did great for about 9 years without being properly funded or having a business model or plan. We targeted the market we already serviced for a company we worked for years before. The problem came when the economy collapsed and customers did not want to pay for something they didn't really "need". Our biggest selling point was our incredible service, but sometimes there were issues with our prices. We based our prices on what we could do the job for and just barely make a profit to survive. I am curious how a new company with a new product or service decides on what is a "good" or "fair" price.