Different Advertisements

Have you ever noticed when you go on websites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social networks there are advertisements that are related to things you are interested in. Recently, I have noticed this more then normal. Websites I have been on to online shop are showing up under these social networks. If the website has a sale or a new item I instantly know about it because of this. This form of advertisement is different then ones we have done in the past. We are no longer only using commercials and billboards to learn about new items we are interested in. We have these on are pages that are literally focused on our own interests. Do you believe this form of advertisement is better then other forms?

Response to Caitlyn Croasdale

Caitlyn talks about how Walmart stocks have gone down. She asks the reader if they believe this is because people are trying to buy more locally. I believe that could be part of it but not the whole thing. It is no secret that Walmart has a terrible reputation. I think that many people still shop there because it is cheap for household items and other products. I just think people don't want to stop supporting them  by buying stock within Walmart. I believe because a lot of people still do not have jobs, Walmart has nothing to worry about because of their extremely cheap products.

Advertising in Movies

In many movies different companies show their label to reach their target audience. For example in class this week we watched a part of The Breakfast Club. At one point in this movie a Coca-Cola can is shown a few different times. It made me wonder how much Coca-Cola was paying to have this viewed in the movie. It also caused me to wonder if this was a successful way to advertise a product. Do people really pay attention to this in movies? I had never noticed that companies do this until someone pointed it out to me. Once someone did I was surprised at how much I noticed different products featured in movies. When a company uses a billboard, commercial, or other standard type of marketing it usually explains the product. The actors in the movies never really explain the product. All of the actors in The Breakfast Club did not mention the fact that they were drink a Coke. Do you believe that companies should continue to feature products in movies? Or would it be better for them to save money to use towards more standard versions of advertisements?

Response to Vinny Frasco

Vinny asked the question: If you are a new customer and weren't told the personal trainer helping you is pregnant, do you believe it is false advertisement?

I believe that to a point this can be false advertisement. Personal training is something that is usually pretty expensive. A lot of the training is hands on and this might become difficult for the trainer to do this to the best of her ability. I believe that if I was spending a lot of money on something I would like to know if something was going to effect my training down the line. For example what happens once the trainer has her baby? As the person who is getting trained, would I be getting a new trainer who would have to get to know me. I would be unsure about this and think that it would make me pick a different gym to go to in order to avoid this problem and delay. 

Youtube Commercials

Youtube has become one of the most popular websites. It is extremely well known and some people are on it constantly. The other day my friends and I were on youtube and found a commercial for Internet Explorer. The commercial talked about Generation Y and how we have changed over the years. We loved the commercial because it highlighted our childhood games and toys in a quick 5 minute video.  It made us remember things that we had forgotten about. We became completely engrossed in the video and had no idea it was even a commercial until the very end. I overheard one of my friends saying "Wow, that was the best commercial I have ever seen. That is such good marketing!" I thought about this after and really believed what a great marketing strategy it was. They didn't talk about the internet they talked about changes. In the end they linked Generation Y's changes to Internet Explorers changes. Most of us are Mac users and it made us think about Internet Explorer more then we normally have. I believe this was a great new way to do marketing and targets the perfect target market for this product. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkM6RJf15cg&noredirect=1

Do you believe that youtube commercials are more effective now then television commercials are?

Response to Kevin Provost

In one of Kevin's blogs he makes a good argument about bank hours. He discusses how most of bank hours fall under a time that is difficult for most people to come at. I have always found myself wanting to run to the bank after hours. With work and school it is difficult to make time to go to the bank during the week. Weekend hours are the only time that I can usually make it. The problem with this is that my bank has reduced hours on the weekend and aren't even open on Sunday's. Kevin talks about all the business they are losing by doing this. I have found myself saying this before. If a different bank had significantly different hours then mine I would consider changing banks. Still most banks have roughly the same hour making it not worth the extra work. Banks should stay open later to make it easier on the consumers that they have.

Pricing

Over spring break I went to the Bahamas. I noticed that they dealt with pricing and marketing a lot differently then we do. They have little markets and huts where they sell products. Everything is homemade or home grown. The didn't seem to have too many chain stores or resturants. The competition that these sellers have is each other. As the consumers we were able to bargain with the sellers. We would be able to offer them a price we taught the product was worth. Depending on the vendor they would either agree or ask you for a few dollars more. If the vendor would not offer the product for a certain price we would simply walk over to the next person. When you began to walk away they would instantly offer you some amazing deal. They would want to sell the product for less then they thought it was worth, then have you give the money to another vendor. It was interesting to see how this worked out for them. They got most of the money they made from the tourist and wanted to make sure that they made the most they could.

My question is do you think this was a smart way to price products or a bad way to sell products?