In response to Bruce Wichland's Post...

"What did you take away from this class that will help you in the future?"

I have taken away many valuable lessons from this course that have the potential to help me in the future. Not only did I learn many concepts that may help me as a consumer looking to purchase products but I also learned many things that could help me as an owner of a business. I learned that it is important for a marketer to have a target market in which they aim their marketing efforts toward. The marketing mix is made up of four different variables: price, place (distribution), promotion, and product. Marketing managers decide how much of each variable to use in order to meet the needs of their consumers. It is important for marketers to have a target market and marketing mix to ensure their company will be successful when launching new products. Therefore, before creating the marketing mix, marketers must collect in-depth, up-to-date information regarding consumer needs.

Target market and the marketing mix are just a few of the many concepts I will take away from this course. I have learned many important factors regarding price and how to determine and maintain a price that will generate profit yet keep up with the competition. I learned that electronic marketing may be cheaper than direct mail but does not necessarily have more benefits. One of the most valuable tools a company should use in evaluating their company is the SWOT analysis. It is important for companies to be able to locate their threats and turn them into opportunities and use their strengths to their advantage against their competition.

Moving away from marketing concepts that will help me in the future, I also learned about different social networking sites that companies use to communicate with their consumers. Websites such as facebook, skype, twitter, wikia, blogger etc, are all utilized by different companies who want to get their products known. These websites also provide a place for consumers to talk about the products, what they like, what they didn't like and allows for feedback from the company. Some of the websites even offered different promotions. For example, Starbucks offered a promotion on Twitter, "bring in your own to-go cup and get it filled for free." This promotion was promoted to support their environmental awareness. It is important for companies to keep up with today's technology because it is an excellent way to communicate with your consumers and promote your products.

What is the most important concept you are taking away from this intro to marketing course?

Why Do Customers Tattoo their Bodies with the Brands They Love?

An article in which I recently read, Why Do Customers Tattoo their Bodies with the Brands They Love, talks about customers who take brand loyalty to the next level. Brand loyalty is a customer's favorable attitude toward a specific brand. Most consumers have at least one brand they consistently buy either a the grocery store or on a shopping trip to the mall. However, this article deals with consumers who take brand loyalty far beyond just buying the brand. These consumers actually went as far as getting the brand logo tattoo on their bodies. Most people would think, who would actually do that? Well, it is actually occurring more than you think. Companies such as Harley Davidson, Nike, Playboy, Coca-Cola, VW and Apple are doing something to drive the customers wild, because more and more consumers are getting their logos permanently placed on their bodies.

As the article puts it, "people branded themselves with tattoos to mark themselves as different and to challenge the status quo." It is ironic that people are branding themselves with brand logos. By consumers completing this act, its meaning is "branded into the soul." The article lists three psychological reasons consumers brand themselves with tattoos of companies they love: 1) Membership into social groups. By doing this it helps customers find a common interest in a social group. 2) Finding meaningful associations. By having a branded tattoo it reminds the customer of their personal values. 3) Connecting with ideals. Branded tattoos are reminders of the customers ideal life.

If you are just as shocked as me, read the article. There really are people like this out there that do take brand loyalty this seriously. What do you think? Do you know someone with a brand logo tattoo? Would you, yourself ever consider getting one?

http://www.marketingpower2.com/blog/marketingnews/2010/04/why_do_customers_tattoo_themselves_with_the_brands_they_love.html#more