Blog 10: Reflection

Critical Reflection of BU 214

Reflecting back on this course, I believe that there were ups and downs, like any other class. I feel like I learned more things in some chapters than I learned in others. I loved how we talked about current marketing news and it helped that our class occurred during the Superbowl. 

1. Powerpoints: Honestly they were kind of pointless. I didn't really learn anything from them because they were straight from the book, and we had to read the book for all of the quizzes anyway so it seemed like a waste of time to go to class on those days. I enjoyed the classes where we would talk about how class related to the real world because in all respects that is what we will be doing in the future.

2. Presentations: The presentations were always interesting, and kept you focused on the class, especially so early in the morning. The ad and Ted talks should count for more of your final grade because I spent a lot of time preparing for them.

3. Quizzes: The quizzes were difficult at the beginning of the year. They started off extremely focused on small details that were pointless to the real concepts of marketing. As the semester continued they got better, but there would still be questions that, even if you had the book in front of you, you would have no chance at getting right.

4. Practice Marketing: I thought that the idea of PM was an interesting way of learning how to sell a product in the real world. Meeting up with your team once a week wasn't that bad either, but I think that you should be able to make more decisions on the program. It was difficult in the program to move up in the business as well. For example, if you sold an average amount one time, than the most on the next turn, you still would be on the lower end in rankings. So basically, once you're on the bottom you stay on the bottom. It was a decent program overall, I have never done anything like this so it was educational.

5. Peer Reviews: I am not a fan of peer reviews. I enjoy reading other people's blogs and watching their presentations, but I feel like it doesn't help me in any way educationally. For a lot of the peer reviews I just kind of skimmed through the blogs, and I am sure others did too. So the grades that people give to each other are probably not even close to what you would think. The timing of the blogs due was also annoying because a lot of them were due right when we get back from break. I would prefer blogs due on Wednesday or Friday when we have all we to be reminded.

Wigo: Blog 9

*CALLING ALL COLLEGE STUDENTS* 

Are you going out tonight?                                             Don't know where to go?
                                       Do you want to go out tonight?                                     There's an app for that.

 

For those who don't know what this is its a social media app where you update your partying status. It shows where you are going, who is there, and there are even photos uploaded from each location. This app is fairly new to St. Michael's College, but the recent marketing campaign by creator Ben Kaplan made an explosion on our campus.

The beginning of March Madness posed as a perfect time to expand the WIGO name. Creating its own bracket of colleges across the country, WIGO created the ultimate competition between various schools called the Wigo Madness event. Starting off with 32 schools they each competed weekly to see which school is the most social, active, and fun. Each school was rated by a percent based on...

1. Percentage of school attending the Wigo Madness event.
2. Number of users attending the Wigo Madness event.
3. Number of invites/taps to the Wigo Madness event.
4. Number of photos posted inside the Wigo Madness event.
5. Number of new users during the Wigo Madness event.

(sorry this picture isn't the best... the bracket is too large!)

The idea behind this event spurred an amazing increase of followers and awareness of WIGO. Following the entire Madness event, I had noticed a significant amount of people who attended the event from Saint Mike's. The first round of the WIGO event St. Mike's won with 250 people going to the event. By the fifth round, we lost with over 600 people going. With this large increase at our school I can only image how many people went from the opposing school. 

So with this, download WIGO and enjoy your Thirsty Thursday. Cheers!

Game of Thrones: Blog 8

Game of Blogs

                      Gut Wrenching

Adrenalin Pumping

                                                                                                                       Mind Blowing 


The era continues this Sunday with the airing of Game of Thrones: Season 5. 

Ending last season with the most viewers of an HBO show, Game of Thrones has become HBO's second most watched show, trailing behind the Sopranos. HBO's polls have shown that each episode was watched by, on average, 14.4 million people. The future looks promising considering last year's demand to watch the season premier had crashed the HBO Go website (personally experienced). This "fatal error" message caused HBO to post a tweet apologizing to fans which received 917 retweets and thousands of angry comments.

Marketing Game of Thrones:
 HBO has taken matters into their own hands offering a free way to watch the season WITHOUT A SUBSCRIPTION TO HBO! HBO released a new app, HBO Now, which allows you to stream Game of Thrones without a cable subscription. The goal of this app is to cut down the amount of illegal downloads that happen online. Game of Thrones was the most pirated show of 2012 with 4.3 million downloads... per episode! And with cable problems that occurred during last years season opener, they hope that this will increase the service's capacity of viewers. 

The annual "watchathon" is midswing this week when all Xfinity members are able to catch up on all of their favorite HBO shows for free.The last day to binge watch all of your favorite HBO shows for free is this Sunday. Clever campaigning trick by HBO don't you think? Personally, I spent my last day of vacation binge watching Season 4 of Game of Thrones. 
I'm sure I'm not alone. 

Enjoy the trailer for Season 5!

Internet Fame (Part 2): Blog 7

The ticket to becoming famous 

Becoming Internet famous is not all about luck. After studying the stories of celebrities the key to becoming famous relates to how you exert yourself on the Internet. 

1. Show your personality through your websites
2. Engage your followers
3. Be passionate
4.  Make your fans care
5.  Understand that it is a process
6.  Know when to call it quits[1]

This process may not be the best way, but exemplifies the most practical approach. Unknown wannabes must understand that followers might fall in love with how you look, but will only stay if you stay willing to show your true personality. Fakes will be exploited in an instant. With the billions of humans on Earth, boundless groups will freely listen. A small group could be the start of your career. Those who do follow you will feel a connection if you’re willing to engage with them. The slightest acknowledgement, for instance a favorite on Twitter, could make the support of a follower significantly stronger. Connecting and sharing with your followers proves how passionate you are about your voice. If you love something enough, you can prove that it is worth admiring. Your passion alone could influence your fans. Also sharing your thoughts could encourage followers to becoming invested in your talents, asking for advice or passing on your links. Adding these contributions has the ability to “quickly turn casual followers into fans” [1]. The entire process will not be completed overnight so you have to be patient. With this, if you have been following the process for a long time, it may be time to take a break. The limelight is not for everyone. Never feel discouraged. If your beliefs are strong enough there is still a possibility for you to share your talents with the world.


  


Works Cited:
[1] http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/11/internet-famous-becoming-an-online-celebrity/

Internet Fame (part 1): Blog 6

Internet Fame: the new frontier

What’s the secret behind the newest way of becoming famous? With the evolution of the Internet we see that more and more musical artists are getting their talents out into the world. Inspiration for helping members become famous occurs through sights on the web such as MySpace, Twitter, and YouTube. By easily getting their names and faces to the public, ordinary followers seem to be gaining followers. Ultimately, the impacts of new digital media broadened the music horizon and we see more artists becoming famous because of the easy access of the Internet.

The most recent developments of social media broadens the marketing world. When using these sites we may not realize that we are using different marketing strategies, a lot of the time we don't mean to do it. For example. if you post a picture on Instagram in the morning, you tend to get less likes than if you were to post it late afternoon. Maybe it is because you just chose that time to post it, or is it because people tend to check up on their social media before they head to bed. These little discrepancies are being used all over the social media platform. A great example of this is VINE. This app shows videos created by people just like you. Each video has a different purpose. Those who become vine famous are shown to use the most marketing skills. Whether they include humor, music, or general appeal, they try to get as many people as possible to view and like their vines. As you gain likes and revines, as the views increase, you have soon created an empire. 

What we really want to know... How do you become internet famous?

Psychology in Marketing: Blog 5

Psychology is an underlying factor in the success of large marketing campaigns. Knowing how your product or company makes people feel can be the basis for creating customers. Initial impressions of people, places, or things can have a huge impact on whether people feel comfortable in participating in the benefit of your company. Many first impressions are due to something more than just the company name, but the feel of your store, product, etc. The most important factor of feeling in a company interestingly has a lot to do with COLORS. With a broad spectrum of colors it is hard to find the proper color to depict what you are trying to show... or is it?

Colors are known to create emotion. The best example of this is that it is said McDonald's used the colors yellow and red because those colors create hunger in people, but to some people red means anger and yellow is bright and happy. In all reality it truly depends on personal experiences for what you believe each color represents. After careful analysis this lovely chart has been made to show what colors are used by what company's and what they intentionally chose as a color to represent their missions.

                                                           Color Emotion Guide       

When it comes to color, there is no certainty what the best one to use is. There is however, a correlation in the way that colors affect buying habits. According to Niel Patel, "Color is 85% of the reason you purchased a specific product." It is important as a marketer to understand that colors can affect whether people will buy your product. In the video below, several color facts have caught my attention:

1. Yellow and orange are more likely to have you buy something in the "buy now" buttons
2. Blue makes you want to trust the company (contrary to the photo above)
3. If you're a politician... don't use green
4. Women don't like colors like grey, orange, and brown; but they do like blue, purple, and green
5. Men also like blue and green, but they also enjoy black

Ultimately, the way that you choose the colors of your company will not satisfy everyone. With these tips hopefully you can incorporate the psychology of color into the future success of your business!

Fifty Shades of Grey: Blog 4

Why this conglomeration has made us all "fifty shades of fucked up"

Fifty Shades of Grey, has disturbed my life. Not for its S&M and kinky situations, but for how many times it is brought up during a normal day in my life. Several little aspects of the book have something relatable to anybody's daily life. For a college student, such as me, I can't even eat in my dining hall without being disturbed by the English Breakfast tea or cringing at a man dressed up with a grey tie. I'm currently petrified sitting next to an elevator... that is how deeply engrained this book (and movie) are in my head.

These obnoxious interludes of distraction are why I believe that underneath the lingerie and handcuffs, there is a brilliant marketing mastermind at work. It is important to notice that, in America, there is a prevalent display of sexual innuendos in the advertising world. This isn't a mistake, the reality is that our current generations are programmed to be enticed by flawless women, muscular men, and fantasies beyond reach. "Sex sells" is a common concept accustomed by the advertising industries. It is said that teens are the main attraction to sexual appeals in advertising because they are the most capable of spreading the ideas and creating brand loyalty among all demographics. Many companies such as Abercrombie and Fitch and Calvin Klein are known for their provocative men and women models barely wear any clothing. It is true that sex can sell, it is proven that many companies who adopt this kind of advertisements see an increase in sales.

While searching the web I found an interesting article that shows how to use the "sex sells" campaign.
Five ways Advertising Sex Increases Business Success

1. Get noticed - Pay attention to the design of the advertisement, choose colours, words, and pictures carefully, and proofread the advert before publishing it.
2. Be the dream - The most successful advertising taps into the dreams of the customers and shows the potential customers how the product fits into that dream. Show how your product helps the target market tap into those dreams.
3. More than one night stands - When designing your advertising keep in mind two ideas: you want to form a long-term relationship with your customers rather than have one-time buys, and you want to attract attention more than once.
4. Variety adds spice to sex - Variety adds spice to life and using a variety of themes in your advertising campaigns will ensure that your advertising retains the customer’s interest in the long-term
5. Go for satisfaction - Your business advertisement is only the start of the process in satisfying your customers. Make sure your advertising is truthful and does not make claims that your product cannot meet as this only leads to unhappy customers in the end.

The marketing behind this years most intoxicating addiction uses these five steps. For example:

1. Get noticed- GREY is the most effective color in this industry, it reshapes this once bland color and now poses as the world's most intriguing hue.
2. Be the dream-By using a college student who goes through common life stages (i.e. first love, moving apartments, etc) we can easily connect to Anna's life creating the possibility that we could go through this.
3. More than one night stands- The book possesses a connection with the reader that encourages you to reread the books, and with the release of the movie plenty of people are intrigued to either read the books for a first time or reread them.
4. Variety adds spice to sex- Fifty shades has variety in the respect of moving from paper to the cinemas. Coming out on Valentines day also encouraged a brand of fifty shades of grey teddy bears, which was the perfect gift for many couples this year (shown below).
5. Go for satisfaction- The hype for Fifty Shades was created at the announcement that there would be a movie. Many people were anticipating a raunchier movie than shown, but with the lower evaluation (rated R) the audience was more accepting to the fact that only so much can be shown without it being a true porno.

 (p.s. this little guy cost $90)






The Fifty Shades of Grey industry has used the "sex sells" technique successfully because it is mixed with what I like the call the possible fantasy. I am completely and utterly distracted by everything Fifty Shades. My friends who went to the movie with me send me vines or buzzfeed stories relating to this company. Their domination of social media has made it easier for fifty shades to confront me anywhere. This is the reason why Fifty Shades of Grey is and will continue to be the global phenomenon of 2015.