Week 5 EOC: Social Networks and Job Hunting

           Social network is one of the most important tool to share information now days. More companies are trying to tap Facebook Inc.'s 750-million-plus user base to find new employees, threatening traditional job boards and competing with LinkedIn Corp., which has dominated the online professional networking arena. (Recruiters troll Facebook for candidates they like By Joe Light, The Wall Street journal at August 8,2011)  As we can see from above, social network is the most effect way to make new products get noticed. Lets take a look at those websites of social network such as Youtube, Facebook, twitter and so on. Personal connections—forged through words, pictures, video, and audio posted just for the [heck] of it—are the life of the new Web, bringing together the tens of millions of bloggers, more than 175 million active Facebook users, and millions more on single-use social networks where people share one category of stuff, like Flickr (photos), Del.icio.us (links), Digg (news stories), Wikipedia (encyclopedia articles), and YouTube (video)….  (Kotler 142)
Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip. Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions. I personally use those website more than 10 time a day and almost grab all the new information from there. And this is the newest and cheapest way to make your company and your products to get noticeable. People love talking about things that make them happy—including their favorite products and brands. Say you really like JetBlue Airways—they fly with flair and get you there at an affordable price. Or you just plain love your new Sony GPS camera—it’s way too cool to keep to yourself. In the old days, you’d have chatted up these brands with a few friends and family members. But these days, thanks to modern technology, armed with little more than a video camera, laptop, and a cell phone, anyone can spread the word about products and brand experiences to thousands, even millions, of other consumers. (Kotler 143)
Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip. Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions.  How to employ real customer to get out the word for your company? I have a great example about this topic is that I recently bought a new car and I started to modified it. I have tried many parts companies and none of them have a better customer service than Rallysportdirect( The website I shopped parts for). 30 days no question return, Fast shipping, Answer every question you have ever asked. I refer them to all of my friends who need parts for their car and everybody loves them. 

Week 4 EOC: Business to Business Marketing

Got marketing? You are dreaming your stuff are doing well at the market but the question is how? Let's make this happen.  

Describe the consumer market and the major factors that influence consumer buyer behavior. 

Best example for this question is Apple.
The buying behavior of final consumers—individuals and households that buy goods and services for personal consumption. (Kotler 136)

All the individuals and households that buy or acquire goods and services for personal consumption (Kotler 136)

Consumers around the world vary tremendously in age, income, education level, and tastes. They also buy an incredible variety of goods and services. (Kotler 136)



 
Identify and discuss the stages in the buyer decision process. 

Need Recognition, Information Search, Evaluation of Alternatives, Purchase Decision.

Describe the adoption and diffusion process for new products. 
Awareness: The consumer becomes aware of the new product, but lacks information about it.
Interest: The consumer seeks information about the new product.


Evaluation: The consumer considers whether trying the new product makes sense.
Trial: The consumer tries the new product on a small scale to improve his or her estimate of its value.
Adoption: The consumer decides to make full and regular use of the new product. (Kotler 154)


Define the business market and identify the major factors that influence business buyer 
behavior. 

In the business buying process, business buyers determine which products and services their organizations need to purchase and then find, evaluate, and choose among alternative suppliers and brands. Business-to-business (B-to-B) marketers must do their best to understand business markets and business buyer behavior. Then, like businesses that sell to final buyers, they must build profitable relationships with business customers by creating superior customer value (Kotler 157)

The buying behavior of the organizations that buy goods and services for use in the production of other products and services or to resell or rent them to others at a profit (Kotler 157)

List and define the steps in the business buying decision process.

In the business buying process, the buyer and seller are often much more dependent on each other. B-to-B marketers may roll up their sleeves and work closely with their customers during all stages of the buying process—from helping customers define problems, to finding solutions, to supporting after-sale operation. They often customize their offerings to individual customer needs. In the short run, sales go to suppliers who meet buyers’ immediate product and service needs. In the long run, however, business-to-business marketers keep a customer’s sales and create customer value by meeting current needs and by partnering with customers to help them solve their problems. (Kotler 160)

Week 3 EOC: My Demographics

      How to get Latinos drunk becomes the most important mission for all of beer companies in recent years. What does American Latino males do after they get off work? Drink beers. I used to have a coworker who is a Mexican he told me he stop by at gas station everyday after he get off work. He is not there for candies or smokes. He drinks beers everyday after he gets home. The problem is what beers company should do to hold this kind of royal customer? We define a product as anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. (Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip. Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation, 10th Edition.) From marketing side, we have to take a deep thinking about what you are offering and what can you offer to our Latino drinkers. For example, why most Mexicans don’t like Japanese beers? We have to take this problem a part and find out. First of all, I believe the biggest problem is the taste. Japanese beers are little bit sweet in there and most of people can’t handle that sweet favor. Also, Most of Japanese beers are too light to Latinos. How can you make a hardcore football fan to watch ping pong game? Although that's the way that Japanese beers are but if they want to take a piece of cake of American beer industry they have to make some changes. Marketers can obtain the needed information from internal data, marketing intelligence, and marketing research. (Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip. Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation, 10th Edition.) Marketing research is very important in this battle as well, I believe that's why Bud Light became to the top selling beer in Latinos. Bud Light, 55.6 million hectoliters (hl) or 47.38 million barrels. Up from about 39 million barrels in 2005. Bud Light is America’s best-selling beer since 2001, with about 16% total market share, and only sold internationally in appreciative quantities in Sweden, Ireland, Colombia, Canada and Mexico. (The Top Five Best Selling Beers in The World, http://www.articlearn.com/the-top-five-best-selling-beers-in-the-world)

Week 3 EOC: Making Money for Good

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To create value for customers and to build meaningful relationships with them, marketers must first gain fresh, deep insights into what customers need and want. (Kotler 101)
Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip. Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions. <vbk:9780558851903#outline(9.2)>.

The marketing information system primarily serves the company’s marketing and other managers.  (Kotler 102)
Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip. Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions. <vbk:9780558851903#outline(9.3)>.

Marketers can obtain the needed information from internal data, marketing intelligence, and marketing research. (Kotler 103)
Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip. Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions. <vbk:9780558851903#outline(9.4)>.

In addition to marketing intelligence information about general consumer, competitor, and marketplace happenings, marketers often need formal studies that provide customer and market insights for specific marketing situations and decisions. (Kotler 106)
Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip. Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions. <vbk:9780558851903#outline(9.5)>.

Marketing managers and researchers must work closely together to define the problem and agree on research objectives.  (Kotler 106)
Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip. Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions. <vbk:9780558851903#outline(9.5.3)>.

Once the research problems and objectives have been defined, researchers must determine the exact information needed, develop a plan for gathering it efficiently, and present the plan to management.  (Kotler 107)
Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip. Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions. <vbk:9780558851903#outline(9.5.4)>.

Week 2 EOC: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

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         Video game industry is facing a really big challenge is because people are actually quit playing games. Like pretty much every industry these days, video-game publishing is in some financial trouble. (What's Killing the Video-Game Business? By N. Van Zelfden. Posted Monday, Feb. 16, 2009, at 3:27 PM) Either TV video games or PC video games are losing their loyalty players. From side to side, we can see why more and more people are stepping out from play video games. First of all, creativity; which is the most important reason as well. Creativity may not be the right word for it but it serves its purpose for this. Lets put it this way, if the price is going to go up, the quality of the games shouldn't go down. Lets take a look at the most successful video game: The world of warcraft. What made this PC game to become the most successful game in the world? The answer is creativity with no doubt. But the leader of video game industry is falling. According to Activision-Blizzard, owners of the cash cows World of Warcraft and Call of Duty, reported losses of $72 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. (They lost $194 million the quarter before that.) (What's Killing the Video-Game Business? By N. Van Zelfden. Posted Monday, Feb. 16, 2009, at 3:27 PM). There are many reasons that why they are losing so many loyalty players. Creative again. Blizzard couldn’t figure a good way to keep the most successful online game fresh as before. Second, The price is always a big problem of the video game industry. December 24, 2008 According to iSupply, in November 2006 the entry-level US$499 PlayStation 3 console was made up of over 4,048 different components at a cost to Sony of $805. (Sony still losing money on each PlayStation 3 console, By Tim Hanlon,December 23, 2008). It Sounds like Sony is out of their mind isn’t it? They are taking their money back from each game that they sold. That’s the reason why the price of games is going up and up, from $30 to $60 just in three years. Back to the frist part, it would be really bad that people are paying $60 for a shitty quality game. There is another very important reason that traditional game consoles are losing their customers. The new gen smart phones and tablets are taking over the world now. Iphones and Ipads are having the largest game players in the world. Most of them are not hardcore gamers they are just playing games for pass time while they are waiting for something. There is old says would be perfect the situation now. For a new civilization to emerge, another must crumble.  

Link of what is killing the video game bussiness?

Link of Sony still losing money on PS3

Week 1 EOC: Great Customer Service

        I have had so many great customer service experiences in my life but there is always an one I can never forget. It was my first time went to the Acura dealership at Reno with my buddy. He was looking a decent price SUV is because it was his first car. At that day we drove around town and visited so many dealerships in Reno and we didn't get so many attentions from those sales men. That means we were not happy with any of them even they had some good cars at good prices. Long story short, Once we step into the Acura dealership we felt so comfortable and people who work there are really chill and friendly. Our sales man was an old white male and he was really nice to us. He showed us around the show floor and took us to the waiting room for some cookies and sodas. Before we told him our requirement for the car. He already asked someone to pulled our all of their inventories and showed us at the waiting room. And we told him we probably just for looking today and the smiles still existed on his face. He told us no worries, after you take a look at our inventories I'm sure you will find something you like. I personally hate the way how the dealership take care of their customers. All they cared about is sell you the car. But at Acura of Reno, I didn't feel anything like that I felt very comfortable and chill to talk to their stuff. After we looked at what they got my buddy found the one he wants to get. We asked him to grab the key and tested drive the car. Everything is great and the car is in a good shape. He asked me should I do it tonight, I was like no bro take it easy we will come back tomorrow. The sales man looked at us and he figured that out we are not going to buy the car today. He talked to us nicely he said, No worries, talk a little bit and think for awhile. Come back tomorrow. After we left the dealership my buddy keep asked me how he likes the car and the customer service compared to the others. We came back the next day in the morning and the sales man was there already. He was really happy to see us showed up to buy the new car. After he greeted us he didn't ask about the deal he took us to the waiting room for some breakfast first. That really surprised me a lot. Normally all they want to do it sell you the car and they don't care if you still hungry or not. After another inspection they nailed the deal down and everything went smoothly. After couple months we went back for maintain the car, they still treat us like a VIP even we bought a used car from them. I ended up traded my old car for an Acura after couple months and I couldn't be happier with my new ride and their customer service.

Week 1 EOC: My Voice

      The point of advertisement is to make people get familiar of your product and buy your product in the end. Based on this point we advertising people are trying to make their advertising interesting enough to hold your eyes. What's up guys this is Shang, My further goal is be to a professional advertising agent. Now days people are receiving huge amount of information everyday and how to make our stuff look good enough is becoming the most important thing in advertising agents' mind. My background due to date has been a very talented and creative thinker for most of the time there is always some ideas come out of my mind. That's the reason why I am advertising and idea as for living.