Week 10 EOC - Benefits vs. Features

"Consumers around the world vary tremendously in age, income, education level, and tastes... How these diverse consumers relate with each other and with other elements of the world around them impacts their choices among various products, services, and companies." (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong/Kotler, pg 137)

My chocolate features the ability to bend, tie, stretch and straighten the chocolate for maximum fun and to experience the delight that comes with playing with your food like we've always wanted to. Finally customers will have the chance to play with their food and enjoy experience of creating different forms and shapes with an inexpensive, fun and easy way to make a night more fun than the rest.

Implementation Evaluation Control

“The company should periodically survey buyers who have used the product and ask these questions: How do you like the product? Which specific features of the product do you like most? Which features could we add to improve the product?” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, pg 215)Within each box of Trenza will be a coupon code which is redeemable on the Trenza website, after punching in the code there will be a small 5 question survey asking basic demographic questions and gauging customer satisfaction. Upon completion of the survey, the coupon will be printable as well as a voucher for a free box of Trenza
“When customers buy a product, they exchange something of value (the price) in order to get something of value (the benefits of having or using the product).” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, pg 276)

“A powerful form of segmentation is to group buyers according to the different benefits that they seek from the product.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, pg 182)

Within the survey would be questions to determine the age of the buyer as well as who the chocolate was bought for. Self, child under 12, person over 18 and so on.

Marketing Mix

“To estimate sales, the company might look at the sales history of similar products and conduct market surveys.” (Marketing: An Intorduction, Armstrong/Kotler, pg 251) Trenza is not the first chocolate product to ever hit the market. I would not dream of thinking that as soon as Trenza hits the shelves its going to sell purely on its appeal as chocolate. The history surrounding chocolate and its many shapes, sizes, and varieties is epic. There are so many types of chocolate, from dark to milk chocolate, white chocolate, semi-sweet. On top of that people buy chocolate for the ingredients within the chocolate and the shapes that they are molded into.

“In the normal case, demand and price are inversely related; that is, the higher the price, the lower the demand.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong/Kotler, pg 283)
Chocolate may masquerade as a delicacy but in my eyes Trenza is more of a novelty. I believe that for a box of 6, foot long strands of Trenza, $7.99 would be a nice round number that is both affordable and reasonable to be purchased on a regular basis

“Consumers with limited budgets probably will buy less of something if its price is too high.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong/Kotler, pg 283)

“Consumer promotions are sales promotion tools used to boost short-term customer buying and involvement or to enhance long-term customer relationships.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong/Kotler, pg 434)
Promotions being used will be radio commercials as well as in store media used to catch the buyers eye.

Target Market Strategy

"Companies need to consider many factors when choosing a market-targeting strategy. Which strategy is best depends on company resources. When the firm’s resources are limited, concentrated marketing makes the most sense."Marketing: An Intro, Armstrong/Kotler, page 192. As with any product market penetration and saturation are key elements and can either work to your advantage or kill your campaign. Trenza Chocolate will be the higher priced, yet still affordable chocolate treat for the middle income. The family of four with a young child and parents that are looking for ways to make the night a little different from the grind. "Concentrated (niche) marketing- A market-coverage strategy in which a firm goes after a large share of one or a few segments or niches." Marketing: An Intro, Armstrong/Kotler, page 188. This is a perfect market strategy that should be taken into consideration for any that is looking to penetrate its market with maximum efficiency

SWOT

Strengths are pretty obvious, Taste, Consistency, creativity, great experience and a great price point. Weaknesses are only the people that decide that they don't want one of the worlds most highly demanded crops.There are endless opportunities to Trenza chocolate strands. That's the beauty of it! Tie them, cook them, eat them, melt them, this gives the consumer the opportunity to use their imagination and create opportunities that others will follow. There are always threats to any consumer product, political threats, corporate threats, health threats and consumer threats. To asses something like the threat to chocolate is trivial at best.


"The marketer should conduct a SWOT analysis, by which it evaluates the company's overall strength (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T). '(Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong/Kotler, pg. 55

EOC Week 9 - Great Mission Statements

"My Mission Statement is to provide the consumer with a tasteful way to gain the energy and health they once had as a child, and lead the energy supplement industry with a youthful approach of the product." - Todd Cecil. I definitely wouldn't have ever considered chocolate something that was good for my body or healthy in any way. I like this statement because it makes perfect sense that if I were to eat his chocolate I would feel something different from any normal chocolate. "Companywide strategic planning guides marketing strategy and planning. Like marketing strategy, the company’s broad strategy must also be customer focused."Marketing: An Introduction. Armstrong/Kotler. Pg 39. The customer is always right and I think Todd gets it.

"Deliver A rich and exotic way of drinking!" - Javier Garcia. Keeping it simple and smart is the best way to go about business. Javier was short, sweet, and to the point. "Mission statements should be meaningful and specific yet motivating. They should emphasize the company’s strengths in the marketplace." Marketing: An Introduction. Armstrong/Kotler. Pg. 6.

"We give families the opportunity to taste a delicious blend of natural flavors that everyone and anyone from all ages can enjoy. " - Jose Fernandez "Few leaders actually get the point of forging a mission with real grit and meaning. [Mission statements] have largely devolved into fat-headed jargon. Almost no one can figure out what they mean." Armstrong/Kotler, Marketing: An Introduction, page 40. Normaly I would agree, however, I believe Jose understands just fine.

Objectives

 Objectives act as both a gaol and a purpose. Without objectives there is nothing to strive for, and with them you have not only a goal to reach, but motivation to work towards them with every aspect. "The most logical budget-setting method is the objective-and-task method, whereby the company sets its promotion budget based on what it wants to accomplish with promotion. This budgeting method entails (1) defining specific promotion objectives, (2) determining the tasks needed to achieve these objectives, and (3) estimating the costs of performing these tasks." Marketing: An Intro, Armstrong/Kotler, page, 389. .By setting and striving for realistic and reasonable goals, Trenza will appeal to its target domographic and offer a superior experience for those afer some fun and enjoyment with chocolate "For companies that want to reach a mass audience, TV is the place to be. Beyond its reach, large-scale advertising says something positive about the seller’s size, popularity, and success." Marketing: An Intro, Armstrong/Kotler, Page 383. While at the moment Trenza will be advertising mainly by radio and in-store sales, moving advertising and marketing spots to other mediums is well the worth the ROI

Mission Statement

To provide fun and creativity through deliciousness and fine science. Every person that bites into a Trenza product will be pleasantly rewarded with a taste that inspires creativity. Being able to play with your food is always an enticing idea "Being the first producer to introduce a value and new feature is one of the most effective ways to compete." Marketing: An Introduction. Armstrong & Kotler, Pg. 215. Good Features breed great benifites. What could be better than playing with your food.

Promotion

It will be a still picture of the Trenza logo with a radio commercial in the background telling of the mouth-watering, delightful tastes of the many combinations of knotted chocolate delights to be made using the specially tempered chocolate produced by Trenza. This radio spot will announce to whomever may be listening that Trenza is more than just another fancy looking chocolate. It s a soft, fudge-like chocolate made to stay soft, yet strong at room temperature so as to allow the soon-to-be-delighted consumer to manipulate the strands of chocolate into various shapes, knots, and garnishes for any occasion.

Week 8 EOC - Creative Content

I will be producing a 30 second radio spot involving upbeat and happy music so as to illicit a good feeling to any potential consumers. It will feature a voice explaining the meaning of the word Trenza as well as outlining the different uses for the chocolate and the many hours of fun to be had by creating and experimenting with such decadent chocolate.

Week 7 EOC - The Pitch

Trenza chocolate knots. Decorative, edible creations. Buy pre-tied knots or simple strands to creat your own. Put them on deserts, garnish a dish, make dinner fun or just eat them out of the package. The idea behind "tying" chocolate is known as "piping" my chocolate would go through a special tempering process and mixed with other types of chocolate to achieve a consistency that would allow it to remain soft and malleable yet retain the ability to be stored at room temperature without melting.

Week 5 - EOC: Job Recruiters Turn to Facebook to Find Candidates

While the traditionally used method of requesting an application and returning it to an employer still exists, many companies are now turning to the faster and more informative method of using social media to seek out and recruit new employees. Some job sites have been around for almost a decade, like Monster.com, an online job posting site as well as a sight to post a resume or portfolio for potential employers to search for. The newer, LinkedIn, job site is a corporate style site used for the same purpose as Monster.com. However, LinkedIn also utilizes a user profile as a sort of pre interview process so that the candidates are able to express themselves as well as flaunt their skills and past experiences by posting their work on their profile.

Many companies are looking past Monster.com and LinkedIn due to the overwhelming information and social marketing influencing the profiles on Facebook. The majority of social-media traffic to Waste Management Inc.'s careers website comes from Facebook, beating out LinkedIn, said Jenny DeVaughn, manager of social media and employment branding.Companies are able to get a much clearer picture of the person they are hiring as well as the ability to see what other people think about them and the usual habits of their potential employee. More companies are using Facebook as a corporate reference because it is a real-time and real life online persona of anybody they seek to employ.

Companies like Monster and LinkedIn, are now even offering a cash reward for anybody who refers somebody through Facebook. Companies are becoming so infatuated with the idea that Facebook is a true-to-life representation of the people they seek to hire that they are now starting to pay people who use Facebook as a tool in helping to search for new people and keep in contact with someone they feel has what they are looking for. Many corporations are now building entire marketing and hiring strategies solely around Facebook and how it is able to connect and inform on their potential candidates.

Week 4 EOC: there's an app for that

Have you ever been watching a movie or looking at the TV and didn't know what it was or wanted to know who that actor or actress was? or even just when it came out or who produced it. With ViDkwik you can find out fast. ViDkwik works as easy as opening the app and taking a short clip or picture of the screen. ViDkwik will instantly start searching its database for matches in audio and video to show you what all the info about who and what you're watching, when it came out, who produced it, other news and updates about the movie/show itself, as well as news about it's production company, director endeavors, what new things the actors will be pursuing and even upcoming sequels.

For no more than you would pay for an app like SoundHound or Angry Birds, you can have access to a database full of information and news about new shows and movies that you've never seen, or be able to use ViDkwik to check out a quick fact while you're watching your favorite movie for the 300th time. After ViDkwik finds your video clip in its database, it gives you the option to look up more information at places like IMDB, or even watch more episodes on Netflix instantly (Netflix subscrition and app required) if using this application on a supported computer or tablet, instant purchase or streaming video (when available) will be supported for those who wish to bough up their video library.

Week 3 EOC - Analysing the market

Many major markets are down due to a recession.

Week 2: EOC Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

Video game sales are down due to the nations recession. people are not buying new video games as much anymore because industry leaders are promoting updates and add-ons that help to enrich older games to keep them up with the times.
The turnabout is rippling out to companies such as online retailer Amazon.com Inc. Last week, Amazon
blamed weak quarterly results from its media business on a decline in videogame sales. "You're seeing
an industry slowdown in games and consoles," said Amazon finance chief Tom Szkutak in a conference
call.
This directly supports the fact that consumers are not willing to put out the money to buy a new console when they can stay home and save money by playing the same games they've had or update one of them to make it more interesting. I think a lot of the "plunge" has come from the uprise of apps and smartphone games and media. These apps are now making entertainment and games available on the go without spending a fortune to buy an entirely new platform.

Week 1 EOC: My Voice

Three stooges design studios is a multifaceted audio/video studio specializing in the capture and edit as well as post production and on location production for live action or animated media. We have, in house, highly skillful technicians capable of creating and producing the highest quality results within strict deadlines.