Marketing Myself

I almost feel as if we are constantly trying to market ourselves with our surroundings, the decisions we make and most importantly the financial commitment we have in attending a University. That being said marketing oneself can be a very difficult thing to do with the idea of trying to apply our skills and uniqueness to the world around us. We use websites like Linkedin to market ourselves and we do things like create resumes and show accomplishments. However, they say that a future manager is going to hire you off your skills and traits, not your resume. It is our obligation in order to back up the things we claim to be true about ourselves and the positions we put ourselves in. My goals in life include starting my own business and becoming my own boss, so I will soon need to focus on which market to attack in order to be successful. In which area of the world I can really put myself out there in order to show the difference between me and my competitors. 

Feedback

Feedback is a very important key performance indicator when accessing your final work. It makes you realize what parts of your presentation you are missing, and what you could elaborate on. When first coming up with a design we always are viewing things from our perspective, and what we like. That feedback allows us to realize what an audience is looking for, and it's difficult being told that considering we always think so highly of the original work that was being put in. Whether it be an essay or a presentation we are always demonstrating our abilities to improvise on a topic and expand upon what's already been discussed. For my project, I had responses asking about my choice of pictures and presentation background. I will admit I am not very skilled in designing, It was good to hear about the types of backgrounds I could have used in order to help illustrate my points more clearly. My rough draft was mostly criticized for the definitions being used and the reason for that was the unfamiliarity with these marketing topics we have been researching all semester.

Surfing the Tsunami

After reading into the text "Surfing the Tsunami" I now have some perspective on where our thinking needs to be set when determining future employment. Adapting to AI is one aspect mentioned in the text and while we adapt we must be aware of where we stand in the workforce and the importance of the position you hold at your job. We know the future of Artificial intelligence is only going to improve as time goes on. Some are excited about the convenience it offers in accomplishing everyday tasks, such as navigating and calculations. Many others would argue that humans will become too dependant on it, and lose sight of what actually makes us human. Some argue that AI will lead us to create robots that replace jobs and eventually force more people to go to school. 

I believe Amazon was one of the many first companies to come out and say they are trying to develop a system that will allow your packages to be delivered using drones. While the idea sounds super cool and fascinating we must also consider the number of UPS and other delivering companies that will be at risk due to their jobs being replaced. Obviously, the market for a delivery driver isn't as high as a business major trying to pursue his goal of landing a job after graduation. However, after reading into the situation, I'm seeing that jobs that require analyzing a ton of data will be replaced such as financial services and insurance. That is extremely alarming and makes me feel like I should consider switching majors considering I am currently studying finance right now. Although we know change is coming for the better or the worse, we also must prepare for what's ahead and plan accordingly.

Promoting vs Advertising

While we hear the words often, promoting and advertising are two different concepts that are slightly related however they pertain to two different ideas. When advertising a product you are trying to persuade someone to invest in your product or service. Most advertisements try to be quick and to the point because they come at times when we as consumers least want something else shoved in our face. An example would be trying to watch a fun video on youtube and somewhere in between having to listen to a 15 second add you can care less about. You notice that while some videos make you listen to the full 15 seconds, others allow you to skip after just 5 seconds. It clear that the makers of these ads are getting less and less time to develop their ideas and more just getting to the point. Advertising comes in many forms such as TV, radio, newspapers, billboards, and much more.

Such is different when promoting because when we are promoting a product we are giving our consumers a chance to engage with what's going on. An example would be my State Farm agent going to an expo and creating a game that involves raffles with prizes and creating a more engaging environment to help pull people into getting a free quote.  By doing this the agent isn't forcing you to listen to his advertisement but rather giving you a chance to participate in something fun and potentially winning a prize. They are then able to keep your information under file and give you routine calls on a year to year basis to inform you about current promotions they are offering which at that point would be a slight form of advertising.

Image Marketing

A company image is going to determine what the company portrays itself as. The point of an image is to help build a target audience you can eventually grow and expand with. I also think that while the company image is very important, we can also look at the name of a company is equally as important. These two things go head to head in terms of perception and how consumers like you and me will view the company as a whole when first evaluating it. Hiring a graphic designer that will help portray the company's values and ideas will also be beneficial. But before you start thinking about design you have to take a look at defining the qualities that best represent the company as a whole. For example if you are running a grocery store such as Pete's Market, you want the company logo to give off that fresh organic food taste. That every time the consumer passes by and they see that company image it's hard to resist.

Multichannel Marketing

Multichannel Marketing as mentioned in the video is a practice that involves interaction with clientele using a variety of methods such as websites, direct mail, mobile, email and more. Multichannel Marketing is critical to being able to understand where your current clients stand, and what they might expect from you in the future. Constant communication and increased awareness is key to developing good relationships and being able to maintain those relationships for years to come. In order to begin, you must understand your buyer and create a test that will allow you to collect the data and be able to respond accordingly. People are no longer on one channel, we have cell phones, laptops, TV's etc. It is a proven fact that single-channel consumers spend way less then multichannel consumers do. I think it's fair to say Multichannel Marketing is the new wave of being able to help consumers really interact with what's in front of them.  

An example of Multichannel Marketing is being able to save a coupon from your phone and bringing it back to a brick and motor location in order to redeem it. The use of a phone and being able to carry the coupon without a physical piece of paper in your hand. This is just an example, depending on whether it be UPS or some type of postal service it will still be crucial to understand what forms of Multichannel Marketing that portion of people are ok with. You also want to Test the effectiveness of your multichannel marketing efforts by selecting groups that do not receive the multichannel promotion. This will help you measure your campaigns’ effectiveness.

Survey Monkey Week

This week was the most exiting as we got to create a completely random survey that involves peoples feedback. I had created two questions, the first I asked about what interest people the most when purchasing a new phone. The reason I bring this up is due to the fact that phones are now ridiculously overpriced and it feels like most of the time its really not an upgrade but more of an update. My choices were very generic but I had to include answers that I found appealing as the only thing I see companies heavily invested in today is the battery and the camera. So far my poll leads with 75% of the votes going  towards bigger battery I think it shows that the battery in today phones can be very  weak and that overtime its just something companies use as leverage to get you to buy a new phone.

My second question relates to a topic discussed in managerial finance and I asked that if you were to flip a coin and if it were to land on heads you go to school for free but if it were to lands on tails you tuition doubles. So far I see 65.5% of people taking the "no thanks" option as there is no risk involved and people don't want to even think about what the price for school would be. People who chose the no thank you option would be classified as risk adverse, and people who would take on that chance are risk loving. I personally would love to go to school for free, but I am also fascinated by what people have to say about this. I had a total of 8 responses and I looked to calculate what amount of people chose the tails option. My calculation was 37.5% *8 came out to be 3 out of 8 people chose this option.