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MKT 229 Ethics
MKT-229 Module 8 Blog
The American Marketing Association is committed to encouraging the highest standard of professional ethics and values (AMA, 2018). To anyone that is new to the industry, remember that it is very important to maintain a strong focus on ethics. Ethical and professional standards from the American Marketing Association that apply to any marketing campaign start with avoiding any type of harmful actions or omissions (AMA, 2018). It is important to keep in mind that all choices made adhere to any applicable laws and regulations, and maintain high standards in ethics. These ethical value best practices include honesty, fairness, respect, responsibility, transparency, and citizenship (AMA, 2018). By doing so, trust will be built in the marketplace. If these practices are not followed, and a minor misstep in ethics occurs, the credibility for a company can be ruined and it can take years to repair the damage once a company loses that trust from their customers.
Ethical best practices are vital to a long lasting relationship with customers. There should be no advertising that gives false hope, or empty promises. It is very important that every possible perception of a marketing campaign needs to be looked at in order to maintain the highest level of ethics. It is also very important to strive to be truthful in all situations at all times, offer products that do what is claimed that they do, stand behind the products, and honor all commitments. Potential concerns if these best practices are not followed is where the company could potentially see their customer base source the same products from someone else that the customer trusts. For example: if there were two car dealerships, and one was known for not standing behind the cars that they sold, you can be sure word of mouth of this will spread and the customers will go to the other ethical dealer that delivers on what they promise. This will ultimately lead the un-ethical dealer to end up out of business.
Ethics plays a big part in any business. Consumers put a lot of trust in any business when they decide to make a purchase, so it is that much more important to respect that trust by delivering on what is expected.
References:
American Marketing Association (2018)
Module 3 Blog: Marketing Campaigns and SMART Goals
Module 3 Blog: Marketing Campaigns and SMART Goals
The difference between goals, strategies, and tactics is that the goal is the idea of what is to be accomplished, strategy is the plan that will be put in place to achieve the goal, and tactic is a set of instructions that makes the strategy toward the goal more navigable and effective (Belniak, 2013).
Setting SMART goals is very important when creating a marketing campaign. A properly implemented set of SMART goals will make the completion of the goals much more successful. The questions that should be considered are made up of 5 steps that are broken down into individual focus points. These 5 points are:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely
Specific: A specific goal has much more impact than just creating a general goal. A general goal would be to get a degree in marketing, and a specific goal would be to join SNHU online, and study for an hour a day until the degree has been reached in 2018. This will give a much better chance of accomplishing the goal since it is more focused.
1) Who: Who is part of the goal?
2) What: What am I looking to accomplish?
3) Where: Where will I accomplish it.
4) When: When is the goal to be started/finished?
5) Which: What needs to be done, and what hurtles will there be?
6) Why: Why do I need to accomplish the Goal?
Measurable – Make sure the goal is measurable, and create specific tactics to measure the progress along the way.
Attainable – Make sure the goal is attainable by creating the proper steps to achieve them in the time frame that you wish to be complete.
Realistic– A realistic goal is a goal that is actually possible to do and if you are willing to do so as well.
Timely – More goals are accomplished when there is a specific time frame to accomplish them in. Setting a date gives you the right mindset to be successful.
Strategies are the general methods that will help you meet your goals. Marketing tactics provide even more specific information. What is it specifically that needs to be done to achieve the goal? Marketing tactics align to strategies in order to support set goals by distributing resources in a very specific way with very specific actions that will lead to reaching ones goals (Anderson, 2017). I have a goal of advancing at my work. My strategy is to further my education to make me more competitive against other applicants. My tactic is to attend SNHU and study 1 hour per day toward a degree in marketing with a completion date of 2018. I currently have five weeks left.
There are many ways to ensure that SMART goals are met by using key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs are business metrics that you put in place and track in order to measure performance. Measurements include the input measures, process measures, output measures, and outcome measures (Balance Scorecard Institute, 2017). Examples of these measures are: Input=costs, Process=efficiencies, Output=the quality of the product, and outcome=customer satisfaction (Balance Scorecard Institute 2017). The KPI’s need to be focused and goal-specific, easy to measure and report on, and easy to assign to specific people. This means that the KPI’s are most beneficial to realizing a goal when they are specific to what the goal really is. Good KPI’s start by knowing your brand, what it is that you are trying to accomplish, and the challenges that will be faced in trying to work toward the goal.
References:
How to Achieve Alignment Through Clear Strategies and Tactics, by Anderson, C., (2017)
The differences between goals, objectives, strategy, and tactics, Alan Belniak/December 3, 2013/
Types of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) YouTube 18,000+ views · 6/5/2017 · by Balanced Scorecard Institute
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Visual Displays Related to Special Events
Module 5 Blog: Visual Displays Related to Special Events
Below is a picture of a visual display that is taking advantage of Valentine’s Day as a special event. The display is using Valentine’s Day as a theme to promote Ladies Purse’s, and then the nice apparel that the mannequins are wearing. The visual display does a great job of reminding the viewer that valentines is apparently coming up soon. I did not see any signage that tells the customer anything other than the obvious, that you should get that someone special something nice for the holiday. I think that an indication of a sale would help bring the display to be more meaningful. The array of hearts does a great job in complementing the display. The red against the grey makes them stand out intensely which grabs the eye of the customer.
3-2 Blog: Proper Selection for Mannequin Uses
-2 Blog: Proper Selection for Mannequin Uses
In looking at the mannequins on the Rootstein website, I found them to have a very realistic appearance. I do not think I have ever seen such realistic looking ones before. I believe that these would in fact be the very mannequins that a specialty boutique-style store would be interested in. The specialty appearance of the store would demand that the displays, and the mannequins would maintain the look that is required to carry the image of a specialty store. I would recommend that the stores use stylish mannequin displays that stand above what most customers typically see in their shopping occasions. Here are a couple pics of what I would expect to see in a specialty boutique:
A mass merchant store would use possibly a somewhat different approach with their displays, and more specifically, their use of mannequins. I think that the mannequins would be dressed differently to not only create an image and brand identity, but to also differentiate the many department’s specific fashions. I have seen department stores use the same approach, but the mannequins are often used in halves. What I mean by halves is that if it is the men’s shirt department, then the mannequin will be only waist up with a shirt on it. Many times the display doesn’t include any accessories, or related items with the mannequin. Below is a picture of a display for denim jeans:
I would recommend that these stores look into animated mannequins. I think that with the high level of foot traffic, the added touch of an animated display would be a big attraction. These mannequins in the picture represent the jeans ok, but a full animated mannequin that also had a great looking shirt, belt, and shoes would make the display much more appealing while adding to the amount of potential purchases.
References:
Bing Search, “images of high end mannequins”
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=high+end+mannequins&qpvt=high+end+mannequins&FORM=IGRE
Visual Merchandising and Display, Sixth Edition. By Martin M. Pegler (2012)
Module 2: Store Fixtures
Module 2 Blog: Store Fixtures
The use of store fixtures in creating a visual display is vital to the appeal of the display. I have seen poorly executed blue jean, shirt, or food displays that were built on a table that looked like a pile of stuff. The same display built on a store fixture that was some sort of a step system had made the display look bigger, and was much more organized by sizes. The more organized a display is, the more likely the customer will gravitate toward it and potentially make a purchase. In addition to an organized display, it is vitally important to have Point of Purchase signage to indicate the price of the product(s). In many situations, customers typically will not take the time to inquire about the price and just move on to the next display. I was having difficulty attaching pictures, so please click on the link Module 2 Blog to see some pictures of displays that were not well thought out, and some displays that gave a much better appeal by being well planned/executed.
References:
Poor Retail Display Images
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=poor+retail+display&qpvt=poor+retail+display&FORM=IGRE
Retail Display Images
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Retail+Display+Fixtures&FORM=RESTAB
Visual Merchandising and Display, Sixth Edition. By Martin M. Pegler (2012)
6-2 Blog: Marketing Perspective
I do not personally follow any of these influencers, but I did look up Andrew Bachelor “King Bach”. Andrew “King Bach” Bachelor is becoming very popular in the film industry and right now has 16.2 million followers in Vine. I noticed that this type of marketing is influencing consumers toward a specific brand based off of what the influencer is saying about it. Using this type of marketing allows the brand to pinpoint their target audience rather than just have a celebrity showcasing a product on TV. These strategies give the company better accuracy in targeting their specific audience. The role that the influencers play in marketing is that they use their popularity to convince the end consumer into making a potential purchasing decision. This use of the marketing prospective connects the end consumer with the company by visualizing a common interest in the influencer. This is a successful tactic in swaying a consumer’s decision.
4-2 Blog: Effectively Impacting the Consumer Through Digital Media. I analyzed The Voice’s social platform. What I found that was done very successfully to meet the needs of their target audience, was that they had different features on each social media platform for fans to interact with. I thought that was a great idea. Each one had fun things for fans to do that tied directly into the show. The social, and consumer experience was addressed by creating such an interaction between fans and the show on many different platforms, that fans become consumers of many promotions that the show offers. The digital media followers have an engaged role where they can take part in the excitement. I visited their Facebook, Instagram, and their main webpage, and I found a high level of excitement for each. There were a lot of videos to watch, and plenty of links to direct me to more exciting content. I found it entertaining, and intrigued me enough to check out the next show.
Branding: A Day in the Life
I visit my Facebook page in the evenings after dinner. I enjoy reading about what my family and friends have done that day, and to even read a few funny jokes as well. I do not engage in any type of trash talking, or political posts. I’m not saying that I do not have an opinion, but I think there is a time and a place for certain conversations, and a tone cannot be detected in writing, and is usually perceived as negative by human nature. I am also a projector where I love to work on hot rods and or boats in my spare time. So, with that being said, I find myself on the EBay website looking for good deals on parts quite often. I usually do well in savings, so I get attracted to searching when I can. I also tend to watch YouTube videos if I get stumped on a specific project. With a little searching, you can find a worthy video that was posted by someone that knows what they are doing. I also check out Instagram, but not as much as the other three sites.
My reactions are usually positive when I visit these sites. I tend to ignore some of the foolish posts that people “air their laundry” with. I just shake my head and move on. I am usually satisfied with what I find, especially if it is a part that I was looking for, or a good “how to” video.
I receive a ton of emails from all kinds of senders. I get them from any company that I may have ordered from, my retirement account, Facebook with birthday reminders, work at home advertisements, you name it. I actually delete them all. I very rarely see anything that catches my eye. I would prefer to not receive any emails at all.
Digital media has brought marketing to a whole new level. The constantly changing ads on web pages, email blasts, social media ads, have all brought marketing to everyone’s fingertips. I have been known to log onto my computer, and end up looking at something that I my wife would like for Christmas, only because a flashy ad popped up on the website main page. I think that the marketing of any product on digital media has streamlined how companies can get more product to a larger audience by using selling engines like EBay that can market their product to even outside their country. The customer base for these companies is grown exponentially by the use of digital media.
