Month: September 2010

I work at Costco and while working there I noticed some very peculiar, yet intriguing situations concerning the marketing of products. I came in to work one day, it might have been the 2nd week of August and to my surprise, saw a display of fake Christmas trees. At first I thought it was a joke but sure enough, Costco was sellin’ Christmas trees. How about that. My immediate reaction was to laugh, thinking who in their right mind is gonna come to Costco and think “hey, I need a Christmas tree…in August”. But me, being the analyzing type of person that I am, decided that maybe this seemingly bizarre and misplaced idea was on to something.

Think about it for a second. In today’s fast paced world, where technology has sped up everything including day to day shopping, perhaps Christmas trees for sale in August wasn’t a hilarious mistake after all. People are going to want to get things first and to get things done early. If you buy your Christmas tree in August, you can forget about it for another 4 months. Are people willing to purchase the tree early and receive that “peace of mind” in return. Apparently so. It seems crazy but this marketing strategy has behind it some researched brilliance. Fast forward one month and Costco is now selling everything possibly Christmas related: ribbons, bows, wrapping paper, cards etc. It is only September and yet Costco is selling products that won’t be used until December. They have seemingly beat other retailers and merchandisers to the punch. I would have to say Kudos to Costco on a bold marketing strategy.

And now I leave you with another funny commercial

Before starting Commerce 296 Introduction to Marketing, I honestly didn’t really have a good idea of what marketing entailed. I guess you could say that the word itself carries an unfortunate reputation, a connotation comprising of commercials and telephone marketers. But I was definitely way off, and now, 3 weeks into marketing, I have a newly found respect for marketing and all of the benefits that it includes. Through the first 3 weeks of class, I feel as though the most important thing that has been taught can be simply summed up with one word: value. Value. So simple. And yet it is a complex challenge faced in the world of marketing. People will buy things, it’s a fact. But when consumers are faced with alternatives, suddenly just having a spot on the grocery shelf isn’t good enough. While shopping for groceries the other day, I went to my favorite aisle, the snack food aisle. I found 40 different kinds of salty snacks, all made up of basically the same ingredients, same flavors, and yet they all manage to co-exist. It occurred to me that I would buy whatever bag of chips I valued that most. I would buy the bag of chips that gave me the greatest amount of benefit received in exchange for the cost, in this case being money, given up. It makes sense why marketing is suddenly so complex and challenging. It’s more like a life lesson. Not everyone you meet is going to like you and you are not going to like everyone that you meet. This is a fact of life but it represents another fact; not everyone values objects, merchandise, services or products the same way. This poses a challenge to producers and merchandisers because they need to find a way to market their goods in a way that appeals to the optimum number of consumers.

And with that, I have a new found interest in marketing and also thought I would share this hilarious commercial for Franks Red Hot Sauce.