When I read the Class Prep instructions for this class, I got super excited – our topic for the day was Marketing. As a first year with a keen interest in pursuing Marketing later on, I want to gobble up every morsel of information, advice and insight I can gain about Marketing, so this was definitely a class I was looking forward to.
Although the reads were long, I did find them quite interesting. Although I have a rough idea of what Marketing is, I hadn’t given much technical thought before to Product Positioning (a QuickMBA article). Yet, almost all of us can claim that we have knowledge in this area – we are subjected to advertisements every day, everywhere we go, and we subconsciously know what catches our attention and what doesn’t.
One point that Al Ries and Jack Trout stress in their book (mentioned in the article) is that your product either has to be first on the market or occupy a unique position (if it is not first). I never really considered the consumer market to be this black-and-white – surely, there must be other marketing techniques that can triumphantly position a product in a consumer’s mind.
The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
Let’s consider the recent Old Spice marketing campaign (hopefully it’s not too cliche yet). Old Spice was neither the first Men’s fragrance, nor is it a unique product – but recent sales figures have confirmed the success of the campaign in placing the product in womens’ minds (the target audience). This campaign demonstrates that marketing is a dynamic field, adapting to new mediums (such as social media) and consumer attitudes (company interaction).
Not sure if this has confirmed or discouraged my vocation for marketing, but at the very least it has left me wanting more. Can’t wait till my first full-term Marketing course next year 😀
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