Before I begin I want to share with you the song that is currently on repeat for me

As you may have heard Facebook has made it mandatory for all users to switch to their timeline format. Whether or not your a fan of it, it must be done. This includes the pages reserved for business’, some business’ may take a bit of time to adjust were as some are already relishing in the creative possiblities. As mentioned in Lee Odden’s Blog companies must be on top of this and make a point of being quick to adjust to the new format. As displayed by many companies already there is endless creative possibilities to what can be done to the timeline. In the not so distant future I predict that there will be a bit of a competition over who can stake claim to the best timeline cover photo profile picture combination.

Also this week I noticed the launch of a new advertising campaign. Launched by the Vancouver Canucks, the “this is our home” campaign is aimed at counteracting what occured during last years Stanley Cup riots. The ad is quite effective at conveying its message of personal responsibility and respect for others and your city. With the addition of past and present Canucks, the ad is sure to stick with many Canuck fans and fellow Vancouverites.

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Video+Canucks+This+Home+Celebrate+Responsibly/6374855/story.html#ooid=xva21hNDpbCZEUx-U7llKkgUQe3tZYK_

Today while reading through the textbook, I came across the section regarding value-based pricing versus cost based pricing. Value pricing is when a company designs a product with ability to sell at a specific price. Where as cost-based pricing is creating a product a convincing the customer that it is worth the price. Both techniques are extremely common is the consumer world.

For value pricing the most stand-out example that I can think of would be Walmart, having their own line of products that they sell for cheaper. As well most products in Walmart are based around the concept of value based pricing, this is part of Walmart’s branding. In an article I read “Lessons Learned from Wal-Mart’s Pricing Strategy” they explain how Walmart’s mission of “low prices everyday” has been a main focus of theirs since the beginning. As well it explains that when prices were raised on some products there was blowback on the company, however they have corrected their practices to be more in-tune with their customers.

Cost based pricing can be a little more broad since most companies practice this method. Most companies begin with an idea for a product, a take a pricing scheme from there. This is where branding and postioning come in use, companies such as Nike need to convince customers that they should pay “x” amount for their product, instead of switching to a cheaper alternative or one with more value. As Sarah Barwin pointed out, Nike does a great job of adding value to their products through their branding and advertising.

All in all, value and cost based pricings are very interesting as they determine a companies strategy and location in the market.

In Brenton Chin’s post (https://blogs.ubc.ca/brentonchin/) he explained how it is very important to create a strong bond between the customer and the company. In this post he raised some very good points on how many companies are trying to make an emotional connection to the customer in order to strengthen the relationship. A very good example of this that he used was Apple who can created a whole culture out of their products. Die hard Apple customers (or Apple fanboys) will keep their allegence to Apple no matter what.

Considering these points, I can to a conclusion that creating this time of relationship is greatly associated to a company’s job to segment, target and postion within the market. Since the point of segmenting, targeting and positioning is to have the ability to create a bond with the customer the correlation between the two is evident.

This led my interest towards finding where this is being used, I found many examples of companies creating the bond with customers. However reading articles regarding the 2012 US elections and GOP primaries I realized that these techniques are also being employed. Politicians, much like companies target their customers carefully; however, unlike companies politicians are constantly changing their target market. Currently with the GOP candidates travelling throughout the USA trying to win the Republican nomination they change their views, potential policies and beliefs depending on the state which they find themselves in. Although it may not be news that politicians like to flip-flop on the issues, it may surprise you to know that in many circumstances this does not hurt a candidate, but rather improve the image of the candidate. Due to the popularity of “town hall” style rally’s many voter only react to what the candidate is saying infront of them, and base their decision on this information, disregarding previous statements. This is a great example of segmenting your market and targeting a very small portion of it, making it much easier to create a solid relationship with the voter. Throughout the campaigns of 2012 American politicians will continue to segment their markets in order to target their voters more effectively, and as the campaigns heat up the targeting of potentially supporters will only become more intense.

Market research is possibly the most important thing standing in the way of having success and being a failure. It is used throughout the business world in every imaginable industry. It determines an optimal price for a product, the demand for that product, what people like or dislike about that product and how to market that product.

Market Research does take time and some patience, but not alot. That is why it is so wildly used by companies. In particular the film and tv industry use quite frequently to gauge an audiences reaction to certain shows to better market those shows as well as decide whether or not to cancel a show or not.

One show in particular, Community went thru extensive testing as executives at NBC were unsure about the prospect of the show. However they gave it the go ahead. A more important role that market research can play for this show is time scheduling. Using audience demographics the network can determine an optimal time to place the show in the schedule. For example place a show too early and the younger audience will not watch in greater numbers, but put it too late and it could alienate older audiences.

In all market research is a very crucial element of business that can be easily looked over as it hides behind the scenes most of the time. It is important to do your research before you embark on any sort of business venture or you could end up being an air conditioner repairman.

Hello all, my name is Matt Marshall. For myself, my journey to Sauder was quite rudimentary; I grew up in Victoria (just a stones throw from the west edge of campus. To be honest I was quite surprised that I was even accepted into sauder, it was in mid-June that I finally got accepted. When I got here I was even more surprised that I got in when I saw who my fellow sauderites were.

I chose to study commerce because I have always had a competitive side, steming from my love of sports, it seemed like a natural fit. In addition to sports I have a great passion for film, since I was a young child I have always adored films, but I recent times I have come to love every aspect of film, from the viewing of films to the production behind the films and even the industry behind them. I believe my love of film will help bring a creative vision to marketing.

Even though I am taking this class because it is required, I have been looking forward to this class for some time as it is my intended and prefered choice of major. I have had much experience of marketing although it is from a consumer standpoint. However I have been an un-official student of marketing for a little while as I indulge myself from time to time by viewing great advertisements online. This has given me a background knowledge into marketing as I have learned some techniques used to market products. My favourite advertisement would have to be “Hello Tomorrow” an adidas ad creating by one of my favourite directors Spike Jonze. It shows a man in a dream who is running through his dream world with happiness. This is a very creative and beautifully made advertisement.

Signing off now, a personal note for the road…my current favourite movie is a tie between “Drive” and “Beginners”.