Pitch

Our brand of vodka is made with the best of ingredients found from around the world. With water from the Antarctica and pomegranates from Africa to give it just a hint of that pomegranate taste. With it going through the process of creating a smooth velvety taste to it. We are calling it Red Velvet with a clear bottle to see the red color of it with ether a ruby or garnet colored gems lining the bottle in some sort of pattern.

Price

"Pricing new products can be especially challenging. Just think about all the things you’d have to consider in pricing a new cell phone, say the first Apple iPhone. What’s more, you’d have to start thinking about the price—along with many other marketing considerations—at the very beginning of the design process."(Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing pg. 285). Like with everything else it will always be hard to find the right prices to put on a product but for the Red Velvet vodka we have decided to sell it for about $23-$28 and will have species for the holidays and New Years to increase sells of our product. We are doing this which is  what "Many companies that invent new products set high initial prices to “skim” revenues layer by layer from the market. Sony frequently uses this strategy, called market-skimming pricing (or price skimming)." (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing pg. 285). Which we will be able to do with what the bottle design is and with they way it is being packaged as well.

Distribution

“The firm uses several strategies to sustain rapid market growth as long as possible. It improves product quality and adds new product features and models. It enters new market segments and new distribution channels. It shifts some advertising from building product awareness to building product conviction and purchase, and it lowers prices at the right time to attract more buyers.” (Armstrong & Kotler (2011) Marketing: An Introduction pg. 262). Which will be right after Christmas in time for the New Year after that they will be able to only be able to ether buy it online or in one of the casinos as a gift. If bought online they will come in a specially made package just for our Red Velvet vodka. “The slowdown in sales growth results in many producers with many products to sell. In turn, this overcapacity leads to greater competition.” (Armstrong & Kotler (2011) Marketing: An Introduction pg. 262).This is something that has to be looked after so that we are not one of the ones that loses to the competition. That is way Christmas and New Years will be our best time to sell our product. Whether online or bought in the story each of them will come in there own special box made just for it, though as I said be for the one for the shipping will be a bit different from the one bought in the casinos and that’s only because it is being shipped in the mail.

Promotion

''The company launching a new product must first decide on introduction timing."( Armstrong & Kotler (2011) Marketing: An Introduction pg. 253). Which we think that around Christmas would be a good time to release our new vodka, with us targeting women it would be the perfect time to get it as a gift for someone. "Next, the company must decide where to launch the new product—in a single location, a region, the national market, or the international market." (Armstrong & Kotler (2011) Marketing: An Introduction pg. 253). With us launching the product around Christmas we will be doing so in a single location to start with and we will do advertising there as well as commercials to let others know about our product. We may even do a poster along with a radio commercial to introduce Red Velvet as a prize of some sort.

Product

"So far, for many new-product concepts, the product may have existed only as a word description, a drawing, or perhaps a crude mock-up. If the product concept passes the business test, it moves into product development. Here, R&D or engineering develops the product concept into a physical product. The product development step, however, now calls for a large jump in investment. It will show whether the product idea can be turned into a workable product." (Armstrong & Kotler (2011) Marketing: An Introduction pg. 251). After we get it into a workable product it will go through many taste tests to make sure that it has that velvety taste to it with a hint of pomegranates to it. "If the product passes concept and product tests, the next step is test marketing, the stage at which the product and marketing program are introduced into realistic market settings. Test marketing gives the marketer experience with marketing the product before going to the great expense of full introduction. It lets the company test the product and its entire marketing program—targeting and positioning strategy, advertising, distribution, pricing, branding and packaging, and budget levels." (Armstrong & Kotler (2011) Marketing: An Introduction pg. 252).

Target Market Strategy

“Many companies today are localizing their products, advertising, promotion, and sales efforts to fit the needs of individual regions, cities, and even neighborhoods. For example, Wal-Mart operates virtually everywhere but has developed special formats tailored to specific types of geographic locations”, (Armstrong & Kotler (2011) Marketing: An Introduction pg177). This is also what our company is doing by localizing our advertising, promotion and sales to fit the needs of our customers and where they can buy our product. We are also using “Gender Segmentation: Dividing a market into different segments based on gender.” (Armstrong & Kotler (2011) Marketing: An Introduction pg177), as a means to target women from the ages of about 23 to 35 to sell our vodka to than to men.

Situation or SWOT Analysis

With the marketers of our Red Velvet brand of vodka we had to look everything that would ether help or hinder us as a company the reason this is always a good idea is because of the quote definition of what SWOT which is “SWOT Analysis, by which it evaluates the company’s overall strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T)” (Armstrong & Kotler (2011) Marketing: An Introduction pg55). This allows us to determine which is our strengths and weaknesses and allows us to fix our weaknesses and not to miss any opportunities that are presented as well as look for threats. Which is very important in case other companies try to compete with our prices and other such things that my harm our company. 

Objectives

Business Mission Statement

My mission statement for my business is “We combine strategic marketing with quality products and services at competitive prices to provide the best vodka for our customers.” 

Week 6 EOC: Movie Promotion

            To start the promotion of the movie Fast & Furious 6, I would have to say that commercials both on tv, radio, and internet would be the start to just introduce the movie. We would have to target the young adults around the ages of  at least 16 to 25 the reason I say this is from the quote that “companies today recognize that they cannot appeal to all buyers in the marketplace, or at least not to all buyers in the same way. Buyers are too numerous, too widely scattered, and too varied in their needs and buying practices.”(Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing pg175). Then I would have the sound track made available before the movie so that more people will be come interested in the movie. Using the radio I would do a contest of some sort and give a few free tickets for the opening night for them to see the movie. I would do this because of the quote that says “Dividing a market into smaller segments with distinct needs, characteristics, or behavior that might require separate marketing strategies or mixes.”(Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing pg175). And by word of mouth more and more people will come to see the movie. Also it would be a good idea to make sure that everyone who sees or hears about the movie that some of the main actors are Dominic Torreto and Brian O’conner. Of course with each state or country we may have to do thing a bit different and will need to think of something different like free posters or give the first hundred a free soundtrack to the movie if they see it opening night or something. The quote form the book that says that “Many companies today are localizing their products, advertising, promotion, and sales efforts to fit the needs of individual regions, cities, and even neighborhoods. For example, Wal-Mart operates virtually everywhere but has developed special formats tailored to specific types of geographic locations.”(Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing pg177). Is the reason that makes me believe that this is a good way to think about promoting the movie,

Week 2 EOC: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

As for the BCG analysis I would have to say that as far as the game that has won the star position it would have to be mobile games I know this form the quote that I found that says that ““The incredible financial success of gaming apps in 2012 and beyond is a tribute to the power of the ‘freemium’ business model,” said OBJE CEO Paul Watson. “Mobile games are driving the growth in the multi-billion-dollar global video game industry, and free-to-play apps represent the most prolific sector in this new era of digital distribution.”
(http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20121220005325/en/OBJE-Targets-High-Growth-Mobile-Gaming-App-Market). Now for the cash cow, I would have to say that that one would be the Nintendo and I know this from the quote that said that “The current generation consoles (the Wii and Nintendo DS range) from Nintendo can be generally be classified as cash cows, as they have the biggest share of their market but the markets are no longer growing as fast as it used to be.” (http://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/strategic-marketing-by-nintendo-marketing-essay.php). As for the Question Marks of the game market I would say that it goes to the Angry Birds games and I say this because of a quote form a web site that said that “ Since the launch of Angry Birds, Rovio Chief Executive Mikael Hed has been focused on growing the company through an aggressive expansion in licensed merchandise—ranging from soda to children's books to hooded sweatshirts—while also launching new game titles. About 45% of Rovio's revenue comes from the sale of licensed merchandise, up steeply from 2011.” (http://online.barrons.com/article/SB10001424127887323646604578400201763339218.html). For the last one that is called Dogs that went to the Game Boy Advance range which from the quote that says that “Dogs are low-growth, low-share businesses and products. They may generate enough cash to maintain themselves but do not promise to be large sources of cash. (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation,Page 44).

Week One EOC: Great Customer Service

I remember when I had an experience dealing with great customer service that surprised me quite a bit. I was at Kohl's and I had bought a dress that at the time I thought I had the right size for me. As it turned out that the hanger had the right size number but the dress was not the right number. The dress had been put on the wrong hanger and then just placed back out after someone had tried it on. After I bought it I was going to where it the next day and I was shocked that it didn't fit like it should have. So I had to take it back the following weekend and I thought that there would be more trouble taking it back and returning it than it did, like most places can be at times. This made me think of a quote that I found in a book which is “Zappos has been steadfast in its focus on customer service even as it’s grown. “They’ve focused on customer service and haven’t allowed themselves to be distracted by other things,” says an online retailing expert. In a down economy, retailers especially should be focusing on customer service. But as Hsieh points out, it’s often the first thing to go. “The payoff for great customer service might be a year or two down the line. And the payoff for having a great company culture might be three or four years down the line.”(Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation, page 4). I know now that at Kohl’s it has not tossed customer service aside and that I will continue to go back for the great customer service that they have there. Also that if something like what happened before with my dress will not be a problem and that if I have to take something back again I know I will have great customer service.