EOC: Week 8: The Adventure

While on his journey around the world Phileas Fogg found himself in Greece, although he was in a hurry to get to his next destination he had to eat something. The only place still open that he could grab a bite at was a bar. As he sat down at the bar the bartender walked over to him to ask if he wanted anything. Phileas looked up to see the most beautiful girl he had ever laid eyes on. He was speechless for a brief moment, the bartender asked him again what she could get him. Phileas asked what they had to eat, and the only thing they had were snack foods. While going through the snacks they had, she kept mentioning a new snack they had that they were trying out. He asked the woman what was so special about the snack and she told him that it was made with her own hands. Phileas immediately thought that this would be a great way to connect with her, so he got some. She brought some for him to try and the moment he took his first bite he felt invinsible. Suddenly the ground began to shake, they were in an earthquake! The ceiling began to crack and crumble to the ground. Everyone quickly hid under tables. Before Phileas even thought about hiding he noticed a piece of ceiling about to fall onto the beautiful bartender. He leapt over the table and tackled her to safety. The ground quit trembling and the woman looked up at Phileas with stars in her eyes. He saved her life. She asked if there was anything she could do for him, his only response was “How about some more of those Gyro Bites.” Thus resulting in the most manly of bar snack foods: the Guyro.

Implementation Evaluation Control

"Through implementation, the company turns the plans into actions." (Marketing: An Introduction p.54) “Companies can gain competitive advantages through effective implementation.” (Marketing: An Introduction p. 57) With this concept in mind, I think it is extremely valuable to ask people in your target market what they think about the idea. A lot of my family are sports fans and many go to bars and sport bars. I was surprised with the positive response I received. Mostly everyone said they would try it, they thought the theme behind Guyros was pretty clever and would excel in the correct environment. I think if Guyros were a real product it would be fairly successful if it were executed properly.

Price

"Price is the sum of all the values that customers give up in order to gain the benefits of having or using a product or service." (Marketing: An Introduction p.275) Price is a touchy subject when looking at any product, the price shouldn’t be too daunting for a consumer that may be interested in your product. For Guyros our product will mostly be sold in bars and sports bars/restaurants. “Smart managers treat pricing as a key strategic tool for creating and capturing customer value.” (Marketing: An Introduction p.274). When evaluating the price for Guyros I was thinking about a price that is closer to that of an appetizer you’d see at a restaurant. 

Promotion

All avenues of promotion typically fall under two basic promotion strategies. "Marketers can choose from two basic promotion mix strategies—push promotion or pull promotion." (Marketing: An Introduction p. 384)

With Guyros primarily being sold in bars and sport bars as an appetizer or snack food, we have decided to take a push promotion strategy; "a promotion strategy that calls for using the sales force and trade promotion to push the product through channels" (Marketing: An Introduction p. 384). This means that our primary source of promotion will come from our partners and the bars and sports bars that we work with. I think this is the best way for us to promote the product considering we have such a narrow demographic. The most logical option is to focus our promotion in the very place we plan to sell the product. We could also promote ourselves on local rock and alternative radio stations.

Distribution

"Multichannel distribution system - A distribution system in which a single firm sets up two or more marketing channels to reach one or more customer segments." (Marketing: An Introduction p.319) Distribution seems to be a primary concern for the Guyro product. We would probably start in a local scene and begin by shipping directly to the bars, and sport bars. "...many companies have used imaginative distribution systems to gain a competitive advantage." (Marketing: An Introduction p. 311) If the product begins to show success it would be wise to ship our product along with everything else being shipped to the bars/sport bars to cause less complications in the distribution process. This may be tricky if we expand our product further in the US but I think we could manage.

Product

A product is: "Anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or need." (Marketing: An Introduction p.208). Guyros are an interesting product, it isn't just a food, it isn't just a complimentary food to go with alcohol. When the consumer takes their first bite of a Guyro we want it to be part of the experience of going to a bar or sport bar with some buddies. “Quality has a direct impact on product or service performance." (Marketing: An Introduction p. 214). We want Guyros to be a high quality delicious and intense snack that will replace chips and other salty snacks when people make a trip to the bar or sport bar with friends.

Target Market Strategy

 "Companies can target very broadly (undifferentiated marketing), very narrowly (micromarketing), or somewhere in between (differentiated or concentrated marketing)." (Marketing: An Introduction p. 186)
I think we would market Guyros on more of a micromarketing level. The entire theme behind Guyros revolves around the experience of hanging out with friends at a bar or sports bar. “Consumer purchases are influenced strongly by cultural, social, personal, and psychological characteristics..." (Marketing: an Introduction p. 137). The experience of watching a sporting event with a bunch of friends is something Guyros thrive on, we want further that experience for the consumer and make it more enjoyable. “Observational research involves gathering primary data by observing relevant people, actions, and situations.” (Marketing: an Introduction p. 110). To make sure that this theme would be successful, we would have to do some observational research within these environments to be 100% sure.

Situation or SWOT Analysis

"The marketer should conduct a SWOT analysis, by which it evaluates the company’s overall strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T)". (Marketing: An Introduction p. 54)

“Strengths include internal capabilities, resources, positive situational factors that may help the company to serve its customers and achieve its objectives.” (Marketing: An Introduction p. 54). Our primary demographic that would your stereotypical jock a “manly man” or even the consumer that enjoys that lifestyle. These people would be very prominent within a sport bar environment. This theme would be our strength. “Weaknesses include internal limitations and negative situational factors that may interfere with the company’s performance.” (Marketing: An Introduction p. 54), our weakness would probably be bars that don't tend to this demographic very. Luckily for us, most of our partners will probably be sport bars specifically. “Opportunities are favorable factors or trends in the external environment that the company may be able to exploit to its advantage.” (Marketing: An Introduction p. 54). We have many opportunities to work with various bars and sports bars to bring an intensely delicious snack to their customers that will leave them wanting more. “Threats are unfavorable external factors or trends that may present challenges to performance.” (Marketing: An Introduction p. 54) I think possible threats we may face would probably involve dealing with the bars and sports bars and making negotiations with them.

Objectives

"Some companies offer less service than their competitors and charge a lower price. Other companies offer more service and charge higher prices to cover higher costs." (Marketing: An Introduction p.329) The idea of Guyros revolves around the experience, we want to enhance the experience of hanging out with friends at the bar. To make this possible it we would want a good quality snack but not have the price be overbearing for a group of friends to get their snack on. 

Business Mission Statement

"A mission statement is a statement of the organization’s purpose—what it wants to accomplish in the larger environment. " (Marketing: An Introduction p.39)
“An organization exists to accomplish something, and this purpose should be clearly stated.” (Marketing: An Introduction p. 39)

Phileas Fogg became the manliest man to walk the earth, and it all started with a bet. A bet amongst his friends that he couldn't travel across the world in 80 days; despite the odds he took the challenge head on! From the manliest man comes the manliest snacks, inspired by all cultures across the world to give our consumers a sense of power and spontaneousness around their friends!

EOC: Week 7: The Pitch

The adult friendly snack that I have come up with is a Greek Gyro style potato stick filled with cheese and coated in a garlic flavored spice rub. The culture that I came up with was from Greece. Greek food is amazing and one of the top countries recommended when it comes to their original food. That is one of the many reasons I chose Greece when looking at different cultures. When people think of Greek food one of the main foods they think of would most likely be the Gyro. So I decided to go to Greece with a couple of my employees so we could see how it was really done. Upon arrival in Greece we went on the search for the best Gyro in the country. We were given a map of all the greatest Gyro restaurants; one after another, nothing really impressed us. We had already started to think about making some other kind of snack when we approached our final restaurant. This last restaurant was so strange, it didn’t have a sign or anything on the building, we almost went passed it. We went inside we were shocked to see that a rival restaurant was holding the place hostage. Luckily they didn’t notice us, so we hurried to find cover. Sadly, the only thing around happened to be the tortillas (they use for the Gyros) we each grabbed a bag of them and decided if we didn’t fight then we were as good as dead. So the 3 of us jumped back from behind the counter with our package of tortillas and we assaulted the people holding the restaurant hostage. Long story short, we won. As a reward, they made us free Gyros but there were no tortillas, only fries, Kefalotyri cheese and tzatziki sauce.

EOC: Week 6: 3 Items I Own That Define Me

I think that everything that someone owns reflects his or her own personality in some specific way, this is also pretty accurate if you were to look at it from a marketing standpoint. If I had to pick 3 items that I own that would most accurately portray my personality in a marketing context, the first item I would pick would probably be my “Phinehas” beanie. This would require some research on their part probably, but Phinehas is an amazing Metal band, not only that, they are my favorite band in the whole world. I wear my Phinehas beanie pretty much everyday, everywhere regardless of where I am. Their music and lyrics really synergize with me on a much deeper level than other bands. If I saw this Phinehas beanie as a marketer, I would notice a passion for metal music and the culture that comes with metal music. The next item that I think I would pick might be my Blue Encore100 performance microphone. The reason I would pick this is because it is the first item I purchased from Sweetwater.com and the only microphone I have used to play shows with my band The Light Upon Darkness. Sure I don’t use it for many other audio projects but this item is something dear to me that I really have a connection with. I think a marketer would look at this item and see a passion for music and other audio related fields, especially if they noticed it was purchased from Sweetwater.com. My last and final item would probably be World of Warcraft. I have played World of Warcraft for 10 plus years and it is the embodiment of my love for video games. Blizzard is my favorite gaming company and I have been a WoW fanatic for years.

EOC: Week 5: Social Networks and Job Hunting

At this day in age technology has taken over, it has become a huge part of everyone's life. Everyday people are using technology, from computers to cell phones. With all this technology has spawned an entirely different beast, Social Media. This is an amazing new opportunity for companies to promote their brand. “People love talking about things that make them happy – including their favorite products and brands.” (Marketing: An Introduction p.143). Marketers have realized this amazing opportunity and have now been taking everyday customers and employing them, turning them into brand ambassadors. The marketers have specific things that they look for when finding brand ambassadors, they look at your social media accounts to determine how large of a social circle you have and if you care about their product or not. “Once selected, the ambassadors are trained with real brand knowledge to go along with their passion for the brand.” (p.143).  Brand ambassadors receive many benefits, including discounts and even free equipment. Sony picked only 25 people to be brand ambassadors out of 2000 applicants. These ambassadors received free cameras and other equipment; they were even taught how to use the equipment properly.

So we have all been told how employers use Facebook to search for potential employees, turns out that a lot of companies have abandoned the traditional job board approach all together according to The Wall Street Journal: Recruiters Troll Facebook for Candidates They Like, “Some recruiters say they have all but eliminated their spending on job boards”. While Facebook as recruitment opportunity isn’t as popular as some other employment mediums such as LinkedIn, Facebook is certainly on the rise. Facebook has over 750 million users and is an excellent place for companies to search for new potential employees.