Blog Post #15: Closing Time/Reflection

My fifteenth and final entry for the semester is going to be a critical reflection on the marketing lessons that I learned throughout the semester. I always find it useful to reflect on a previous experience in writing, as it brings further clarity to the experience. Without critical reflection, it is easy to miss the big take home points. Below is a list of some of the learning outcomes of my marketing class and this blog. I will elaborate on some of the list further later in the post. I want to apologize in advance for the lack of pictures (I wasn't sure what was alright to put for a personal reflection), but here is a symbolic video to take a look at:

•  I have learned and grasped that the marketing process starts and ends with consumers.
• I have gained a better understanding of topics like the marketing mix, market segmentation, target markets, pricing, consumer behavior, service marketing, and social media marketing.
• I have gained a better understanding of the role that marketers play in the business world.
• I have realized how marketing can have an impact on environmental sustainability.
• I have overall realized an interest that I have in marketing, which has led me to acquiring an internship within the advancement department at Goodwill Northern New England in marketing and communication.

I believe that the most important takeaway from my marketing class and this blog is that the marketing process starts and ends with consumers. This may seem obvious, but it is something that is crucially important to realize in marketing. If you are working for profit, your main goal should not be to make money but to create value for the consumer. Without a reliable, happy consumer base, making money is not possible. This was really driven home for me with a simulation that was conducted in class called New Shoes. New Shoes involved changing aspects of the marketing mix in order to improve the sales of a footwear distributor as much as possible. When targeting growth in customer satisfaction-improving factors like consumer promotions and price (setting a low one especially) that is when the most success is found.

The overall growth in my interest in marketing is something that should not be all that surprising. I think that I have, in a way, had an interest in marketing all along, I just had not realized it yet. I cannot remember if I have previously mentioned this, but I have worked the past three or so years at the sports retailer Olympia Sports. I have been directly involved with relating with customers and creating value and positive experiences with them, and I have always taken pleasure out of delivering a positive customer experience to them. To me, that is what marketing is for a successful marketer: it is all about delivering positive experiences to customers. The nuances of marketing, though, are fairly complex. This means that the journey to becoming a successful marketer may not be easy, but if one seeks to understand the business of people, it is likely that success will be found. That’s what I believe.

So this is it, people. That is about all I have on my mind for today. The blog project has come to a close and I am definitely going to miss it. Look for me to start up another blog of my own sometime in the near future! Happy trails!

- Kevin J. Kenneally

Blog Post #14: Marketing and Human Priorities

Hey everyone! As my semester is coming to a close, I want to take the opportunity to thank those of you that have been following my blog. I really appreciate it. I have put a solid amount of work in to this project, and I hope that some of you have been able to come away with some valuable lessons learned. In addition to this post, there will only be one more post (at least in the sense that it will likely be the last post which pertains to the topic of marketing). Throughout this experience, I have realized the very real interest that I have in blogging in general. I find blogging to be a useful outlet that allows me to both gather my thoughts and to deliver meaningful messages and lessons to others. I plan on continuing a blog somehow (which will likely entail creating a new blog with a new purpose).

Thanks to all that have been reading my blog!

I addressed the concept of sustainability in my 11^th blog post (entitled “Sustainability is Not ‘Going Green’”) on April 6^th, and in light of a recent assignment that I have had in my marketing class, I would like to revisit the topic. The assignment I mentioned is a video promotion project focused on topics of environmental sustainability. The goal is to be able to create value for a specific target market with the video. My project, along with my partner Yiwen, focuses on water and sustainability. A problem arises, though, when trying to target a certain group of people when water sustainability problems are so pervasive in the modern world.

Water seems abundant, but there are HUGE problems across the globe when it comes to water.

The problem that I am speaking of relates to issues discussed in my philosophy class, entitled “Philosophy of Science, Technology, and the Environment.” Recently, we discussed the fact that people are more likely to take action when they learn that songbirds are being placed in danger rather than when they are being told that groundwater is becoming more and more polluted. While the groundwater pollution is a larger scale issue, people seem to directly relate to the songbirds suffering to a greater extent. This is interesting, especially since it can certainly be argued that groundwater is more important to human life than songbirds (Midgley, 2004, p. 234). The main reason for many humans who prioritize songbirds over groundwater is that humans personify and relate to songbirds; they attribute human qualities to them.

This is a lesson that should be considered when attempting to target a specific group of people when it comes to promoting the social awareness of environmental sustainability of any kind. Efforts need to hinge on factors that humans will give priority to. This is in a way unfortunate, but many causes can be approached in multiple ways to take advantage of this lesson. For example, maybe instead of showing how flushing prescription drugs down the toilet ends up polluting ground water, show how flushing prescription drugs harms aquatic life. The appeal will be more emotional and will likely see wider success.

A takeaway from what I have just discussed is that manipulating a message in order to match your organization/movement’s values with the values of the consumer is sometimes a necessary move. If done correctly, the integrity and point of the message will not be warped in any way. Instead, think of it like this: the message is being repackaged for easier and smoother consumption. It may not always seem obvious, so when consumers are not buying into your vitally important message about environmental sustainability, think about this post.

References

Midgley, M. (2004). Problems of Living with Otherness. In The myths we live by (p. 234). New York, NY: Routledge.

Blog Post #13: Playoff Hockey in the Hub

NOTE: See updated post below... (4/20/14)

Original Post (previously titled "To Be Continued..."):

I know that I normally post around noon on Sundays, but today is Easter, which means Easter break for us at St. Mike's this weekend (we also got Friday off and we're getting tomorrow off, too). The reason that you're going to have to wait until tonight for my post is because I'm going to be one of 17,565 in attendance at TD Garden (or Gahden) for the BRUINS PLAYOFF GAME at 3PM against the Detroit Red Wings. In case you couldn't tell, I'm a huge fan of the Bruins. I want to try to tie marketing concepts to my experience at the game today in my post. So for now, I'll leave you with a few videos that the Bruins made for the playoffs. Take a look and think about what type of tactics they're using with the videos. Also, here's something else to think about for now: I paid over $100 for my ticket, so what approach are the Bruins taking with their pricing? Happy Easter and GO BRUINS!!!

Video #1: "The Calm"

Video #2: "The Law of the Jungle"

Update:

The Bruins won the game! For those interested, here is a link to the game recap on Bruins.com. I have also posted a video of the highlights below this paragraph. The score was 4-1 and the series with the Red Wings is now tied at one game apiece. It was an absolutely incredible experience as always. I have attended a number of Bruins’ playoff games, including Stanley Cup Game 6 in 2011 and Stanley Cup Games 3 and 6 in 2013, so I am no stranger to the playoff atmosphere. The TD Garden was buzzing with excitement, nerves, and hope. Being the day before the first Boston Marathon since the bombings in 2013, the game felt like it meant a little bit more to the city than it would have otherwise (which is still a lot).

One thing that happens at games that TV viewers do not get to see is the pregame presentation on the jumbotron. The Bruins played a slow montage showing the players getting ready to play and then contrasted it with fast cuts showing Bruins players scoring goals, making hits, and celebrating. The video is certainly targeted directly at Bruins fans at the TD Garden and affects fans by making them excited and getting their blood pumping. As a fan, the pregame presentation is one factor that differentiates watching games on TV and watching games live. It is certainly one of the selling points for the Bruins, and likely other NHL teams.

What I thought about in-depth, though, is that what is really being sold when purchasing a Bruins playoff ticket (and ticket in general) is an experience, not a game. If fans cared solely about the game, they would stay home and watch on TV. Clearly, this is not the case. I spent $120 on a “cheap” ticket. Fans pay prices like that so that they can feel the emotion in the TD Garden firsthand and so that they can tell all of their friends, “I was there” for that historical hockey moment.

I watch the majority of the Bruins’ games on TV, but nothing compares to actually attending a game. The Bruins certainly focus on this idea when promoting games. Marketers try to create a fan (or customer) experience that allows them to relate with other fans and the team by doing things like showing wacky fans on the jumbotron and having a “fan of the game.” The fan of the game wins free food, which is not cheap at TD Garden. Little things like this go a long way with creating a community of fans. This is likely the most important selling point for the Bruins and other professional sports teams: the fact that attending a game means being in the company of thousands of like-minded people who share many of the same thoughts and interests. It is hard not to enjoy feeling like you are part of something that is larger than you. That something in this case is the Bruins organization. That is what going to games as a fan is all about, feeling connected your favorite team.

Blog Post #12: It's Everywhere

Most weeks my topics for this blog are based loosely off of subjects that we have covered in my marketing class during the previous week. However, I am going to take a different approach this week since for the past week we have been working on shooting and editing video for a social awareness project about sustainability. When done with this video, the goal is to talk about how we created value, how we are targeting consumers, etc. with the video. I think that it will be more relevant to discuss this when the video is actually complete and I can post it on the blog and discuss it at length.

What I think would be interesting to do, since I am approaching the end of my marketing class, my spring semester, and my junior year, is to have a brief discussion about what I think marketing is all about and what it means to me. My hope is that this will spur a discussion within and between all of you that are reading this blog, to think about what marketing is to you. If you have kept up with my blog for the past three to four months, I hope that I have been able to equip you with some tools to aid you in thinking about this topic. So without further ado, here is a little about what marketing is to me.

Marketing is all about creating some sort of value for consumers. It is about addressing their needs, wants, and desires. Everything that you buy, from insurance to toothpaste, is purchased in order to address these needs, wants, and desires. So marketing is all about showing consumers not only that they want this iPhone, but also that they need this iPhone. The question is, though: how do you do this? How do you get consumers to buy your product that may or may not be similar to your competitors’?

This Apple iPhone advertisement is about a lot more than the phone itself. What do you see?

The answer to this question is that you do not try to get consumers to buy the product itself. You get them to buy into the values of your company. You get them to buy into what the product represents. If you are successful in this, then customers will not only buy your products, but they will buy into your products. If you are very successful in getting consumers to buy into the values that your products represent, they will continue to buy your products. Think about it, why do you buy the brands that you do? What do you think when you see a Samsung TV versus a Mitsubishi TV? This may not seems like it matters all that much, but it does.

Samsung and Mitsubishi TVs, although they may look very similar, convey very different sets of values

To emphasize this point further, I would like to extend the concept of marketing to a personal level. You may not think about it like this, but every day of your life you are marketing yourself. When you go about your daily life and make your own decisions, they reflect what you value. These decisions say everything about who you are. Other people then notice these decisions, and if they buy into what you represent and what you value, these people become your friends, acquaintances, and employers even. Think about how you market yourself and how your values align with people that you are close friends with versus people that you are not the biggest fan of. This all relates to how you market yourself and how others market themselves.

Whether you realize it or not, marketing impacts our lives every single day. Forms of marketing can be seen almost everywhere we go, and not just in the obvious ways like with advertisements. These are ideas that have been shaped throughout my life but have really taken form throughout my past semester at Saint Michael’s College. It is what I believe to be true, and whether or not your believe them to be true, I hope that they at least make you think about how every decision that you make in your life affects yourself and others.