Media Decisions In Advertising

Media decisions in advertising can take many different directions depending on the product being sold. There are many different types of media that can be used. You have magazine, newspaper, billboard, web-site, TV, and radio only to mention a few. If you want your product out there you have to figure out where you market is and what media would be the best to reach that medium. Let’s say your market is 18-19 college students, what would be the best media to attract this part of society? Maybe radio, which radio stations do you choose from? Do they listen to radio any more or do they just listen to their MP3 player? Maybe magazine would work, then what magazine do you choose? There is Sports Illustarted, Redbook, Cosmo, The Enquirer, Rolling Stones and the list goes on and on. Which one would they look at to buy your particular product. You also have the choice of  TV ads but what is the cool TV show to watch today or do you put it on late night because you believe they will be up late studying. Do you put it on The Tonight Show or David Letterman? The questions can be endless. It takes tons of research from the marketing department to figure out the best placement of your advertising to make the biggest impact on your product.

Blogging and Marketing

You might ask yourself how blogging and marketing might fit together but the bigger more savy companies have already figured it out. At first when blogging and twitter started out very few people thought it would be a big deal. Now some of the more savy companies have finally figured out that blogging can either be a good thing for them or it can be a horrible thing for the company depending on the attention that they pay. If a company is really smart they will set up a blogging community for their product and allow people to leave their thoughts and opinions about the products being sold. Take for example Frito-Lay’s blog community. This is a blog you can look at with recipes, ideas, and just thoughts about Frito’s products. You can also leave your own comments for the company to review. Dell computers also has direct2dell blog that allows consumers to go on their blog and state their questions and opinions in regards to Dell product. This will allow Dell to see what people are happy about as well as what people are very upset about. They can see where people say they would never buy a Dell product again and try to solve that customers issues thereby saving that consumer as well as others who might have listened to that person and never considered Dell when making a purchase.

Tweens

What are tweens and waht do they had to do with today marketing environment? Tweens are definetly a group that marketing divisions are paying huge attention too. These are a large segment of society that has much to say about how disposable income is being spent. Take for instance a single mother with a tween daughter living at home. This mother is in the market for a new car do you think she might consult her tween to help decide which car to purchase. I do. I know I’ve been there. When my children were tweens I would often put something in front of them to get their opinion on different purchases. When my ex-husband and I bought our last home my children were tweens and we allowed them to be part of the decision making on which house to purchase. We took into consideration all that they had to say and they had some thoughts that we would not have considered. When I bought my last car I also consulted my daughter to get her opinion on what she thought to see if it was too old looking for me. When I listen to new music I will often hear that music through my children and find that I like something they are listening too and then I will go out and buy it. The same came be said for movies, if one of the girls recommends a movie to me I will most certainly try it out. So, going back to the beggining of this blog to answer the question of why marketing departments should be paying attention to tweens – the answer would be because tweens, although not having much disposable income, certainly have a huge amount of sway in the American household these days. So many of us want to make sure we don’t embarrass our children and we give them what they want we usually will defer to them if there is something that they really want. Are we going to far have we given our tweens to much power? Possibly, but than again who is to say if the decision a consumer makes on the advise of their tween is the correct one or not.

Why Is Marketing So Important To Business?

Why would marketing be so important to a business? If you take into consideration that the main objectives of a business is survival, profits, and growth then you could see how marketing would be important. Marketing includes assessing the wants and satisfactions of present and future customers, designing and manging product offerings, determining price and pricing policies, developing distribution strategies, and communicating with present and potental customers. Without the use of marketing you wouldn’t have a department that was focused on both the product and the customer not to mention the uses of the product to the customer or potential customers. With a good marketing division you can be assured your product will be put out in the best possible way to the public and hopefully attract the customers that you need for your business to succeed.

Introduction Post

I am a Northwood student taking MKT 208 and as a part of my class I had to create this blog. In the next 8 weeks I will be posting many blogs to discuss different topics in regards to marketing. I am 48 years old and recently engaged and due to get married in October. I have approximately 1 year left until graduation.