Virtual Reality: The Future Makes Us All Look Like Idiots

Catchy title, I know. But this blog is about marketing, not comedy. Therefore we will only be covering half of said title in depth. The other half will be covered through an image, and a gif of a man being pushed from behind.

                                                      Get a load of this guy, am I right?

Anyway, Virtual Reality! Referred to often as VR, its most recent incarnation is a way of viewing two screens, one in each eye, that are each twisted and warped in such a way so that it appears perfectly in front of you as if it were reality. It gives you a sense of space and depth, and the built in gyroscopes track the movement of your head so that you can look around a full 360 degrees. In other words, you will literally feel like you're part of whatever you're viewing. It's truly the future of entertainment, people. A brand new medium with opportunities far outreaching video games.

Commercially, VR is mainly an entertainment system. The companies building them: Sony, Oculus, HTC/Valve, and Microsoft, are marketing it as an entertainment system because they know that's where the money is at: First person shooters and videos that you can look around freely at is what we'll all be spending our time enjoying in the coming decades...and boy will we look stupid.

Oculus, the company that kickstarted the VR craze, initiated a brilliant marketing ploy in order to stir up the most hype. They let the public know about the oculus' project every step of the way, letting the hype build up to an absolute max before it was finally released. This is a timeless and brilliant form of advertisement that, when executed correctly, can have a huge pay off for your product. You see by always talking about your product and bringing it back in to the public eye from time to time, for three years the way Oculus did, people could hardly contain themselves when it was time to get heir hands on one of their own. It's the same tactic used by filmmakers and video game developers and it always pays off for you. It's important to remember though that the hype must pay off in the end, so don't spend all your money on advertising instead of product quality!

Product Placement in the Entertainment Industry

        Every time you watch a movie or flip on your favorite TV show, you’re bound to see many different real-life products sprinkled throughout the characters’ lives. Always thought that was just to add a sense of realness? In some cases, maybe. But for the most part, the brand name goods you see appear in a TV show or movie are all very carefully calculated. Advertisers call this product placement.

Product placement can work in 1 of 2 ways, by trade-off or financial compensation:

•          With trade-off, the movie company will feature the product a certain number of times in the TV show/movie in exchange for an ample amount of the product (think Coca-Cola providing massive amounts of their beverages on set every day in exchange for being shown in the movie 3 times)
•          With financial compensation, the brand will approach the film company and negotiate a price in exchange for their product being shown in their TV show a certain number of times (Neer)

So why do companies use product placement? Do they really think we’re so easily swayed that we would be more inclined to purchase a product merely because we saw it in a movie or TV show? Well as it turns out, we are. According to psychologist Dr. Ian Zimmerman, product placement affects our implicit attitudes, meaning that we unknowingly associate the attitude or feelings we get from watching something with the products that are shown in them as well. If we have positive emotions towards a TV show or movie, we subconsciously will have positive feelings for the brands featured as well. Proof? After Red Stripes’ placement in the movie The Firm, the beer company saw a 50% sales increase, and after Reese’s Pieces were placed in E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, their company’s sales went up 65% (Zimmerman). Although we probably don’t outright choose our food and drink based on what we see on screen, it looks like advertisers’ mind-games work a lot better than we might think.

Next time you find yourself drawn towards a certain food item, drink, or gadget at the store, you can most likely thank product placement while tossing it into your cart.

By: Rachel Seyfarth

Sources:

"Film, Music, and Books That I Love." Pinterest. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.

Neer, Katherine. "How Product Placement Works." HowStuffWorks. N.p., 04 July 2003. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.

Zimmerman, Ian. "Product Placement Can Be A Lot More Powerful Than We Realize." Psychology               Today. N.p., 25 Mar. 2013. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.

Marketing In JDB Company

  Herbal tea, some bitter, some taste better, if you do not improve the recipe, like drinking syrup as Wang Lao Ji is not widely accepted. Herbal tea into selling drinks out of the South, more than a taste of mineral water, low degree of sugar than fruit juice and cola, but also solutions spicy oily solution; in the show for the banquet, it is cheap in the all price of the wine consumption, without braving the risk of drunk driving, guest of honor happy; elderly people can also go to its solution must constipation, and some elderly people use this secret weapon everyday. If there was no JDB’s promotion, will become a common herbal tea popular of all unisex selling drinks, Wong Lo Kat dispute also unlikely or at least not be so crowded. 

  JDB with product quality and marketing strength to conquer the consumer, culture and changed consumer spending habits. In this changing situation around the product itself seize loyal customers and channel operators, with their one win the marketing battle.

  The product is the key, even if the trademark can be copied, shared and even recovers, but in fact, JDB team improved formula recognized and accepted by consumers. If the product does not change the taste or better than before, and through media campaign and demands to establish JDB is better than the previous Wang Lao Ji, this is the first key that substantive core marketing elements. Just have confidence in their products, inviting the media and consumers blind drinking way for rating and encouragement as the wine can. However, attach great importance to consumers, pay attention to the terminal and channels are very important. Ad play more but put consumers and channel partners aside, waiting their natural selection, rather than effective guide and combined their strength, which is to themselves and their opponents on the starting line, not good use of own resources and advantages. TV ads again generous, if the media reported that a network is extremely diluted, and did not see the end consumer promotion and interpretation of the figure, but the opponent is quietly waiting to put their side unknown to erode consumers mistakenly playing mistake hit, could not find the familiar canned Wang Lao Ji looking for the next best thing will be green box of Wang Lao Ji. Even operators are also thought he was into counterfeit Wang Lao Ji. Despite any good consumer products are not sold, there is no system to do channel marketing and terminal marketing; products will not have a very good record. If just rely on television advertising driven, rather than a full range of three-dimensional marketing themselves as a new challenge to the past glory of self, rather than continue to be valid, be distinguished from the blue green rather than blue, this time JDB performance is not perfect. 

1. ChangAn (06.18.2012), INTRODUCTION OF GUANGDONG JIADUOBAO BEVERAGE & FOOD CO., LTD, ChangAn, [Online], Available from:

http://www.dg.gov.cn/gjhycs/s33353/201206/514127.htm [Assessed: April 02,2016]

2. Gang Bai (12.23.2013), Wang Lao Ji and JDB who can be the winner in the future, Sina, [Online], Available from:

http://finance.sina.com.cn/zl/management/20131223/141817721565.shtml [Assessed: April 02,2016]

 

------Zhenren Ruan

Prompt #9 Recognizing Significance

Yesterday, April 2^nd, Rhode Island’s top marketing official, Betsy Walls, resigned due to making a rather embarrassing error in a video funded by the state hoping to increase tourism. What was the blunder? The video, which featured different landmarks and desirable places in the state, showed a clip of someone skateboarding in front Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavik, Iceland. A state-wide marketing campaign dedicated to showing off the wonderful places to visit in Rhode Island, and they mistakenly show a video of a building in a completely different country.  To say the least, people were shocked, upset, and downright confused about how this could have happened.

          Marketing plays an insanely massive role in our daily lives. Pretty much every form of media and every advertisement that we encounter throughout the day was chosen by a marketing team. Marketing dictates what we see and what we are exposed to, and influences the ideas and thoughts we have. Marketing and media have a huge responsibility to the public, so people often get angry when something being marketed isn’t represented correctly.

            

           Marketing is built on trust. If the advertiser does not establish themselves as credible, the ad is basically meaningless. Marketers have a moral responsibility to the public to keep their advertisements 100% honest and accurate at all times. Marketing and advertising are how we get so much of our information, and this news story is a prime example of how upset people will get when they are not being presented with accurate information. The significance of a job in marketing is to figure out how to educate, inform, convince, and appeal to viewers, and without establishing your brand as a trustworthy source, you will not be successful.

            When marketing is not done with research, integrity, and extreme attention to detail, the company or product will not be successful, and will definitely not gain the favor of the public. 

By: Rachel Seyfarth

Sources:

Bramson, Kate, and Patrick Anderson. "R.I. Video with Iceland Images Released despite Raimondo                Staffer Questions." Providencejournal.com. N.p., 30 Mar. 2016. Web. 04 Apr. 2016.

Juliusson, Ingolfur. "Tourism Video's Oops Moment." Stuff. N.p., 31 Mar. 2016. Web. 04 Apr. 2016.

"Rhode Island Marketing Official Resigns over Botched Tourism Video | Fox News." Fox News.                      FOX News Network, 02 Apr. 2016. Web. 04 Apr. 2016.

The Importance Of Packaging

When you're walking down an aisle in a store looking for a specific product, there is one thing that makes you recognize what you're looking for, and that is the product's packaging. The packaging of a product is nearly as important as the product itself. According to The Paper Worker, packaging is responsible for about one-third of consumer decision-making. The way that your product is packaged represents your brand, and is an enormous part of marketing alone. Personally, I have a great appreciation for the way that Apple packages their products because of the simplicity and how easily recognizable it makes their products. Packaging has a huge impact on consumers emotions just like advertisements do.

According to Business Insider, it only takes about seven seconds for a product and it's packaging to form a first impression on someone, so it better be good. It is crucial for your product to stand out when it is on a shelf full of similar ones, and this is where packaging comes into play. Although, packaging is important outside of the store as well. When somebody shops online, and their package arrives, they may take a picture of it and post it online. If the packaging design is aesthetically pleasing, almost 40% of consumers would be likely to post a photo online, according to The Paper Worker. This is basically a form of free advertising, and if thats not enough to prove exactly how important packaging is, then I don't know what is.

Overall, packaging has the potential to attract customers, provide information that promotes the brand, influence the purchase decision, and differentiate the product from others. But, functionality is also extremely important. Besides these things stated, the main goal of a package is to protect the product. Packaging serves so many purposes, and cannot be forgotten if a brand is striving for success.


- Paul Gielow

Sources:

- Lorette, Kristie. "Importance of Product Packaging in Marketing." Importance of Product Packaging in Marketing. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.

ht    tp://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-product-packaging-marketing-648.html- Conran, Joshua. 

"      - Why Your Product's Packaging Is as Important as the Product Itself." Inc.com. N.p., 22 Sept. 2014. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.

             http://www.inc.com/joshua-conran/why-your-product-s-packaging-is-as-important-as-the-product-itself.html

- Jarski, Veronika. "How Product Packaging Affects Buying Decisions [Infographic]." MarketingProfs. N.p., 6 Sept. 2014. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.

             http://www.marketingprofs.com/chirp/2014/25957/how-product-packaging-affects-buying-decisions-infographic

Prompted Blog post #3: Exploring Communication

When it comes to an informational blog like this, there's something to be said about the power of an interview. You can read books and gather info from a different website and try to paste things together to post a blog. But they don't match up to a true one on one interview. Interviewing a professional about your area of choice can provide you with gainful insight that any other blog post can't hold a tee to.

That brings me to our latest prompted blog post: Exploring Communication. Communication is key in any business venture, and when you're trying to make it in the big bad world of marketing, it's good to have a voice or two on the inside handing out tips to us would be pros currently on the come up. I interviewed one Dan Fuoco, Interactive Marketing Manager at Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau. I talked to Dan about misconceptions and in his profession and types of writing he's involved with from day to day. Here's what he had to say:


"What type/ form of writing do you engage in day-to-day?"

"Every day, I write for a social audience. That means that my writing is direct and clear – I don’t have room (literally) to write feature stories. I write headlines that grab your attention and make you want to read more. If I don’t, I’ve wasted time."

"common misconceptions/challenges in the marketing field?"

"Challenge = conversions or shares. Social Media is a giant network of people having conversations with multiple people at multiple times. It’s my job as a social media manager to grab your attention and persuade you to click on my content. The large amount of social, advertising and marking “noise” makes my job challenging. If I can get you to click on and share my content, I’ve hit a homerun because now I have an advocate. Advocates are priceless."

"methods they use to work around those misconceptions?"

"I find that the best methods come from honest relationships or giving fans the spotlight. We have a hashtag that we created (#DepictTheD) where we ask visitors and locals to “show Detroit through your lens”. Hundreds of photos are tagged each month and we choose one photo daily and provide a platform for the photographer to showcase they work: our Instagram account. Recently, we have developed a page on our website (http://visitdetroit.com/your-photos) that showcases many more #DepictTheD photos within different geographical locations in Detroit, i.e. Downtown, Corktown, Greektown, Eastern Market, etc. People love to see their work or name “in lights."


So there you have it folks. I won't keep you any longer but take what I have chosen to blog about here in to account. Social Media isn't going anywhere, its a continuously growing market and any profession that involves it is likely to be a prosperous one. Just know what you're going up against.


By: Maxamilian Tarpey

Sources: 
https://outlook.office.com/owa/projection.aspx

Social Media Marketing

The growing world of social media is becoming key to a businesses success. Businesses are now using social media to expand their brand. Social media marketing involves a company sharing and promoting their brand through social media sites in order to communicate their product to the desired customer (WordStream). Many companies are paying celebrities to post on social media about their product. This increases sales as the celebrities fans want to buy the products that celebrity uses.

Social media allows a business to tell one person about their product. However, that one person will tell two people and those two people will tell two more and so on. This way, the company puts in minimal effort and money and their brand communicates to millions of people. When a business posts on social media often, the consumer feels more connected to them which creates a sense of loyalty between the company and the customer (Demers, 2014).

It is not only important for a business to post on social media but also to listen to their audience. Many consumers will post about what they'd like in a product or service. By listening to this audience, a company can promote what they wish for. This will generate more sales and create a stronger relationship between the business and customer. Social media marketing is an emerging world for businesses. This world is extremely beneficial to a company and their relationship with the customer.

Sources:

DeMers, Jason. "The Top 10 Benefits Of Social Media Marketing." Forbes. Forbes, 11 Aug. 2014. Web. 1 Apr. 2016.

"Social Media Marketing for Businesses." Word Stream. Word Stream, n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2016.

By: Sydney Smith