In response to Emma’s post: Marketing Campaign to Attract Tourists to the USA

What do you think? Will the ad make people want to visit America? Or will it be a turn off to those people who possibly cannot afford to visit and do the opposite of what the ad intended?

I think that this advertisement campaign in other countries is a great way to get people to come visit America. I definitely don’t think that it will make people do the opposite. If they can’t afford to come visit at the time, it may make them want to save up to come visit at some later time. Since the commercials show all of the beautiful places in the country, people will realize it’s a great place to come visit and stay. 

Ways to make your online marketing go viral

Online marketers dream is to have their advertising go viral. It tends to be a very difficult thing to do though. Although it is difficult to have things go viral, you can analyze content that has gone popular quickly and figure out ways to improve your marketing ideas.

1.    Be absurd. Sometimes the more absurd the better. People tend to remember and love the crazier characters.

2.    Capture emerging trends. People will be more apt to share the content if its following trends at the time.

3.    Think in terms of sound bites. Make sure its catchy.

4.    Use infographics. People love things that are visually appealing.

5.    Get influencer buy-in. Endorsements from larger companies can help make content go viral.

6.    Offer outstanding value. Go above and beyond what your competitors are doing

What other ways do you think can help a company go viral with their marketing ideas? 

Pinterest is Becoming the “Next Big Thing” in Social Media Marketing

Along with websites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+, Pinterest is becoming the next big way that companies are marketing their products and services. Here are some reasons as to why it is becoming a huge hit…

1.    How it’s being used. It works as a type of virtual store catalog. People can pin and repin pictures of your products and have them linked back to your website.

2.    Driving Sales. In the last six months, Pinterest has seen a 446 percent increase in their web traffic and the sales resulting from those users has dramatically increased as well.

Do you have a Pinterest account? Do you use it just to browse around, or do you actually buy products off of it? 

In Response to Maggie’s post: Diet Dr. Pepper, Sexist?

Do you think it was a smart move by Dr. Pepper, do you think it was intentional?

I don’t think that this promotional ad was a smart move on Dr. Pepper’s part. I think they tried to add some humor into their advertisement, but it did not come off that way at all. I don’t think that women, who usually tend to do most of the food shopping for families will buy this product just because of this advertisement. It seems to be slightly sexist in my opinion.

Would sexist advertisements stop you from buying a product you tend to normally buy?

In response to Emmett: What do you think led to Gap losing its customer base? Do you think the company will ever be as popular as it once was?

I feel like Gap has lacked in its ways of advertising the past few years. I know growing up I tended to shop at Gap a lot, but I feel like they just never have good sales or products anymore. They aren’t the same company that they used to be. Shopping at Gap used to be a big trend, but its slowly decreased. Their clothes tend to be a little overpriced for the quality of the clothes, and people are trying to save money now a days.

What ways do you think that Gap can come back and become a popular store again?

How to best use Pinterest to market your company

Recently Pinterest has become a very popular website. It has a significant opportunity to share your company’s products and ideas with an extremely large audience. Pinterest lets users “pin” images to their pinboards that they create. Users that follow them are then allowed to “repin” those images which makes content allowed to be very easily shared. These are three ways to determine if Pinterest will help you market your company.

1.    Determine whether Pinterest is a good match for your company.

2.    Avoid a hard sell.

3.    Reclaim link opportunities.

Do you have a Pinterest account? Do you use it to actually buy products or just browse the web?

5 Ways to Build a Solid Email Marketing List

Email marketing lists are an extremely powerful way of reaching out to your customers. When you have a good list, you will be able to reach out to these customers multiple times.

Here’s a list of five ways to incorporate email marketing into your website and stay in touch with your best customers.

1.    Build an opt-in form on your homepage.

2.    Include an opt-in option on you About page.

3.    Add an opt-in form to your checkout process.

4.    Integrate an opt-in function into your blog’s comments section.

5.    Consider a pop up form.

These are all good ways to get customers who are visiting your website to become part of your email list. It also gives them multiple options and ways to do so. People might be hesitant to do so right when they get on the homepage, but the more they browse the website the more likely they will fill out the form and become part of the email list.

Have you ever joined a email list from a company’s website? 

In response to Christine’s post: Google’s New Customer Survey Tool

If you were a business owner would you use Google's Customer Survey Tool to find out more about your consumers needs?

I think this is a great way to find out more about your consumer needs. With this type of advertising, companies can find their target markets and what their customer’s wants and needs are. It is also relatively inexpensive.

As a customer, would you be willing to take the time to answer these questions to help out these companies? 

In Response to Christine’s post: Hard Rock Hotel & Casino launches rewards program

Do you think this rewards program will help increase profits in their resorts? 

I agree with Christine that this new rewards program will increase Hard Rock Hotel & Casino’s profits. Since it will be giving you points for other amenities besides just the casino, it will be more likely to reach out to more people. Not everyone goes there just to gamble, so more people will be apt to use this rewards program. The customers will also appreciate it more that they are caring about all the customers, and not just targeting people that use the casino.

Do you feel that people will be more apt to join their rewards program, now that it is opened up to other amenities in the hotel and casino?

How to Improve your Company's Twitter Page

Many companies now a day are using Twitter as a way to market themselves. However, it does not always happen so quickly. It takes time for you to get a lot of followers, and people to respond to you tweets. If this is happening to your company, you definitely are not alone. A team of researchers from some of the top universities in the country think you are not tweeting up to your top potential. They started a website called “Who Gives a Tweet?” that allows people to give anonymous feedback about what makes a great tweet. Their findings showed them that Twitter users feel that only 36 percent of tweets were worth reading, versus 29 percent that were not worth reading and 39 percent were just alright.

They learned that the most engaging tweets include questions to followers, information sharing and self-promotion. The worst tweets were ones that include “presense maintenance” and current check in statuses such as Foursquare location check ins.

Tips for creating better tweets:

-          Offer context in tweets. Don’t be cryptic

-          Include personal commentary.

-          Don’t overstuff tweets with hashtags and @ mentions.

-          Don’t whine or complain.

-          When you ask a question, use hashtags so followers can track the conversation.

Do you use twitter? If so, do you follow companies? What types of tweets do you feel are most productive and engaging?

In response to Rachel's post

"What are some of the reasons that you think Domino’s is so much more successful than Pizza Hut?"

I believe that Domino's is much more successful than Pizza Hut because they advertise their products a lot more than Pizza Hut. Domino's always has commercials on television, and advertisements on the internet. I don't think a day goes by that I don't see a Domino's commercial. I can't say that I've seen many Pizza Hut commercials. In Domino's commercials they show all of their new products and deals that they offer. 


Why do you think Pizza Hut doesn't spend much money on advertising if it is obviously working for Domino's marketing team.

“The Hunger Games” marketing team uses social media

The hit, “The Hunger Games” came out in theaters nationwide this weekend. They are hoping to break box office records. Social media was a huge way that this movie was marketed. They made 13 Facebook pages for each of the districts in the movie, and allowed members to become virtual citizens in the movie. It was also mentioned on Twitter over 1 million times in just the last month.
Personally, social media is how I’ve heard about “The Hunger Games” book and movie craze. So many people have posted statuses about how much they loved the books and they can’t wait to see the movie. Hearing all the positive feedback from friends on social media networks have made me want to go out and get the book and see the movie.

Have you ever been influenced to purchase something, or go see a movie because of social media marketing? Do you think its a productive way of marketing now a days?

In response to Christine

Do you think that his comments will hurt his radio show ratings?

I do believe that his comments will strongly hurt his radio show ratings. There are many companies that pulled their sponsorships from his station, and for ones that haven’t, people are boycotting them. There are many people that are disgusted with his comments that he made. He is known for being controversial but he went too far this time.

10 laws of social media marketing

It is important for companies to use social media as a marketing technique correctly. If you use it the right way it can greatly help your organization out. There are ten basic laws that your company should abide by for it to be successful.

1. The law of listening- It is important to listen to what your customers have to say. Pay attention to what your target audience is posting online, and join discussions to figure out what is important to them.
2. The law of focus- It is more important that a company focuses on one thing, rather than multiple. It is better off having highly focused content marketing strategy that intends to build a strong brand, than a broad strategy that tries to do everything for everyone.
3. The law of quality- Quality definitely beats quantity. Its better having less online connections that actually interact with you and your content than having a lot more connections that disappear after they connect with you the first time.
4. The law of patience- Success from social media marketing doesn’t happen overnight. It is more likely that it will take some time, so you have to be patient and commit to achieve the results that you want
5. The law of compounding- When your company publishes quality content to gain those quality followers, they will share the information with their own audience on other types of social media networks. It opens new ways of sharing your information.
6. The law of influence- Try and find the online influencers who have a quality audience as well that would like your products. If you build a good relationship with them, they will likely forward your information on to others, and you could gain an even larger audience.
7. The law of value- Focus on creating great content and developing relationships with your online followers. If you are just spending your time on social media promoting your products, you will lose some of your followers.
8. The law of acknowledgment- Always acknowledge every person that reaches out to you. You wouldn’t ignore anyone that tries to reach out to you in person, so it wouldn’t be right to ignore them online. Relationships are key when it comes to social media
9. The law of accessibility- Always be available to your followers, don’t just publish your information and not respond to anyone. Your followers won’t be hesitant to move on if you don’t respond to them quickly.
10. The law of reciprocity- You need to reciprocate with your audience. If you expect them to share your information, you should probably do the same for them.

What other “laws” do you feel that companies should use to be successful on social media networks?

In Repsonse to Professor Johnson's Post: "The Case of John Smith"

I don’t believe that John Smith should sell the names to the car dealership. Most likely the people who took the survey were told that their names were being kept private and confidential. The American Marketing Associations Statement of Ethics addresses this issue in their ethical values, one of them being honesty. They need to embrace these ethical values by building relationships and enhancing the consumers confidence in the integrity of marketing by affirming those core values. In the honesty section, they strive to be truthful in all situations and at all times, and honor their commitments and promises. If John sold those members names under the circumstances that they were going to be kept private, he would be breaking that commitment to the consumers. There are other ways that John could go about not going into bankruptcy. What other ways could he make a profit without having to sell these consumers names?

In response to Rachel's post: What's gotten into American Idol?

Has American Idol changed from a singing competition to some sort of talk-show? Is the show focusing too much on the quirky people who audition instead of the talent that’s out there?

I believe that American Idol has definitely gone downhill since the first few seasons. I don't really watch it that much, but when I do they usually focus on the bad singers and the drama that is involved rather than the talented singers. I feel that since the show has been on for so many years, that they're trying to evolve it and make it more popular again, but they aren't doing it the way they should.  

10 ways to stretch your marketing budget

There are many useful ways to maximize the ways you spend your money on marketing. Companies do not usually allocate a lot of money to their marketing budgets so they need to make every dollar count. There are ten useful ways to stretch your budget, so it’s more effective and efficient.

1. Use your ads for more than just space advertising.
2. If something works, stick with it
3. Don’t over present yourself
4. Use modular product literature
5. Use article reprints as supplementary sales literature
6. Explore inexpensive alternatives for lead generation
7. Do not overpay for outside creative talent
8. Do it yourself
9. Get maximum mileage out of existing content (text and images)
10. Pay your vendors on time

These are all very important and helpful ways that your company can stretch its marketing budget and will allow you to spend your money in more useful ways. Which of these ways do you believe are most effective? What other ways could companies save money in their marketing budget?

In response to Lyndzi’s post “Flash Mobs: A Great Marketing Technique”

Flash mobs have become less popular today, why do you think that is? Do you think a flash mob is a good marketing technique?

I don’t believe that flash mobs are becoming less popular. I feel like they are a great way to market something. They seem to always stop people in their tracks and get their attention. I’ve never seen them used to market a company so this was very interesting. I usually only see them to promote upcoming events or activities. If I ever saw a company use a flash mob to market their business I would definitely be more willing to look more into their products because I would more likely remember them in the long run, rather than seeing a commercial or something to that nature.

Have you ever seen a company use a flash mob to market a product? If so have you ended up using their products?

The 'Heart Attack Grill' Experience

It’s definitely a weird way to market a business, but it is obviously working for them. Most companies are trying to back down on the amount of fats and high calorie meals, but the Heart Attack Grill is doing the complete opposite.  A man has recently suffered a heart attack, while eating a “triple bypass burger”, slightly ironic. Their quadruple bypass burger has around 8000 calories in it, which is more than what most people should be eating in a whole day. It’s a 50’s style diner, but with a twist. When you walk in you are given hospital gown to wear, the waitresses are wearing nurses costumes,  and the owner walks around in a doctors gown and has a stethoscope. They even have wheelchairs to assist the customers who are not able to walk out of the building after eating the excessive calorie filled burgers. They even have a special offer for customers who are over 350 pounds;they are allowed to eat unlimited bacon burgers for free. Even though customers know what they are getting themselves into upon walking into the burger joint, I would never want to own a business that could land their customers in the hospitals. Do you think this is a good way for a business to market themselves? Should the business be held liable if someone is to have a heart attack from eating there?

"Sponsored Stories" on Facebook

David Fisher is the man behind Facebook’s marketing. His job is to make money off of advertising on Facebook. But they wanted to come up with an idea that would balance the needs of the marketers and advertisers without decreasing the users experience. So they came up with the idea of sponsored stories which creates ads that feel like they’re part of the social experience. For example, if you like Starbucks or check into Starbucks, they can pay Facebook to put the story on the side of the homepage. This gives the companies a better chance for their stories to be seen, rather than getting lost in the newsfeed that is always being updated with new status updates. There is not too much research yet about the effectiveness of these sponsored stories yet, because it is still so new, but Facebook is hopeful. They feel that the “word of mouth recommendations” from friends on Facebook are going to influence the users more than just a regular ad they would normally see on the side.
Sponsored Stories 

Have you noticed these new types of advertising on Facebook? Would you be more likely to react to an advertisement and use a product or go to a place that you know your friends have been to?