San Bernardino Shootings

The San Bernardino shootings is something getting to be the norm on the news these days. What is it about the Islamic way that from watching a video and pledging to a group of people that you have never met, makes you leave a 6 month old child with the grand mother surely knowing in the back of your mind that you are not going to see this child again. This is some bad stuff. If this religion is this bad then maybe we need to think about religion control along with the gun control the government is trying to implement. Oh I forgot, freedom of religion has more weight than the right to bear arms in order to protect yourselves and your family. But the sad thing about this and the other shootings alike is not the people that lost their lives or the family members grieving over their loss, but instead someone profiting in a business sense. Somebody, somewhere is making money from these shootings as people are trying to figure out how to protect themselves and their families. Anything from buying a gun and ammunition to who knows what else. Then of course the presidential candidates that are using this to say what they would do different to gain your vote next year. I will conclude by saying that if I had a business, I would like to think that it would be a business that would produce a profit in happy times and goodness. 

Black Friday

Black Friday is a day of deals and savings, right? Black Friday is really a marketing scam if you all haven't figured that out by now. So you go out of your way to rearrange your schedule and even take off work so you can be in line at 2am and sit in the possible miserable weather conditions to save a few bucks. Not to mention, once again, are you just going for the things that you really need or are you going to get caught in the moment of the shopping experience and buy more than you came for and probably didn't need. That's the marketing end of this Black Friday that businesses look forward to. Not only are they selling it a little cheaper than the regular price, but they are betting on the volume that they are going to sell. You, as the customer, is caught up in the shopping experience and the holiday spirit and more than likely going to buy other items that you didn't come for. Not to mention everything that you bought that is not on the Black Friday sale list. If Black Friday was really for the customer, the businesses wouldn't start advertising this sale a month in advance. It's a way to get the commercial end of the holiday's started and the businesses profiting from it. Happy Black Friday!   

Smartwatch

A few years ago the idea of a smartwatch was like a science-fiction movie. Not only in the last couple of years has the smartwatch become a reality, but now the competition of other companies getting into the market with their version of the smartwatch as well. All the new technology this day and time is great and endless of what you can have and their uses. For the most part, anything you want, information wise is at the tip of your finger. I am not one of those that has to have the latest of technology or the look at what I got attention deficit syndrome or the out doing the Jone's stratagy. My question to the world is, when is enough, enough. Can you justify the cost and how much it really needs to be in your everyday lives. The marketing of all these new items is great, but the general public does not take the time to realize how they are being controlled and manipulated by the marketing of these new products. You like the newest and think that you have got to own it without realizing that you only will use this new item at about 5% of its function ability. You probably already have a device now that does everything that you need it to do without the cost of the new device just on the market. Do you really need a watch to keep in touch with the world with your every single heart beat? Stop and think, this new technology marketing concept is great if you need this in your business, but for the individual, this technology trend is controlling your everyday thinking and lives. Take a moment and evaluate just how much technology you really need and level out with that.

RV Parking Ownership

In Cullman, Alabama we have the beautiful smith lake. People from all over the country come here and buy lake lots and build their dream homes. There is just one problem and that is that the price tag for a lot on this lake is expensive. Some of these lake lots sell for more that some people have in their homes. Then there is this rv campground that I heard about that you buy your rv spot instead of rent for the night or week. When I first heard about this along with the price tag, I thought that this was crazy and could not see it being successful. Then I looked at this from a need and a marketing angle. There are people who own rv's that would like to own a piece of the lake as well, but know that this is all too expensive. This campground marketing plan enables these people to do both.  There are people who own rv's and have paid a lot of money for them and enjoy the camping world. But the average person cannot afford a rv and a place on the lake both. The man who started the smith lake rv park saw a need and noticed a marketing possibility. He put a plan together and started out small to see how it would do. The need was there and after 2 years, he has started clearing off for phase 2 of the campground. He owns the campground and maintains it but you buy the lot within the campground and you own that lot. With ownership of this lot you have a boat slip for your boat with golf cart access to it so you don't have to walk. Being a part of this campground also gives you access to 2 ponds, swimming pool, laundry mat, water falls by the boat docks, and a social gathering house. The way this is set up, its like a little neighborhood or think of it as your lake family every weekend. Now you can take your rv to your lot on the lake and enjoy being on the lake. This enables people to double their pleasure of their investment instead of missing out of enjoying the rv at the lake. Figuring out where there is a need for a service and knowing how to market it can be very profitable.

Presidental Election

As we all have heard with the advertisements and debates on TV that the nation is gearing up for a presidential election in 2016. Some people like to hear what the candidates have to say and how they present themselves under fire from the press and the mudslinging from the other candidates. Other people could care less because for the most part, same oh, same oh. They make a speech or a campaign promise that they won't be able to keep or don't even try. Elections and all the bad mudslinging that always seems to be the norm gets the general public disgusted and some get down right mad. But have you ever thought to take a minute, let the smoke clear out and look at all this from a different angle. The truth about the election candidates is that they are marketing themselves to the voters and in the presidential election, making sure they get the attention of the electoral voters. There is no difference in these guys and girls going after each other and making the other look bad than two companies doing the same about a product or service. Do me a favor and watch the next presidential debate with a marketing approach and you will find the mudslinging a lot more interesting and sometimes even down right funny. 

Pre-Pay

Years ago when I started  working at Cullman Electric co-op we had a lot of customers that just couldn't pay their bills on time. We at the co-op spent endless hours cutting people off and then reconnecting them when the bill was paid. An inconvenience for both parties. Some people get embarrassed about this, but the truth is that there are a lot of today's population that just can't make ends meet on what they make while trying to provide the expensive necessities in life. Then companies started offering pre-pay options. For these companies I thought how nice of them to work with the working public to meet them half way on providing a service along with a payment option. Then the co-op announced that they were going to offer a pre-pay option. I was not in any kind of business class when this started and my first thought was that this will never work. At that time I did not realize that in order to be good in business you have to develop a plan to work with your paying customers. If you can't get paid for your services, you won't be in business long. Yet new technology and smart business people came up with a great pre-pay payment option that really helps the customers keep their bills paid on their terms. I was proven wrong, and after getting into business management classes, learning what I have I realize that I was looking at this from the wrong side. If your going to be successful in business today, you need a good product, a fair price, good service, and sometimes depending on the type of business, have a payment option available.  

Playboy Magazine

What a magazine in the good ole days. Of course some people know this magazine as a skin magazine. That it has been indeed, but if you take a minute to get past the nude pictures, this magazine has always offered a lot more. In the years past, it was actually considered as the bible for cool men's fashion. It was a way of understanding certain lifestyles that young men looked to live. As of March, 2016, Playboy has announced that it will stop publishing images of nude women. It's bad enough that the circulation's has dropped from 5.6 million magazine's in 1975 to less that 800,000 in 2015, they now are going to stop doing what the magazine has always been known for. This is going to be a very difficult marketing problem. Common sense in my book say's that the company should have done something long before a loss of 4.8 million magazine's per year. Playboy's issue is defining what the brand stand's for as it revamps its editorial content. At least they have the heritage and they have the very clear authentic position. Before you give up on Playboy, note that it did away with nudity on its website in 2014 and the digital version actually attracted more traffic as well as a younger audience. The strategic decision resulted in a 375 percent increase in global unique monthly visitors to Playboy.com. The editors are going to have to figure out who its audience is since the magazine isn't nearly as accessible to the younger demographics. It seems that it would have been a better move to have addressed this problem a little at a time over the years as the magazine was losing its audience instead of such a drastic move all at once, or a have too if you will. I wish Playboy well on its transition and its major journey as it reworks its marketing strategy. This will be interesting to follow the restructuring of this magazine.

Monsanto

I was brought up in a time where I was led to believe that the government stood for good things. The government and the representatives where in place to protect the public of their district that they represented. As we all know that has changed over the years big time. Its not about the people that elected you into a position anymore, it's all about them and how much money and favors they can hoard while in office. I now get on my soap box concerning the company Monsanto. Has anybody took a minute to read what this company is doing to our nation, children, our crops, our DNA, everyone's health. Who is letting this company get by with this sort of thing. Now here is where you can justify that this company is sleeping with our government officials. All for the love of money with no ethics or moral concern for the people. This kind of thing makes me sick that these people that are in Washington, that has been elected to those positions to protect the people as a whole, is looking the other way and letting these big companies get by with what ever they want. I don't know about you, but I like my DNA just the way it is. Where does a company like this profit from doing things to the food chain that alters a humans DNA. And this is just the chip of the iceberg. I know this blog is not on marketing this week, but these articles on Monsanto just chap the cheeks of my .... Get a minute, research March Against Monsanto. Before you start your research you need to get yourself a punching bag because before you are done reading these articles you will need something for your frustration. It just blows me away that this is actually happening in this country and it is personally affecting us and our family's. 

Hands On

This past week I went to Kentucky to a utility trade show. I've never been to a show like this but I saw a different approach to marketing here. I would not be hesitant to say that there was in excess of 3 billion dollars worth of equipment on the expo grounds. It cost a lot of money to get this equipment to this location as well. The unique side of this show that I have not seen before is the equipment was set up for actual hands on test drive. You could climb up on a piece of equipment and operate it and make your decision instead of listening to a salesman who only knows what the company tells them about these products. What a marketing concept. You actually get to feel and see what the equipment does in person. Most trade shows have the look how pretty the new product is and this is what it can do for you and your company attitude. This attitude has worked for a lot of years, but I will have to say that this hands on concept was awesome. The vendors that were in doors were also set up to show how their product worked and let you try it out. Very interesting business marketing concept.

Cure Drug

Have you heard about the angry backlash over the new medicine called Daraprim? It's a medicine that helps patient's with compromised immune systems. Such patient's with HIV and other infectious diseases. Turing Pharmaceuticals in San Francisco has obtained the rights to sell this medicine and has increased the cost by 5000% overnight from $13.50 to $750 a pill. But the CEO says this increase is necessary for the company to make a profit. ok, yes a company needs to make a profit in order to stay in business and create jobs and so on. But at the same time there is an ethical responsibility to society. A profit is acceptable but a gouge of this magnitude should not. For the people who have been waiting and praying for some form of help, insurance or not, this cost increase is insane. Companies of this type, I thought are supposed to be held to some kind of ethical and moral standards. According to this, if it is allowed to pursue, I guess not. The owner of this company and it's board of directors are looking at this as a business marketing gain and the profits associated with obtaining the rights to sell this medicine. This is not marketing, this is gouging and a rip off to the world of patients who need some help now and in the future from the disease's they are consumed with that this medicine from this company holds control. Insurance companies probably will not agree to pay all the cost associated with this drug at this price, so the insured along with the non insured are in the same boat, out of pocket expense for a cure or some relief at the mercy of one company. Before you say so what, It does not affect me, you have no idea what might affect you or a member of your family in the future. You may find yourself in the same shoes as so many other's today. Maybe not this company for this drug, but another company with another drug to treat a different disease. If this is allowed to happen this time, it's opens the door for other companies in the future to do the same. Marketing and profits go hand in hand with today's business, but somewhere there needs to be some kind of guidelines and caps instead of controlling some companies and letting others do whatever they please.

New Business

If you are not from around here, we have a new Buffalo Wild Wings on the south end of town. I had the pleasure of getting to go to the new restaurant with a VIP invitation. With the VIP invitation, at least one person from every table had to order wings to sample them with everybody on the table. You had your choice of sauce or as I did, let the waitress pick out one for me. Also, all the profits from the alcohol went to the charity, Caring for Kids. I enjoyed the meal and of course being able to have a drink of my choice with that meal just made it even better. After getting away from the great atmosphere that was at the new business, I began to sort out why this new establishment would give away free food and donate its profits from the alcohol sales to a charity. With this management class in mind I began to think, what better way to get the word out for the new business in town than word of mouth. The way that they did the meal requirement, not one individual had to order something that they might not have liked. They got to sample the wings and everybody around the table discussing what they liked or disliked about each item and free of charge. Not to mention that free food seems to taste better. What better way for advertisement than positive vibe out in the community and at the work place. Not only will these VIP people come back, but they will in turn with word of mouth, get others to try it. This costs the business money up front, but from the advertisement standpoint, what better way than to pack the restaurant full of people, give them free food and send them on their way with something to talk about. This,in my opinion is a great way to advertise instead of other advertisement options and wait for somebody to walk in or hear from somebody else how good it is before they will try it.  Now we are down to the blue ribbon prize, first impression of the new business, giving back to the community with donating to a good charity. This just put the icing on the cake for the new business to get welcome arms of acceptance in town. Get a chance, try it. It was a pleasurable experience for myself and my family and I personally am enjoying more new businesses coming to town.  

Marketing Follow Up

I made a trip to Dallas, Texas a couple of weeks ago for pleasure and went to a truck show in downtown at the conference center. As I walked around taking in the different marketing technique's and I came across an item that I was personally interested in. The lady in the booth told me and demonstrated the product to me. She asked if I would be interested in somebody contacting me on this product, so I gave her my contact information. Now, I am in Dallas, Texas and live in Alabama, my thought was I will never hear from this company, which has been my norm in the past with this type of situation. This was on Friday and on Monday morning I got a call from a representative out of Ohio. Now this is follow up. This company is set up to advertise their product and then make the contact a priority with marketing this item. To my surprise they had a salesman in the area and could meet with me that afternoon. I have never had this kind of response on any product that I have asked for more information. The salesman showed up on time and had a good demonstration, we discussed prices and warranties and I bought the product. It would be nice if all companies would be this good at getting the product out there. Some companies just act like your not big enough for them to fool with. The company will be at my house to install the product this Wednesday. We will see if the delivery and installation of the product is as impressive as the marketing and sales. 

Discount Coupons

Ever go shopping and when you check out the receipt has a coupon on the bottom saying, "$10 off on your next purchase of $25 or more"? You really feel special as a customer and you start right that minute planing your next trip back to the store and what your going to buy in order to get that $10 off. You are probably going to buy something that you don't really need just so you know your purchase is more than $25. You go back to the store with your purchase plan in mind just to get that $10 out of the company. By the time you make it to the check out you find something else that you think you need. Total bill, $73.76. Marketing mission accomplished. The store got you back in the door with the thought that you are getting $10 for free but instead you spent three times the amount that you had intended to in order to get that $10. If the store really was giving you $10 off, they would give it to you on the present purchase. Marketing strategy to get you back in the store to spend more money worked as planned. Give that a little thought the next time you get that special coupon.

Technology

Technology today is a great thing, especially the invention of the smart phone. There is nothing else you need to make your day complete with everything you could possibly think of at your finger tips. Fantastic for a reminder of a friends birthday or an anniversary even important notes for work, access to the internet. What a smart phone can do for you on the go is endless. This technology is the greatest thing ever, but it is controlling the majority of every one's lives. People can't do without it. It is additive, but destructive at the same time. Take 30 minutes at a coffee shop and order yourself a cup of joe. Have a seat, turn your phone off, put it down and really pay attention to everyone around you. Take notice the people with a phone in their hand. Ask yourself, is this me?

Maybe a different road

I've been taking business management for a possible promotion where I work. Job posted, interviewed, did not get the promotion. All things happen for a reason, right? Maybe this entrepreneur marketing is a different road to where I really need to be putting my thought and energy.

Hello

A blog? What is it? To be completely honest I have no clue. This is my first attempt at creating a blog and I may be good at it, I may fail miserably, but either way I will give it my best shot. I am not going to promise anything new or interesting, but I will try to post things that make you think.