Where did the time go?

I took this Marketing class as my business elective, and I am very glad I did. This was such an interesting class, and I learned a great amount from Professor Walls. I am graduating in two weeks and finishing up my college life with this class has been wonderful. At first, I thought the blogs would be boring, but I have actually enjoyed expressing my thoughts and learning about new marketing concepts. I never realized that marketing is such a big part of my daily life, and I am now aware of my surroundings and correlate it all back to marketing.

In the beginning of the course, Professor Walls lectured about the "Paradox of Choice." Not only is the paradox of choice relevant for buying products at a grocery store, they were extremely relevant in the group project. From the start, Professor Walls allowed each group to choose their own segment. If he just assigned us a segment like he did for the rooms, it would be easy because we would be forced to work with what we got. instead, a group of 5 people had to decide which segment would be easy to work with. Also, we had to choose a segment that we could easily relate to each room. Our group struggled with choosing a segment because there were so many that we brainstormed. We finally narrowed the choices down to two. We went back and forth between teenage girls and expecting parents. We finally chose expecting parents. The funny part is, a couple of weeks later, were were not satisfied with our decision, so we changed it to parents that just had a baby. This goes to show that making decisions are not easy when you have many choices to choose from. Also, it is easy for people to regret a decision and desire a change.

Another topic that I learned was that marketers really have to fully understand the consumer before attempting to sell a product. Looking back at "The Persuaders," I realized that Song Airlines really concentrated on connecting with consumers on a more personal level. They want to benefit the customer in a beneficial and emotional way. Our group tried to understand our target segment in the same way. By performing surveys, we got answers to their wants and needs, as well as an understanding of how they feel. We also got our participants to email us several pictures of their likes and dislikes in the bedroom, which helped us analyze what products would be useful for them. Without any of this research in understanding the consumer, we would have never been able to produce a prototype. Our group produced a baby monitor that text messages the parents when the baby is crying. This is a convenient item that allows the parents to be away from their baby when they need to relax. Many couples like to have their space from the baby, not in a bad way! They just like to have time to themselves when the baby is asleep.

I had a great time working on this project. My teammates were great! They all contributed in their own way and everyone was always on top of things. I thought we were extremely organized and separated the work evenly so that it was fair. I really enjoyed Professor Walls teaching this class. He really helped our group and gave us good ideas that we never even thought about. He was very nice to participate in our research and always took the time to hear our concerns after class. It was a great learning process and I like how we slowly learned more about our target segment each week. Each work day, we got to dive in and really think of new ideas and emotions from our segment and room.

Reading Blogs

I read Jacqueline Nguyen's Blog #7 about Product Placement. I never notice how often products were advertised in movies because I am always captivated by the movie plot that I do not realize that there are products being marketed and advertised throughout the entire movie. Jacqueline gave many examples of movies that portrayed products inside the movie. The products can be anything from a huge part of the movie, like the cars in the movie, Fast and the Furious, or it can even be a cell phone that was used once in the movie.

Another movie Jacqueline mentioned was "He's Just Not That Into You." Drew Barrymore’s character owned a MacBook that had its own scene with MySpace about dating. I watched this movie with a bunch of my girlfriends and I actually recall telling my friend beside me that I would love to own a MacBook. I have had a DELL laptop for over 3 years now, and now the MacBook is the new trend. Everyone is changing to MacBooks so the movie definitely made me crave a new laptop.

I believe that the more the product is exposed in the movie, the more effective it would be for the audience's recall rates. If the product is associated with a main character, verbally mentioned and/or they may play a key role in the storyline, this will be the most effective for consumers. I agreed with Jacqueline when she said that the future of movies is going to have a blur or products in them, where the plot even revolves around the product. I know that many companies are paying for their products to be shown in the movies because it is a great way to market them. Many people like to skip commercials, so the products are not getting much exposure. With huge hit movies, many people are forced to be exposed to seeing the products and the products may be shown in a different light where the consumer relates the product to the movie. This may create a positive emotion about the product.

There is one movie in particular that I remember the product being exposed throughout the movie. In the "Sex and the City" movie, Absolut Vodka was displayed everywhere. In the movie, Samantha is a PR representative that helps her boyfriend appear in a seductive compaigne called "Absolut Hunk." The billboard was placed in Time Square and all of the girls loved him. The Absolut Hunk has now become a real drink and is very popular. Throughout the movie, everyone is sipping on the drink.

Another perspective she had was that big products such as Apple and Coca Cola are being placed in movies so often that other companies can not compete. These big companies have so much money that they can endorse into the movie and smaller companies do not have a chance in being a huge part of the plots. I definitely agree with Jacqueline in this case because it is difficult for small companies to outweigh the big products that are so popular in today's society. Smaller companies should try and find a new medium to get their products exposed to the consumers.

Semi- Extended Outline

As of right now, I do not have any concerns to address. If there are any other key topics I could add to my paper that would make it more interesting, I would love your feedback.

I. Introduction

a. Thesis- My objective for this research is to understand how online marketing creates the customer experience for travelers.

i. Background on my personal experience traveling to Vietnam and how it changed my life. This sparked my desire to travel the world.

ii. There are many tools you must know in order to understand the customer experience

1)Common research techniques
2)Current travel trends
3)Email marketing sector
4)Online businesses targeting online customers in the travel industry
5)Customer databases
6)The online travel industry and the recession
7)Key takeaways

II. The Body

1) Common research techniques

i. Many people type in key words in search engines like Google. Travel blogs came to my attention. People post blogs in detail. It can create an emotion for the reader and gives great advice to travelers going to certain destinations.

ii. The Internet has been the major source that travelers have used when getting information on tourism

iii. I found a blog title: When Places Don't Live Up to Your Expectations- Stories like these help the reader relate and can discourage them from booking a trip to destinations that give them a bad vibe.

2) Current Traveling Trends

i. Understanding the current traveling trends will help marketers understand the consumer. Understanding your consumer is vital if you want to gain a competitive advantage.

ii. One of the consumer trends is that consumers travel in order to discover themselves and seek to change their lives. Traveling is a way to escape into a new way of life and change their outlook on life.

iii. Another trend is that consumers travel to become educated. International tours have become very popular among travelers This is one of the trends I fall into.

iv. Another trend among travelers is that they like to have the option of customizing their vacations and in their own convenience. The goal is to have a user friendly website that would give travelers a good experience while booking their vacations.

v. Another trend is that people are starting to look at environmentally friendly trips. There are even "green hotels" that conserve energy

vi. The last trend is people go on trips to volunteer nowadays. It is a way for people to experience what other countries are facing.

3) Email marketing

i. Travel companies have been using email marketing to promote their products and services to consumers

ii. It is a great way to promote good deals for vacation packages. Customers have a great experience online when they feel like they are finding the best deals and saving money.

iii. Consumers feel more loyal towards companies that use email marketing because they feel that the travel companies want to maintain a strong relationship with them

4) Online Businesses Targeting Consumers

i. Online businesses can target consumers successfully only if they fully understand the consumer and how they think

ii. When consumers are looking at future travel destinations, they do not want to be bombarded with ads

iii. I will talk about the paradox of choice in this section because many websites have an overhwelming amount of choices that create difficult choices for consumers.

5) Customer Databases

i. Many online travel businesses have created customer databases to organize their client data information. This is importnat on categorizing individual customers' wants and needs.

ii. Harrah's Casino in Las Vegas is a great example of a business that has created customer databases in order to organize customer data and categorize customers into different sectors. By having this database, Harrah's has maintained relationships with many of its customers and have differentiated themselves from their competitors.

6) Online Travel Indsutry During the Recession

i. Profits have definitely plummeted since the recession

ii. Businesses have to reduce costs and a lot of businesses have had to offer extremely low prices just to stay in the game.

III. The Conclusion

7) Key Takeaways

i. Understanding the consumer is key to a successful business

ii. Differentiating your business is important to have a competitive adviantage over other businesses

iii. Being up to date with current travel trends is important when marketing to your consumer

iv. Creating a customer database is great for organizing clients into categories. This will help businesses market to individual consumers and fullfil their wants and needs.

v. User friendly websites give consumers a positive experience when booking their vacations