MKTG 6101

  In my experience with advertising in my undergraduate degree, it is clear that there are quite a few things to learn. Before I get into discussing my personal experience, it is important to talk about the basics first. First and foremost, I believe it is key to focus on advertising a single brand or product before moving on to a variety. Secondly, it is paramount to do in-depth research regarding the specific market segment you are looking to penetrate. By doing so, it will allow you to truly understand the demographic and other habits within this consumer segment. Ultimately, this will set up your product or brand for success from the start. In my personal opinion, it is also important to use multiple advertising efforts in order to maximize consumer awareness.  My first marketing experience occurred early in my junior year of undergraduate, as I enrolled in my first ever marketing class. After learning some of the basics, we were told to create a product and conduct an adv...

 In my two years of experience with Euclid Beverage, I have learned quite a few things about the beer industry. From working on the delivery trucks, to getting a job as a sales supervisor, there are many things that can be learned. Working for a company that carries a large majority of the market's top products in each category, there's one thing you cannot avoid: people drink a lot of beer. The question presents itself, how do we market our products to drinkers? Euclid does a great job of social media marketing. They make sure to let the public know all of the latest and greatest products, especially those that are limited seasonal products. In the summer, all the craze surrounds White Claw, Truly, and Vizzy Seltzers, as these products fly in the summer months. In the winter, our advertising switches to craft seasonals, including all the newest products from Revolution, as well as various others. 

 In the final reading of Dr. Kelsey's book, Surfing The Tsunami, I'd like to summarize the things I have learned. There are three things we can do as humans in the labor force to prepare ourselves for AI. The first option is to Adapt: learn more and pay attention, keep aware of where things are headed. The second option is Adopt: adopt AI related tools and platforms, so you can be involved in managing AI. The third option is Adept: get directly involved with developing AI, by learning coding and how to work with related data. One of my favorite quotes from Dr. Kelsey: "No matter what, in all of the articles I've read, from the darkest pessimism and alarm, all the way to the rosy glow of optimism about AI, no one that I have read suggests that it's okay to ignore AI." Professor could not be more spot on; it is absolutely not ok to ignore the impact of Artificial Intelligence. Be proactive, do not be complacent. AI is coming, and it is arriving faster than you m...

 In my reading of Guerrilla Marketing this week, I was excited when I saw the author begin to talk about the importance of sales representatives. As a sales rep for a MolsonCoors distributor, this section really resonated with me. The author goes on to talk about how it is seen that many salespeople work solely off commission, being so confident in their sales ability that they don't need a salary. It is often seen that some of the top sales people can end up bringing in more money than presidents and CEOs, simply because of their ability to create revenue. In my position, I have a base salary as well as the ability to achieve incentives based on certain supplier goals. Having the ability to make these incentives creates motivation amongst all of our sales team. I enjoy the challenge of meeting incentive goals simply because it allows me to push myself to get new products into stores, as well as making sure all products are well displayed and sell through. 

 In this week's reading of Ascend Your Startup, we come to the part of the book where we reach our "summit". Reaching the summit in terms of your business means you've reached the global stage, bringing your team along with you as you look to continue improving core efficiencies, as well as building more believers. No matter how you define your summit - it is important to acknowledge your team's successes along side of your own. Another point the author touches on is in regards to "Cultural Collaboration". "Cultural Collaboration means taking intentional action to build an inclusive, thriving culture where it's safe to share ideas." The question presents itself: How do we inspire cultural collaboration?  "Creating a culture of learning to encourage employees to help one another, cultivate gratitude, practice transparency, and understand how each employee can contribute to the overall company success inspires real disruption that leads ...

 In the article from the Wall Street Journal entitled "The Amazing Things You'll Do in the Metaverse and What it Will Take to Get There", I was taken aback by this. In an time period where a pandemic has taken many lives over the past couple years, this technology would have been perfect when it all started. A perfect way to keep people from going outside and interacting with others. However, do we really need this kind of technology? Virtual Reality has skyrocketed over the past few years, and it will be interesting to see how this technology advances, as we are already seeing this in the creation of this Metaverse game. It really makes you think, will the impact of virtual reality be a positive one? Or a negative one? Personally, I think the impact would be a negative one, as it would eliminate the need for face to face contact. \

 In this week's set of blogs, I wanted to touch on what I've been learning throughout this semester and how to apply it to my career. As a Sales Representative for a large beer distributor, I am always observing, always learning. Guerrilla marketing is all around us, and advertising efforts are increasing daily. In my position, it is my job to make sure my products sell, so they equip up with Point-of-Sale (POS) items that will bring awareness to products.  I've also been learning quickly where I want to go next; that is, where I'd like to take the next step in my career. I have been dealing with a lot of suppler Representatives over the past few weeks, and I think it would be cool to work directly for a supplier and push only the company's products into the market, instead of a vast array of products. 

This week's chapter had me reminded about a topic I learned about in undergraduate. I wanted to touch on how businesses can use  insights to better analyze how well a company is reaching out to their consumers. Another important factor in achieving that goal is social listening. Social listening is the monitoring of your brand's social media channels for any customer feedback and direct mentions of your brand or discussions regarding specific keywords, topics, competitors, or industries, followed by an analysis to gain insights and act on those opportunities. It is seen that customers enjoy when their favorite brands are listening and actively respond to their inquiries and other questions. Social listening also helps a company measure their growth by analyzing how well their outreach is in the long-term. It also helps create new opportunities as well as increasing a company's consumer base by the idea of social listening. 

 In this week's chapter of Surfing The Tsunami, I wanted to touch on a topic that our professor dives into a bit. In the field of Data Science, we find that machine learning is a very close relative. A quote from Dr. Kelsey is as follows: "Some might say that machine learning “is” a part of data science, and one way to simplify it is to think of data science as one of the areas that allows you to “apply” AI to business and other fields these days. The main reason is that in order to make practical use of AI in business, you need to be able to work with the data from that business."  As someone who is interested and has a degree in business analytics, it is a scary thought to think of AI potentially taking my job one day. However, the key part missing here is the ability to apply this data to the specific field of work. 

In this week's chapter of Dr. Kelsey's book, I wanted to mention a part that really resonated with me. In the paragraph, "Routine work is the mother of automation", Dr. Kelsey talks about acceptance. Specifically, he mentions   "I was doing the same thing, over and over and over again. Part of what was going on for me is something like the five stages of grief, where the final one is acceptance: I had to accept that I was almost famous, and working in a cubicle. That was harsh. But acceptance is good, I’m suggesting that you too, work on acceptance, as you consider choosing to pursue AI, or if you ignore it, and someday you have no choice. I thought this was really cool - ultimately, we are not alone in our struggles of everyday life. Acceptance is good, even if we're only talking about the massive impact of AI. This point really resonated with me and I look forward to sharing to others. 

After coordinating with my co-workers at Euclid Beverage, we have had some issues with our ads falling through the cracks. We decided to use the company's website to advertise certain seasonal beers.  We did not gain nearly as many clicks as we had hoped - however, we still did get some interactions. We have found that it is likely our ads are falling to the second and third tabs in a google search, and we are figuring out the best ways to improve our clicks without investing more into the advertisements. We look forward to continuing our efforts into marketing seasonal craft beers as we move forward into the final weeks of class. 

Guerilla marketing may be the right solution for many small business organizations. It will often be low cost still reaching a highly targeted audience. It may also be the best way to distinguish from the competition to get a reputation for being different. This unique type of marketing is built by using some unorthodox methods to drive traffic.   Guerilla marketing is originally manufactured for small businesses. But large business enterprises can’t hide from this thesis. It is all about broadcasting your services as well as products. This type of marketing is a practice of technology that involves uncertain ways to promote or increase the engagements with products and services. For this approach, it produces a large impact and it is more memorable.   

In this week's chapter, I couldn't help but think about personal branding. The phrase "personal brand" is thrown around a lot today, and the question presents itself, what does it mean? A personal brand is the practice of marketing people and their careers as brands. It involves an ongoing process of developing and maintaining a reputation and impression of an individual or organization. In today's society, building your own personal brand is of increased importance, as it can determine how successful you are in terms of building and maintaining connections in the business world. Having a positive personal brand can be a huge asset in growing your company both internally and externally. In this image, it is shown all the characteristics that go in to giving your brand its own unique identity. It started with creating a vision for your brand, making sure that it's authentic and has its own personality. The next steps involve creating value within the brand, dif...

 In this week's chapter of Surfing The Tsunami, I wanted to touch on a very interesting analogy made by our professor in his book. When it comes to Artificial Intelligence, it is seen that many people are quite hesitant to accept or even acknowledge its impact. Our professor goes on to make the analogy to the Trojan Horse, as so many are unwilling to let AI into their businesses. Letting AI into a business could result in a loss of human jobs, and could ultimately be less reliable.  Then, Dr. Kelsey goes on to make the point about how he believes there is not much that can stop the increased impact of AI over the long-term. It is nearly inevitable at this point, so the only thing we can do as workers in today's world is adapt. There are many positive things AI can bring to our businesses, and it is best to find those positive impacts and apply them in day to day work. 

In this week's chapter of Guerrilla Marketing, the idea of various media marketing comes to mind. In today's society, it is clear that social media has an impact on the success of a business. This has been stated in my previous posts, and will continue to be a theme throughout the course. The goal of an organization is to make a profit, and there are many ways of doing so. Often times businesses will make an investment in something, whether that is technology or manpower. The goal in this investment is to make a return, (ROI) and ultimately gain something out of that investment. In social media marketing, it has been seen that companies will invest in advertisements on multiple platforms in order to increase brand awareness. This ad's cost money, and in return an organization hopes to increase profit by making customers more aware of their product.

 In the past few weeks, I have been researching what company/product to advertise. I was able to decide on my own company, Euclid Beverage, to advertise for. My company carries a wide range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, so there is a wide array of products to pick from. Coordinating with the Media/Graphic Design Manager at Euclid, I have decided to focus on advertising seasonal craft beers. My goal in this project is to bring more consumer knowledge to craft brands throughout the Chicagoland area. This week, I am focusing on advertising Revolution Brewing company's Oktoberfest beer. 

 In this week's chapter of Ascend Your Start-Up, I was immediately reminded of Facebook Advertising. Facebook is largely considered the worlds biggest social media platform in terms of users, with over 1 billion users worldwide. In contrast, Twitter has about half the amount of users. In terms of reaching a large audience, Facebook would be a good way to begin that goal. However, it is seen that Facebook requires a varying payment for advertising to certain audiences throughout the world, and the price increases based on the size of the demographic an advertiser aims to reach.  Facebook has also undergone increased scrutiny for false reporting of its metrics, with a large percentage of users being "bots" that are not real users. With this fact, it is also been observed that in today's society Facebook is not the preferred social media site anymore, as sites like Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn continue to grow their consumer bases. In my opinion, the cons to advertis...