In Response to Nikkis Post

I think that Facebook plays a huge role in marketing.  Businesses can definitely expand through Facebook.  It feels like every college student either has a Facebook or at least goes on Facebook frequently.  Having a business on Facebook is a free marketing tool to get the information out there.  Campus Mom Laundry has the start of a Facebook website but it is lacking many things.  There is barely any information out there on the service.  There aren't any catchy pictures or any quotes from other people to validate how good or bad the service is.  Once people start to "like" the page, more and more friends of friends will see the website.  Word of mouth is a very important aspect to marketing.

Logo's vs Unique

I was watching a commercial for Shell gas station and a good point was brought up.  A man said that he knew a lot about marketing and that the key to market is having many logos everywhere.  Someone else commented saying yes that'd important however it is more important to have a unique product.  I don't necessarily know if having one or the other is more important.  Having your logo's everywhere definitely catching the attention of your target market.  The more your brand is in the public eye, the more people will  remember it and most likely buy it.  If you brand is not unique however, no one will buy it.  If your product is bland and similar to every product in that area, then the more logo's you have will just be over looked.  Your product must bring something to the table that your other competitors product does not bring.  Both the constant marketing and uniqueness of the product are extremely important.  Is there anything else that make a product successful?

In Response to Kayle's Post..

Kayle brought up the fact that Dunkin Donuts is starting to market a new snack food line.  I agree with what she said about how we look at Dunkin Donuts as a place for bagels, donuts and muffins; not hamburg, pepperoni and turkey melts.  I think that Dunkin is such a well-know fast food place that they will make a good profit off of these new snacks however I think it takes away the breakfast feel of the place.  I personally won't buy the new snacks because the quality of those types of snacks can't be too good at a fast food place.

Too Sexy Too Soon

Recently while I was watching the news, a new segment came on discussing how young girls are becoming "too sexy" at such a young age.  The segment went into a piece of how the marketing world is targeting young girls.  There are many influences in the media for young girls today.  Kids are starting to emulate the celebrities and wear provocative clothes starting at an early age.  It doesn't help that companies are producing toy dolls are seem to emulate a sexier style.  Kids are starting to give the wrong message out.   In my opinion, I think that it is up to the parents especially to control this issue.  Companies are doing what they can to market to a new target market.  If you believe that a certain type of doll is portraying an inappropriate message, then it is in your best interest not to buy the doll.  Parents also need to start monitoring what their young children watch.  If children are constantly in the view of sex icons and scandalous celebrities, then assume that they will try to emulate those people.  It is unfortunate that companies are trying to market sexier to a younger generation however that is just the way marketing works sometimes.  Its up the parents to make sure their children are showing the right message.

Growing up with Branding

I never really thought about the importance of branding until we watched the view in class where a study was mentioned about using a different logo on the same shirt.  Three identical cotton short sleeve shirts had different logos and customers voted on which one was of better quality.  It was amazing that people chose the most popular brand as the best quality shirt.   When I was growing up, I was very into certain brands.  To me, Abercrombie and Hollister were the big go to logos that I needed to wear.  It made me feel like I was wearing the right type of clothes and that they were the best quality also.  My mom would buy me a shirt from a department store and I would think that it was cheap and not good enough yet my Abercrombie shirt had a whole in it after wearing it once to school!  I have many little cousins and two of them are at the age of the "importance of branding."  Luckily my cousins are not as involved in having a certain logo on their clothes as their friends are.  My oldest cousin is a freshman in high school and he only cares about wearing certain sports teams clothes.  My other cousin who is in 7th grade, is a girl and her group of friends care a lot about what type of logo is on their clothes.  She has told me of the fights girls have gotten into because someone wasn't wearing a certain brand of clothing.  It is sad that this is such a big part of deciding what to wear.  Hopefully times will change soon and kids won't care wether their shirts say Abercrombie or they are just plain.

Do you feel as though branding/logo's were an important part of growing up?

In Response to Erik Bergstorm's Post

Erik wrote about the website called Stumble Upon and I could not agree with him more.  This is best thing to do when you are bored or just want to see whats out there.  You can have it set to your personal preferences.  I think it is a great tool for marketers.  Stumble Upon gives us more unique websites that wouldn't regularly come up on google or another search engine.  I have found some pretty good websites for different things.  I think everyone should check out StumbleUpon.

In response to Erik Bergstorm's Post

Erik wrote a blog about how fast the social networking such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogging etc as become a top form of communication.  I completely agree.  I myself only have a Facebook.  When MySpace came out, I create one until Facebook took the lead.  Now that there are so many other ways to publicize yourself such as blogging and twitter, I've started to become turned off by these social networks.  At the moment, I refuse to create a Twitter.  Twitter is based on telling everyone your every move and to be honest, I just don't care!  These online social networks have taken over the simple phone calls or meetings in person.  I think it unfortunate that our society has turned everything we do into a mean of publicizing yourself online.  Important meetings or deadlines are sometimes discuss through these sites which to me is so impersonal and annoying.  I hope there aren't any more sites that get as big as facebook!