Vinyl

Can you believe today that bands are still releasing albums on vinyl these days? You can. My most favorite bands are all modern bands. How easy it is to just download an album these days, it's just crazy to think they would still make vinyl copies. I love the classic look, and to hear the modern music from a classic sound is awesome. But there's no way I'm sitting down and listening to a whole album from that. I believe the main reason bands make vinyl's these days is for looks. I have almost all of my favorite bands vinyls hanging on my walls. I plan to have every inch of the wall covered in all of my favorite bands vinyls. It's cool to think how all of the modern bands these days still market to the people with the classic feel. I bet half the people who even know what vinyl is doesn't even listen to the bands now these days. CD's are now becoming a thing of the past, but like the vinyl, they will still live on for a while. It will always find it's market out there.  

Divorce

I'd like to say that I am blessed with parents that are the definition of marriage. They have been through more than I can tell you, yet they are still together after 40 plus years, and it's been better than ever. I see on billboards all the time where it says "cheap divorce". It saddens me to see that. It saddens me that divorce is such a common thing now these days, that it's being advertised for help to get out of it easy. I could go on and on about marriage. It's not love that sustains the commitment, it's the commitment that sustains the love. I know lawyers have been thriving due to this fact. It may be the biggest market for being a lawyer.

No Shave November

Ever wonder if November is a bad month for the companies who sell shaving cream? I mean it's not like you walk around and see every man with a beard, and women with legs full of hair, but I'm pretty sure sells do decrease somewhat during the month. I know I participate in it. It's nice to not have to shave for a long time, and have a valid reason not to. Even though it may not help dramatically, I think shaving cream companies should make advertisements that are comical. Example: Do you really want to go a whole month without a kiss from your wife"? or " Women- Don't you want to be able to tell your leg apart from your husbands?" That would be great to give someone a laugh, and discourage people from participating in not buying their product.

Hazmat suit anyone?

One word: ebola... Quite frankly I'm getting tired of hearing about it. Not on the official news, just on social medias. It's alllll anyone and everyone talks about. You know what "sickens" me? Every post you see about ebola is that it's spread to this city, or that city, or it's in the air, or it's bring people back from the dead. Yes, of course it's a real thing (the sickness) and it very well could become a serious matter, but people do not look at facts. They will see any kind of post on social medias and believe it like they just witnessed it themselves. With all that being said, what sickens me is that all of the bogus posts about ebola that people see and get so worked up/scared about get reposted and shared like crazy, and help promote the idiots who run the cite/blog/forum. Marking can be dark sometimes... Making up false statements, and lies will get you somewhere if you're good enough at it, (might I say bad enough to do it). The people that created those websites create dumb blogs without proper resources or research all just to get people to view their page. There really are people who are dying from this awful disease, and creating stuff like that is just a slap in the face to everyone and their families who have been affected by it. Marketing can make you sick sometimes.

METAL \m/

From working at a pet store, and wanting to be a business man, it's funny that I find myself in a metal band. I play guitar for my progressive metal band I founded a couple years ago. Even though I've grown up my whole life listening to rock and metal, I have never fit the image. I wear normal clothes, have normal hair, no piercings or tattoos. Yeah when we played a few gigs, I know people were "like what's this guy doing up there?" I enjoy being me, and sure do enjoy playing the music I write and love, despite lacking the image for the genre. My point in this is I know when my band is to get a descent demo out, we know what our target market will be to get our name out there. People with crazy looking clothes, colorful and weird hair cuts, and LOTS of piercings and tattoos. We have to get our name out there more somehow, and scoping out the people with the right image is a great start.

ZOMBIES

Most of my posts have been about business, which is what its supposed to be. But I'd like to put in a random thought this time. One of my favorite shows came back on this month, The Walking Dead. So I'm pumped to watch some zombie action. You know, even with a zombie show, as popular as it is, you can tie it all to business. This show brings a huge market for weird stores that sell weird things such as zombie stuff. I see t-shirt stores every where that have The Walking Dead t-shirts by the boat loads. So in a way, this show helps out tons of businesses, such as a t-shirt store. BRAINSSSSS

Rollll Tide

How about that Bama game? Yeah buddy, I bet the nation is happy they went down. You know, in my opinion, the nation helped them go down. All the hype, all the attention on both teams, it really set the par of who had the advantage of succeeding. College footballs ESPN Gameday was at the Ole Miss stadium, and wherever that is, you know it's going to be the game everyone in the country will be watching. Of course, Ole Miss having their home field advantage was one of the main keys, but having national attention just gets you going no matter who you are. I speak for Alabama too, I wish Gameday would even go to the pee wee teams they play. Of course, it is on Alabama to survive and endure the hype, and prevail through it. There are many other factors such as turnovers and penalties that are to blame for the loss. My main point is, who was the better team? If it weren't for Ole Miss having all of the hype, attention, and atmosphere they wouldn't have caught the breaks they did, and they would have not won the game. Same goes for marketing, and advertising. Something can be poor in quality (Ol Miss) and still be more successful than something in great quality (Alabama), if you have the right ways to get it out there, promote, hype it up, and bring in all the attention.

Apples

 It never fails that when I'm in a large group of people, you hear that one ringtone or notification sound, and 95% of them are looking down at their phones to see if it was theirs. I always wonder why EVERYONE I see has an iPhone. When it came out, I figure it took off because of the previous devices they had with the Mac computer & iPod. It's a simple phone, the settings and apps are easy to figure out. I can see why most of the world likes them. They make connecting way easier in so many ways. I don't own one because I do not like to blend in with the crowd, I like to do my own thing. Plus, you can do SO MUCH more with any other phone but an iPhone. You just got to know how to do it. Although I can see why so many people are won over by iPhone. They constantly change, even if it's a simple feature like you can press a new button to turn the camera on. Every year they come out with a new phone, a new update to the software, and it sky rockets in price from anticipation and hype. They listen to their market, and put forth their demands they want in a phone. They advertise, hype up something new like crazy, and they get their moneys worth, even if the change is a bigger screen or a new way to unlock your phone. They keep it fresh, and slowly win the whole world over.

Competition

I know I use my job as a reference most of the time, but working retail, and being a manager in the field helps and exposes you quite a bit to how things work in marketing. They are starting construction on our only competition, right across the road from us. Although it is not finished, and will not be for a while, we have noticed that customers have been bringing in coupons from our competition that they thought was from us. The place isn't even built yet, but they are sending out coupons, and letting the public know that they are coming. There is a big pretty sign out by the road stating that they are coming, and it's even been advertised in the newspaper. We certainly hear the most of it. Their best way of reaching out to the public, advertising, sending out coupons, is our worse enemy. Although we have few customers state that they will always stay loyal to our name, we hear most say " I can't wait for that other store to open". The building for the store isn't even built, yet it seems that they are already one step ahead of us. They know the market they need to reach out to, and the advertisement and deals are too good to resist. That's what marketing can do for you. Hopefully I won't be out of a job within the next few months!

From Experience

Working in a pet retail store, I've learned a lot about marketing and what it can do for a product or service. If you put it out there, hype it up, make it look fancy and nice, people will buy and demand like hot cakes, no matter the quality. For instance: our dog food line. We sell many different types and brands of dog food. I won't name any for legal purposes, but some are very high in quality, and some are not. Of course, there are some brands that are obviously generic, and will not be high in price. But some dog foods may be priced the same, yet people have no idea what quality they are getting. You see, the dog foods that are on commercials, being talked about by everyone, having coupons in the local paper or sent in emails, that is the dog food everyone comes in and buys. In all actuality, a lot (not all) of brands you see advertised through media are very low quality foods. 1 and 2 stars out of 5 to be exact. We always inform our customers of what they are feeding their dogs, and that we carry higher quality, 5 star brands that are better than any grocery brand, or heavily advertised brand. We convert most to the better quality foods, although there are plenty of those who are dead set on what the TV or newspaper says. The moral to the story is that if you put a product out there, choose your market, and promote, you will more than likely have great success in a product or service.

Ideas for a store

One of my life's dreams is to open a pet store one day. My love for animals, and my desire to help others with their animals would be key in being successful. With my experience in the pet retail world, I have grown to learn much about the field and have developed a mindset of becoming an owner of my very own pet store one day. I've created ideas of how my store could be better than all the others.
Some of those ideas are:

-Really reaching out to customers by the appearance of  our store. Making the animals habitats as realistic as possible. Set a scene for each area that is fitting. Making the place look so good that people will want to come in like it's just a zoo.

-For live feeders and quick buys of animal food, have a "drive-thru" like at a fast food restaurant.

- Have events that keep bringing people back.

- Have a great rewards program that will give back to frequent buyers, and help advertise throughout the area.

The list goes on.

Blog link for ETP265

Hello Mr. White!
My name is Jeremy Hughey.
I hope this is what is needed for week one of this semester.
Thank you!