Response to Tammy Chou's question on John Smith

Do you think there is a benefit over laying off employees as opposed to cutting wages? If you were the owner of a company, would you have more than one plan? What would it be?

I think there would be a large benefit of laying off the employees over cutting wages because either way your going to effect the workers. You dont necessarily need a large number of employees. In todays world managers and owners are more likely to lay people off than to cut wages, its just the reality. If I were owner of the company Im not sure I would have a plan for such a small company. I would definitely deny the offer of selling my employees names to the car company. I think it breaks the laws of ethics.
Are ethics as important in todays business world as they once were?

Marketing Research

As explained in chapter 9 marketing research objective is the specific information needed to solve a marketing research problems; the objective should be to provide insightful decision making information. Marketing research enables companies to check how a product is faring in the market and if it needs changes or touch-ups. Because we live in such a technology dominated worl the internet plays a huge role in marketing research. More than 90 percent of America's marketing research companies conduct some form of online research. It has even replaced computer-assisted telephone interviewing as the most popular form of data collecting.

Why would online focus groups be advantageous to a marketing research company?

Response to John Smith

I believe that this is a very commen dilema in todays world. Every industry is becoming so competitive with the economy suffering. Smaller businesses are struggling to compete with the large corporations who are beginning to take over. When businesses are in need owners will go to extreme lengths to make something happen. If the business was running smoothly, I would say the owner wouldnt be doing anything wrong by selling the names, but because the business is struggling taking that money wouldnt be beneficial to these employees because eventually the business would crash. Taking the money would only create a temporary fix for the lack of revenues.

Response to Nicoles question on infomercials

I think infomericals are very annoying but I too get sucked into them most times. I find myself watching them and thinking how stupid they are but then I realize that they succeeded in trying to garner my attention. When infomercials come on I usually change the channel because I think they are a waste of time . Although they usually annoy me, sometimes the products they are selling are pretty funny.

What is your favorite or least favorite commercial?Why?

Social Media and Promotion

Promotion is a very important part of selling the product/service. There are many different ways a company can promote its product to the public. I think that social media is the most effective way because it isnt as aggressive as say a survey would be. With todays world being dominated by social media this gives companies an opportunity to connect with many potential customers on a consistent basis. People are constantly on their phones and laptops so this constant reminder of a product or products gives the companies promoting their products through social media a competitive advantage in the market. Contests are also a great way for a company to promote its product and with consumers online all the time this gives companies a chance to combine these two promotional strategies into one. This may not be as successful because for me personally when I see a contest online I ignore it, assuming its spam or some kind of virus.

Although social media is a great way to promote a product, in what ways would it be unsuccessful?

Response to Jonathan Tomachicks question

Do you think Television Stations may go too far in the future in regards to the viewer-voting competition shows, similar to "Survivor", "Big Brother", and the new ones to come?

I think that TV stations have already gone too far with these competition shows such as survivor and big brother because they arent as popular as they once were.  It is hard for us to truly think that these people are really "surviving" the harsh conditions of an island with dozens of cameras all around at almost every angle. For me I think that these shows are more of a nice vacation for people as they get to go to beauitufl islands and "face the wild".It was only the first couple of seasons that were really popular for survivor and it has been struggling for viewers ever since. I think our generation is more likely to watch the viewer-voting competition shows for music such as American Idol, or The Voice which has become really popular in the last year. Just like when survivor became popular, shows like American Idol or The Voice will become more mainstreem.

Why do you think Americans cling to shows that are competition related?

Pricing Strategies

Chapter 19 talks about pricing concepts and strategies. There are many different options for pricing strategies including:
Penetration Pricing- Start off with a product with a low price, and as customer base increases you can jack up the price.
Optional Pricing- A company would sell optional products with a main product to help with sales.
Premium Pricing- A price is set very high in relation to aa luxury product.
Competition Pricing- Setting the price of a product to that of your competitors.
Bundle Pricing- A company bundles together multiple products to sell together at a discounted rate.
Skimming Pricing- A product starts off at a high price and goes down over time to reach a larger market.
Psychological Pricing- The seller decides the price based on what they think a consumer will pay for the product.

Some real life examples of these definitions include:
Penetration pricing- Dish Newtwork will offer a satellite dish to its customer at a low rate, and then once the market increaed for there product, they would increase the price for the cable or satellite channels.
Competitive Pricing- In most retail stores such as Target and WalMart you will see adds about having the lowest price. Some even have little print that says "Compare to Targets price at $X.XX".
Skimming Pricing- When XBOX and Playstation come out with the Xbox 720 and Playstation 4, the prices are going to be very high. But as time passes the product will start to fall in price. For example when the PS3 came out it cost around $500, and today you can purchase a PS3 for around $250.

When thinking about all of the pricing strategies, one jumped out at me. Psychological pricing seems like a companies best way of making a profit. Companies price things different to get the consumer to have a different reaction. A company would market something for $10 but price it a $9.99. For some reason this makes consumers want the product more because it is cheaper, when really it is not. Why do you think psychological pricing is so successful in todays market?