In Response to Aubrey Menegus...

Aubrey talks about how VH1 is aiming at a new target of women, ages 25 to 35, because of it's recent lack in popularity. She gives examples as to why VH1 is choosing to do this, one being that men are viewed as the "funny people" on television and how women need to shed their funny light as well. In doing so, VH1 hopes to make women laugh along with the men who already are.

I think VH1 did a good job in recognizing that they do need to include more women in their audience. Having "funny women" come onto the network will hopefully allow the station to do so. VH1's shows don't interest me, as a women, right now because they are pretty masculine and I cannot relate to them.

Aubrey also brings up a good point about how women make up 80% of the consumer market so it would be beneficial for VH1 to have them on board. Advertisers realize these statistics and are more opt to want to market their product on a station where people will buy it. 

I hope VH1 markets these funny women well and puts them in the right light. Hopefully both male and female can enjoy it too!

Do you think VH1 should focus on becoming more feminine? Do women enjoy this station as much as men?

Another Drink like Four Loko?

The makers of Colt 45 malt liquor have stimulated a debate with their new beverage that some fear will encourage kids to drink.

In this new "alcopop" drink called Blast, there is 12% alcohol compared to the Colt 45 drink with 6% alcohol. This increase in alcohol content has people worried that this beverage is another Four Loko in disguise. This drink is colorful and is being endorsed by celebrities like Snoop Dogg and comes in lollipop flavors - yet they claim it isn't being directed to kids.

The company  claims they are not directing this drink towards children and that it says so on the label. Doesn't every alcoholic beverage have a warning on the label about being of legal age to drink? That doesn't mean that only people of legal age are going to drink it.

Coming from Colt 45's point of view, I think this is a risky yet genius idea. When Four Loko came out there was so much controversy surrounding it that everyone had to try it at least once, especially since many laws were going to passed about it soon after banning it. This may end up being a limited time drink but I believe Colt 45 will get a good chunk of sales out of it.

Do you think Colt 45 is marketing correctly? Do you think they should continue to stand by this drink?

Here is the link to the video in the article

Netflix Family Plan

 In this article, an investor is talking about how Netflix is soon to offer a "family plan" and more Facebook exposure.

This will "allow Netflix customers to add multiple users to a single account at a discounted price," while Gigaom speculates that the plan "could look like a cell phone family plan, with an option to add additional accounts at a lower price point."

I think this is a good idea for Netflix and I am surprised they haven't thought of this sooner if this is indeed going to be beneficial. I feel like every company has a "family plan" option, just like cell phone plans do.

I don't know much about how Netflix works now so the question that I have is.. if a family purchases Netflix, which is $7.99 a month for delivery of DVDs to your home, wouldn't it just be cheaper to have one person's name under the account and have that person order the DVD each person wants? Then they could all split the price? I am a little confused because couldn't everyone just pay that one person and it would be cheaper than having a whole family sign up for the account for more money just to have everyone be able to order what they want?

If I have this idea wrong let me know but I don't see what a family plan could bring that is more beneficial than what individual could bring anyways.

What do you think of this family plan idea? Will it be beneficial to Netflix?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/19/new-netflix-feature-family-plans-facebook_n_850978.html?icid=maing-grid7|aim|dl4|sec1_lnk2|57200 

In Response to Diana Schaller

Diana rebuttals against an article focusing on McDonald's way of marketing in Japan and their deals and lack of healthy choices on the menu. I agree with Diana when she talks about how this is the marketing ploy for Japan's Micky D's and because their culture is interested in fast greasy food, McDonald's is going to give them fast greasy food.

It may not be morally right but, hey, McDonald's doesn't see the harm in it if their going to boost their sales. When it comes to being morally correct, there must be an audience to view the marketing as corrupt but as far as Japan is concerned, this food is exactly what they want. So from a marketing perspective I think it is the right thing to do.

Would you market this way in Japan if you were McDonald's?

In Response to Abby Hajec…

I agree that websites sharing information without a person’s consent is wrong. Pandora is not only to blame for this too, the companies it shares with are also at fault. If I found out what websites have this shared information of mine I would immediately have less admiration for them. I could understand if Pandora shared a person’s information with their consent when they signed up for it but without doing so is an invasion of privacy. This makes me wonder about other companies as well and which ones to trust and not to trust. I now think differently about Pandora and I don’t know if I still want to have an account with them. If I got rid of it would they still have all my information though?

Putting the King Back in the Burger

An article called the Return of the King in Slate Otalked about how Burger King, being the number 2 burger joint in the nation, next to McDonalds, is advertising the “King” brand mark in hopes for more brand recognition and to boost breakfast sales. Burger King’s concern is that when people think of fast food breakfast they usually think McDonald’s Egg McMuffin. They want to change that. 

Their plan is to “Wake up with the King” which, in the ads, is the slogan linked with the giant creepy guy with the enormous crown on his head oddly sitting at your bedside when you wake up. It is so disturbing that the image and thought of waking up with him allows it to be more memorable. 

I agree with their idea to make something so strange that it will stick in your head (although it is eerie). The only thing I think they are doing wrong is not having a distinct enough food to link with the ad. The ads feature the new Double Croissan'wich a couple times but there isn’t enough exposure of it. Burger King needs to the food front and center and the King in the background just doing his weird thing. 

Here is the article:

http://www.slate.com/id/2107697/

Do you agree that Burger King is doing the right thing? Do you think their Double Croissan'wich is something that sticks in the mind enough to be popular?

In Response to Nikki Perry...

Nikki posted about how new research has come out about Facebook fan pages and how they aren’t very effective for marketing products or services and I agree with her opposition to it. People use Facebook more so to find other people than products but newer, especially smaller, companies really can benefit from it. I usually use restaurant fan pages to find out the latest deals and what’s new on menu and I feel that many others do too. Mike Vatone could really benefit from an organized fan page with information about how his laundry service works and the details behind it such as pricing. He could have short term deals on his service and put them in his status so people become more aware of it. Right now Facebook is one of the most popular websites that people look at daily and if college students become more aware of a product or service they are more likely to use than not. So why not market your product?