Database Marketing

I recieve emails constantly (much to my irritation) from companies that I have previously purchased from. This is a classic example of databse marketing at its finest. You make a one tmie purchase and then you recieve emails long after you have made the purchase trying to tempt you into buying something again. These are obviously companies that have adapted the IMC method of marketing and are clearly not content with offering one time sales, and want to try and encourage brand loyalty though their emails.

Price Lining

I was looking at a buying a new car the other day and saw a perfect example of price lining. With a tons and tons of combinations, there was seperate prices for each. Leather, for instance was additional, the type of sound system, even sunroof vs. moonroof options. Almost everything you can think of as an additional feature came as an option but not without raising the price of course. It's very smart if you think about. Advertising a car at a good price to get people interested and then showing them all of the other available options for extra prices and before you know it, you have spent much more on a car than you had initially planned.

Product MIx

In the course of my casual stock trades, and doing research on certain companies. I cam across the blue chip Proctor and Gamble. Most people know that they produce a variety of goods but very few people recognize just how wide of a product mix that they truly have They have over 24 seperate brands that each seperatly have hundreds of different products! When you purchase common products such as, Oral B, or Pringles, one very rarely realizes that they are consuming a Proctor and Gamble product. Indeed this company has done a masterful job, of obtaining an enormous product mix.

Generational Marketing

I noticed a a lot of examples of generational marketing with adds on TV. One that especially stood out was Enterprise rent-a-car. Obviously the demographic of people that rent cars are usually older than probobaly 30. Very few young people go to the trouble to rent a car, we prefer to simply hitch rides, or better yet get someone to pick us up. Yet the enterprise commercial shows a husband and wife (middle aged) about to take a trip and in need to rent a car. I don't think I have ever seen an enterprise commercial with simply young people renting a car, and for good reason, it is simply not my demographic. I guess this example shows that generational branding is truly and effective mechanism.

Geocoding in Action

I have noticed that Facebook is on the chief "Geocoders" on the web today. Everytime you log into you profile you get advertisements from local business and activities. In fact you even get advertisements based on your own certain demographics. For instance, I get alot of military advertisements becuase I in the United States Air Force network and therefore I am targeted with adds in accordance with this. Perhaps this is why facebook is so valuable to marketing companies as it has essentially has so much market research already complete for advertisers.

Marketing emotions

I saw a commercial today that did a good job of taking current events and using them to their advantage. AllState insurnace started out by saying that it was founded during the great depression and still around. With the current recession it attempted to make people feel safe during these hard economic times. The cmmercial was suprisingly effective and did a good job of putting emotions to car insurance

Product Differentiation

When buying frozen concentrated orange juice yesterday I noticed an example of Behavioral Segmentation. The orange juices were segregated based on the behavior of it's various consumers. For example there was added calcium, vitamin fortified, pulp free, country style and others. The orange juice company was clearly attempting to target many distinct groups based on the behavior of how they enjoy their orange juice.