Product Placement

Aren’t commercials enough? Do we really need to watch our favorite show, see a movie or catch the game without having all those name drops and visualizations of products? I personally don’t care if all the vehicles on TV show are Chevrolets. It doesn’t matter if someone is drinking a Coke instead of Pepsi. Is it going to influence your buying decisions if there is a Nike swoosh on your favorite, or not so favorite, college basketball team? (March madness you know)

I hope that people realize that an arrangement, usually involving money, was made so that those products can be in all those places I mentioned and that the characters on TV and in movies did not choose those products themselves.

Just one more question. Does product placement make a difference for you?

In response to Kerri’s post.

I agree, customer service is an important part of the product. With the development and wide use of mobile and computer based technology it is easy for anyone to search, research and compare products. If you choose to go to an actual store to make your purchase one important aspect of your shopping experience is the customer service. Employees that are glad and capable of helping you with your purchase can differentiate that business from others. Even on line shopping has to ensure the customer is happy; availability of the product, ordering procedures, shipping and shipping cost, return policies and even the design of the web site can make or break a sale. With the buying process becoming more impersonal, customer service is more important than ever.    

Packaging serves many purposes, one of which is a place to put a label. For food product this label includes nutritional information. The Nutritional Labeling and Education Act of 1990 made this type of information mandatory. Many of the ingredients are pretty straight forward, water sugar, sodium etc. Then of course there are all those chemical names. But one ingredient has always been difficult for me to understand, natural flavoring.

The FDA defines it as follows: The term natural flavor or natural flavoring means the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional. Natural flavors include the natural essence or extractives obtained from plants listed in subpart A of part 582 of this chapter, and the substances listed in 172.510 of this chapter. http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfCFR/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=501.22
I think I’m more confused now. Does this make any sense to anyone? Should ingredients be clearer?

In response to Caitlyn’s post.

Many companies are having issues with profits and stock prices, in large part because of the increase in payroll taxes. These taxes hit twice, the consumer has less money to spend and the employer has to pay more.  Wal-Mart is very good at reading customers' shopping habits and adjusting quickly. You may see stores adjusting inventory toward lower-price items and smaller-packaged goods trying to maintain customers. I don’t think Wal-Mart is down for the count.

NAFTA

Government policies are complex and the information we receive about them is sometimes bias. Our text, Lamb, Hair, McDaniel (2013). Marketing What’s Inside, paints a picture of increased prosperity for all involved.  I found a couple of web sites that paint a very different picture. The links are below so rather than repeat the information I will just summarize.

*The US was able to move jobs to lower cost Mexico. Outsourcing.

*Mexico lost 1.3 million farm jobs because they couldn’t compete with the low priced products      coming from the U.S.

*Mexico environment deteriorated because the agribusiness used more chemicals to try to increase crop outputs.

*Mexican truck travel is limited to 20 miles within the US however, U.S. trucks, although they do not comply with restrictions imposed by the Mexican government, have unlimited access across Mexico.

Does free trade mean fair trade? There are a lot of web sites with a lot of information, you decide.  

http://useconomy.about.com/od/tradepolicy/p/NAFTA_Problems.htm

http://www.citizen.org/documents/NAFTA_10_mexico.pdf

In Response to Haley's post

Haley asked,Have you ever found yourself being persuaded to purchase a product after noticing the ads while surfing the internet?

I have mixed feelings about these targeted ads. It is invasive for “someone” to know exactly what I have been searching for on the net. Privacy is important to many people. But does it really matter that “they” know you are looking for a new pair of shoes?

I have looked at some of these ads but I have never bought anything because of them. Information is important in the buying process. Knowing what is available can help you make the best buying decision.

Should these types of targeted ads be restricted from children? How do they know the age of the person doing the shopping?

Purchasing Power

Marketers bombard us every day with messages about products and services they want us to buy. These messages use many different techniques to try to get us to spend our money on their products. Much of the money we spend is used for necessities, food, clothing, and shelter. The money we have left over is considered “disposable income”. Regardless of our reasons for spending our money, most of us have a finite amount that we can spend. Many of us strive to increase the amount of money we earn so we can increase our spending on the things we want rather than the things we need. Purchasing power is important to marketers. The more money we have, the more we can spend.

President Obama has a plan to increase the minimum wage to $9 an hour. Will this increase our purchasing power?