Final Marketing Post

This has been a fun class. I had a really good group for our project, and it looks like everyone in the class did a great job with their IMCs. I'm still considering majoring in marketing, but all that is still up in the air. At least, if scheduling permits, I'll likely take another marketing class sometime before I graduate. Have a great rest of the summer, and those of you who are taking classes this next half too, good luck!

Here's a really interesting paper about the relation between money, consuming, and happiness.

http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~dtg/DUNN%20GILBERT%20&%20WILSON%20%282011%29.pdf

It's 12 pages long, but quite informative in my opinion. It's also neat comparing the concepts in this picture to marketing.

Working on this IMC project has really made me appreciate the research that goes into marketing. I have found this research to be enjoyable though. Statistics are fun when you're only reading them and not trying to create them. I wonder if any of my classmates have unexpectedly really enjoyed this project as I have.

I was surprised to read that there's a whole section of promotions dealing with reminding people that they chose the right product. To me, that just seems to be an extra step towards brainwashing, or perhaps sheer desperation to keep and retain customers. Maybe that's just the paranoia talking...

It's funny hearing about translation errors, but what's not funny is how much of a mess they cause for the company. An example from the book: KFC's "Finger lickin' good" translated to Chinese as "Eat your fingers off." The poor consumers in China are perplexed by this American company's message to them. ;) Translation discrepancies must be expensive because the product or service doesn't want to be purchased, and when the company finds out what happened, they have to fix everything, spending more time and money to re-market the product. It just seems like something that should use a little extra time to be done right the first time.

It's really interesting seeing what people come up with for products that are generally considered "boring" but actually have a lot of design behind them. 

This is a fun concept to think about. Not just products that were designed on purpose, but ones designed on accident too. Also, what thought processes must have occurred "to put two and two together." 

A product that always baffles me is chopsticks. Essentially, using two sticks to hold all kinds of food, it just doesn't seem as intuitive as forks and spoons (shovel food into your mouth), yet they're not that hard to use after you get the hang of them, and I bet for the most part they're cheaper to make than American utensils.