Marketing Case Study

Girl Scout Cookies first started being sold in 1917 when a troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma sold cookies they baked at their high school. In 1922 a cookie recipe was shared with the 2,000 other Girl Scouts in the council. It was said that they could make six or seven dozen cookies could be made for 26 to 36 cents. These cookies could then be sold at a price of 25 or 30 cents per dozen. Over time the popularity of the cookies grew and more and more troops across the country began selling them. In the 1970's the cookies we know today were being sold such as Thin Mints, Do-si-dos and Trefoils. Today twelve different cookies are sold all over the country. Today you can purchase a box for about four dollars. The value proposition for this is interesting because the cookies themselves aren't necessarily a business but a means for the Girl Scout troops to raise money for their programs. All the money made through cookie sales goes to the girls that sold those cookies. The value proposition of Girl Scouts themselves is about raising up young girls, teaching life skills and providing a safe and welcoming environment for them. Their mission statement is "Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place." I think the value proposition for Girl Scout Cookies is providing quality cookies at a low price, and that are very convenient. The girls initially visit your house and ask if you want to buy cookies, then a couple weeks later they show up at your door and deliver the cookies. All that is required of the customer is going to their door and handing over money. The Girl Scouts also set up in front of grocery stores, where they have cookies on site for you to buy immediately. This is also very convenient for people as they are already at the grocery store purchasing food and possible snacks. There isn't really much marketing involved in the sales of these cookies yet they do very well in selling them because the cookies are very good and people feel good helping out children. For the most part the only marketing that exists is the fact that they go door to door and set up booths at grocery stores. They also rely on word of mouth and their customers telling friends that Girl Scouts are selling cookies now. They also have some small commercials but I haven't seen them before. I think something that would benefit them is working on building hype during cookie selling time. It only happens a couple times a year and should be seen as a bigger deal. They should build it up like the McRib. Everyone freaks out when the McRib is back and I think the Girl Scouts should make commercials similar to that idea.

Marketing in the news #2

Uber can bring puppies to your front door for the day

For one day Uber is making puppies available to play with for anyone that wants them delivered to their house. This is happening on February 3rd as a way to promote and encourage shelter adoptions. It costs customers thirty dollars for a visit in which an Uber driver brings puppies to your home for fifteen minutes. It is only available in New York City from 11 am to 2pm. A local pet welfare company Bideawee is providing Uber with puppies and drivers for the day and will be receiving donations for each visit. The donations will be matched by Animal Planet as the event is taking place at the same time as the Animal Planet puppy bowl. In terms of marketing this is very interesting because it is being used to market three different companies. First of all this is great advertising for Uber. Not only do customers have to go through them and they get the credit of bringing furry bundles of happiness to customer's doors, Uber also suffers no costs. The drivers are volunteers provided by Bideawee as well as the puppies. The work is done for Uber and they reap the rewards. Bideawee also gets a lot of attention for this since they are the ones providing the volunteers and puppies. They also are the company that is being donated to. This is a great way for them to raise awareness and get their name out there. It is also good marketing for Animal Planet as well as the Animal Planet Puppy Bowl. What I've taken away from this is how beneficial it can be to work with other companies. Using each other's strengths to market your products can work well and reach a wider range of people. 

Social Listening

Social Listening

For this topic I chose Playstation. For their value proposition they claim to "make advanced hardware that enables the most talented developers to produce vanguard titles and set new standards in interactive entertainment." Mainly what people are saying about it has to do with PlaystationNetwork (their online service) undergoing unscheduled maintenance which has been happening frequently.
One person commented stating that "we pay so much for this service that only works half the time." Another person thought they deserved a refund, "At this rate we better be getting some refunds to make up for this unscheduled maintenance." While these people were pretty upset with Playstation, others focused on other things such as "The Division looks amazing I'm definitely going to preorder it." If I was the manager I would definitely need to deal with the maintenance problems that people are upset about. Depending on the situation and what actually is going on there isn't always a whole lot of information that you can provide to the public. At the very least the public needs to know that Playstation sees that there is a problem and is working to fix it. As a customer it would be nice to know that problem will be less frequent at some point in the future even if they can't give a specific amount of time. I would also consider giving people that have been subscribed for a while either a free month subscription, or a discount on future subscriptions or certain games. In the past when PlaystationNetwork was down for 23 days due to being "hacked" and personal information and accounts of millions of customers were compromised, Sony gave away various products to their customer base. Overall I think they can and will do a good job of addressing the problem and many of their customers are very pleased with the services and games to be released.

Question #2

Star Wars is rated M but marketed at small children. What can a parent do?

This article discusses the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie from the perspective of a parent. It talks about the struggle that some parents have had with the lack of spoilers for the movie. Many people are very big fans of Star Wars and don't want to know anything about the movie at all so that they can go into it ready to be surprised and engrossed by the movie. The movie is also marketed at a wide range of people and age groups and was marketed so well that it has been breaking box office records. There are references to the original movies which entice adults as well as toys that are made for children. The fact that the movie is marketed to children as well as being quite secretive means that adults don't quite know what the movie contains and therefore can't make a decision as to whether the movie is appropriate for their kids to watch. By this time however their kids are already hyped up and begging to see it. This article is interesting to me because it not only involves the fact that the movie is so heavily marketed, but it also involves one target audience (the hardcore fans wanting the movie to stay secretive) making the viewing experience of another target audience (the concerned parents) more difficult and problematic. 

About me

-I chose to enroll in this class because marketing always sounded interesting to me but I didn't know much about it. This seemed like a good class to take so I can see if I like it.
-No I'm not a business or marketing major.
-I want to learn about understanding the target market and the most effective ways to market the product or business to that targeted market.
-I've always been interested in music and it has been a big part of my life. I was in band since sixth grade playing the saxophone and I also play piano.