Marketing Mini Stories

Several social classs ago I had a friend who worked for a Hilton hotel. At the period, fitness and low calorie or high protein meals were popular trends and a concern of travelers. Hilton, as well as other hotel chains, kindled a commercial messageiseing concept to address the needs of guests change of location for business by ensuring that distributively franchise provided a fitness rig which could be delivered up to a guestroom. Developed by Bally issue forth Fitness, it contained a yoga mat, hand weights, and an exercise band.Or, if the guest requested it, a tread-wheel could be delivered for use in the guestroom. The food & swallow outlets in each franchise hotel also had to undergo a change of menu to make this marketing concept. The Hilton Eat Right program required low-fat and low-calorie meals much(prenominal) as seared tuna with a salad be added to the menu. My friend wasnt besides happy about having to provide these extra services, but guests of the hotel seeme d to like it.I ate dinner in a rather upscale wipe outing house recently. Since Ive worked in a eating place before, I tend to stigmatize the little things on the tabularise that other patrons might ignore. At this eating place, the table was set with linen napkins, and nice silverware, the usual condiments, etcetera and in the bosom of the table was a tent card advertising the wine of the month, which was a Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay. Knowing how distribution channels in the food & beverage industry work, I immediately surmsied the tent card was the result of promotions from a marketing intermediary.The alcohol wholesaler depraves directly from the manufacturer, such as Kendall-Jackson, and accordingly markets the product to the seller, in this case the restaurant. The restaurant itself was also functioning as a marketing intermediary by placing the tent cards on the table and incentivizing servers to offer their wine of the month, which was probably keep outgain ford at a reduced price.The travel time I moved to a impudently house, some of the items I needed to consider buying were cable television, telephony service and the access to the Internet through an Internet service provider. firearm my choice of guild was limited, I realized that all companies advertising such items had begun to take a systems selling approach to offering parceld services.For instance, Qwest, traditionally known as the provider of telephone service, has branched out to intromit Internet access as well as teamed up with DirecTV for orbiter television service. By using systems selling, Qwest has enceintely increased its in fall out potential. By per centumnering with DirecTV, Qwest does not need to puddle the components for satellite television themselves, but can swan on its partner for inventory control and production. Since about customers wish to purchase all these items, especially when moving to a new location, the decision to package them all togethe r makes perfect guts and the bundled price appealed to me.My friend that worked at the Hilton hotel made me aware(predicate) of a fact I previously didnt know hotels continually use marketing segmentation to keep their guestrooms full. aft(prenominal) being in contour lineed of this approach, it made shopping for a hotel room for my ratiocination spend a different sort of venture. Knowing that a fixing hotel targets one market leisure travelers on the weekend and another market business travelers during the week when occupancy levels are lower, I opted to plan my vacation over the course of a week rather than choose a weekend stay, when rates would be higher.By using marketing segmentation, most hotels offers specific packages aimed at each different market. The resort hotel I chose last spring had a special midweek package consisting of the guestroom plus breakfast and two tickets to a local amusement park at an bewitching price. By targeting my market segment of leisur e travel during days when the hotel typically wouldnt be full, the hotel was able to gain revenue not commonly expected.When it comes to stigmatise, McDonalds has this concept firmly in place. A friend and I went to McDonalds just last week to buy a chop-chop lunch and we were inundated with their brand, image, and logo. The golden arches outside the place themselves are part of the brand and this symbol appears on everything from the hamburger wrapper of the Big mack I methodicalnessed, to the cup holding my soft drink, to the menu displayed behind the order counter. As well, brand is incorporated in more subtle ways.The color of yellow and red are seen throughout and m either of the shapes inside the restaurant from the seating to the kids play area are aromatic of an m. After leaving McDonalds we stopped at a Dairy Queen to order ice cream for dessert. Walking into that restaurant made me even more aware of how pervasive McDonalds brand presence is in that respect is n o way McDonalds products could be ill-considered for those at Dairy Queen.That same upscale restaurant Id eaten dinner in recently had a section reserved for bar patrons. Since there was a bit of wait before my friend and I could be seated, we passed the time at the bar having a beer and munching on a snack mix in a bowl on the table. It was sincerely very tasty a mix of crunchy squares and peanuts and spicy sesame pieces. I inquired of the bartender where I could purchase the same mix being served in the restaurant and he replied that it was available only wholesale.If I wanted to buy some of the snack mix for myself, I would have to find soulfulness who worked for a wholesaler to order it for me as it was not an item I could buy in a retail store. Of course this made sense why would I want to return to the bar and sit there to munch on the snack mix if I could buy it and eat in the privacy of my own home?Some time ago, I realized the value of public relations. As a consumer, its sometimes not enough incentive to patronize a company that offers skillful products at a low price sometimes it is also how the company responds to bad press that influences my buying decision. At the time I was victuals in a town with a Wal-Mart and not much else in the way of available stores.There was a story Id read in the newspaper regarding a customer of the local Wal-Mart who had at rest(p) into a rest room at the store and not come back out several hours later. The customers wife was disturbed with worry and she contacted the store to help her locate her husband. The man was found, dead as the result of complications from a medical condition, in the rest room outdoor stage after a search was performed. However, it was the direct result of Wal-Marts unable(p) public relations department that caused further problems as they refused to take any responsibility or even offer an apology to the customers wife for the incident. Because Wal-Mart doesnt present a caring atti tude towards their customers, I will think twice before shopping there again.E-marketing is considerable business these days. I happen to know an author who broke into the theme business as a result of her book being promise with an e-publisher. Because she gets excited by this opportunity, Ive often listened to her ideas for promotion, which entangle a great deal of e-marketing. According to my friend, these days, an author does not need to go to a bookstore and set up a book signing to publicise her book, instead she can schedule a virtual book interference in which she makes appearances on several blog sites and answers questions about her and the book. Another form of e-marketing she uses is to be involved with readers forums whereby she can promote her book by carte du jour online excerpts and talking it up with readers. This type of marketing can also include personal pages on websites such as My Space and Facebook and results in the efficacy to market from her own home .My mother is a big collector of Coca-Cola products. Her kitchen is change with items bearing the Coca-Cola logo, in all its various forms from dish towels to plates to banks, clocks, playing cards, etc. While some of the items are antiques, many of them were bought brand new from retail stores. It was when I was shopping for a Christmas present for my mother that I became aware of just how widely Coca-Cola products are licensed. Gibson is one manufacturer that is licensed to produce dishes and kitchen ware bearing the Coca-Cola logo, while additional companies are also allowed to produce different items, such as straw dispensers and napkin holders, with the distinctive colourize and logo. Through this wide distribution of licensing agreements, Coca-Cola has certainly increased revenues incrementally.I watched the passing Bowl this year with a group of friends. Although I wasnt particularly interested in either team playing, I was interested in the advertising during commercial breaks. Having previously read some of the buzz contact the company Go Daddy, I was aware of its past troubles producing a commercial which would appease the television illegalises. Go Daddys approach this year was an excellent example of innovative marketing. Not only does the company estimate on the buzz from its commercials not being accepted by the censor boards, it decided this year to post the rejected commercial on its website.The crack Bowl commercial itself was cheaply produced and directed watchers to log on to the Go Daddy website where they could watch the commercial that didnt make it to air time. This authentically innovative marketing approach was so successful that it contributed to the down time of Internet services during the Super Bowl as consumers rushed to the website to get a line the commercial.