Product

Our product is Soosaphone's Cactus Supreme. "However, finding the best brand name is a difficult task. It begins with a careful review of the product and its benefits, the target market, and proposed marketing strategies" (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. page 230. It is a finely hand-crafted, cactus infused alcoholic beverage full of hoppy goodness.We are different, we make the consumer feel fulfilled, we invite the curious to learn more about us and we put so much care into our porduct that the consumer acan see it though the taste. "strength along four consumer perception dimensions: differentiation (what makes the brand stand out), relevance (how consumers feel it meets their needs), knowledge (how much consumers know about the brand), and esteem (how highly consumers regard and respect the brand)." (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing, page 55)

Implementation Evaluation Control

"For effective implementation and control, the marketing plan should define how progress toward objectives will be measured." (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing, page MP2). Our progress will be measured by not only our growth, but maintaining a steady revenue after we hit growth. Once we experience growth and some stability in sales, we will discuss further ways to be present in the community in order to be seen by a bigger audience, further increasing the power of our word of mouth marketing plan. "The process of measuring and evaluating the results of marketing strategies and plans and taking corrective action to ensure that objectives are achieved." (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing, page 58).

Promotion

We want to create a very positive experience for our customers. A great, unique tasting beer accompanied by a great time. With this we hope to create loyal customers that will share our product with the people they love. We want to spread by word of mouth. We want to associate our brand with happiness. "Today, customers come to know a brand through a wide range of contacts and touch points. These include advertising, but also personal experience with the brand, word of mouth, company Web pages, and many others." (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing, page 236). What is important is our positioning. Our product will be in the handcrafted brews, right in the center. This is to create the idea that our product is the epitome of high quality. "Arranging for a product to occupy a clear, distinctive, and desirable place relative to competing products in the minds of target consumers." (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing, page 52). Once business picks up we will "increase its products’ availability and promotion in existing markets and expand business via acquisitions" (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing, page 43).

Price

The price of our product will be a little higher than our competition only because we want to create the idea that, we put care into this product, the high price is for quality. A 6pack of BudLight is $5. A 6pack of Soosaphone's Cactus Supreme is $9. Almost double the price of our biggest competitor, yet still reasonable. "Perceived value: To some customers, “value” might mean paying more to get more. For example, are GE’s Profile Harmony washers and dryers worth the higher price? To the target segment of style-conscious, affluent buyers, the answer is “yes.”" (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing, page 14)."Companies today face a fierce and fast-changing pricing environment." (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing, page 14). With that said, we will make it a goal to stay ahead of the varying changes in price.

Target Market

"The first part describes the target market; the planned value proposition; and the sales, market share, and profit goals for the first few years." (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing, page 250). Our target market is males ages 21-35. Our reason behind this is simple. Men drink beer. We want to introduce our product to the younger male audience because they are not set in their ways. They want to try new things, they don't exactly know what they like and it's our job to give them something amazing. Something that they can look back at and say, "you know what? that was a damn good beer!". "The art and science of choosing target markets and building profitable relationships with them." (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing, page 9)

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis is :"an overall evaluation of the company’s strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T)." (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing, page 55). The strength of our product is it's uniqueness. The strange flavor of our beer is for the adventurous. We want our customers to stumble upon us and find it appealing that their friends haven't heard of us. They will introduce them to it and be the cool guy with his cool beer, it is a New Task or " a business buying situation in which the buyer purchases a product or service for the first time." (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing, page 161). Our strengths, "strength along four consumer perception dimensions: differentiation (what makes the brand stand out), relevance (how consumers feel it meets their needs), knowledge (how much consumers know about the brand), and esteem (how highly consumers regard and respect the brand)." (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing, page 229). The opportunities of our businesswould be to make sure that we are on every shelf in America but do little publicity. When people actually find out about our product and do some research, they will find a website dedicated to our Vegas based brewery, where we give tours of our facility. At the end of the tour there will also be a gift shop and some photo opportunities. We want to spread by word of mouth. "Weaknesses include internal limitations and negative situational factors that may interfere with the company’s performance." (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing, page 55). Our weaknesses are the fact that we spread through word of mouth and although we will make loyal customers, we will not be a high selling product. "Increased competition and clutter on retail store shelves means that packages must now perform many sales tasks—from attracting attention, to describing the product, to making the sale." (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing, page 216). Our threats are the bigger companies that monopolize the marketplace as we will not have the resources to compete with their marketing campaigns. "When the seller requires that these dealers not handle competitors’ products, its strategy is called exclusive dealing." (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing, page 328).

Week 10 EOC: Benefits vs. Features

The benefits of Soosaphone's Cactus Supreme are simple. You get a masterfully hand-crafted beverage with a unique cactusy taste. Another benefit is that we promise a unique experience with every bottle of beer consumed. Life is always better with a little beer to top it off with. All of our proceeds go to the Philippines in one of two ways. Either through the, buy one get one for the water we send or the other way, which is our money going to Red Cross. "These benefits are communicated and delivered by product attributes such as quality, features, and style and design" (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing, page 214).

Mission Statement

Here at Soosaphone's Cactus Supreme, we believe that life is about cherishing the moment, living for the now and leaving your problems behind. Cactus supreme is about enjoying fun times with loved ones and enjoying what you have when you have it. Not everyone has the luxury of this. Right now, in the Philippines thousands of people were left homeless after an enormous tropical storm. For every pack of Soosaphone's Cactus Supreme bought, we will ship a 24 pack of water to help with the relief efforts in the Philippines. Help them rebuild so that they can start living again. This is "a statement of the organization’s purpose—what it wants to accomplish in the larger environment." (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing, page 39). "a company’s mission should not be stated as making more sales or profits" (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing, page 41), "instead, the mission should focus on customers and the customer experience the company seeks to create." (Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing, page 41)

EOC Week 9: Three Great Mission Statements

One of the mission statements I liked was Kazuki's. I feel like his play on words really speaks to the nature of his product and what his product tries to accomplish.
Joshua Poole's mission statement really explains the care that is given to make his product and gives the image that by buying those cookies you are caring for the world.
Lastly I like Amber's mission statement because it really makes you feel like by buying her product, your voice will be heard and you can stop the suffering of others around the world.

Week 8 EOC : Creative Content

For my creative content i plan on making a radio spot for my beer. The goal of my commercial is to entertain and capture the attention of my demographic as well as inform them about why they should choose my product. I plan on using humor to lure people in so that they want to buy the product or at least try it out.

My logo will be my head with arms holding two bottles of beer. I will have thorns sticking out of my head and I will be sitting on a cactus. The name of my product "Soozaphone's Cactus Supreme Ale" will be in brightly colored Mexican styled print across the top of the image. On the back of the bottle next to our brief explanation of our beer, it's taste and why it's superior to other beers, there will be our mission statement saying that for every pack of beer sold, we donate a pack of water to the victims of the typhoon in the Philippines.

The radio spot will focus on a man who is having hard times. He sits down and drinks the beer and instantly feels better, having been "saved" by the beer. Our slogan for these commercials will be "Soozaphone's Cactus Supreme Ale : saving the world in more ways than one". The idea is to be entertaining with our radio spots but still keep in mind that we are being charitable. Not only are we helping a shy man drink up the courage to go talk to the girl he likes and saving him from loneliness, we are also helping people around the world with their infinitely bigger problems.

Week 7 EOC: Pitch

Think of an amazing beverage with a unique taste, full of color and flavorful hoppiness. That's Soosaphone's Cactus Supreme. The manliest, raddest drink imaginable. Take your taste buds on an adventure they'll never forget. Using our own secret recipe, we have created this shockingly stunning masterpiece of a beer. Using hops infused with cactus juice to give it that extra kick you need to have a good time, we plan to enhance your night. Cactus Supreme is for the adventurous, for those that seek thrills, grab life by the horns and smoke it. Cactus Supreme is superior to any other alcoholic beverage in that it was designed to make your night magical and care free, giving you a time of a life, as well as a time to remember. All proceeds go to the Help The Philippines Foundation, helping reconstruct the lives the the typhoon victims.

Week 6 EOC: 3 x Me

The first object that I think defines me is my computer. Without this I would not be able to connect to the internet and my means of getting information and staying connected with friends and family would be very limited. Almost everything I do in a day has something to do with a computer. Even right now, I have to type this and upload it to the internet.

The second object that defines me is my bass, or more specifically, my American Fender Jazz Bass. I got my first bass when I was 14 and have been playing ever since. Even though at the moment I don't play as much as I used to  (it usually depends on how much free time I have), I still couldn't live without it. When I moved from France I had to leave my old bass behind and the year that I spent without another one was painful.

The final thing that I think defines me is alcohol. I've had some very fond and not so fond situations in my life all in part thanks to this magically unhealthy beverage, but all in all it makes thing interesting. And there's nothing better than coming home after a long day, taking off your pants and opening up an ice cold beer.

Week 4 EOC: There's an App for That

Although I’m sure the app I would invent has already been invented in some fashion, I feel that it would solve a few problems for a lot of people. The app is called Phonedar, which will allow you to locate your phone wherever it is, by accessing this app either through another phone or through an internet site.

Everyone loses their phone and everyone resorts to the same few ways of finding them. You check the last place you remember it being, sure. But we know one of the most reliable ways to find our phones is to just use another phone to call it. If you are anywhere near a computer, you can use the apps website to call your phone for you so you can hear and locate your phone.

But imagine you’re at school, work. Do you put your phone on vibrate? Or how about when you’re in church? You probably just silence your phone. If you lose your phone then, how are you going to call it and locate it? With the use of the web site or the Phonedar app on another smartphone, you are able to remotely turn off the silence mode on your phone and activate your ringtone.

With the Phonedar you may also use GPS to remotely track your phones physical location to further help you find it. Maybe you left it at a friends’ house, or the grocery store.

Of course, to prevent the misuse of an app that could compromise a persons’ safety (GPS finder) the app would need you to create an account and would be password protected so that only you and people you choose and trust could access any of the features of Phonedar.

Week 3 EOC: Making Money for Good

For Halloween 2012, the producers of Minecraft and Microsoft teamed up to provide us with special Halloween skins for the game Minecraft on Microsoft's Xbox. The skin pact of 55 skins sold for $2 and all of the proceeds were split four ways and donated to four different charitable foundations.

http://drippler.com/microsoft/xbox_360#!528222

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/120325-Minecraft-XBLA-Gets-Spooky-Skins-For-Charity

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/25/minecraft-xbla-gets-a-pack-full-of-skins-for-halloween/

Week 3 EOC: My Demographics

The largest cohort since the Baby Boomers, their high numbers reflect their births as that of their parent generation..the last of the Boomer Is and most of the Boomer II s. Gen Y kids are known as incredibly sophisticated, technology wise, immune to most traditional marketing and sales pitches...as they not only grew up with it all, they’ve seen it all and been exposed to it all since early childhood. Gen Y members are much more racially and ethnically diverse and they are much more segmented as an audience aided by the rapid expansion in Cable TV channels, satellite radio, the Internet, e-zines, etc.
Gen Y are less brand loyal and the speed of the Internet has led the cohort to be similarly flexible and changing in its fashion, style consciousness and where and how it is communicated with.
Gen Y kids often raised in dual income or single parent families have been more involved in family purchases...everything from groceries to new cars. One in nine Gen Yers has a credit card co-signed by a parent.



This definition of my generation brings up a lot of good points that kind of characterize people that are my age (in general). We are more technologically savvy than ours parents and have been exposed to this technology as it develops. School systems recognized the importance technology had in the work place and started teaching us how to use computers. I learned how to use word, powerpoint and excel in middle school.

I also find it interesting that the definition states that millennials are immune to traditional marketing and sales pitches from being exposed our entire lives. I do have fond memories of certain commercials that would play while i was watching cartoons after school. It always seemed like there was more commercial play than cartons themselves.

My mother was in and out of relationships during my childhood but she did find a few suitors that stuck around for several years. Although i guess i was almost always in a dual income family. 

Week 2 EOC: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

            Although I do not believe that the video game market is “recession proof”, I do believe that the recession has a big impact on the targeted demographic that video games depend on to drive their sales which indirectly affects the video game market.

“A combination of console price cuts, a holiday rich in spending and the recent release of several chart-busting titles helped the game industry pull in $5.53 billion in December alone, according to the NPD Group. “(http://kotaku.com/5449233/video-games-survive-recession-but-at-what-cost)

            Although video game sales had been down since the beginning of 2009, the sales skyrocketed towards the holiday season. Why is that? A slight rise is expected because of gifting during the holidays, but these companies also realized that the targeted demographic were not able to afford their products and so they slashed prices in order to make a budget.

“Games cost too much: The popularity of used videogames simply indicates that players are seeking to mitigate those costs from both ends, by buying low-cost used games and/or selling games back for store credit.” (

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/04/opinion-kohler-video-expensive/)

Another way of looking at things, however, is to say that spending on gaming is driven by big hits, and that the slight decline in 2009 reflects creative rather than economic weakness. (http://www.economist.com/node/15773828)

            The last two quotes show that the gaming industry is also heavily affected by the creative (or uncreative) content that it produces and what people are willing to pay for it. The big hits will always attract a crowd of people willing to pay full price for it on the day of its’ release, but the fact is the value of the games differs from person to person. And thanks to the existence of stores like GameStop that sell used games, there will always be a dip in the profits of the game producers as they see no income from the re-sales.

Week 1: My Voice

My name is Brandon Sisouphone, and I am a young audio enthusiast studying audio engineering and hoping to some day make a living in the audio field.

            I was born on December 20^th 1990 in Charlotte, North Carolina. My fascination with sound began when I was very little. As a toddler I would bang on pots and pans and listen to the sounds they made. I also have memories of trying to mimic the pitch of the vacuum cleaner, trying to hit the same fundamental harmonic and hear it vibrate inside my head (which is a real thing, I swear I’m not crazy!!!).

            My mother always had a unique taste in music and although I don’t really listen to the same music she listens to (The Cure, The Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen), I find that her taste in music has definitely influenced mine. Thanks to this, I feel like I have a greater appreciation of certain styles of music and even though I like very energetic and happy music (punk-ska for the win), some of my favorite songs tend to be sadder and more emotional songs that I can connect a certain memory or several memories to.

            I’m not too sure what it is exactly that I want to do after I graduate. I’ve thought about maybe trying to further my education with a masters of some sort. As far as a career, a music producing career of some sort would always be ideal, but I’ll honestly take what I can get. I do like room acoustics and voice recording, and wouldn’t mind doing ADR for films, tv shows, commercials, cartoons, video games etc.  As long as I put my degree to good use and love what I’m doing I’ll be fine.

Week 1 EOC: Great Customer Support

The place where I receive the best customer service i think is Bank of America.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about THE Bank of America, but rather the location that is next to my house where I do my banking. Regardless of what I think about the company, or how I feel after they refuse to up my credit card limit after I've been banking with them for several years, or how I feel when I try to get a car loan because my car breaks down, or how I feel when they "accidentally" charge some kind of fee to my account and say it was a mistake, or how when I apply for another credit card they tell me to call a number in a few minutes so see if my application goes through and then they tell me that they won't know for seven to ten business days...

Regardless of what I think of the company, the people that work there are really nice, both to look at and personality wise (as far as I can tell). They always smile and seem like they are interested in what I have to say. They have even helped me fix these so-called "accidental" fees and have gotten me my money back plus extra inconvenience money. They are nice and they help me to the best of their abilities even though their company is the devil.

I guess that's probably exactly what they want though right? The company is terrible, but good-looking, doe-eyed brunettes with thick-rimmed glasses and soft, sweet voices are the mask that conceals it all... And they just keep reeling me back in.