Department Store Marketing

I don't know about you, but I love a good department store-- Nordstroms, Bloomingdales, Macy's, they are my idea of a good time on a Saturday. I also find it interesting how my decide to market their stores because they sell such a wide range of items. The main way they advertise is through mailing booklets and emails. These show what new products they have in store, and how much the products are.

Apparently these stores are being overlooked by teenagers lately, thus their sales are not doing as well as they would like them to be. Teenagers would rather shop at trendier stores like Forever 21 or H&M and feel like department stores are for older people. The stores have realized this and have started changing their merchandise to be more "fast fashion" trendier clothes to keep up with these other stores (source).
Learning this information was interesting to me especially because I am interest in fashion merchandising as well. I think that this is a good move on the department stores part because they sometimes do have a stigma to them as being more traditional. Hopefully they can start gaining younger loyal shoppers to support their sales numbers.

How does Apple do it?!

Apple is such a well known company that when most people hear the word "apple" the first thing they think of is a silver computer or their phone that is most likely resting in their hand as opposed to the fruit that many people love to snack on. Apple has a way about them that makes people remember their products. For the release of the original ipad they actually did no marketing at all and left it all to user recommendations. "Apple decided not to pay for any advertising during a brief period after the device was introduced in January 2007 and when it went on sale later in the year." (source) As crazy as that sounds, it worked! Many people went out and sought after the device even without seeing any advertisements with it. The company totally relied on this hype around their device to push sales until later they finally came out with advertisements. If only every company could be like Apple and have such great brand recognition and loyalty.

How Current Events Affect Marketing

Many things have helped shaped what marketing is today, but nothing has shaped it more than the ever evolving use of technology. Internet has changed up the way that marketers advertise their products. The use of social networking sites, forums, and web searches has allowed the consumer to become more knowledgeable about products.

As I was reading The Copywriter's Crucible, a blog written by a freelance businesswoman, she said, "You see, no longer do target audiences rely exclusively on news hub like CNN or The New York Times to get the latest buzz. Rather, they find it-- and share it-- virtually via social media channels". Marketing used to be only in print ads and in store displays, but now those two things only make up a small percent of where advertisements are placed. Most of the marketers time and money is spent on advertising online, whether it is making sure the website for the product is easy to use and access, or getting advertisements on social networking sites.

Along the same lines of creating useful websites to consumers, Lane Anderson wrote, "With the information age, customers are often more hungry for information about a product… Easily available information is no longer something nice to have-- it is expected". This change has been a vast improvement to consumers because now they are more educated about products, but at first this change had marketers worried. Now more than ever they have to make sure the customers are happy and get what is expected from the products or else the consumers have the upper hand in the situation and can share their experience with thousands of people on the internet.

Technology and the internet has drastically changed marketing, but even events that change yearly, or monthly have effects on marketing as well. For example, the presidential election. Many companies took the opportunity to change their marketing campaigns around the election because so many consumers were focused on it. Robin Embry writes in her article, "Convenience store chain 7-Eleven created the "7-Election" campaign where coffee drinkers can choose between a red cup and a blue cup. In the last three elections the cup sales have closely mirrored the final results." This is just one example of many that shows how companies can take an event that is happening world wide or nation wide and use it to their advantage to sell more products.

I don't know about you, but I think that it is fascinating how marketing strategies can change so drastically in such a short amount of time. It is not like that in every field. Take finance for example, those rules that they put in place haven't changed since they were created and everything is very guided and directed in one way. In marketing, there is never just one way to do something, and that is proven by how many times a marketing campaign can change over a period of time.

College Classes

Picking out classes for college can be a challenge because there are always so many options to choose from. As I mentioned before, I am in my last year of college so I have finished most of my classes, and there are a few that really stick out in my mind as being particularly useful for gaining knowledge about the business, and marketing world.

The class that I think is one of the most important classes that any business major should take and really learn the material from is statistics. It is challenging and tedious at times, but I have taken numerous classes where statistics always comes up. From marketing research to finance, basic statistics will help you excel in these classes. It is important in marketing to be able to spot trends and measure different outcomes to business plans, and the     only way to do that is by using statistics.

Another class that I found particularly helpful was consumer behavior. Before I took this class I had no idea how many things went into how a person makes a decision on what to buy, or do. There are many aspects to a consumer, like demographics, their upbringing, etc. It is important for everyone in marketing to realize this and know how to properly sell a product to different individuals, because different people will react to different types of advertisements and promotions. This class was a really great stepping stone to advertising classes as well, because advertising builds off of consumers and what they are looking for.

Next, intro to marketing was a great class to get to know the groundworks to marketing. Yes this seems fairly obvious that it would be a class that is helpful to marketing majors, but i think a lot of people do not take it very seriously. Since this was one of my first classes in the marketing department I was so enthralled with it that I really got to know the material, and I think that really knowing all the basics helped me get a head start in all the other marketing classes.


Finally, I think that marketing research was a really helpful class to have an insight about what working would really be like. The class did have lectures and tests, but what I really got out of it was working on the main project in the class. The project was a group effort and consisted of creating a survey, analyzing data, and creating a presentation about the findings. It took the whole semester of working on it to finally finish it and I learned a lot about how to work in a group setting. This is one thing that I think is very important for all business professionals to know how to do. Learning how to work with multiple people and all their different strengths and weaknesses is one of the harder things to do.
 

Knowing what classes to take can sometimes be challenging, and knowing which classes to really focus on can even be more of a challenge. Hopefully this post has helped you, and now you know a few classes that I think are really beneficial to be well rounded in. I know at times school can be stressful, but spending a little extra time to make sure you know some of the material will really help you in future classes, and also when you are out in the real world and have to recall things that you learned in college.

Getting Started in the Marketing Field

  The big question that most college graduates have is: What do I do now? It is a strange feeling knowing that the next step is entering a career path, but now knowing exactly where to begin. I have been struggling with this question for a while now, but after talking with  many people and educating myself on line, there are many paths that one can take.

     One of the easiest and best ways to get started in the marketing field is to get an internship. Internships are great because they give you an insight into the field that you are interested in, and it helps you form connections with the employees there. Many companies hire their interns to full time positions if they like them. This is because the companies train their interns and really focus on developing their knowledge as professionals and they hate to see all that talent leave them after the program is finished. Also, having an intern is a good way to see if everyone's personalities are going to mesh well together. Finding an additional team member who fits well into the group can sometimes be challenging, so having an intern is a great way to test someone out.

      Another great way to get a job is to attend job fairs. A job fair is like a convention where many different companies get together and have individual stands where potential employees can speak with employers, ask questions, and submit their resume. This is not only helpful to the employers because they can see many people at one time, but it is also helpful to the potential new employees. Having one area where one can visit with businesses is much more convenient than individually sending out emails with your resume on them. Shown to the right is a picture of what a job fair typically looks like. These are a great way to get your resume out to multiple different companies at one time, and it allows you to have in person contact with someone at the company. I always think that seeing someone in person gives you a much better advantage to get a job than if calling in or emailing. Meeting someone in person allows the hiring manager to see how you present and carry yourself which often times tells a great deal about a person. Creating a professional image is important while going to these job fairs as well as in interviews. First impressions are always going to be what sticks in the employers head so you want to present yourself how you want them to remember you. Here is a great  website to see when the next local job fair is if you are in the San Francisco Bay area.

     Finally, my last tip to finding a job is to simply start networking. The word networking sounded really intimidating to me at first but then I realized that it is so simple and should not be something to worry about. One thing that I like to do if I have a specific company in mind that I would like to work for is to simply go to their website. Educating yourself about the company is key because you don't want to go in without any prior knowledge. Then, start calling around. There will most likely be a name of the person in charge of the marketing of the company. Call them up and ask about positions that might be available and tell them a little bit about yourself. Just getting your name out there helps.

 I hope that these tips were helpful to all of you on the hunt for jobs. Good luck!