What if?

[serenamdania]

I was already looking forward to starting the marketing course before it began, as my as this is the sector my mom works it, and the sector many people I have spoken to want focus in. I never thought the day would come where i wanted to be part of this industry, but I think I would like to...

[thorestoffregen]

I enjoyed reading your opinion about marketing and I can definitely imagine you in the field of Marketing later. And don't worry you are not the only one that bought the crisps:D I also thought: “Wow two bags for €2. Thats Amazing!” But it is not so amazing anymore if you find out that usually one bag is like €1,12:D

Anyways a very nice read.

[mennobranger-blog]

“You arewhat you eat.” That phrase has been around since the 19th century, and to me, it means that what you put into your body dictates your personal beliefs on health, whether you are highly aware of this position or whether it is a subliminal choice. I have chosen to write on this subject,...

[thorestoffregen]

hey menno! I loved your blog. I also thought that Chipotle was just an Mexican fast food restaurant in America. I also really like how you examined the whole video. Great work. After reading it I went to the youtube channel of Chipotle as well. Really interesting company!

[davidn217-blog-blog]

Imagine this: A woman gives birth to her child and asks the doctor if it´s girl or a boy. The doctor raises his head and replies:”It´s a salesman”.

Jokes aside, but seriously this is what I think of when people argue that top salesmen are born and not trained. As you might noticed I do not think...

[thorestoffregen]

Completely agree with you. Every single thought makes sense in my eyes. Certainly you can get lucky and be born with charisma but you have to work your ass off to be very good at anything.

[shimtrain-blog-blog]

Sales, born or trained?

Personally, I believe being a good sales person is something innate but most defiantly nothing with out a bit of cheeky training in the right direction.

When I started my job in a sports store at the age of 16, retail and sales was completely foreign to me. I mean how do you even approach a customer!? The thing is, after a year I was pretty sure I could sell most things. My training was my practice. After-all, how can you learn without making mistakes?

However, this is needless to say that some people have a wow factor. 

A good childhood friend of mine is often spoken of (in regards to his future) as somebody who ‘will be alright’. Why? Bucket loads of charisma. You can’t teach sky high levels of self confidence. Some people aren’t competitive. Not everyone has it in them to knock door to door in the pouring rain and for those reasons, I believe the best of the best are born as a sales baby. 

[thorestoffregen]

It would be very nice to be born as a sales baby, shimi. haha. I like the term however I kind of have to disagree with you because I think that the charisma you are talking about makes the difference between an excellent salesperson and a good salesperson. In my opinion training is somehow still more important but obviously not everyone is suited a salesperson.

[thomharting]

Deleted Commercial

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When thinking about bad advertisements I inmediatelly had to think about the youtube movies with deleted commercials, these commercials were not found appropriate to show on television. After a little websurfing I found a perfect example of such an deleted commercial.

In this particular case the commercial is from the candy brand “Skittles” and this commercial is ther to promote the candy.

So why was this commercial deleted?

First of all this is supposed to be a commercial for candy, and however grown-ups eat candy as well, the main target group for candy are children, so therefore a commercial with two grown-ups as main characters does not attract to the main target group. 

Secondly, since this is the promotion of candy, a sexual action is not appropriate to show in the commercial because there is no link between the two, or at least not a clear link.

And last but not least, the broadcasting of sexual intercourse in a commercial is not ethical at all, and will probably have the consequention that the sales of the product which is promoted will decrease.

So the conclusion is that for a good advertisement you have to know what your target group is, keep a clear link between the product and the context of the advertisement and stick to the ethical values of a good commercial.

[thorestoffregen]

HAHAHA I could not stop laughing Tom. This is a really really weird advertisement because, like you said, it is for CANDY. Why in the world would a company make advertisement for candy and promote with sex?! Makes no sense in my eyes. Anyways, very nice blog!

[simonevdn-blog]

Source: Consequence of Sound

Commercials. When watching TV no one can escape the horror of watching all those terrible commercials that try to remind,persuade or simply inform you about an ‘amazing’ product or service. I always call many of these commercials bad, but what makes an...

[thorestoffregen]

Hey Simone! The second commercial is indeed very funny:D And you were right about the first one but maybe Axe is exactly aiming for that. Maybe the do not want to be funny they just want to be remembered and that works! In the end it always comes down to our personal opinion.

[mayathu]

So, here I am trying to write about the grey market. This is the first topic, I don’t really have an idea what it’s about. Luckily, we have google.

According to Investopedia (2015), the grey market is defined as “a market where a product is bought and sold outside of the manufacturer’s authorised...

[thorestoffregen]

I like this example of a grey market, Maya. The only downsight of buying the product not from Apple directly is the service you get at the Apple stores. Making an appointment there is easily done online and when you get there they are able to fix it. Probably not always but I only had good experiences at the apple store and you won't have this service at Media Markt. But you are right! Is this service worth 200€?

[dcuiper]

Probably everyone has heard of the term black market. But the term grey market was new to me. This is why I would want this blog to be a very brief explanation of the term. A grey market is the trading of goods through legal distribution channels that are unauthorized by the original manufacturer...

[thorestoffregen]

Very informative, Dion. I was also unaware of the term “Grey Market” and had to look it up. For someone that never heard of this market either, your blog post is the perfect read to understand what it actually means.

[carlijnoffereins]

Chocolate, candy, alcoholics, cigarettes, or maybe your secret guiltypleasure; these are all examples of tempting products. Of course these examples are subjective, one person could be very tempted by his PlayStation (controller), and the next person finds his or her pleasure in food. Some...

[thorestoffregen]

Wow, Carlijn! What an awesome product. I think it could be really handy for everyone because everyone has a weakness for something. I also enjoyed that you back it up with scientific research! Very convincing!

[dahintenfabian]

product innovations

The ability to think and create differentiates us humans from all other living creatures on mother earth. There have been life changing innovations like the car, plane, telephone, lightbulb, smartphone.. you name them. But for today`s blog post I’ve chosen 3 rather funny and less important innovations, which nervertheless can be quite helpful in everydays life.

1. The Pizza-Scissors

(Source: http://www.funtoxin.com/2011/08/07/15-creative-and-innovative-products)

Not much to explain I think. Great tool which will definitely makes your life easier.

2. Message-Toaster

(Source: http://www.designswan.com/archives/10-creative-and-innovative-product-design.html#p5)

Wonna leave a message for your kids or your partner in the morning, but don’t wonna waste paper or ink? Easy: toast it! This innovation definitely get’s a space for next christmas’ wich list.

3. Luggage-Scooter

(Source: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004IU0OZY/ref=as_li_tf_til?tag=desswa-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=B004IU0OZY&adid=0Y2YKR33GE0M458YRAPA&)

This long, never ending corridors on airports. You waste so much time to get to your terminal! Or even worse: you have to get a connection flight, but you have too little time. This gadget helps out. From Heathrow terminal 1 to 5 even quicker than the tube. Awesome!

[thorestoffregen]

Very interesting read. Nice and new product innovations, a lot of pictures and not too much text hehe. Loved it!

[fabiandekruijf-deactivated20201]

My own market research

[thorestoffregen]

yo fabian! I enjoyed reading about your own opinion and that you are directly connected to marketing research. And you were right, I really didn’t think that it would be that hard. I was not aware that their are a lot of illegal products in this market either. Very interesting post!

[thorestoffregen]

the last one...

This will probably be my last blog post about marketing. The course is finished and I have to admit that I am not a blogger. I simply enjoy reading my colleagues blogs more than writing my own. That is either caused by my natural laziness of writing words in general or that the topics are not personal enough so that I like to share my personal opinion. Either way…

I was listening to a guest lecture about sales in university yesterday. Precisely how sales are made with the help of social media. Certainly this is connected to marketing because it’s probably the most important business tool (if we can say that) to generate sales. The guest speaker said something like: “You guys are lucky! You grew up as the perfect generation. You are born with old marketing practices and also with new ones. My son is three years old and already knows how to handle an iPad.”  That made me think of the marketers from tomorrow.

Over decades traditional marketers have developed how marketing works. Nowadays though, the way how marketing works has changed because people consume media though new channels. Even if the methods have changed, the people and the art of brand storytelling remains the same. It has just become easier for marketers to examine the gained information digitally, but this information still has to fit into their wider marketing plan. There we can see that the old methods are still essential.

Established marketers had to make a real effort to jump on the train of e-commerce and we saw a lot of them fail. Therefore the new generation will have to make an effort to be familiar with old-fashioned marketing and storytelling. It might make the same difference in the future as the recent digital development has made for the competitiveness.

What do you think?

[thorestoffregen]

Trained or born?

This week I will talk about salespeople. Precisely, if a good salesperson is born or trained. My first thought was: “That´s easy. Certainly a salesperson has to be trained”. My second thought was: “Wait! Of course everyone can be trained to be a good salesperson but training does not necessarily mean, that everyone would be good at it.” My third thought was: “Talent! Talent and dedication probably separates good salespeople from decent salespeople. The basics can be trained but to be really good you need talent and dedication”.

If you are searching on the internet for information about this topic you find a lot of blogs of sales professionals that are basically saying the same. Selling is a skill and can be compared to other skills like accounting or engineering, though some individuals are suited better than others. However different sales situations require different characteristics. If you are impatient and concerned about quick results, door-to-door selling is probably the ideal way. You go from door-to-door and try to achieve quick results. Some extensive negotiations though might take months until an agreement is reached. In this case you certainly need a lot of patience.

A presentation about sales management on slideshare.net, explains that the aptitude of being a good salesperson consist of three factors:

1. Physical factors: age, attractiveness etc. 2. Aptitude factors: verbal intelligence, sales expertise etc. 3. Personality characteristics: empathy, sociability etc.

In my opinion this is a very good framework to describe a good salesperson, because all of these traits are necessary. The physical factors can not be influenced by us, the aptitude factors can be trained and the personality characteristics evolve during lifetime.

To wrap it up, a good salesperson is neither born nor trained. To be really successful you need both, natural talent and training.

http://www.gaviningham.com/are-good-salespeople-born-or-made/ http://www.highprobsell.com/html/born_to_sell.html http://de.slideshare.net/waqar7865/performancerole-perception-and-satisfaction-of-sales-force

[brightmarketing-blog]

”Big brother is watching you” — George Orwell, 1984(1946) ”Google is watching me” — My mom, (2015)

The novel ”1984”, written by George Orwell, portrays a dystopian society in which all thoughts are being monitored by the leading authority: The Party. Having any thoughts that might contradict the...

[thorestoffregen]

I can agree with your opinion. I think this example of neo-marketing shows, that we, as customers, can profit from this way of marketing. If certain websites provide me with a variety of products that are related to the products that I am buying, it is only good for me and it is still my decision whether I want to buy it or not. Very interesting to read your blog.

[thorestoffregen]

Doping for hair?

Todays blog is about bad advertising. Even though everybody perceives advertisements differently, since it depends on the personal point of view, there are definitely specific indicators for bad advertisements. Advertisements should be believable, authentic, creative, true and not misleading, violent or obscene.

But this is my Blog so I will show you what kind of advertisements I really despise because I think they are bad, boring and really useless. I am aware of the fact that I am not the target group of most of these advertisements but I still get annoyed and I am really wondering what kind of people these advertisements are trying to convince, to actually buy the product. I am talking about ads for cosmetic products whether they are for hair of skin or whatever. I apologize for the example I am using because it is a german ad being on TV for ages and I really do not get how this actually happened:

Alpecin claims that their product extends the roots of the hair and therefore men do not loose their hair as fast. Really? I mean I believed it when I saw the convincing graph… pfff. I can not imagine they were not drunk when they launched this advertisement adding this graph. People that went to school until 8th grade know how a proper graph has to look like.

My point is, that especially cosmetic ads try sell us the most ridiculous products, apart from the fact that our bodies are “perfect” and that we don't need anti-aging creams and shampoos et cetera. The marketers use as many foreign words as they can find in order to confuse us and to give us the feeling we are buying a very exclusive product. Do me a favor (especially the females) and read all the information on the cosmetic products you have at home and pay attention the next time you are watching a cosmetic ad on TV. Maybe you also get a feeling of confusion.

[thorestoffregen]

50+1

This time I want to change the style I have written my blogs so far. Today´s blog post is about the grey market. According to the definition, the grey market describes a trade of commodities in a distribution channel that are unofficial, unauthorized or unintended but not illegal at the same time.   I want to share an everyday topic or idea that bothers me very often where I have the feeling that a grey market is abused. Today I am gonna write about football and the 50+1 rule in the german Bundesliga.

If we take a look at the english Premier League we can find a bunch of football teams that are financed by billionaires. They basically own the clubs because without them, they could not transfer any players or pay the immense salaries of the players. Probably the Fifa Football Manager on the computer was too boring for them because we could really say that the billionaires  are playing real life football manager. Sadly this phenomena can be identified across Europe, naming only two examples Shakthar Donezk from the Ukraine and Paris Saint-Germain from France. These cash injections seriously influence the competition and teams without this financial support will be unable to stay competitive.

In order to avoid this development the DFB (German Football Association) introduced the 50+1 rule which states that at least 50% of the football clubs shares must belong to the club itself. This rule is a good start to prevent a development similar to the one in the UK. Unfortunately some clubs in Germany can outsmart this rule as well. VFL Wolfsburg and Bayer 04 Leverkusen are both teams established by a company. The team of Wolfsburg belongs to the Volkswagen Group and Levekusens team belongs to BAYER, the pharmaceutical giant. That means that the clubs already have their unlimited source of cash.

The best example is: VFL Wolfsburg bought André Schürrle, a german national player and World Cup winner from 2014, for €32.000.000 from Chealsea FC in England during the winter break. Recently Wolfsburg haven´t got any great achievements that also generated enough cash to enable such a transfer. And how is Wolfsburg doing this season? Yesterday they beat Inter Milano in the Europa League pretty convincing 3:1 and they are second in the Bundesliga behind Bayern München and 10 points ahead of the third. Sadly that proves that success is indeed buyable.

[thorestoffregen]

The HAL

Today´s blog post is all about product innovations. There is an innovation from Japan that is promising to solve crucial demographic problems in the future. Cyberdyne is inventing this product since the 1990´s and it is supposed to enable physical abilities to people, that actually can not move because of physical disabilities or elderly problems. It is not a recent innovation but since its distribution process barely reached the overseas, it can be considered as "new". I am introducing the HAL. Th Hybrid Assistive Limb.

“We aim to develop the Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL) in order to enhance and upgrade the human capabilities based on the frontier science Cybernics.” Yoshiyuki Sankai, CEO of Cyberdyne, Professor at the University of Tsuku

The “Hybrid Assistive Limb” is a cyborg-type robot that can supplement, expand or improve physical capability. It is built to perform the elementary functions of a skeleton and to assist the user in mobility. It consists of four limbs, a spine and a battery pack. The limbs of HAL trace the humans body and are strapped onto the humans limbs. The battery pack is located in the back of the device, in the waist area. Its battery life is 120 minutes. While this may not sound like a long time, 120 minutes of independent movement for a disabled or old person can be extremely helpful.

It works like this: When a person attempts to move, nerve signals are sent from the brain to the muscles via motoneurons, which moves the musculoskeletal system as a consequence. Sensors that are placed on the skin are now able to detect weak biosignals. Based on the catched signals, the power unit of the robot moves the joints in unison with the wearer’s muscle movement.

In 2013, Cyberdyne achieved a great success by receiving the global safety certificate. The metal and plastic exoskeleton has become the first robot in the sector of healthcare that was certified under the draft standard.

When I read through the facts of the HAL, I was simply blown away and was wondering, why this innovation has not spread the world yet. It could help so many people in there daily lives and also simplifies the life of people surrounding users of the HAL. I am not sure what the reasons are for this but I am confident that a large scale production is a good idea to invest in. 

http://www.cyberdyne.jp/english/robotsuithal/

http://sanlab.kz.tsukuba.ac.jp/sonota/ISSR_Sankai.pdf