VolksWagen Facts - Week 10 EOC

• The history of the VolksWagen and the Beetle started in 1934 when in the Hall of Berlin Adolf Hitler announced that the car had not to be an exclusive privilege of the rich.

• To Ferdinand Porsche, defined by Hitler as "the most famous designer of all time". Hitler entrusted the assignment to construct the Volkswagen (the people's car to Porsche; and Hitler did not limit himself just to the definition of the name, but dictated also terms about the peculiarities that it had to have (speed, consumption, price, etc...).

• In '36 the first 3 prototypes were ready (two sedans and one cabriolet) so that, a little bit later, Hitler entrusted the task to find out the suitable place to build up the factory of the future Beetle.

• The place was located in a vast zone of the Low Sassonia, in the surroundings of the castle of Wolfsburg of Earl Von Schulenberg, who was dispossessed of his land.

• In '38 it took place, the ceremony of the laying of the foundation stone of that factory which became (and it is still) the biggest car factory of automobiles in the world.

• The name chosen for the future Beetle was KDF Wagen (Kraft Durch Freude Wagen), that is "Car of the force by means of joy"

It is no use saying that Porsche tried to set himself against such name, but the choice came from Hitler personally, and there was nothing he could do about it.

• In '39 the KDF-Wagen officially appeared at the Hall of Berlin and it was such a modern and revolutionary car that is made the competitors look like nothing.

• In September '39 the Second World War began and the civil production of the Beetle was converted to a military production. This had a lot of importance for the future of the Beetle because on account of the war it had to sustain the hardest test which no other car had ever been submitted to before (and today).

• It got off very well: in any climatic condition (from torrid Africa to icy Russia) and in any sort of ground (in the mud, in the sand and the snow) the Beetle was unstoppable.

• In this period the KÜBELWAGEN (car "made like a bucket", was built in many versions), and the SCHWIMMWAGEN (a car "which could swim", was able to achieve the speed of 10 Km/h in the water), and many other military models were built.

• In May '45 the war was over but the factory was seriously damaged by the bombardment. It was thought to have been demolish, but thanks, to the Major Ivan Hirst (who it had been trusted to) the English changed their mind and, some years later, gave it back to the Germans, entrusting the task to manage it to Heinz Nordhoff.

• In the meantime the workers, with the last materials saved from the bombardment, had laboriously started building the Beetle again, but the production had very low levels.

• It was just Nordhoff, in ’46 who preformed a "miracle": from a few hundred cars produced in '46 the productions went to 19.000 in the '48 and 46.000 in the '49 in a continuous and exponential growth which slowed down only in the middle seventies.

• In that period of time, many technical improvements were continuously introduced, however without ever touching the original look and formulation of Porsche's project.

• And with regard to Porsche: where was he?

• Porsche was prisoner in France even accused by Pierre Peugeot of war crimes (while it seems that Porsche himself had helped Peugeot form being arrested by the Gestapo). In ‘47 Peugeot was declared innocent and was set free, but he could not go back to Germany until '49.

• He died on 30 January 1951 without being able to know what "incredible career" his Beetle would make in future.

• In those years the exports began in other countries: Holland, Denmark, Luxembourg, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland and United States.

• In '53 the Brazilian production started with the affiliated firm "Volkswagen of Brasil" and the "Volkswagen of America" was built too; in '64 another overseas branch was built, the "Volkswagen de Mexico", and in '66 a factory opened in South Africa too.

• In '55 the millionth Beetle was built and, for that occasion, it was made in gold metalized color, with brocade seats and embellishments in little glass pearls on the chromizings.

• In the meantime in all the Countries where the Beetle was constructed or exported the sales grew constantly: in Italy '63, 42.000 Beetles were registered and America, people who wished to buy a Beetle had to wait up to 5 months.

• In '67 the look of the Beetle was remarkably modified: the headlight became round and vertical, the bumpers squared and increased in size, the tail lights magnified and the electrical system was strengthened (from 6 to 12 Volt).

• Even in '70 there was an important changes: in fact, the Super Beetle (mod.1302 and 1302/S) was born.

• Substantial differences regarded the appearance (a front hood more "plumper") and the mechanics (McPherson front chassis and rear axle with double flexible shafts) that were further modified in '73 with the Super Beetle mod.1303 (curved anterior glass and new dash-board stuffing). As it was already said, in the course of the years improvements never gave up, and it is interesting to notice that they were almost always ahead of their time and, therefore, destined to set a fashion; like the water resistant sun roof cover in PVC (1955), the tubeless tyres (1957) or the acrylic painting rather than the nitro painting (1949).

• Since '74, periodically, special series were built in a limited number, which had very particular inner fittings and colorations.

• The Jeans, the City, the Big, the Special Bug, the Fioriserie, the Winter, the Samtrot, the Silver Bug were built, and in '87, in order to celebrate the 50th year since its birth, the last one of the series was born, considered the best by the most: the Beetle of the Jubilee (Jubiläums-käfer). It was metalized grey and it had athermic, blue-tinted windshield, printed steel sports rims, the steering wheel of the Golf GTI and grey inners with strips of several tonalities.

• In the middle seventies sales began to decrease and in '74 they decided to move the Beetle production from Wolfsburg to Emden in order to make room for a new car: the Golf.

• In the '78 the European production definitively stopped and the Beetle continued being built only in Mexico, from where it was imported in Europe.

• In '76 the Super Beetle sedan had topped being built, and it was only built in the cabriolet version, but only until 1980.

• Recently the production in Mexico has been stopped.

    But the Beetle is not likely to disappear from the roads of our planet: a great part of the 22 million models that had been built cover miles of miles every day along the roads all over the world, asking in exchange only a little bit of oil and petrol.And their owners are sure of one thing: if they love it and they treat it well, "he" will never betray them. (Central Kentucky VW Club; HISTORY OF THE VW- THE BEGINNING: http://centralkyvwclub.com/centralkyvw.aspx)
    In the third episode of Mad Men the men were in a meeting to talk about a marketing plan about laxatives. One of the men bought up the article in a magazine about the VW Beetle. None of the men liked the article or the car, but they sat there and discussed the article for at least 15 minutes.
    In 1960, New York ad agency Doyle Dane Bernbach took a gamble and introduced the comely, low-priced Volkswagen Beetle as a "lemon"--ordinarily the ultimate insult for a car. But the attention-getting copy took an intriguing twist, explaining that though the car looked perfect, a VW inspector discovered a blemished chrome strip on the glove compartment that needed to be replaced before the car could be sold. (Bug’s Smashing Campaign, Los Angeles Times, March 5, 1998, By DIANE SEO, http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/doyle-dane-bernbach-company)
    The charming, honest advertising became part of the charm and honesty of the car. The advertisements they produced changed the face of advertising. Not just in America but across the world.

McDonald's $10 Burger - Week 9 EOC

    On page 291 of MKTG by Lamb Hair McDaniel, there is a discussion of pricing at McDonalds. It states, "There would probably be little demand for a menu item that was out of the price/value range established by other items in McDonald's product line. For example, a $10 burger would be well out of the price range that McDonald's customers expect for that product class." I think that with value-pricing, product modification and repositioning of McDonald's burger, the making a $10 burger would not seem exorbitant for that product class.
    If McDonald's took their burger and applied, "product modification which changes one or more of a product's characteristics such as quality modification... increasing quality can help the firm compete with rival firms. Increasing quality can also result in increased brand loyalty, greater ability to raise prices..."(MKTG, Lamb Hair McDaniel, pg 134, chapt. 9) They could produce a burger that communicated "Value-based pricing, also called value pricing, a pricing strategy that has grown out of the quality movement. Instead of figuring prices based on costs or competitors' prices, it starts with the customer, considers the competition, and then determines the appropriate price. ...The basic assumption is that the firm is customer driven, seeking to understand the attributes customers want in the goods and services they buy and the value of that bundle of attributes to customers...Customers determine the value of a product (not just its price) relative to the value of alternatives. Value-based pricing stresses to customers that they are getting a good value for their money. (MKTG, Lamb Hair McDaniel, Pgs 283 & 290 chapt. 18)
    By modifying their burgers McDonald's could give customers the things they would value in a burger such as a healthier, bigger, tastier burger that they could still get with the fast service and convenience that they have come to expect from McDonald's. This product modification can produce "repositioning which involves changing consumers' perceptions of a brand in relation to competing brands." (MKTG, Lamb Hair McDaniel, pg 111, chapt. 7) This would give McDonald's customers the feeling that, even though they are paying $10 for a McDonald's burger, they are getting their money's worth.

My USP compared to three others - Week 8 EOC

Burberry: Touch For Men

Touch For Men displays an initial freshness of hard-to-define notes: tender violets and tart mandarin blend subtly with invigorating waves of white pepper, softened by the smoothness of Virginia wood and oak moss. Like a strong, deep breath, the trail develops quietly into a sturdy, masculine alchemy of vetiver, white musk, and tonka bean.
Burberry Touch For Men asserts itself as an essence of life, a fragrance for rhythms or for silence, the vital accessory for a new outlook.

Notes: Artemisia, Violet Leaves, Mandarin Tree Leaves, White Pepper, Virginia Cedarwood, Nutmeg, Vetiver Roots, Tonka Bean, Skin Muse.

Style: A 'wearable' fragrance that is welcoming, yet rich in contrasts.

Burberry: Touch for men

Guerlain: Vetiver

Inspired by the outdoorsman whose presence evokes the richness and warmth of the earth, Vetiver captures the freshness and vitality of nature. An invigorating fragrance whose magic combines a very fresh note with a woody, spicy aura.
Notes: Vetiver, Nutmeg, Pepper.
Style: An invigorating, dry, spicy, and vibrant fragrance.

 

Guerlain: Vetiver

Calvin: euphoria men

Euphoria men is about satisfying your most intense desires, free of limits. It's about passion that stops at nothing. Chilled sudachi, ginger pepper cocktail, and raindrop accord, poured over crisp cedar leaves, black basil, and sage, warmed with notes of Brazilian redwood, patchouli, and amber.
Notes: Chilled Sudachi, Ginger Pepper Cocktail, Raindrop Accord, Cedar Leaves, Black Basil, Sage, Brazilian Redwood, Patchouli, Suede Note, Amber.

Style: Addictive. Fresh. Oriental.

Calvin Klein: euphoria men

Winds of Freedom for Men

This fragrance captures the essence of the force that exists within each man. It is a musky scent of man and warm earthy curry with an edge of fresh rosemary, a hint of mint and verbena, earth, wind and smoldering fire. This fragrance blends with the chemistry of each man to become different on each wearer, the fragrance becomes a part of a man's identity, his unique force that no one else has, the force that is within every man, but unique to every man. It is a close fragrance, a smell that is captured by another when someone brushes up closely against the man wearing Winds of Freedom.

Notes: Curry, Rosemary, Mint, Verbena

Style: Fresh invigorating, warm, fragrance

I think my unique selling proposition can compete and stand out from the other fragrance products on the fact that Winds of Freedom blends with the chemistry of each man that wears it making the fragrant unique to any other fragrant. No other person owns your fragrance.

Week 6 EOC - Campbell's Hearty Tomato and Chunky Cheese Soup

    My favorite Campbell's soup has always been creamy tomato soup. I love to have it in the fall with a grilled Velveeta cheese sandwich made with slices of fresh tomatoes from my garden. I would dunk the grilled cheese into the soup and the melted cheese would flow out of the sandwich and mix with the soup. It has always been my favorite ever since I was a kid.
    A brand new flavor of Campbell’s condensed soup that I would like to see would be a hearty, chunky tomato soup with Velveeta cheese chunks: “Campbell’s Hearty Tomato with Chunky Cheese Soup.”
    “Campbell’s Hearty Tomato with Chunky Cheese Soup" would have the taste of a homemade chunky tomato soup made with tomatoes that could have been picked fresh from your own back yard garden on a beautiful fall day. Picked right off the vine and at their fullest flavor the tomatoes would be sautéed with fresh herbs, onions and swirled with chunks of cheese. This soup would be the closest thing to eating fresh tomatoes right out of your garden. It would be easy to make, just open the can, add some milk and heat it up. Not only would it be good, but it would also be good for you. “Campbell’s Hearty Tomato with Chunky Cheese Soup" would be low in calories and sodium, full of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that you can only get from fresh tomatoes.
    Fresh tomatoes off the vine are available out of the garden for only a short part of the year. However, with "Campbell's Hearty Tomato with Chunky Cheese Soup" you can have the taste of fresh garden tomatoes any time of year that you wanted.

Week 5 EOC - Super Bowl 2010 Commercials

    Out of all the commercials I watched during the Super Bowl the one commercial I remember most clearly is the Budweiser commercial with the young colt and the young bull. When the two were young, they ran side by side on separate sides of a fence. Then they meet again running side by side and at the end, the bull crashes through the fence. Two men are standing there drinking Budweiser’s and one says, “Nothing comes between friends," and the other finishes the thought by saying, "Especially fences." Targeting the baby boomer, using geodemographic segmentation, this commercial touches on the things that people would consider important to them and what they value most in life. Remembering their old neighborhoods where they grew up, friendships and their belief in other people. No matter how long they had been apart, they will always remember the good times.
    Another commercial that comes to mind it the Doritos commercial where a man comes to date a young boy’s mother and as she walks away the boy observes the man looking at his mom’s butt. Then the man, sitting in the living room with the boy, takes a Doritos chip. The young boy slaps the man upside his head and tells him "Keep your hands off momma, and keep your hands off my Doritos. I found the humor is what made me remember this commercial. The young boy puts the same value on the Doritos as he does his mother. I think this commercial target the family life cycle (FLC) segmentation.
    Overall, I think there are social factors that influence the effectiveness of these commercials; selective distortion and selective retention play a big part on what each of us hears and remembers. The advertisers throw so much external stimuli at us within a couple of hours that it becomes difficult to distinguish wants from needs.

Week 4 EOC - Mad Men

    The series, Mad Men is set in 1960s New York. Mad Men is a sexy, stylized and provocative AMC drama that follows the lives of the ruthlessly competitive men and women of a Madison Avenue advertising, an ego-driven world where key players make an art of the sell. The series revolves around the conflicted world of Don Draper (Hamm), the biggest ad man (and ladies man) in the business, and his colleagues at the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency. The series also depicts authentically the roles of men and women in this era while exploring the true human nature beneath the guise of 1960s traditional family values. (http://www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/about/)
    In this episode of Mad Men, Draper is trying to come up with an idea on how to market Lucky Strikes    Cigarettes. Studies had just been recently released on cigarettes being linked to lung cancer and because of an article in Readers Digest, society started viewing cigarettes as evil which effected the sales of cigarettes. Draper had to counteract this view and became involved in a marketing research process.
    Draper hired a doctor to collect and analyze secondary data. Seated in a bar one evening, Draper starts a conversation, collecting primary data, with an older man asking him open-ended questions about his cigarette smoking. This was a survey research approach, in which he interacts with a person to obtain facts, opinions, and attitudes of people who smoked. As he continued sitting in the bar he used ethnographic research the study of human behavior in its natural context, involving observation of behavior and physical setting. He also spoke with his mistress asking her questions and sharing ideas.
    Draper used SWOT analysis, trying to identify internal strengths and weaknesses and examining external opportunities and threats as he questioned the owner of the cigarette company. After finding how the cigarettes were processed and made, Draper decided to use a societal marketing orientation that states that an organization exists not only to satisfy customer wants and needs and to meet organizational objectives but also to preserve or enhance individuals' and society's long-term best interests. His idea was that the cigarette company was making a product that was toasted so the cigarettes were not toxic like the cigarettes that the competitors were trying to sell. Draper used this fact as a competitive advantage.

Week 4 EOC - SuperBowl Commercial

    The Super Bowl is watched by millions of people every year making this event a great opportunity for advertising a product. Making a commercial that is not only entertaining but also speaks to the people it targets, the different types of people who would be watching the Super Bowl, is extremely important. This is what I saw in the commercial, "Bridgestone: Taters". This commercial is funny and is targeted towards the male population.
    When I saw this commercial, I had to laugh, I could absolutely relate to it the whole situation that it portrayed. Right away, I recognized its demographic segmentation of the middle aged, married, working class male. Being married for 21 years, I saw my husband and myself in this commercial. I think that is what makes this commercial effective. It uses aspects that this group can relate to and they have seen themselves in this same situation before. The use of Mr. Potato head, the real life humor of the man/woman relationship, and being the man behind the wheel of a sports car racing down the road, stopping just in time to avoid imminent danger appeals to a man of this group.
    Even though women are said to make 90% of the buying decision, buying tires for a car is something that most women leave to the men to do. This makes this a perfect commercial for the Super Bowl whose majority audience is male.

Bridgestone: Taters



I just saw this commercial and thought it was great. 3-24-2010.

Week 3 EOC - Great Customer Service

    It was the Tuesday after Memorial Day weekend. I remember this day because it was the day my 15 year old cat died. I was so upset while I was cleaning the house, that I hardly heard the banging in the ceiling. At first I thought it was my other cat, because she often spent time in the ceiling. But as the sound got louder and harder I looked out the window and the hail was coming down bigger then golf balls. It broke through all the windows on the south side of the house as it thundered down for about what seemed like an eternity but was really only about 10 minutes.
    I do not think I had ever been this terrified in my life. I was waiting for the roof to get torn off by a tornado like what you see in a movie. After it died down I called my husband, who was on his reserve weekend in Louisiana, telling him he had to come home NOW!! Of course, he could not. I called the police because I did not know what exactly was going on and what to do. They told me that there was a tornado warning for the next couple of hours. They said the safest place to go is into the bathtub if anything else happened. The unfortunate part of that is that my husband had recently replaced the bathtub with a glass enclosed shower stall. I was living in New Mexico where nobody had a basement because, according to the real estate agent, New Mexico does not have tornados. The only other thing I could think of was to call my insurance company.
    I had no idea what I was supposed to do and I was still terrified. The customer service person, Nancy, was the greatest, most caring person. The first thing Nancy did was she made sure that I was all right and not in any immediate danger. Then she talked me down from being terrified. She had me go around the house and tell her everything that had been damaged. Her patience and concern made all the difference in the world to me that day. By the end of our conversation I had thought I was talking to a good friend.
    When I called the insurance company I was expecting someone to give me a list of things I had to do. I thought they would take whatever information they needed and then wish me good luck. I think I received such great service because Nancy knew to ask the right questions and she had empowerment to make certain decisions. She never once had to put me on hold to ask another person what to do. This insurance company has a societal marketing orientation; they do not just sell insurance they care about their customer's well being. They have niche competitive advantage. Their target is military personnel and their families and because of this, they can effectively serve a small segment of the market. This made me feel like I mattered. I was the only person on Nancy's mind at that moment and she was going to make sure that I had everything that I needed and that I was all right before she got off the phone with me.
    Within two days of talking with Nancy, an inspector came to the house. We had over $19,000 dollars worth of damage to the house and my car. While other insurance companies were giving their customers a hard time about covering this or that because the storm was classified as a micro blast and not a tornado, we had a check in the mail in a week and were already repairing our house

Week 2 EOC - My Demographics

    The Baby Boomers generation is to me a generation of rebellion. It was a generation born between wars and involved in a war of breaking out of social norms. Being born between the years of 1946 and 1964 I am considered part of the Baby Boomer generation, however, being born at the end of the generation I felt a bit of an outsider. I was too young to be part of the "the movement", Vietnam, Woodstock, protests, drugs, which probably was a blessing in disguise.
    My childhood reflects the Baby Boomer generation; a household with two parents, my father worked and my mother stayed home and took care of the kids and household. There were five children in my family. In my family, the two eldest, my sister and my brother, were encouraged to continue school, but the rest of us, girls, were considered not smart enough to continue school and were encouraged to get jobs and get married, hopefully, in my mother's eyes, to a rich guy. This was what my parents did it and we were expected to follow in the their footsteps.
    But that did not work for me. The Baby Boomer generation seemed to be a generation that became aware, aware of our environment, aware of our health, aware of our spirituality, aware of what was going on in our world. We were not satisfied to live life as our parents did. We did not want to follow traditions just because our parents followed traditions and we were not afraid to let the world know what we wanted. The world around us was changing so quickly and I know I was looking for more meaning to my life.
    In general, Baby Boomers are associated with a rejection or redefinition of traditional values; however, I think values and ethics are very important to my generation. We are a hard working and dependable generation and we expect others to be the same. We expect quality, quality work, quality products and we are willing invest in quality and to spend money on quality.
    I do believe that the average Baby Boomer is active and affluent because of the values we hold. At an age where most of us are settled, with grown children, we are able to consider middle age a new start on life. We have seen our world go from an industrial society to one of technology that opened many doors of opportunity. I feel that at my age I have started a new life. Having the opportunity to go back to school and keep up with the changing technologies is exciting and opens up many new avenues to in my life.

Week 2 EOC - Favorite Fast Food

    As a child, my favorite fast food place was Friendly’s Ice Cream. I remember my father would take me there, just him and I, at least once a month. We would always get a black and white ice cream soda, chocolate soda with vanilla ice cream. It was a special time that we shared together and that memory is what makes Friendly’s Ice cream my favorite fast food restaurant.

Friendly's Ice Cream Restaurant

Week 1 EOC

    From a very early age, I was aware of my ability to portray the world in front of my eyes in a realistic way, but as life passes, the discovery of worlds that exist beyond your eyes is inevitable.
     Earning an Associate’s in Art and Graphic Design, I looked forward to joining the world of Graphic Arts, but I decided to further my education with a desire to reach the world by working towards a Bachelor’s degree in Web Design and Interactive Media. In the process of becoming a Web Designer I suddenly realized that by implementing the World Wide Web into my work was entering a world where anything can happen and anything can be done. In the design of a Web Site, your vision can be taken and heard throughout this amazing World.
    I believe that having an eye for art and the ability to create art is a gift that we should cherish and nurture forever. Since the beginning of time, we have used art as a way to express ourselves and bring one’s imagination and perspective to reality for all to see. I would love the opportunity to help you create your vision and to reach the world with that vision, whatever that may be.

"High Quality Sustainable Conception and Visual Design for

Global Communication"