Capitalizing on an experience

            I picked 'write about an experience and how you can capitalize on it', as my topic. An experience that I have had several times that I think I could capitalize on is the experience at Subway and other similar restaurants. I would be very interested in changing the whole dynamics of the sub-sandwich market. Today's world is so fast paced that I feel like walking into a sandwich shop is too time consuming. Although I am not sure I think it effects sales. I have never been in a sandwich shop that was crowded. In fact its always the opposite, I might be the only one inside. 
         If I had the resources I would open one of these shops with a drive-thru window. I would also add on a Sonic like experience with a pull up and order service. But with customizable screens where customers can pick which topping to add to their sandwich and how much of each. Which includes an automated screen which shows the customer what their sandwich will ultimately look like. I am not sure why this idea hasn't been invented already.
 

Focus Groups

                 I picked the topic of how a focus group can help with marketing. I think a focus group should be part of any marketing plan or idea. I think focus groups help to understand and know your target market. Focus groups can help determine what is or isn't working for your product. Also what is appealing to certain age groups or demographics.
            I think that having a focus group can save money in the long run. A focus group allows time to be put into research and development. It would be detrimental to a company to launch a product or service without some type of focus group. What if all the money was spent on the product and branding it and marketing it but none on research. Then the product is just asking to fail and money gone down the drain.
          We have all read or heard about the stories of McDonald's using focus groups for new items. Some of which where homeruns and are still on the menu today and others that were total flops. With all that being said a focus group can not 100% determine what the product will do when it hits the market but it should be a step in every marketing matrix. Even McDonald's has suffered when focus groups have liked certain items then when they hit the market the item doesn't do so well. I do fell like it is a necessary risk that every company should take.

Where I keep my ideas

           I definitely have a journal where I keep all my million dollar ideas. I got the idea from a class that I took in my first semester of college. The class focused on successful inventors and people of that nature and how they had several ideas. How they would carve out time to do nothing but think in a quiet room for 30minutes a day. It talked about how famous inventors we know such as Thomas Edison to Bill Gates and lesser know people had several failed attempts before and after they created the inventions they are well known for. The class taught me so much, mainly never to give up. There was one inventor who jotted down something and it didn't work 10 years later when looking at the journal it still didn't work for what he needed but turned into something else the invention was the sticky note and the glue for it. The class also taught me to periodically look back at the journal to see if there is any new way I can tweak an idea. I learned that the best way to come up with an idea or creation is first to look at a service or product and figure out what's wrong with it. So for instance I could look at the laundry detergent pods that are all the craze now and see how I could better fix or tweak the product by looking at how they don't work in my life or in my friends life.
             Now I do take out the 30  minutes everyday and write ideas in my journal. I go through life now looking at how to change it or make it better. There have been times I have been away from my journal so I ill jot an idea down in my phone, and save it for when I get home, and transfer it over. I have also taught my son how to use and I encourage him to write in his creative journal everyday. I know that somewhere in there I have already created the next best thing!

     Marketing then vs Marketing now  

           After researching ads and doing some reading on the topic, marketing has come a long way since its early days. Depending on how far back we look early marketing involved things like an ad in local newspaper, or an ad on the radio at prime time. In early days especially pre-internet days, marketing was much more localized. Consumers could open a newspaper and see an ad for a local grocery store or a local good and or service. Even into the early 90s when not everyone had a computer in their home or if they did it was the slow dial up internet. Catalogs were very popular. This gave consumers access to products worldwide. I even remember tearing out the order form and mailing it in and having to wait 6-8 weeks for a product! I also think that in the previous decades of marketing, that the target audience was the mother and or father of the home.

         Now that the makeup of what constitutes a family has changed, marketing has followed suit. Television ads are geared more towards kids and teens, whom studies show have a tremendous effect on their parents spending, and trends. Marketing has become more mainstream. I noticed a new trend about a year ago. It seems that all the ads whether tv, radio, or print all have hip hop or urban music attached to them. Many ads include several different races of people. But everything seems to have urban vibes and settings to it. I caught my grandmother singing a song and when I inquired where she had heard it she had to think and replies "its always on the tv, I didn't even realize I was singing it, frankly I hate the commercial". Marketing now is big, loud, bright, and its everywhere! Nevertheless I am excited to see where marketing will be in 5 or 10 years. Where do we go next and will we finally be able to advertise on our flying cars?