Ida Yang

In the room M:ughhhh Sec:*runs over*what is it M:one drunky over here just threw up on me and two this room is crap Sec: it’s not a room it’s a dorm M; like I give a sh** Sec:sorry,guess you’ll have to live with it *the sec. leaves and Miley stands up on a chair to announce something* m:excuse me !! Yea we are gonna have to establish some rules here D;what do you M:excuse me!!!! I’m speaking, now 1st don’t talk wen I’m talking 2 you’ll do whatever I say 3 you won’t give me additude and 4 no drinking after 8:00 cuz some ppl”v” can’t handle it the next day! Now Demi I want you to go and do my laundry and v * hands her a bag that’s really heavy* put that in my room and selena…… V:SHut up M:excuse me*sassy* wutt did you jus say V: I said shut up M:what! v:shut up … Must I repeat myself constantly M:you know what V:No!!! I’m talking … Now listen … I don’t know who the he’ll you think you are but if u think u gonna boss me around all day your wrong! Ok! Now here is my 1 rule …. Don’t tell me what to do and I won’t beat the sh** out of you! Got it M: he’ll no V: well then get it! *shoves the bag right into her stomach which makes her fall* M: jus bcuz of vu both have to work extra D: no M:whadidya D: no!! U heard what v said you are not bossing us around ….. Welcome to the world of working for yourself M: but Selena you work 4 me still S: No M: oooh sassyness ….. That’s comin outta ur paycheck S: u no what … She’s right …. I quit M: no u can’t 6 month policy …

What is marketing? As defined by the Webster’s Dictionary, marketing is the act or process of selling or purchasing in a market. Marketing is the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service.

In our test, marketing is described as “the societal process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating, offering and freely exchanging products and services of value with others.” (Kotler and Keller, 2009)

A company relies solely on marketing. As the text mentions, you can have a great product, a great customer retention program, but without marketing where would the customers come from? In order to run a successful business, you need to know who your target audience is, what the demand for your product is, and how to make your product known. “Knowing what your clients’ expectations are, exceeding them, and building a reputation based on that is the key to success. Pay attention to your customers, and they will come back time and time again. Ignore them, and they will disappear faster than you can spend your marketing budget to try to bring them back.” (Geld, 2006)

Marketing, to me, is a process in which you identify your prospective customers, and provide a service or good to that set of people. In the marketing process, you not only need to identify who your key audience is, but you need to have the ability to present your product in an appealing format that will draw people to your product.

I work for a transactional tax software company. One of our corporate objectives is to have our entire customer base upgrade to our latest code line of the software. With this corporate objective, we need the participation from our Marketing department as a means to identify our target customers, those still on an older code line, and provide a reason for our customer to “want” to upgrade. In this process we gathered the necessary customer information from our Customer Support database. With this information, we setup Webinars for our customer base to attend where we could display the benefits of moving to the latest version. We sent webinar information to all of our customers needing to upgrade in an effort to “sale” the latest version. We provided two different webinars for the upgrade. The first webinar contained all technical information that is required for the upgrade, answering any questions that the participants may have. The second webinar we provided was the functional changes of latest product, presented by our Director of Product Management. The new features that we presented in our webinar represented to our customer base the innovative changes that we have made with the product that will make their lives easier.

I believe that our marketing strategy was effective at spreading the word with our customers. The webinars were also effective at providing a resource for our customers to get a first hand look at the upgrade process, and a place where they can receive immediate answers.

The use of marketing also provides information to a company to help improve their product. To remain relevant, a company needs to always be changing. The marketing process helps to direct a company in their plans for change. Identifying how you can change your product to not only retain your current customer base, but to continually draw in new customers, is the reason for growth within a company.

Apple has done a great job at changing up their products and providing new services to capture the market audience. With the release of the iPod, Apple provided a sleeker, more innovative way to listening to and purchasing music. With the ever increasing digital world, Apple keyed on the technologic aspect of the music player allowing consumers to download music directly to their iPod, from their own download platform, iTunes. When Apple extended the functionality of the iPod to the cell phone, creating the iPhone, they took advantage of their innovation and their ability to predict what their consumers were after. With the creation of the i-products, they have created a brand that is recognizable. The mention of an i-product immediately alerts a consumer of the Apple brand. This has been very beneficial for Apple as their products, as of late, have been among the most innovative in the industry.

Marketing not only gets your company rolling, but it is essential to keep your company from floundering and eventually being left in the dust by their competitors.

References

Geld, Scott F. (2006, Jan, 16). Importance of Marketing. Moblin.org, Retrieved April 12, 2009, from http://tools.devshed.com/c/a/Website-Marketing/Importance-of-Marketing/1/

Kotler, P., & Keller, K.L. (2009). Marketing management. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

Jesus has smoked most of his life. Now he writes inspiring articles for people trying to quit smoking. You can check out his recent site at http://benefitsofstoppingsmoking.net where he writes about the Benefits of Stopping Smoking.

“All right! Let’s hit it with everything we’ve got!” “Yeah!” Senel is able to stop Shirley from activating the Wings of Light, but Maurits channels the spirit of Nerifes into himself, becoming its physical incarnation. The party faces him down in a final battle for the world they know. Woo, i don’t remember him being this hard. Nerifes, as awkward as it looks and moves, is probably the hardest boss thus far, Stingle aside. The main problem, like Stingle, is the games AI. It’s easy to block many of Nerifes’ Raging moves as well as his spells, but the AI doesn’t ever use Guardian or healing Gels or ANYTHING by themselves. If a caster dies and you use a life bottle, they won’t cast spells again until their TP manually recharges to a certain amount, which is VERY annoying watching them stand there. Beating Nerifes up on the ground isn’t too bad, though his Raging Arrow hits EVERYONE 100% of the time. And of course casters won’t block it, so that’s about 1/3 of their health right there. The problem is when Nerifes balls up and shoots in the air. It starts casting powerful spells like Rolling Stone and Indignation, which the computer won’t attempt to block against at all. His worst move is Wrath of the Sea, which is nearly an instant KO to anyone standing near it when it does it, and IS an instant KO to anyone who stands directly under it. Nevertheless, he does have a weakness to Dark, and Chloe and Senel can keep up a decent stun on him. The AI doesn’t make this the cakewalk …