Chapter 15

Today we talked about Advertising and Public Relations. We discussed the importance of advertising and how the most successful companies, like Coca-Cola, are built by heavy advertising and marketing investments.  There are several types of product advertising, including pioneering, competitive, and comparative, each type used in different stages of a products life cycle.  Public Relations is the element in the promotional mix that evaluates public attitudes.  It identifies issues that may elicit public concern and executes programs to gain public understanding and acceptance.

Chapter 12

I missed the class discussion on this chapter, which I would have liked to have been to because for me it is one of the more complicated chapters.  It involves marketing channels and supply chain management.  A marketing channel is a set of interdependent organizations that ease the transfer of ownership as products move from producer to business user or consumer.  Channel members include intermediaries, resellers and middlemen.  They negotiate with one another, buy and sell products and facilitate the change of ownership between buyer and seller in the course of moving the product from manufacturer into the hands of the final consumer.

Chapter 14

Chapter 14 to me is what I thought Marketing really was.  I didn't realize everything else that was involved.  Chapter 14 is about promotion and the promotional mix. A promotional strategy is a plan for the optimal use of the elements of promotion:  advertising, public relations, personal selling and sales promotion.  These are the things that most people of  when they think of "marketing."  We also talked about blogging tonight. I have a few friends that have blogs that discuss products and businesses.  I am amazed at how many people read these blogs and follow them.  It's pretty amazing that a housewife can have so much influence over what people purchase or where they shop.