Monday, May 21, 2012

A cool opportunity for you


The American Marketing Association is hosting a 1/2 day special online forum on online marketing research.  (Yes, that sentence is correct.)  It's a shame that it's happening right before the end of class, but you'll all be really, really good at marketing by that point!

Click here for more info & to register.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

A non-robot post!

Something you all should keep in mind throughout this class is that our perceptions are extremely limited (through no fault of our own).  Why should we focus on, or even consider, problems or ideas that are outside our realm of experience?  It doesn't make sense from a cognitive perspective -- our brains would much rather spend that energy thinking about the Kardashians, right?



But the idea of the "bottom of the pyramid" is gaining strength in the marketing world right now. 


http://www.amazon.com/The-Fortune-Bottom-Pyramid-Eradicating/dp/0131467506

The idea is that there are literally billions of potential consumers who are currently underserved by traditional marketing sectors.  What if we could make products that help them live better lives?  What if we could sell billions of products to these people every year?  The margins are slim, but the aggregate sales figures would be huge.

This isn't dissimilar from the way the robber barons of the 19th century made their fortunes. 

The pyramid model is conspicuously ethical, as opposed to how the industrialists operated (hence the term "robber barons").  However, whenever there's money being made, there will be people trying to exploit the weaknesses in the system.  Microlending is a great example of a bottom-of-the-pyramid industry that's now experiencing growing pains.

Image source: http://images.fastcompany.com/upload/the-fortune-at-the-bottom-of-the-pyramid.jpg


Tuesday, May 15, 2012

In keeping with the robot theme of the week...



"It doesn't look like Daft Punk. we wanted to look like Daft Punk."

Here's some Daft Punk, for comparison purposes:



FYI, this song is one that really, really, really sticks in my head.  Good thing I like it!

Monday, May 14, 2012

Thinking about robots

Once I posted the photo of the Fake Maria from Metropolis (previous post), I couldn't stop remembering other female robots in pop culture...


Fembots (from Austin Powers)

Rosie (from The Jetsons)

Cylons (from Battlestar Galactica)

Pris (from Blade Runner)

This post doesn't really have much to do with marketing or BUS 341, except that I wanted to show you all how easy it is to add multimedia content to your own blog posts.  Searching for the perfect images can be really addictive!


Image sources: 
http://www.eggshell-robotics.com/pictures/rosie-jetsons.png
http://www.infinitydish.com/tvblog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/ThreeSixEight-Criticalgamers.com_.jpg
http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/8200000/Daryl-Hannah-as-Pris-in-Blade-Runner-blade-runner-8242803-1516-2260.jpg

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Getting ready to teach online!




I'm really excited about teaching principles of marketing online this summer!  As a teacher, it's really interesting to create a class that's challenging and informative and captivating (is that too strong a word?) for the students who are taking it, within the limitations of the online environment -- it's so different from thinking about a class that's delivered face-to-face.

It's also been fun trying to figure out how to keep the humanity in a course that everyone (including me) is going to experience while sitting in front of individual computers...  I don't want anyone to ever think that this class is being run by a robot, because I know how much time and effort I've put into it already, and it hasn't even started yet! I hope the tone and content of my online interactions with my students shows how much I love teaching, and how much I want to you to succeed -- not just in this class, but throughout your school careers, and lives  :-)

I guess we'll learn what works and what doesn't, huh? 

PS Let's kick off the conversation with a pretty easy question: Does anyone know what the above image is from?  Who's seen it?  What did you think?  Answer in the comments section!  Let's get to know each other! 


Image source: http://www.wildsound-filmmaking-feedback-events.com/images/metropolis_robot.jpg