This weekend I had the pleasure of going to six flags. It is the first time I have been in almost twenty years. I went several times as a young person with my youth group and just never made it back in all these years. Now my daughter is old enough to be in the youth group and they go every September. My son is almost thirteen, so I thought he would like to go, as well, so I ended up getting season passes for all of us.
It turns out that is a way better deal to get season passes than to just get a one day ticket. A one day ticket costs around $46, give or take, depending on which day you go and which ticket you choose. When I went to the website, I found that they were having a back to school special. The price of the season tickets were marked down to $53.99, but you have to order four or more to get the deal. I only needed three, so I asked some friends if they wanted to take advantage of the offer, and they did, so it worked out perfectly! There was tax and a small fee added to it, which brought the total price per ticket to approximately $60. It lasts the rest of this year and all of next year. Not a bad deal! I kept thinking, how are they making any money like that until I got there.
Once you get inside, you can ride the rollers coasters and other rides as many times as you want, but they have strategically placed other money making opportunities all throughout the park. First of all, food. You are not allowed to bring your own food inside the park. They have restaurants and food stands all over the place and, of course, everything is overpriced. Another thing is photo booths. I somehow let my son talk me into paying $6 for one of those photo strips! Now they have lockers at some of the roller coasters that you have to pay to put your personal items in, since they are not allowed on the rides. There are carnival games for the kids to play. Then then there are the gift shops with all the really cool souvenirs.
To sum it all up, they get you in with the cheap tickets, but entice you with all the goodies that you've just got to have!
Have a great day!
Kristy Alexander
Saturday, September 17, 2016
I have been a Dave Ramsey fan for a very long time. If you are not already familiar with him, he is a radio talk show host based out of the Nashville,Tennessee area. He gives great financial advice. He has helped many people realize their dream of being debt free. He has written several books and offers many services through his radio show and website. He offers many classes and hosts several live events each year. His stories are very inspirational and I enjoy learning from listening to his advice as callers call in with their unique situations.
On top of his daily radio program, you can find his show in the form of an iTunes podcast and now he offers live streaming of his shows on YouTube. He also has a free app where you can watch archived shows plus many other features. I have joined several webinars his company has hosted on leadership and business. I could go on and on because he and his team offer so many products and services.
As I was listening to one of his recent shows, he was talking about a live event, Smart Money, that he does with his daughter, Rachel Cruze. It actually happened this weekend in Dallas, Texas. It was a sold out event. Recently he offered live streaming for a discounted price of the live ticket cost to one of his other events, but this weekend, since YouTube now has a live streaming feature, he decided to offer it free for this event. He openly talked about the fact that he was only offering it free because it was a sold out event and the fact that they would be promoting his daughter's new book, "Love Your Life, Not Theirs." (Plus, if you order in advance, you get some extra free stuff!)
I think Dave Ramsey is a great business man himself and has built an amazing team that does a fantastic job at communicating, teaching, and marketing. They are very present in social media and very easily accessible.
This post really does not do the point that I am trying to make justice with this one example I have given, but it would take too much time to really express what a great job I think he has done in building his company, surrounding himself with hardworking people, leading them, and teaching them to be leaders themselves. I am very impressed with what I have seen and heard about his company and the way he runs it. It is the type of company and environment that I would love to work in.
One segment he features on his radio program is the Millionaire Hour where he interviews people that are millionaires. This clip is a family out of Huntsville, AL. Watch their story:
Have A Great Day!
Kristy Alexander
Sunday, September 11, 2016
Businesses Marketing to Employees
I saw an article this week that I thought was interesting from a business and marketing standpoint. The article was stating that a company called Deloitte was now offering up to 16 weeks of vacation time for their employees.
Deloitte is a consulting firm with 80 locations here in the United States. Locations here in Alabama include one in Huntsville and one in Birmingham.
The article has more information about the topic. I am including the link here:Huffington Post.
The website itself boasts the same fact on its homepage, as well. Check it out here.
I am not going to get into the details of the article itself, but I thought the concept applied to marketing in the sense that companies are not only marketing to consumers of their products or services, but they are also marketing to their employees, as well. They are trying to convince us that they are the best place to work based on their pay rate and benefits package.
When starting companies of our own, we need to consider the quality of the product or service we are offering to our customers, as well as what we are offering to the people we bring on board to help us reach our goals.
Have a great day!
Kristy Alexander
Sunday, September 4, 2016
Marketing Tactics
I just happened to be in the market for a mattress for my son this weekend. I didn't pay any attention to the fact that it was Labor Day weekend and sales were going on. It was pure coincidence as far as that goes.
I started calling around getting price quotes from different places in town to see who had the best deal. I just wanted something cheap, not wanting to spend a lot of money. I found that a couple places were having special deals and had narrowed it down to these two places. I could get just a mattress for $99 at one place or a set for $149 at Bedzzz Express. Plus, I could choose between a twin, full, or queen for the same price. So, I decided if I could get any of those sizes for the same price that I would get him a full size bed since he is about to be 13 and nowhere near finished growing yet.
Here's the ad:
However, when we got to the store and saw the mattress quality being offered, it didn't seem like such a good deal anymore. I knew ahead of time that it was just a basic mattress. I was not expecting anything fancy, but when I sat on it, I could feel the box spring underneath. So, we began looking for the next best choice. In the end I spent almost $100 more for a twin size mattress that was much better quality and I felt like it would last my growing boy a good bit longer that "cheap" one.
As I was leaving, I thought, good marketing, Bedzzz Express. You got me in with your $150 doorbuster deal and after seeing the low quality of that mattress compared to all the others in the store, I spent a good deal more than I planned on spending. I would say that Bedzzz Express won that one, but I did feel like it was a win-win in the end because it was still a good deal on a much more comfortable mattress.
I also had the thought that it is really smart to have a wide range of products and prices, but even more important to have a great selection on mid-priced products. I think the majority of people on a budget are going to shoot somewhere in the middle. Not everyone can afford the high-end products, but they also don't want a piece of junk. They want something that will last and have a decent amount of comfort/usability.
Speaking of mattresses, I saw a commercial for a mattress recently that I thought was pretty creative. The company's name is purple. I thought the use of the fairy tale character was done in a fun, creative way and the way they presented the information was pretty entertaining, as far as mattress commercials go. At the end, they even show that the eggs they are using in the commercial are real to make it more believable. When they address the price, they mention first that other mattress cost thousands of dollars, but their mattress is only ONE thousand. I'm thinking that is still a lot of money, but the way it is presented makes you feel like you are getting a great deal!
Enjoy this commercial:
Have a great day!
Kristy Alexander
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Share A Coke Campaign
If you've been around any at all the last couple of years, you had to have seen Coca Cola's Share A Coke Campaign somewhere. Whether it be a commercial, an advertisement on a billboard or in a store, or even just seeing the bottles themselves on the shelf, you've seen it. I think it is brilliant! Coca Cola is already a household name, bringing in the big bucks for sure, but I wonder how many people who don't even really prefer Coke went out and bought one just because their name was on it!
Just in the little bit of research I did, I found that you can even go to their website and have bottle customized with whatever name you want! Just think, if you were having a family reunion, you could place an order at $5 a piece for bottles of Coke that has your family's name on it!
Michigan and Hawaii partnered with McDonald's and Coca Cola to promote tourism in their regions. I also saw that even some countries had commercials inviting you to share a Coke with them.
Recently, they have also taken lyrics from popular artist's music and put those on the labels of the drinks, as well.
I think the marketing team at Coca Cola is very clever and creative! I bet they had all the other bottling companies scrambling to keep up.
Have a great day!
Kristy Alexander
Sunday, August 21, 2016
Hello
My name is Kristy Alexander. This blog is designed as a place for me to post about marketing as a grade for my Entrepreneurial Marketing class at Wallace State Community College. My instructor is Brandon White.
As my first post, I would like to tell a little bit about myself and why I am taking this class, an introduction of sorts. I will try to keep it as short and simple as possible, seeing I am the type of person that likes to include all of the details. And I do mean ALL! Just ask anyone that knows me. It has become somewhat of a family joke, because my brothers are the same way!
If you would have asked me what I wanted to do when I graduated high school, at the time I would have either said, "I don't know" or " a teacher." I was a student teacher for a pre-1st Grade class during my junior and senior years of high school and really enjoyed it. However, it did not translate right away in my mind to do it as a career. Don't ask me what I was thinking, because I really don't know! I actually waited a whole year before going to college, but when I did my major was Elementary Education. I only got through the general/basic courses before getting married and that was the end of college for quite a while. I ended up having two children relatively early on and life just went from there.
Fast forward to about fourteen years later and I ended up going through a divorce. I don't recommend it. It's the worst thing for a family and especially children. However, by the grace of God, we survived! I feel much stronger and wiser now for it, too! Because of these changes going on in my life, it gave me the opportunity to return to school. I had always had the desire to go back, but for some reason I didn't feel like I could. Looking back, I really don't know what I was thinking! This time, however, I didn't think Elementary Education was the best choice.
Over the years, I had always had the desire to own my own business. My problem was, well, probably a few things actually. One problem was that I didn't know what business I would do, there are so many things that seem interesting to me. Unfortunately, I am not one of those people who always knew what they were going to do. I am still trying to figure it out. Another problem was a lack of confidence and ignorance, really. I didn't know anything about how a business is run and what all it takes to be successful.
After going through a divorce, I really ended up feeling so free. I felt like my whole world had opened up and I could be anything/do anything I wanted to do. So, I started thinking about all the things that interested me. I won't go into all of my ideas right now or we would be here all day! To get to the point, I had it narrowed down to a few things, but it all revolved around me owning my own business in some way. I wanted to have more control of my life and not just be going to work. I wanted my job to be something I loved and truly cared about, not just a way to make money. I had intentions of doing the Business Entrepreneurship degree as one of my first choices. I went up to the college and spoke with someone there, and after listening to me, she recommended Accounting. (That was one of the choices on my list.) It was a business degree, but something specific that would help me get a job. I really felt like that was good advice, so I took it. I just took the last two classes to receive my Accounting degree this summer.
Although I felt good about my decision, I still wanted those entrepreneurial classes. Every time I looked at the list of classes, I considered changing my major, but decided just to stay the course. As I was about to finish and earn my degree, I looked at the list again and realized I only had eight classes left (since both degrees share a lot of the same classes), which is only two more semesters. I decided to go ahead and plow on and take those classes, as well. So, I have two more semesters left , then I will take a break!
I am currently in the process of looking for a job using the skills I have learned so far and am also still enrolled as a full-time student on my way to a second degree. I still haven't figured out exactly what business I will have, but I am hoping that if I can get a good education that it will prepare me for when the right opportunity arises and then I will be ready!
One idea that I will share with you before I go is that I have always loved houses. I have dreamed for years of buying old worn out houses and renovating them and flipping them. It would allow me to be creative and do hands on projects that I have longed to do for a very long time! That is definitely something I plan on doing no matter what. I still have some other ideas floating around in my head, but nothing definitive yet, so I will keep learning and searching until I get it figured out.
Last but not least, marketing..... The reason for this blog in the first place.....
Today, I am going to share with you something that I see as a marketing success.
My children and I love comedy. We listen to the comedy stations on Pandora and watch clips on YouTube. We have come across a Christian comedian by the name of Tim Hawkins. You may have already heard of him before. We are somewhat addicted. I have purchased several of his recordings via computer download and we have watched them over and over and over. I even bought my kids some of his merchandise for Christmas this past year. It was one of their favorite things! Now, he has ventured into the world of podcasting and I am subscribed to that via iTunes. We just can't get enough of him.
First of all, he's funny. He's very relatable and he uses visual comedy to enhance his performance. He is a musician and he incorporates that into his shows, as well. My point is that he has a very good "product," in my opinion.
Secondly, he is easily accessible. I follow him on Facebook and Instagram. He also has a twitter account which he uses to connect to fans. And as I mentioned earlier, he has video clips on YouTube Then there's the podcast.
He also has a website that you can go to to purchase his live recordings, merchandise, and tickets to his live shows. The website itself it put together well. The fonts and colors they chose are very stylish and appealing. The overall look to his website is attractive to me. Plus, he has a cool logo. You can tell that a lot of thought and planning went into it. I definitely appreciate a good looking website. Something about it makes you feel better about ordering from websites that have a good design to them. They seem more serious, more legit. From a purchasing standpoint, the look of the website could certainly be a make or break it for me if it is not something that I am already familiar with or belong to someone I personally know.
All of these things combined make a good package as far as I'm concerned. Because I purchased some of his merchandise, I now receive email updates with information about his shows etc. My kids and I are very excited to be going to one of his live shows this fall! We can't wait.
