NW Marketing

What do you think of when you think “specialty store”?

My fave is the dog bakery companies. I mean come on now, EVERY dog needs a pupcake!! When I go home, I do tend to go to one and normally drop $50, easily.

In specialty stores, price usually does not factor into the thought process of the purchase. That is why many of them are successful.

What makes this type of store so successful? Its people like me. People who want to spoil their animals. If humans are starting to eat healthy, then by golly, the dogs also need health food! At many of these types of stores, you can have a birthday party. How cute is that? Many in society tend to look at pets as “children”. I am one of those! You can even search “dog bakery” on the web and up comes “Start a dog bakery today”.

When I was a buyers assistant (pillows, mattress pads, etc) for a “big box” retailer, part of my job was to allocate the amount of merchandise my buyer purchased from a vendor. This was pretty simple because we had a program designed to tell us what stores sold what at what volume. Now for example, if  I had a certain pillow that sold great in the south, and the on hand was low, I would send 90% of the product to that area, broken down by store.  Because what good would it do the store to have no room on the shelves, but still send them 200 pillows that would not sell in a years time?

The point of this story is, as markerters I believe that you need to be able to have a distribution “game plan” for your sales team.  If you are not able to have product where it is wanted – you will not have sales. As marketing and sales are hand in hand these days, we need to swallow our pride and ask the other side for help.

I saw a movie starring Queen Latifah. In this movie her character states “I don’t want to get Daewoo on my hands”.  That quote cracked me up!! My then perception of Daewoo is that they were cheap pieces of crap. However a couple years later i’m in the market for a new vehicle. I come across a Suzuki that is so darn cute, it just fits me!! Anywho, i’m cleaning it and have the doors open. Holy cow, guess what one of the stickers says, yup – it says “Daewoo”. I couldn’t believe it! Well I love my car and haven’t had any problems.

Another example: I love Starbucks. I wish I could work there and get paid in coffee! However, some would say that they charge to much and there is one on every corner. This comment is based on someones experience. If I had not already been in love with Starbucks, and heard this one comment – I definitely would not be going there.

http://www.my3cents.com/showReview.cgi?id=55916

I would say most people enjoy a nice cup of joe! The best move, in my opinion, that my local Target did – was install a Starbucks. Because my perception is that Target was a box type store with no personality. However, now its my fave place to shop – and of course get coffee.

I really would like to know. But first we have to define “ethics”, as some definitions, to some companies are blurred.  Ethics, according to the dictionary, is defined as “moral principles“. So, where do business ethics come into play?

So I found an article in the Star Telegram about AIG. And guess what – we the American people bailed them out to keep them from “collapsing” and they are STILL wanting to give themselves “retention” bonuses. Is that ethical, I think not!  A link to the article is below.

http://www.star-telegram.com/business/story/1480505.html

Here’s a previous article about the CEO, pretty much taking money from the company. What is going on in business today?

http://www.star-telegram.com/461/story/1473536.html?storylink=textdigger

This is my first time “blogging”, so be patient with me!! 

Lets start of with – Hello, my name is Amber. I am attending a Marketing class at my local college and this is one of our assignments – to blog.  So if anyone has advice on this, I would appreciate it!