Target Market Strategy

When it comes to creating a marketing strategy, “the marketing manager’s aim is to find, attract, keep, and grow target customers by creating, delivering, and communicating superior customer value” (Armstrong and Kotler 9). My target market is going to be male consumers, and I my strategy will be to use humor to sell Q-Tips to them. When faced with the task of selling a product to me, most companies will turn directly to sex appeal to sell the product for them. I plan to differentiate the Q-Tip brand through a unique and memorable commercial which uses humor geared towards men. By not using the motto “sex sells” in my advertisement, my ad will stand out and Q-Tips will be in an excellent position in the marketplace. “The company must also decide how it will serve targeted customers—how it will differentiate and position itself in the marketplace” (Armstrong and Kotler 9).

Situation or SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis is “an overall evaluation of the company’s strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T)” and is used to analyze a company’s situation prior to marketing. The Q-Tip brand is full of strengths; the brand name itself is commonly used interchangeably with the term cotton swab. The perceived value of Q-Tips is high, people believe that the Q-Tip brand cotton swab is a higher quality product than what its competitors offer. Some of the weaknesses of the product include that since it is perceived to be of a higher quality than what the competitors offer, the price is somewhat higher. The price being higher is necessary to keep its perceived value; however, the higher price means that there is a certain demographic that is unlikely to purchase the product. People with very low income are more likely to just purchase the competitor’s brand if it is significantly lower because they cannot afford the luxury of the higher quality brand. The brand name being used synonymously with the term cotton swab could actually become a weakness as well. “Their very success may threaten the company’s rights to the name. Many originally protected brand names are now generic name that any seller can use” (Armstrong and Kotler 231). An example of a brand name that was originally protected but became so widely used that the protection was lost is aspirin. One opportunity for the Q-Tip brand to take advantage of is the entire male market. The goal of my advertisement is going to be to sell to this entire market segment by creating an ad which targets and gains the attention of men. Threats to the Q-Tip brand are any and all of its competitors. If another brand is able to create the perceived value that Q-Tips have and still sell their product at a lower price, the entire Q-Tip brand could be in jeopardy.

Objectives

The main objective of my advertising campaign is the sell Q-Tips to men. Q-Tips are a product that can and are being used by men; however, they are not typically purchased by men. The goal of the advertisement is to interest men in the product to the point that men would actually make the trip to their local drug store to pick up a pack of Q-Tips. “The overall advertising objective is to help build customer relationships by communicating customer value” (Armstrong and Kotler 386). The value of the product is that it can be used in a number of ways; the advertisement is going to communicate this value in a way that men will be interested in. “No matter how big the budget, advertising can succeed only if advertisements gain attention and communicate well” (Armstrong and Kotler 390). Despite the budget of the advertisement being $0.00, the commercial is capable of gaining attention and communicating well. The commercial uses humor that is geared towards men; humor is a great way to gain attention and communicate a message. My advertisement will achieve its objective of Q-Tips to male consumers.

Business Mission Statement

The commercial that I produce for Q Tips will generate interest in the product by men. By using humor targeted at men, I plan to create a commercial that will cause men to want to purchase the product for themselves. The typical plan of attack for creating a commercial that appeals to men is to use sex appeal. These sexually charged ads generally claim that the product will somehow directly or indirectly cause women to flock to the male consumer. “Sex sells, and a lot of advertising uses it even for products or services that are not sexually-oriented” (Armstrong and Kotler 408). Using sex to sell products can sometimes be the best possible advertising method, other times; it is just simply the easier way to go about it. I do not plan to use the cliché that sex sells in my advertisement.

EOC Week 7: The Pitch

For my final project, I am going to market Q-Tips to men. My plan is to create a commercial which emphasizes the many ways that the product can be used. To make the ad appeal to men, I am going to use male targeted humor. For instance, one idea I have so far is to have a series of shots with voice over; the first shot will be something like a man building a Lincoln-Log type house out of Q-Tips with voice-over reading "for the building man." The next clip can be two men using the Q-Tips like swords to sword fight with voice-over reading "for the fighting man." After maybe a few more joke uses, I will have some real uses. "For the hygienic man" will have a man cleaning his ears with the Q-Tips with fine print at the bottom saying not to insert it into your ear canal. Another real use could be "for the cleaning man" or something to that effect and a clip of a man using Q-Tips to clean his sports memorabilia or something that men typically collect and display that need frequent cleaning. To end the commercial I want to have some sort of slogan which I have not decided on yet; something that gets at the idea that there's a different use for each different man.

EOC Week 6: Nine Apps

One of my personal favorite apps for the Blackberry is the Google Maps app. Technobuzz.net talks about the free Google Maps app in a list of the 51 best free Blackberry apps: “Many of today’s BlackBerry handsets come with built-in GPS; one of the best is Google Maps for Mobile.” It is great because it shows you exactly where you are and what direction you are heading on the map with a blue dot and arrow. Google Maps also can automatically set the destination or start point as the location that you are at without having to input an address. Another great app for the Blackberry is the free app Poynt. Poynt is used to find local businesses, compare gas prices, look for restaurants, and even give you a list of the top ten movies in theatres, among other things. The free Sudoku app is also an excellent app for the Blackberry.  Robb Dunewood of Rimarkable.com  says “Sudoku is the most addictive game, free or otherwise, that I have yet to play on my BlackBerry,” and I have to say that I agree. Whenever I find myself with a spare minute or two and nothing to do, I whip out my Blackberry and continue the puzzle where I left off last. One of the stupidest apps I have ever heard of is called Enjoy Toilet Paper. The app allows you to virtually unroll a spool of toilet paper as quickly as possible on the IPhone’s touch screen. The absolute stupidest app I have seen is called Cry Translator. To use the app, hold the phone up near your baby as it is crying; the app will then translate the crying and tell the parent to either feed the child, let it sleep, change it, give it a pacifier, or give it a teddy bear or some equivalent. “You can buy Cry Translator for $29.99, but you'll wind up with an app that's essentially a Magic 8 Ball for parenting” says Kenneth Butler of Laptopmag.com. The How Tall app measures how tall a person is by measuring the acceleration due to gravity of the phone after dropping it from the height of the persons head. This app is among the dumbest apps ever created; who is willing to spend $9.99 on an app that requires you to drop your $500 phone from six feet in the air? I think that a good idea for an app would be one that allows the user to sing something into it and the app tells you what note would harmonize with what you just sang. The app would also include something similar to a guitar tuner so that while you are singing into it, you can see what note you are hitting.

EOC Week 5: Best & Worst Super Bowl Commercials

Every year, commercials that air during the Super Bowl end up being just as talked about as the game it itself. This year, however, there didn’t seem to be any commercials that were truly worth the almost $3 million dollars it cost for a 30 second spot. The best commercial, in my opinion, was the Volkswagen Passat commercial with the little kid dressed up like Darth Vader. The commercial used the iconic Star Wars score that is instantly recognizable by almost all Americans. Using the Star Wars theme allowed everyone who knows Star Wars to be able to relate to the commercial, and in turn, relate to the product. The commercial also has no speaking in it, just the intense Star Wars music, which made the entire production seem very epic. The worst commercial that I saw during the Super Bowl, in my opinion, was the commercial for the Kia Optima. This commercial also did not have any speaking in it, but instead just had a musical score to accompany it. The Kia commercial’s goal, I think, was to make it look and feel like a movie; which it did. The only problem with their goal is that Kia makes inexpensive vehicles and the commercial was extremely high budget and included a lot of special effects; it just didn’t feel like it matched up right. The content of the commercial also didn’t seem very relevant to the product it was advertising. Besides these two commercials I just mentioned, there were of a slew of good, bad, and mediocre commercials all vying for the chance to be the next most talked about Super Bowl commercial.