TACO BELL CAP

Taco Bell is opening up a new Taco chain that is called U.S. Taco. U.S. Taco isn't going to be like Taco Bell at all. It actually is only supposed to have 10 different kinds of premium tacos. I think that this is a great idea for Taco Bell. This will help them to reach people that have a more expensive taste and don't like the cheap tacos at Taco Bell. Another benefit they will have is that they are in the industry so it will be easy for them to run both the company's. What do you guys think about this new chain? Do you think it will be successful or a failure? 

Amazon Pantry CAP

One of Amazons newest ventures is the Amazons Prime Pantry. In class this year we talked about a similar company that did this and failed horribly. It will be interesting to see if Amazon can make this work successfully. In the article I read about this it talks about how they could have a problem because the consumers don't have that big of choice on the products that they want. What do you guys think of this venture? I think that it is going to be a big failure because in today's economy when people want something they want it right now. I think that even if they can get the food to the consumer within a day  it still wont be a success.  

Apple CAP

"WE’RE EAGERLY LOOKING FORWARD TO INTRODUCING MORE NEW PRODUCTS

Today in my business seminar class we talked about Apple and their future as a company. One of the questions that was asked of us was if Apple would be able to keep being innovative with out Steve Jobs. Today apple said that they are as close as they ever been to a new product category. Do you think that this new product will be a failure or success? Also how do we know that this product actually exists or if they are just creating hype. They have been telling the media for a while now about the new product. It will be interesting to see if this product will take Apple to a new level or if it will just be another Apple product that is just ok. What do you all think about this new product? What do you think it is?

        

Fracking CAP

I read an article that talked about how the US now supplys 10% of the worlds oil. What has helped to make us grow this to 10%? Fracking is the reason we are able to reach all this oil that otherwise would be untouched. The one problem with fracking is that it is very controversial. People think that it will eventually move up through the rock and conttaminate our water. What do you all think of fracking? Do you think it should be banned even though it contributes to about 4.3 percent of what we produce? 

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/tight-with-oil-u.s.-crude-10-percent-of-global-supply-17238

GM China Production CAP

Today GM announced that they will be opening up new plants within the next 2 years in china to increase their production capacity to 5 million vehicles. I think that this is a great move for GM. In China GM and Volkswagen are the two most popular vehicle producers. By GM doing this they will be able to gain market share. Another great thing about this is that since china is starting to see its middle class grow GM is going to be able to take full advantage of all the new consumers that are going to be on the market looking for a new vehicle. What are your thoughts on GM producing more vehicles? 

http://news.yahoo.com/gm-boosting-china-production-capacity-5-million-121354941.html

Airlines Saftey Brief CAP

While in class a couple weeks ago we talked about coming up with good advertisements and ways to catch peoples attention. This last weekend I flew from Bozeman to Seattle and heard the same old safety speech that I always here and i never listen to it now. Today while going through YouTube videos I found how stewardesses were able to get the attention of the passengers in various unique ways. There are a couple videos that made me laugh and that I thought were hilarious. Here are a couple of the videos that I saw.

 I think that this is a great way to get the passengers or consumers to have a great memorable experience. SouthWest has encouraged their flight attendant's to do these things because it does help to increase the passengers satisfaction. I think that every airline should be doing this because people remember funny stewardesses or ones that rap. This last video is of an airline in Asia and they make all their flight attendant's take a dance class so that they can do this for every flight. 

So what do you think about these creative ways of making the consumer have a more enjoyable memorable flight? I think that they are awesome and that they are doing a great job of catching the attentions of their customers and also future customers.

George Straight

GEORGE STRAIGHT

This last weekend i went to George Straight. Ever since I was a kid I always wanted to see George Straight. He was even on my bucket list so getting to see him was awesome. So one thing that I noticed at the concert was how even when listening to a concert you can never escape advertisements.

 During the concert someone came on stage and talked about how "Walmart" had donated all this money to help people. It was good to hear that they were helping people but it was still crazy how these companies give money to these artists just so they can announce their name in front of thousands of people. D0 you think that Walmart would of donated money to these people if there wasn't a celebrity behind the cause? This reminded me of the Burning Man article that we read and how you can never escape corporate America and advertisements. 

Boeings 737 CAP

Yesterday i read an article about Boeings 737 plane and how they just produced the 8000th 737 since it was introduced. I think that Boeing did incredible market reaserch before releasing this product back in 1967. This is an amazing feat for a plane manufacture and shows how great market reaserch can pay off in the long run. In the article it says that Boeing is introducing the 737 max and that they plan on being able to sell another 8000 in the next 20 years. So far the new 737 has at least 300 orders from United and Southwest airlines. Boeing has done an incredible job at marketing these planes and keeping up with the airlines demands and it shows in their sales. 

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-04-16/boeing-s-737-turns-8-000-the-best-selling-plane-ever-isn-t-slowing?campaign_id=yhoo

American Airlines

American Airlines just announced this week that they are changing their miles program. Consumers arent happy with the changes that american airlines made and feel that they are getting "the short end of the stick". There new miles program now costs the consumers even more miles than before. 

If you decide to read this article you can see how some of the flights now cost 3 to 4 percent more than before.   I think that American is making a huge mistake here and is going to push frequent fliers away to other airlines that arent going to charge more for tickets and keep changing their miles per ticket. What are your thoughts on American Airlines milage program? How do you think the consumers will react to these changes? I would love to hear your oppinions on this.



http://finance.yahoo.com/news/frequent-flyer-miles-american-airlines-changes-200607453.html

Walmart CAP

Walmart has been fined 9.8 billion in the last three years by china and is finally speaking out against china. This could affect walmart in many ways because of the importing they do in china. I think that this could also hurt Walmarts china devision because of the bad publicity the chinese government is giving them. What do you think about the situation that Walmart is in? How would you go about fixing this problem?


http://www.cnbc.com/id/101581249?__source=yahoo%7Cfinance%7Cheadline%7Cheadline%7Cstory&par=yahoo&doc=101581249%7CWal-Mart%20takes%20on%20the%20Chi

Game Of Thrones

How many of you watch Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones is a HBO series that has grown in popularity over the last 3 years. This last weekend was the realese of the fourth season. What i thought was really smart was how HBO did a marathon that was free all weekend. The reason why i thought that this was great is because people that dont have HBO could watch. They probably brought in many new subscriptions because people got hooked on the show. What do you guys think of HBO s strategy?

Here is a funny Game of Thrones video i found

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/verizon-fios-demand-spring-marathon-193500802.html

Texting While Driving

Just recently The U.S Department of Transportation released a disturbing video to make people not want to text and drive. I wonder how effective this approach will be. I think that this will be successful because it shows how you could be killed if you text and drive. With life being what we hold on to the most i think that this commercial will do what it is intended to do.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/-us-department-of-transportation-s-national-highway-traffic-safety-administration-150906185.html

Android TV

Google is working on a new TV product. This Product is supposed to be way better than the product that they already offer. They already have one product that is called Google TV. The Google TV consists of a little thumb drive type of device that you plug into your TV. The new product has many features that I think will take it past its competition. I think that this will set the bar higher for all their competitors such as Apple TV and Roku.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-secret-android-tv-set-221647615.html

Ronald Mcdonald

This last week I saw Taco Bells Commercial starring 2 dozen Ronald Mcdonald. I thought that this was a great way to advertise for their breakfast. The reason why I think that this advertisement is so successful is that it targets Mcdonalds who has one of the biggest fast food shares in breakfast. With Taco Bell being new in the business it was a smart move to target them because they will get people to go try their items. Here is the link to the advertisement and the video is at the bottom.  

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-taco-bell-breakfast-ronald-mcdonald-20140327,0,4696513.story#axzz2xnOaJ8TV

Youtube

How many of you watched youtube 5 years ago and loved it because there were no advertisemants? I know I sure did. But now youtube is putting more and more advertisements before the videos. Now youtube is offering something even more for people wanting to advertise. They are adding guaranteed spots before certain youtube clips. What do you guys think of this? I think it is agreat way to market to people but at the same time do people want to see advertsements when all they want to do is watch videos? Do you think that youtube could be hurting its customer base by continuing to put more advertisements before their videos? This will be intresting to see if this type of marketing will work on youtube.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/new-media/item/36329-youtube-to-offer-advertiser

Diet Pop sales. CAP

Yesterday I was reading an article on coke sales and how they have been declining for years. This year alone sales volume went down at least 3%. What do you guys think these companies should do to increase there sales? This is a question that I think will be huge for marketing firms doing Diet Soda marketing campaigns. The problem that these companies are facing is the new ready to drink coffee, energy drinks and all the other new options consumers have in the market place that didnt exsist 5 years ago. It will be intresting to see what these compnays do in the following years.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-diet-soda-business-is-in-freefall-143932674.html

GM CAP

General Motors may be in trouble for not fixing their ignition switches after there was proof that they were the cause of 13 deaths. I think that this is going to really hurt GM in a marketing standpoint because it has affected 2.6 million viehcles and they just now are doing something about this problem. GM is stepping up and saying that they will find out why it took so long to find the switch failure and could learn from this mistake. Even after this i still think this will hurt GM and give some potential car buyers a negative outlook on GM.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/31/us-gm-recall-congress-idUSBREA2T0HO20140331

Google, Oakley and Ray Ban

Google just partnered with the Luxottica Group which owns both Oakley and Ray Ban Glasses. I think that this is a great move for Google and their Glass technology. The reason being is that these are both brands of some of the most popular eye wear in the industry. I think that these brands will be able to take Googles technology and make it into a popular style glass. This was a great move for Google and I think that it will pay of greatly. What do you think about this partnership?

http://article.wn.com/view/2014/03/25/Would_you_buy_Google_Glass_if_it_looked_like_RayBan_or_Oakle/

Quicken Loans

How many of you filled out one of Quicken Loans brackets where you could win 1 billion dollars? Do you guys think that this is a great advertisement for Quicken Loans and Yahoo that are involved in this competition? I think that this could be one of the best marketing campaigns that has happened as of recently. The reason being is that both of these companys are getting tons of market reaserch and free press with the billion dollar bracket.The press went crazy talking to Warren Buffet and talking about this Challenge which helped to put Quicken loans on the map.They also have no risk because the odds of picking the perfect bracket is 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 ! Another benefit to this marketing method is that these two companys are collecting 15 million diffrent emails and cell phone numbers. This is being given to them for almost free. This normally would cost a company millions of dollars to get this kind of reaserch. I would love to hear your comments and what you think about this marketing campaign. 

http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/blog/2014/03/quicken-loans-billion-dollar-bracket-challenge.html

Costco

Today i read a article on how people assume that bulk purchasing is cheaper. In Some cases buying in bulk is great but in others you can actually be paying more. This article i thought was very intresting because we are always taught how the more you buy the cheaper it is. Costco and Sams Club are great examples of stores that deal with Bulk. What the article says is that these stores do have great deals but at the same time you can be paying more for stuff because of the food or items that you dont use or waste. So by paying a dollar more for a smaller package could end up becoming much cheaper than the "Bulk Packaging." I thought that this was very intresting to read and how consumers relate Bulk to being way cheaper than stuff not sold in bulk.http://finance.yahoo.com/news/best-ways-buy-bulk-120054138.html

About me

Hi my name is Mitchell Karstetter. I am majoring in Managment and Marketing and will be done this spring. I might possibly come back next spring and get my minor in Finance. I am from Quincy which is located right in the middle of Washington State. Our family has been growing apples in the Quincy area for the last 35 years and its what I ve been raised up doing. Once I am done with college I plan on going back to the farm and working in the apple industry. The apple industry has always facinated me and I have tons of passion towards going home and growing fruit.