Marketing Strategies and the Airlines: Pricing and Wi-Fi Services. Providing Another Nine P's Marketing, Price Example.

Airlines are adding capacity to satellite-based Wi-Fi or upgrading their air-to-ground (ATG) services. In my Nine P’s/9P’s © 2007, I define “Price/Pricing as “All aspects regarding pricing. The amount of money a consumer is willing to pay to obtain the product. Pricing includes  wholesale/retail/promotional prices, discounts, trade-in allowances, quantity discounts, credit terms, sales and payment periods and credit terms.

Pricing decision making also involves adjusting prices concerning the competitive environment, economic situations and involve buyer perceptions.
Want a real-world example? Nine P's Pricing for the speed and availability of in-flight Wi-Fi.

The airlines and their in-flight Wi-Fi service providers are upgrading their technologies, terrestrial and satellite.  The airlines include AirTran, American, Southwest, Delta, United, US Airways and Virgin, and the providers are Gogo, Panasonic, satellite providers, and Row 44.

Some airlines are offering passengers a choice of speeds. With providers, Gogo and Panasonic, United Airlines will be offering its customers a choice of two speeds:

• Standard speed, priced  initially between $3.99 and $14.99, depending on the length of the flight. 
• Accelerated speed, priced initially between $5.99 and $19.99, depending on the length of the flight. 

By the way, I found research that said that having more than 25% of passengers online at the same time causes degradation of the Wi-Fi service. In addition there tends to be more Wi-Fi usage on transcontinental flights.

For more on ideas and Marketing concepts: Go to LondreMarketing.com and look under resources and the 9P's/Nine P's ©2007. Specifically find the Nine P's here.

Or for more fun, marketing strategies/tactics and facts:  Go to Marketing Trivia at Londre Marketing.

Here to help you better understand.

A little more background on Wi-Fi:

• The Wi-Fi Alliance is the global Wi-Fi® organization that created the Wi-Fi brand. A nonprofit organization, the Alliance was formed in 1999 to certify interoperability of wireless Local Area Network (LAN) products based on IEEE 802.11 specification. Currently Wi-Fi Alliance has more than 500 member companies from around the world, and more than 15,000 product certifications have been completed since certification began in March of 2000.                Link to WiFi Alliance. 

Mike Tyson: Marketing, Promotion, Brands, Quotes and Associations of the Celebrity, Heavy Weight Champion of the World.

As the star of his one-man show, Undisputed Truth, I saw Mike Tyson perform at the Pantages last Friday night. Undisputed Truth is directed by Spike Lee, and produced by Nederlander. Good, interesting show. Plenty of celebrities in the crowd. As I was watching the show I was thinking of Mike Tyson's "brand," and his branding.

In the movie "Wall Street," Michael Douglas asks young Charlie Sheen a simple question within just moments of their first meeting: "Why am I listening to you?" In Marketing, the logic dictates that you must be able to successful answer what your customers are asking:  "Why am I choosing your brand and not the others I could buy?" Why did I see Mike Tyson? He is an interesting brand. Companies have brands. I teach students they have brands.

Many businesses fall short in terms of their overall marketing and positioning: they lack a "real" distinctive brand, and then a competitive advantage. Or the benefits cannot be communicated or remembered at the critical time when the buying decision is made. As a teacher and Marketing Expert/Consultant, let me provide you with some advice as to how you can build your brand image.

First, decide what you want to be--- character and your vision. How do you wish you or your company, the products you sell and the services you provide, be seen five to ten years from today? The goal here is to have you paint a picture in your mind of how your brands are going to be seen? What is also interesting is how social media has increased the intensity and shortened the time.  Evaluate what you have now. The best way to do this is to ask your customers to determine what they think of your brands. Third, analyze what you have seen, heard and learned and then put into place a Marketing and Communications plan to close the gap.

Now let's go back to Mike. His brand is mixed. Mike Tyson is allegedly infamous for:

• Former heavyweight champion
• Feuds with Don King
• Convicted in '92 of sexually assaulting Desiree Washington, he served three years in prison.
• Mike was criticized for biting off a portion of Evander Holyfield's in a 1997 heavyweight match.

Mike Tyson is known as the former "Undisputed" Heavyweight Champion of the World. Some of his famous quotes are:

• “Everyone has a plan ‘til they get punched in the mouth.”
• "When I fight someone, I want to break his will. I want to take his manhood. I want to rip out his heart and show it to him."
• "I don't understand why people would want to get rid of pigeons. They don't bother no one."
• "I'm not Mother Teresa, but I'm not Charles Manson, either."
• "I feel like sometimes that I was not meant for this society."

He reported he was at one-time worth $400 Million. Brands he has been involved, endorsed or associated with include Pepsi, Animal Planet, Everlast, Don King, Kodak, Hangover Movie, WWE, and others.

I teach Marketing and Advertising and I am a Forensic Marketing Expert, as well as a Marketing consultant, with Londre Marketing Consultants, LLC.  I own a copyright for this concept, the Nine P’s/9 P's ©2007 Link, which augments the Marketing Mix and 4P’s by the American Marketing Association, Neil Borden and Jerome McCarthy.

In Marketing decision-making the Nine P’s include:

• People (Segmentation and Targeting)
• Product
• Place (Distribution)
• Price
• Planning
• Promotion
• Partners
• Presentation and Passion

For more on ideas and Marketing concepts: Go to LondreMarketing.com at and look under “Articles and Resources” and the 9P's/Nine P's ©2007 Link. Specifically you will find at 9P's/Nine P's.

Or for more fun, marketing strategies/tactics and facts:  Go to Marketing Trivia at Londre Marketing.

In Marketing and Promotion: Hotels Are Offering More in 2013 than 1993. The Nine P's, Picking and Traveling to a Hotel.

With an improving economy, business people, families, students, grandparents, and others are traveling more. Hotels have higher occupancy rates. Simply put more people are staying at hotels, For example, a 100-room hotel with 90 rooms occupied would have a 90% occupancy rate.

Remember how in the 90’s hotels differentiated themselves with free breakfasts, local calling and a free newspaper. Some Holiday Inns had signs on the road saying “Free HBO.” There is so much more to Marketing than a sign. I teach Marketing and use a copyrighted concept named the Nine P's.

What are people looking for in a hotel? It’s more than the “core benefits;” problem-solving benefits of Rest/Sleep/Pool/Clean Room and Towels/Location/Quiet that the customer or customers seek when buying the product or service.

They are looking for so much more than location, location, location. As well as amenities, Internet or Wi-Fi access, hotel name, reward programs (points added to their accounts for example Hilton HHonors, Starwood’s Preferred Guests. Wyndham Rewards, Marriott Rewards and others).

Plus ironing board, pool, brand's reputation, TV with a good, working remote, Price (one of the Nine P's), special offers, value; quality, style; ratings of hotels from previous guests.

There is more to our list that I develop in class: Rest & Relaxation, in Promotion (hotels fight/battle over the claims of which ones have the best beds, sheets, etc.), fitness center, food, special promotional offers, convention services; pillow menu selection, white noise machine, candy, apples or cookie at check-in, and turn-down service.

We discuss in class and in Marketing about complaints. Examples are: hotel parking fees can be expensive; resort fees; fee for a room key (just kidding); availability and working order of the fitness center; the printing out of an airline boarding pass can cost: $7.50; refrigerator; surcharges for phone calls; wireless access; roll away beds, up to $60; mini bar stocking; receiving faxes or packages; room service: (surcharge, delivery fee and mandatory gratuity; check out too early or too late fee; storing bags and wake up call. I did find it interesting that the Benjamin Hotel in Manhattan is offering work-down calls. It’s the opposite of a "wake-up call." The guest arranges to have the concierge call at a specific time or times to remind the guest to go to bed and sleep. By the way the Benjamin’s rates are $350 to $1400/night.

I teach Marketing and Advertising and I am a Forensic Marketing Expert, as well as a Marketing consultant, with Londre Marketing Consultants, LLC.  I own a copyright for this concept, the Nine P’s/9 P's ©2007, which augments the Marketing Mix and 4P’s by the American Marketing Association, Neil Borden and Jerome McCarthy.

The Nine P’s include:

• People (Segmentation and Targeting)
• Product
• Place (Distribution)
• Price
• Planning
• Promotion
• Partners
• Presentation and Passion

For more on ideas and Marketing concepts: Go to Londre Marketing and look under resources and the 9P's/Nine P's ©2007. Specifically you will find the 9P's/Nine P's here.

Or for more fun, marketing strategies/tactics and facts:  Go to Marketing Trivia at Londre Marketing.

Marketing's Passion in the Presentation of a Product or Service. Components of the Nine P's in Marketing Strategies and Tactics. With Steve Jobs.

A really good Marketing strategy example or two for you. As an introduction, there are a number of important strategic philosophies and practices which guide the study of Marketing and Marketing’s planning, objectives, strategies, tactics, efforts, and relationships/partnerships/alliances. Two of them in the Nine P’s/9 P’s ©2007 are Presentation and Passion.

Here are the examples, which include product, presentation and passion of Apple, in relationship with Microsoft, McDonald's and more from the highly talented, acerbic Steve Jobs.

• “The only problem with Microsoft is that they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste, and I don’t mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way."
• "They don’t think of original ideas and they don’t bring much culture into their product. You say, why is that important? Proportionally spaced fonts come from type-setting and beautiful books, that’s where one gets the idea." 
• "If it weren’t for the Mac, they would never have that in their products. So I’m saddened—not by Microsoft’s success, I have no problem with their success. They’ve earned their success, for the most part. I have a problem with the fact that they just make really third-rate products. Their products have no spirit to them. They have no spirit of enlightenment about them. They are very pedestrian. And the sad part is that a lot of customers don’t have a lot of that spirit either." 
• "But the way we’re gonna ratchet up our species is to take the best and spread it around everybody so that everybody grows up with better things and starts to understand the subtlety of these better things. And Microsoft’s just McDonald’s.”

I talk about the "Passion" of Marketing. I've taught undergraduates and graduates at USC, UCLA, Pepperdine, LMU, CSUN and others. I was a Marketing and Advertising guest speaker at Pepperdine University in January and February, 2013 and will be a guest speaker at California State University, Northridge this week in March. Each time I recommend to the students and attendees the Steve Jobs book by Walter Isaacson.

In the study of Marketing and in the Nine P’s, I define “Presentation” and “Passion” as:

Passion: Intense, driving or overmastering feelings, emotions in the marketing and selling of products or services.  Emotional, as distinguished from reason and rational decision-making; A strong liking for or devotion to some activity; Deep interest in your partnership/presentation of any of the 9P’s© to any target or partner.

Presentation: This “P” is the act of presenting any of the different 9P’s© to your customers, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, sales force, marketing intermediaries, clients, employees, and/or partners. They are symbols or images that represent something; a descriptive or persuasive account (as a sales person of the product). Wal-Mart and retailers want a better integration of its retailing in store and online. Something set forth for the attention of mind.

The Internet changed everything especially in the “presentation” of the different P’s.  Another part of “presenting” is the big picture perspective of corporate social responsibility (CSR) which refers to consideration of, and the firm's responses to issues, beyond narrow economic, technical and legal requirements. These objectives and firm strategies of accomplishing social benefits along with the traditional economic gains which the firm is seeking is vitally important to the “presentation” to the constituents, different publics and to the world.

Companies look and review issues of global sustainability, not interfering in the internal politics of the different countries and the governments of local markets, respecting natural resources, conducting research and development activities in developing countries, respecting local laws and regulations, environmental concerns, creating jobs in the served markets, respecting human rights, and more.

I teach Marketing and Advertising and I am a Forensic Marketing Expert, as well as a Marketing consultant, with Londre Marketing Consultants, LLC.  I own a copyright for this concept, the Nine P’s/9 P's ©2007, which augments the Marketing Mix and 4P’s by the American Marketing Association, Neil Borden and Jerome McCarthy.

The Nine P’s include:

• People (Segmentation and Targeting)
• Product
• Place (Distribution)
• Price
• Planning
• Promotion
• Partners
• Presentation and Passion

For more on ideas and Marketing concepts: Go to LondreMarketing.com at and look under resources and the 9P's/Nine P's ©2007. Specifically you will find at 9P's/Nine P's.

Or for more fun, marketing strategies/tactics and facts:  Go to Marketing Trivia at Londre Marketing.

Marketing Strategies: New Product Develpment Is Part of “Product” In The Nine P’s

Last year, according to Mintel, 40,194 new products hit the market in 2012.

In 2013 you'll see Anheuser-Busch’s Beck’s Sapphire, Lean Cuisine Salad Additions, Hillshire Smoky Bourbon ham. Jif Whips (PB in tubs), Dunkin Donuts Blueberry-flavored coffee, Armour39 (a digital training monitor), Simple Sensitive Skin Line, AHAVA (Active Deadsea Minerals) Eye Make Up Remover, Maybelline Hydrating Lip Balm, and others.

A number of important strategic philosophies and practices guide Marketing planning, efforts and/or Marketing relationships/partnerships. In the Nine P’s© 2007, “Product” is one of the significant components and strategies. Product includes new product development, plus variety of product mix, features, designs, packaging, sizes, services, warranties and return policies.

I have taught global studies, Marketing, global communication, and advertising for 38 years. For my clients, in the courtroom and in the classroom, we define "Product" of the Nine P's as: A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a want or need.  (Kotler)

• A product line is a group of products that are closely related because they function in a similar manner, are sold to the same customer groups, are marketed or sold through the same types of outlets, or fall within given price ranges. The major product line decision involves product line length (the number of items in the product line. 

A company’s product mix has four important dimensions: width (number of different product lines), length (number of items a company carries within the product lines), depth (number of versions offered for each product in the line), and consistency (how closely related the various product lines are in end use, production requirements, distribution channels, or in any other way).

A service is any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. (Kotler)“

Product” includes packaging, as a subset of the total offering. Brand managers use packaging as a badge, enhancing the product’s value. Here’s an example: in fall 2008, McDonald's scrapped and changed its package design across 118 countries, 56 languages. Packaging can increase the perceptions about the quality of the product.

A product or service also should have "Purpose," which is discovering the product’s real value, use, difference, reason, or function for the consumer and user.

For more on ideas and Marketing concepts: Go to Londre Marketing and look under resources and the 9P's/Nine P's ©2007. Specifically find: Stimulating Articles and More..

Or for more fun, marketing strategies/tactics and facts: Go to Marketing Trivia, Do You Know Marketing?

Easter Peeps: Marketing Insights and Their History, Marketing Strategies and the Nine P's.

Easter is coming up this Sunday. It's time for Peeps. How about some background and perspective? I like bringing this Marketing, product and promotional story to my Marketing and Advertising classes, plus samples of different Peeps.  Many students, especially international ones, in Marketing classes are fascinated by them.  I also ask how many have tasted them? That's why I bring the packages.

The background: Americans will enjoy an estimated 700 million Peeps, the sweet marshmallow candy shaped like a chick or bunny. Just Born, the company is expanding its new product development in the marketplace. Are you a Peeps fan? Have you ever been curious about Peeps history? Where they came from?

A young Russian-born man, Sam Born, was living in France, where he learned the fine art of making chocolate. He immigrated to the USA in 1910. He opened a small candy store. He moved his Just Born out of New York to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Bethlehem!

In the 1950's, Just Born acquired another company that had invented a three-dimensional marshmallow mold  making equipment that turned out Easter chicks and bunnies, called "Peeps." Chicks and Bunnies?

Just Born based in Pennsylvania, was home to German immigrants who are largely credited with making the  Easter Bunny tradition famous in America. German kids would eagerly wait for the arrival of the Oschter Haws, a rabbit who delighted children on Easter morning by laying colored eggs in nests. Check out Cooking with Peeps, and  Chocolate-dipped Peeps.

One of the Nine P’s/Nine P’s ©2007 in Marketing and the study of Marketing is “Product:” We study how they have expanded from Easter and into Valentine Day, Halloween and Christmas, and increased their Product offerings or product line.

For more on ideas and Marketing concepts: Go to LondreMarketing.com and look under resources and the 9P's/Nine P's ©2007. Specifically you find the Nine P's here, which is a copyrighted Marketing concept of Larry Steven Londre and Londre Marketing Consultants.

Or for more fun, marketing strategies/tactics and facts:  Go to Marketing and Advertising Trivia from Londre Marketing Consultants.

Here to help you better understand. All the best.

Part of Promotion: The Publicity of the New LeBron Shoe At $165 To $300, Was It Smart For LeBron? Did He Need It?

The initial publicity for the new LeBron shoe at $165 to $300 was just dumb Marketing and Promotion for LeBron James, as a person and as a celebrity, just when he was regaining some positive persona.


As NBC News and Bottom Line Blog reported that "for Nike, inaccurate buzz is good news."Is it for LeBron, persoanlly?


Reporters and bloggers eagerly reported that Nike's new LeBron X+ sneakers would cost more than $300 a pair -- only for the company to issue a statement noting that the shoes' actual price was at least $135 less than had been reported. The degree of buzz generated by the initial reports led some to speculate that Nike marketers had deliberately seeded the false reports, perhaps by planting the story with "sneakerhead" bloggers."

The publicity means that Nike may not do any advertising for this shoe. It is doing Promotion and many parts of the Nine P’s of Marketing (Planning, Product, Price, Place (Distribution), Promotion, Partners, People, Presentation, Passion. More on those, especially in previous and later posts. 
But LeBron’s persona and street cred suffered again, as he is playing the best basketball ever.

For more on ideas and Marketing concepts: Go to www.LondreMarketing.com and look under resources and the 9P's/Nine P's ©2007. Specifically find: http://www.LondreMarketing.com/stimulating_articles.php

Or for more fun, marketing strategies/tactics and facts:  Go to http://www.LondreMarketing.com/trivia.php

Traits And Practices of Good Brainstorming. When It Does And Does Not Work. Yahoo’s At Home Work Ban. It’s About Relationships And Interactions.

The workplace  is really more about collaboration, brainstorming and getting things done to execute sales and deliver revenue. It's also important to realize, and I teach, that employees are one of your different target markets and audiences. Here is another look at the interesting Yahoo announcement that their employees will be expected to work from its offices as opposed to working at home and/or telecommuting.

Let’s discuss why this new mandate does and doesn't work. I want to be helpful. I am a senior Marketing professional, a Marketing teacher, and a Marketing Expert. I'll include some brainstorming tools; how some ideas can be developed using the Nine 9's/9P's ©2007 and how Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer is probably more right than wrong, but with some caveats.

What is Brainstorming? How does it work? It's used a lot externally and internally at companies, in consulting, research, advertising and media companies. It is a planning and executional tool that helps companies and others to generate creative solutions/ideas to a problem.

There's a simple reason. When you want to break out of stale, established patterns of business strategies and tactics, involve others, so that you can develop new ways of looking at things. Used with your “team” brainstorming can help, if done with the right tools and strategies, to bring the diverse experience of all team members into play, CREATIVELY, during problem solving.

I teach that the major traits to understand and implement brainstorming are:

• Quantity of ideas is wanted. The greater the number of ideas, the better. 
• Criticism is ruled out. 
• Freewheeling is welcomed. 
• Wilder the ideas, the more likelihood of winners. Key fact and hint: You need to build on them.
• Combination and improvement of the ideas are sought.  Participants should suggest how ideas of others could be turned into better ideas. 
• How two or more ideas can be joined into still another idea. 
• One more: Notes must be taken and follow up meetings generated. Key fact and hint: This is forgotten in today’s brainstorming sessions and in my research was a critical element. 

Relating to Yahoo's at home work ban: In many creative businesses, from my work experience and teaching Marketing, Global Strategies and Advertising background,  it’s important to have everyone together as much as possible. It’s beneficial and productive to bounce ideas around easily in person.

There’s a huge benefit in meetings and in the corridors  to engage in conversation, share and build on concepts, ideas and strategies; there’s energy in that place. You can’t always do that with people in different locations. Ever try to be really part of a major “new concept," "new direction” meeting on the conference call? Especially when many others are in the room and on the call. But I am a big fan for making commitments and being flexible especially with at home mothers.

Here’s a bunch on the history of brainstorming. One of the pioneers in the field of creative thinking was Alex Osborne, an advertising executive in late ‘40’s. Osborn was a friend of J.P. Guilford, a psychologist.

Creative behavior was identified with key traits:

• Fluency: the ability to generate many ideas in a set period of time.
• Flexibility: the ability to rapidly free associate.
• Originality: the ability to express uncommon ideas.
• Awareness: the ability to see beyond the immediate facts.
• Drive: the willingness to try without fear of failure.

Recently in a new product development program I used these strategies and tactics. Later that week I explained them in a Marketing and Advertising seminar. I like going over these concepts and traits especially when I’m a guest speaker or consultant in Marketing.

In seminars, the classroom and consulting, I discuss and illustrate that Osborn developed manipulative verbs. He suggested that we all generate creative ideas by visualizing the subject in new and unique ways. His verbs suggest manipulating the subject in some way.  Changing its size, function or position.  His verb list is magnify, shorten, rearrange, alter, adapt, modify, substitute, reverse. And combine.  Especially combine. Plus record.

Movement is a key principle behind the classic brainstorming.  The ground rules of brainstorming are to generate as many ideas as you can, with no criticism, building on the ideas of others. Keep them and you moving along. Trying to solve a problem. Deliver solutions. .

I teach that specifically modern brainstorming is a weaker tool.  It's not practiced right. While suspension of judgment and going for quantity is necessary for creative thinking it is not sufficient.  I was told once that brainstorming is like looking at a situation of a man tied up with ropes, in a room with a piano. In his condition, the man obviously cannot play the musical instrument.

If someone cuts the ropes, will the man be able to play? Brainstorming is usually not practiced with much preparation. I believe that's a mistake. A BIG mistake.  Brainstorming of today isn't effectively harvesting and executing the ideas generated.  In the original study and readings, set up follow-up steps and tools to continue and complete the process.

Brainstorming is not a bad tool, but it is weak by itself. Brainstorming can be part of the development of your Nine P’s/9 P's ©2007 or in your development of the Nine P's, Marketing objectives, strategies and tactics. .

I own a copyright for this concept, the Nine P’s/9 P's ©2007, which augments the Marketing Mix and 4P’s by the American Marketing Association, Neil Borden and Jerome McCarthy. ):

One of the Nine P’s/Nine P’s ©2007 in Marketing and the study of Marketing is “Planning or Marketing Process.” I define planning as:

• Planning or Marketing Process: To develop and transform marketing objectives to marketing strategies to tactics, marketing management must make basic decisions on marketing targets, marketing mix, marketing budgets/expenditures and marketing allocations. It’s dividing the total marketing budget among the various tools in the marketing mix and for the various products, channels, promotion, media and sales areas.  

For more on ideas and Marketing concepts: Go to www.LondreMarketing.com and look under resources and the 9P's/Nine P's ©2007. Specifically find: http://www.LondreMarketing.com/stimulating_articles.php

Or for more fun, marketing strategies/tactics and facts:  Go to http://www.LondreMarketing.com/trivia.php

Here to help you better understand. All the best.

You May Watch the Demise of Celebrity Apprentice. Many Were Not Watching, the First, Long Two-Hour Episode. Reasons Why.

Ten reasons why Celebrity Apprentice is going down, and down and down, in both interest and in viewership. It had a bad first night and needs help.

1. Easiest reason. Few are watching.
2. The ratings and share were awful for the first show, this season, of Celebrity Apprentice. Only four percent of the audience watching TV were viewing. Or, in other words, simply put only four people who were watching TV out of a hundred were watching the show. Or 96 out of a hundred were watching other programs and programming. The show had a rating of 1.4, or 1.4 percent out of the total potential audience was watching or not.  I teach Marketing and Advertising. Later in this Marketing blog, I will give you the definitions from Media Planning which we use with my clients and in the classroom. I'm also a Forensic Marketing Expert in the courtroom. 
3. PEOPLE Magazine rated it "one-star." Yes, one star. Sad, over the year's this show has turned into a train wreck.
4. The show is taking one-hour of material and stretching it into two hours. They did that last year and and in previous seasons. I liked the original Apprentice and I use to like the Celebrity Apprentice. 
5. Annoying and painful to watch: I watched the first episode for this year. Two-hour episodes will air each week until March 31, when the show moves to 10PM, with one-hour episodes. How many will be watching that long?
6. While I like Piers Morgan most of the time, it's annoying to watch Omarosa and Piers Morgan. Is Omarosa really a celebrity?
7. Even in its own PR the show's publicity asks "If you've grown tired of Trump's silly shenanigans..."
8.  NBC's got another problem for another show. Lack of awareness and reasons to watch. 
9. Are you shocked that the show is still around for a 13th season? Viewership is showing lack of interest. 
10. A big #10 reason: The "so-called" All-Stars include Gary Busey, Dennis Rodman, Omarosa, Lisa Rinna, La Toya Jackson, Trace Adkin, Bret Michaels, Brande Roderick, Penn Jillette, Lil Jon, Stephen Baldwin, Dee Snider, and Claudia Jordan. 

Using their PR: ""Celebrity Apprentice" is back with what is sure to be an explosive all-star season." How explosive can it be if few are watching and this is the premiere episode? No legs...

Here are the definitions from Media Planning which we use with my clients and in the classroom. I'm also a Forensic Marketing Expert in the courtroom. 

• Share (SHR): The percent of the Households Using Television (HUT) or Persons Using Television (PUT) which are tuned to a specific program or station at a specified time. 
• Rating (RTG):The estimate of the size of a television audience relative to the total universe, expressed as a percentage, whether the TV is on or not. 

For more on ideas and Marketing concepts: Go to www.LondreMarketing.com and look under resources and the 9P's/Nine P's ©2007. Specifically find: http://www.LondreMarketing.com/stimulating_articles.php

Or for more fun, marketing strategies/tactics and facts:  Go to http://www.LondreMarketing.com/trivia.php

Here to help you better understand. All the best.

Lakers, Jack Nicholson, The Nine P’s, Price and Promotion in the Study of Marketing

Key words of this Marketing post are: Pricing, Hollywood, Lakers, Jack Nicholson, Comping, Nine P's, Promotion, Marketing, Exchange and Relationships.

• Over the weekend, the LA Times had stories about about Jerry Buss and his legacy. One of them concerns the symbiotic relationship of the Lakers and Hollywood. It includes some excellent references and Marketing examples.

Here are a couple of sentences, I want to discuss:
“What, you think Nicholson always paid for his court side seats? The Lakers comped him plenty to him there, and ordered the cameras turned on him for years before he reached his basketball cult-star status. Buss understood having the entertainment stars surround the basketball stars put the Lakers smack in the middle of Hollywood.”

In the study of Marketing, global marketing and advertising classes/seminars, we discuss one quote from management guru Peter Drucker. He taught: “The aim of Marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him (her/it) and sells itself.” Seems to me that Buss was all about promotion and selling to Hollywood, the celebrities and the ticket buyers.

One of the true definitions of Marketing includes the key word “exchange.” One of the definitions of Marketing is:

• Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy the perceived needs, wants, and objectives of individuals and organizations. (From Contemporary Advertising, 2013)

In the study of Marketing, one of the Nine P’s/Nine P’s ©2007 in Marketing is “Price:” The Lakers used comping, short for complimentary as in a free, complimentary ticket, the hotel comped the room for the celebrity or the hotel offers its guests more comps, including a free bottle of champagne.

In the 9P’s I include Price/Pricing:. It includes all aspects regarding pricing. The amount of money a consumer is willing to pay to obtain the product. Pricing includes wholesale/retail/promotional prices, discounts, trade-in allowances, quantity discounts, credit terms, sales and payment periods and credit terms.  Prices are a key positioning factor and must be decided in relation to the target market, the product and service assortment mix, and the competition. Comp equals discount.

For more on ideas and Marketing concepts: Go to www.LondreMarketing.com and look under resources and the 9P's/Nine P's ©2007. Specifically find: http://www.LondreMarketing.com/stimulating_articles.php

Or for more fun, marketing strategies/tactics and facts:  Go to http://www.LondreMarketing.com/trivia.php

Here to help you better understand. All the best.

Promotion, Advertising, the Girl Scouts, Cookies, New England Journal of Medicine And the Mediterranean Diet.

Here are some salient, promotional observations including cookies plus the marketing, promotion and advertising of these snacks and desserts. I have two examples which I have noticed and are in the news.

For a little background. I teach Marketing and Advertising. Advertising pros have taught that an ad must attract, intrigue, and persuade. Ads include strategy and copy points. Advertisers want to attract with the visuals, photos, art or the design of the layout. Advertisers want to intrigue with the Marketing concept, strategy and the headline, and persuade with the copy and copy points which come from research and the marketing strategies. If your ad fails to attract, it will be ignored. Advertising may be many things, but it must not be ignored.

So when I opened up the LA Times yesterday and found an ad for WhoNu cookies I was intrigued with the marketing strategy, copy points and more. The WhoNu cookies and the ad include the slogan: “The great taste of your favorite cookie (it may look like an OREO) with wholesome nutrition baked in. The cookie has “as much Calcium, as a glass of milk; as much Fiber as a bowl of oatmeal; as much Vitamin C as a cup of blueberries.”

Let's move on to another cookie with another nutrition claim. Have you seen the 2013 promotion for the Girl Scouts, who have introduced Mango Creme cookies. The cookie sandwich features a mango-flavored filling with vanilla and coconut cookie sides. The full title of the cookie is "Mango Cremes With Nutrifusion™. NutriFusion says its “all-natural, a nutritional additive, 100% from fruits & vegetables, can provide the nutrient-rich benefits of fruits & vegetables in everyday food products.

A cookie, I guess is no longer a cookie. They may not good for you. But don't get me wrong, I love cookies. I just find the promotion interesting and part of a marketing lesson.

After doing some research I found that the Mango Cremes include:

• a serving of three cookies gives you 20 percent of your daily saturated fat intake.
• no high fructose corn syrup, but there is palm oil
• nutrients from natural whole food concentrate of (cranberry, pomegranate, orange, grape, strawberry, shitake mushrooms).

You may know that to me the best advice for a diet is simply: "Move more, eat less." The England Journal of Medicine says to follow a diet, such as the so called "Mediterranean Diet." It states to consume foods of and with olive oil, nuts, lentils, fish, fruits and vegetables. The study warns the public to stay away and eat fewer cookies, cake, pie, soda, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, salted nuts for what some call junk food.

If you can't resist this advertising then "Move more and eat less or fewer cookies. For more on ideas and Marketing concepts: Go to www.LondreMarketing.com and look under resources and the 9P's/Nine P's ©2007, in which advertising is part of Promotion.

Specifically find: http://www.LondreMarketing.com/stimulating_articles.php

Or for more fun, marketing strategies/tactics and facts:  Go to http://www.LondreMarketing.com/trivia.php

Here to help you better understand. All the best.

Marketing and Media History May Not Be Repeating Itself. Safeway versus K-Mart: 2013 versus 2002.

Regarding retailers, retail marketing, media planning, I saw a short story in AdvAge last week. I thought back to an advertising and media example that I use in my marketing and advertising classes.

Under Media Planning: I have used an example of newspaper and print advertising by Kmart; their being named "Newspaper Advertiser of the Year, in the same week as declaring BANKRUPTCY. Now let's fast forward. The media environment has changed. Really changed. I now will use another example of digital media and advertising replacing print in 2013.

My 2002, Kmart example:
Kmart, then a major advertiser, assured newspapers that circulars (print advertising) will continue in their media mix. Kmart Corp.went out of its way to reassure newspaper publishers that it would continue to buy advertising. I remember they declared bankruptcy one week after being named Newspaper Advertiser of the Year by the Newspaper Advertising industry. Wow, how times have changed for retail and newspaper advertisers.

• Editor & Publisher rated Kmart No. 8 in its top 100 brand advertisers in newspapers.
• "Newspapers are holding their breath and keeping their fingers crossed that (Kmart) can emerge from this bankruptcy stronger and healthier." Didn’t happen.
• Kmart spent some $171 million on newspaper advertising in 2000. (Editor & Publisher).

Let's go to Safeway's announcement of replacing print with digital media.

My 2013, Safeway example:
Obviously, a lot has changed in the media marketplace. Groceries and other retailers have developed loyalty programs. They use more direct mail. More digital. Safeway, the fifth-largest grocery player stated that it is doing its best to replace newspaper, print advertising with personalized digital ads.

In the Nine P’s Digital goes under Advertising and Advertising is under Promotion. Grocery stores are a service and services and Products go under Product. Loyalty Programs would go under Planning or the Marketing Process.

Planning and Marketing Process is defined as:

• To develop and transform marketing objectives to marketing strategies to tactics, marketing management must make basic decisions on marketing targets, marketing mix, marketing budgets/expenditures and marketing allocations. It’s dividing the total marketing budget among the various tools in the marketing mix and for the various products, channels, promotion, media and sales areas.

There are a couple of reasons I am using these examples. Besides teaching, marketing seminars and appearing in the courtroom as a Marketing Expert, one of my advertising accounts was Vons, which was acquired by Safeway. I worked at Grey Advertising-Worldwide as the Management Supervisor on Vons for four years;  increased market share from 11.9% to 17.3% by creating and designing marketing and store opening campaigns for Vons Grocery Co. in California and Nevada. You might be interested that in 1984, the average U.S. household spent 16.8% of its annual post-tax income on food. In 2011, Americans spent only 11.2%. The U.S. devotes less of its income than any other country, half what is spent in France and a quarter or one-fourth in India (Bloomberg Businessweek, 3/4/2013)

For more on the 9P's/Nine P's ©2007, ideas and Marketing concepts: Go to www.LondreMarketing.com and look under resources and the 9P's/Nine P's ©2007. Specifically find: http://www.LondreMarketing.com/stimulating_articles.php

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In this Economy, Pricing May Be One Of Your Most Difficult Marketing Mix Or Nine P's Decisions To Make.

As a Marketing lesson, not a lot has changed from my story about the Lakers and pricing in the Daily News.  Unfortunately their number of losses has increased. The majority of this was printed in 2009.

Let’s say you want, but obviously don’t need, four tickets to see the Celtics play the Lakers on Christmas Day, or play the San Antonio Spurs on January 25th.  In this down economy, would you say a business, such as the Lakers organization, was justified in raising its rates to make ends meet?

After the 2008 NBA Finals, the Lakers announced a 5.5% increase for individual tickets.   That comes to $1260 for those four tickets at $315 per seat.  Regular games will be $1040 or $260 per seat.  Laker fans are certainly feeling the pinch in their own lives by soaring costs of necessities, so the question is, are higher end luxuries justified in steep price increases?  To get around the personal crunch, many people expense such tickets on their businesses by treating clients, but if businesses are also hurting, will such an investment be worth the return?  Guaranteed, the cost of parking, food and refreshments are climbing, too.

If you are a business owner you know how difficult it is to land customers and make a profit. Pricing is one of the most difficult marketing decisions that can make or break your profit.  Too low and you kill your margin, too high and you can kill off your prospects.  They stop coming or calling you.

Let’s get back to my example.  Lakers sell 13,600 seats to season ticket holders, which equates to 90.67%.  The organization is mandated to sell 4%, a mere 600 tickets, at ten bucks each in the nosebleed section.   In order to bring in more money, since games sell out, the Laker organization’s decision to raise the cost of more than 90% of their seats, and that may be painful to their customers.Cheapest ticket on Laker's TicketMaster site for today's game (3/3/13) versus the Hawks is $45, and on stubhub.com, $48. 

In this current financial environment, I find price adjustments becoming much more difficult, especially when everyone is asking for price breaks, discounts, incentives.  That is why we find the Lakers decision to raise season tickets troubling from an economic decision making and a marketing viewpoint.  It is not surprising to price the “best” games higher, more and more companies are doing that.  It’s called yield.  Hotels are known for pricing higher and as they get closer to a specific event, holiday or convention drop prices to fill rooms and build occupancy. 

As a business owner you need to know what are your true, actual or real costs.  And your accountant can help, but it takes time to determine it, and more time to continually watch it.  And then a sharp pencil to fine-tune it.  From my consulting and background, sales people are not good at estimating them. 

Take, for example, the cost of a sales force.  Can you substitute your marketing and sales people for more advertising, couponing, displays, trade shows, sampling, premiums, tie-ins, p-o-p, sweepstakes, allowances, sales rep contests, events/experiences and more?  Our best suggestion is improve your website; it’s literally the hardest-working salesperson on your team if its potential is maximized.

To maintain your hold on clients and customers, ask yourself and your company or team these hard questions and then develop a strategy to deal with them:

• How do you respond to customers who continually demand price breaks?
• How can you improve the efforts of your sales force, so they are not always blaming that the prices are too high for a lack of results? These are your team members, educate them on the difference between real costs, and actual costs.
• How much are you investing in advertisements, PR, sales promotion, direct marketing and marketing tactics that utilize the internet/web?
• How do you, as an entrepreneur, compete against low-cost, low price competitors, here and globally?  

We cannot all play in the NBA.  Someone has to win and someone has to lose.  And with the current down economy, we may only be able to watch “winners” raise their rates and maintain their clients or customers.  Time will tell if that strategy will hold up when winnings slip.

One of the Nine P’s/Nine P’s ©2007 in Marketing and the study of Marketing is “Price:” Price/Pricing: All aspects regarding pricing. The amount of money a consumer is willing to pay to obtain the product. Pricing includes wholesale/retail/promotional prices, discounts, trade-in allowances, quantity discounts, credit terms, sales and payment periods and credit terms.  

For more on ideas and Marketing concepts: Go to Londre Marketing. and look under resources and the 9P's/Nine P's ©2007. Specifically find: Stimulating Articles and More.

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Marketing Strategies And The Color “Black” Is Red Hot. Color and Packaging Are Part of “Product” In The Nine P’s.

From Marketing Strategies, the use of the color “Black” is red hot. A number of important strategic philosophies and practices guide Marketing planning, efforts and/or Marketing relationships/partnerships. In the Nine P’s© 2007, “Product” is one of the significant components and strategies; color is part of packaging and packaging is part of "Product.".

Last year, according to Mintel, 40,194 new products hit the market in 2012.

The color of black is used in consumer electronics, and many consumer products including U by Kotex, React sugarfree gum by Wrigley, Haagen-Dazs, Downy Unstopables, Anheuser-Busch’s Beck’s Sapphire, Renuzit room refreshners, Pantene Expert hair collection , L’Oreal Paris haircare, and others.

I teach Marketing and Advertising. We define Product as: "The goods and service combination the firm offers to the target market, including variety of product mix, features, designs, packaging, sizes, services, warranties and return policies."

• A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a want or need.  (Kotler)
• A product line is a group of products that are closely related because they function in a similar manner, are sold to the same customer groups, are marketed or sold through the same types of outlets, or fall within given price ranges.  The major product line decision involves product line length (the number of items in the product line. A company’s product mix has four important dimensions: width (number of different product lines), length (number of items a company carries within the product lines), depth (number of versions offered for each product in the line), and consistency (how closely related the various product lines are in end use, production requirements, distribution channels, or in any other way).
• A service is any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. (Kotler)

“Product” includes packaging, as a subset of the total offering. Brand managers use packaging as a badge, enhancing the product’s value.  Here’s an example: in fall 2008, McDonald's scrapped and changed its package design across 118 countries, 56 languages. Packaging can increase the perceptions about the quality of the product.

A product or service also should have "Purpose," which is discovering the product’s real value, use, difference, reason, or function for the consumer and user.

By the way I also did a little research on a product with black in its name…Black Jack. This gum has a long and interesting history. I found that in 1871, gum inventor and manufacturer Thomas Adams received the first patent for his gum-making machine and began mass producing a “chicle” gum called "New York No. 1." This gum had no flavoring.

Thomas began experimenting with flavors. He used sarsaparilla, which tastes like root beer. Then in 1884, Adams added licorice flavoring and Black Jack Chewing Gum was invented. Adams changed the shape of gum from chunks to sticks.

Black Jack Chewing gum became the first chewing gum to be offered in sticks as we know them today.

For more on ideas and Marketing concepts: Go to www.LondreMarketing.com and look under resources and the 9P's/Nine P's ©2007. Specifically find: http://www.LondreMarketing.com/stimulating_articles.php

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Internal Yahoo Memos Generating Leaks And More Stories: Yahoo’s Creating More Press and More Negative Buzz.

A Yahoo attorney tells employees leaking internal memos that it is “uncool.” The issues were outlined in a warning from an email that was also leaked. (Adweek, October 2012). Well, there's more out  coming out of Yahoo and their people, meaning staff/employees.

Fast forward three or four months, from last October. Yahoo's move last week sparked a firestorm concerning Yahoo’s work-from-home ban.

These leaks are presenting the company in negatives.  Question: Is the company benefiting from this synergy and these insights from these discussions in the workplace?

A little background: Yahoo employees who have been working from home have been asked to report to company offices starting this June. Some say there is a benefit when creative professionals, including software engineers, can exchange ideas in person.

One of the Nine P’s/9P’s ©2007 in Marketing is "Presentation." This “P” is the act of presenting any of the different 9P’s to your customers, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, sales force, marketing intermediaries, clients, employees, and/or partners. I teach that employees are an important target market or audience and many companies forget that.  Sometimes employees are the last to know about change in company or Marketing direction. Marketing's Presentation can be symbols or images that represent something; a descriptive or persuasive account (as a sales person of the product). I teach that employees are a target market and audience.

The Internet changed everything especially in the “Presentation” of the different P’s. Another part of “presenting” is the big picture perspective of corporate social responsibility (CSR) which refers to consideration of, and the firm's responses to issues, beyond narrow economic, technical and legal requirements. These objectives and firm strategies of accomplishing social benefits along with the traditional economic gains which the firm is seeking is vitally important to the “presentation” to the constituents, different publics and to the world.

Another P in the 9P's of Marketing is "Passion:" The intense, driving or overmastering feelings, emotions in the marketing and selling of products or services.  Emotional, as distinguished from reason and rational decision-making; A strong liking for or devotion to some activity; Deep interest in your partnership/presentation of any of the 9P’s to any target or partner.I'[d add employees too.

For more on ideas and Marketing concepts: Go to www.LondreMarketing.com and look under resources and the 9P's/Nine P's ©2007. Specifically find: http://www.LondreMarketing.com/stimulating_articles.php

Or for more fun, marketing strategies/tactics and facts:  Go to http://www.LondreMarketing.com/trivia.php

Here to help you better understand. All the best.

Many Examples: To Better Understand Marketing, Targeting, the Nine P's/9P's, And More.

A company cannot serve all customers in a broad market such as shoes, clothes, computers, soft drinks, and many other products. I have listed many examples to better understand, using one of the Nine P's/9P's© 2007. I would use these in court, in the classroom and with my clients:

• It's the “rifle” shots versus “shotgun” approach. Distinguish major segments, target one or more and develop products and marketing mixes tailored to them. 
• Don’t buy market share with more and more advertising or discounting against the competition. Figure out how to earn market share. Better research, planning---win market share. 
• The company needs to identify the market segments that it can serve more effectively.  That is why targeting and “People” in the Nine P’s/9P’s is so important
• The proliferation of advertising media and distribution channels is making it more difficult to practice “one size fits all.” 
• The stronger your brand image is the better off you are. 

What do we mean about “People”/Prospects/Target Market, one of the Nine P’s?

• Target Market consists of a set of buyers who share common needs or characteristics that the company decides to serve. Market targeting can be carried out at several different levels. 
• A product focusing on a specific target market contrasts sharply with one following the marketing strategy of mass marketing.
• Defining a target market requires Target Market consists of a set of buyers who share common needs or characteristics that the company decides to serve. Market targeting can be carried out at several different levels. 
• A product focusing on a specific target market contrasts sharply with one following the marketing strategy of mass marketing.

Defining a target market requires market segmentation; the process of segmenting the entire market as a whole and separating it into manageable units based on demographics, geographics, psychographics, behavior, technographics or technographical characteristics.

Then determining the characteristics of segments using Geographic, Demographic, Psychological, Behavioral and/or Technographics or Technographical Segmentation in the target market(s); Separating and targeting these segments in the market based on those characteristics; Checking to see whether any of these market segments are large enough to support the organization's product; Once a target market is chosen, the organization can develop its marketing strategies to target this market.

An example from Broadcasting & Cable: Nickelodeon, during a media upfront presentation in 2013, plans to reassert its children's programming and is touting its application for mobile devices. "We look to deliver more value to our partners ... better programs, more targeted programs, more digital video programs," said Jim Perry, Nickelodeon’s head of sales. "Obviously we're doing something right. ... We still own the kids space…”

I also use Presentation: This “P” is the act of presenting any of the different 9P’s© to your customers, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, sales force, marketing intermediaries, clients, employees, and/or partners. They are symbols or images that represent something; a descriptive or persuasive account (as a sales person of the product). Retailers including Walmart, JC Penny's, Banana Republic, Tiffany's, Neiman Marcus, Macy's want a better integration of its retailing in store and online.

The Internet changed everything especially in the “presentation” of the different P’s. Two of the Nine P’s/Nine P’s ©2007 in Marketing and the study of Marketing are “Presentation” and “Partners/Alliances.” Others are “Product,” “Price,” “Promotion,” “Passion,” “Planning,” “People”/Targeting, and “Place.”

For more on ideas and Marketing concepts: Go to www.LondreMarketing.com and look under resources and the 9P's/Nine P's ©2007. Specifically find: http://www.LondreMarketing.com/stimulating_articles.php

Or for more fun, marketing strategies/tactics and facts:  Go to http://www.LondreMarketing.com/trivia.php

Here to help you better understand. All the best.

Oscars, Super Bowl, And More About Media: What is a Rating? Share? Reach? Frequency? Continuity?

Here are some insights and background into media viewership for major events on TV. Explanations and definitions will follow.

• It was reported to be best Nielsen night, based on ratings, for the Oscars in six years based on TV viewership.
• An average of 40.3 million viewers tuned in to the Oscar telecast on ABC.
• ABC garnered a 26.6 overall rating with households and a 41 share, a 4 percent gain over the 2012 broadcast. 
• Last year, they earned a 25.5 overall rating and 38 share.

As a marketing and advertising senior lecturer, consultant and expert witness, I wanted to explain the advertising/media terms involved with the TV viewers watching the Academy Awards/Oscars.

What is a Rating? Share? Reach? Frequency? Continuity?

You see these media terms used in any marketing or advertising class, with clients and at advertising agencies, especially used in the media around major TV events, including the Super Bowl, Grammys, World Series, March Madness, NBA Finals and the Academy Awards/Oscars.

Here are some examples and definitions:

• Rating (RTG): The estimate of the size of a television audience relative to the total universe, expressed as a percentage. The estimated percent of all TV households or persons tuned to a specific station.
• Share (SHR): The percent of the Households Using Television (HUT) or Persons Using Television (PUT) which are tuned to a specific program or station at a specified time. 
• Reach (Cume; also called Coverage): refers to the total number of different people to whom you deliver an advertising message, or a complete campaign.  The number of different or unduplicated households or persons that are exposed to a television program or commercial at least once during the average week for a reported time period. 
• Frequency: Average number of times a household or a person viewed a given television program, station or commercial during a specific time period. 
• Continuity: Length of time a schedule runs. For example, a brand manager or media planner could divide a media schedule into specific weeks and months in a year. 

For more on ideas and Marketing concepts: Go to www.LondreMarketing.com and look under resources and the 9P's/Nine P's (c) 2007. Specifically find: http://www.LondreMarketing.com/stimulating_articles.php

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Billboard Hot 100 Is Changing. For Media and Music, the Internet Has Changed Everything.

The impact of the Internet and the web has transformed many industries.

For media and music, the Internet has changed everything. YouTube viewership will be added to digital downloads, sales, and streaming, among other measurements and metrics, to determine the top songs in the land.

The Billboard Hot 100, the magazine’s 55-year-old singles chart, takes a revolutionary and an evolutionary step by incorporating YouTube views in its number to rate total music "consumption."

The music business understands that there are lots of different ways a song can be a hit.

Billboard’s charts are based on data collected by Nielsen SoundScan, which started in 1991 and is considered reliable being a third party.  Nielsen tracks radio plays and most major streaming services.

For more on ideas and Marketing concepts: Go to www.LondreMarketing.com and look under resources and the 9P's/Nine P's ©2007. Specifically find: http://www.LondreMarketing.com/stimulating_articles.php

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Promotion and Media Buying: Academy Awards and the Oscars versus Super Bowl Advertising: Media Costs for Spots and Ads on Each.

The Academy Awards and the Super Bowl are two of the biggest media events for the year on TV. For advertising agencies,media buying agencies, clients and advertisers, there's a trend to launch new ads and advertising and to capture large audiences in these "TV events." But they have higher price tags:

• On average this year's Super Bowl XLVII spots were reported cost  $3,800,00 each, which did not include actors, production, sets, just the time on CBS. 
• On average this year’s Oscar’s/Academy Awards cost $1,650,000 to $1,800,000 for each 30 seconds of commercial time in the broadcast on Sunday, which did not include actors, production, sets, just the time on ABC. 

The Super Bowl, Oscars, Golden Globes, Grammys, World Series, NBA Finals, March Madness, and other big-event television programs are important in delivering audiences. In Media Planning they are called "appointment viewing," or "appointment TV."

For many years, the Academy Awards was heralded as “the Super Bowl for women” until female viewers put the Super Bowl ahead of the Oscars in total women watching.

Advertisers mentioned in this year's Academy Awards include Coldwell Banker Real Estate, Grey Poupon, Hyundai, Neutrogena, J. C. Penney,  Chobani, AMEX, Ameriprise, Anheuser-Busch InBev, McDonald’s, Royal Caribbean, Samsung Mobile, Sprint, University of Phoenix,  Hyundai and others.

Three (3) big points to look out for:

1. Viewers will rant about the spots and ads on social media like Facebook and Twitter.
2. The Academy Awards will draw the most female viewers of any entertainment event or show. 
3. Be sure to count the number of promotional spots for the network and its shows on ABC. The amount of clutter is more than you realize. 

Two of the Nine P’s/9P’s ©2007 in Marketing and the study of Marketing are “Price,” and "Promotion." Both of these fall in  the concepts of the advertising, media planning and media spending for these big TV events.

For more on ideas and Marketing concepts: Go to www.LondreMarketing.com and look under resources and the 9P's/Nine P's© 2007. Specifically find it: Here

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Awkward Promotion: A Prison Management Company Having Football Naming Rights to a Stadium? Really?

On February 21st I wrote in my post that the naming rights were an awkward promotion. I was right.  The prison group withdrew their $6 million for naming rights for the Florida Atlantic football stadium in early April. GEO and Florida Atlantic received negative reactions, reported Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Here's the background and more. A prison management company, GEO Group, has football stadium naming rights? Why? Really? Advertising is an investment in future sales; its greatest power is in its cumulative long-range effect. How desperate is one side or the other? Should they have been sold and should they have been bought by them? What comes with the agreement? Tickets to entertain?

In teaching marketing, advertising and media we take several concepts and practices into account, especially in planning. In class I am asked many times “What do you look for in media planning and advertising?

1. Whom are you going to sell to?  Target market or “People” in the Nine P’s/Nine P’s ©2007.  Please realize that for GEO, their potential customers are government agencies and entities. 
2. Where is product or service distributed; where are the potential customers? In this example we have an interesting dynamic with users. 
3. Awareness Goals (AIDA)
4. What is budget?
5. What is competition doing? Is there "real" competition?
6. Nature of Advertising Message?
7. Reach vs. Frequency vs. Continuity Goals
8. Media Mix (Combination of different media, and size of ads)
9. Determine Timing and Length of Schedule 
10. Seasonality; 
11. Tie-in with Merchandising Plan and Sales Force
12. What about Flexibility?
13. Look at Cost Efficiency/Cost per Thousand  (CPM)

So I found it confusing when a prison management company/prison entities bought the rights or the naming rights to football stadium of the Florida Atlantic University Owls.

Is the only benefit entertaining the governmental entities?

One of the Nine P’s/Nine P’s ©2007 in Marketing and the study of Marketing is “Promotion.” It’s the communication element includes personal and non-personal communication activities.  Activities that communicate the merits of the overall product, which include Personal Selling/ Sales Force; Advertising; Sales Promotion; Collateral Materials; Direct Marketing (also referred to as Action or Direct Response Advertising); Interactive/Internet/Web, Digital Media, Social Media;  Events and Experiences; Events; Public Relations.

For more on ideas and Marketing concepts: Go to www.LondreMarketing.com and look under resources and the 9P's/Nine P's ©2007. Find: Nine P's and other articles. Nine P's are specifically here

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