EOC: Week 10: What are the benefits vs the features?

The benefit of my food truck is that everything will be freshly prepared the day we go out and that we offer a different variety of things without having too much to overwhelm someone. In example to the episode of Mad Men, where the ladies were pulled into the room to try on lipstick, the one girl only wanted one shade of lipstick and didn’t want to try anything else because she already knew what she wanted. With my food truck, I want to make sure the customer gets exactly what they want that I can offer and that they will keep coming back for more of the food and the great service.

Implementation Evaluation Control

“Because many surprises occur during the implementation of marketing plans, marketers must practice constant marketing control—evaluating the results of marketing strategies and plans and taking corrective action to ensure that objectives are attained.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, page 58) What we plan to do is when companies contact us to serve them food we will ask which day they want us there and how many employees they have and plan according to that. We will try to do that a week in advance so we know how much product to order. When the business gets on its feet, companies will set up a day or even a full contract with us to serve them on our website or by calling the owner.

"The company first develops companywide strategic plans and then translates them into marketing and other plans for each division, product, and brand. Through implementation, the company turns the plans into actions. Control consists of measuring and evaluating the results of marketing activities and taking corrective action where needed. Finally, marketing analysis provides information and evaluations needed for all of the other marketing activities." (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management 10th Edition, Armstrong Kotler, page 55)

Price

"The price the company charges will fall somewhere between one that is too high to produce any demand and one that is too low to produce a profit." (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management 10th Edition, Armstrong Kotler, page 275) For the pricing, we wanted to make sure that everything would be affordable to the customers and I want the customer to feel like they are getting comforting foods for a low price. The different menus will have different price ranges, like breakfast would be between 50 cents (for varying fruits and whatnot) and 6 dollars. Lunch would be between 2 dollars and 8 dollars, and dinner will be between 6 dollars and 20 dollars. Desserts and side dishes will be 50 cents to 3 dollars. Drinks will be from 1 dollar to 3 dollars. There will also be available combos in some of the meals with different sorts of drinks or desserts. "Using product bundle pricing, sellers often combine several of their products and offer the bundle at a reduced price. For example, fast-food restaurants bundle a burger, fries, and a soft drink at a “combo” price." (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management 10th Edition, page 290)

Promotion

"As consumers spend more and more time on the Internet, companies are shifting more of their marketing dollars to online advertising to build their brands or to attract visitors to their Web sites. Online advertising has become a major medium." (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management 10th Edition, Armstrong Kotler, page 466) For the first time of opening, we want to be a part of some type of fundraiser or charity event, where we will offer to donate half of our earnings to that charity or fundraiser. It'll also be a way of getting our name out to the public with our website, so everyone can look it up and see what good food we have to offer.

For a promotion, if the customer wants to order 2 or more meals from the menu, we will offer them a free drink with every meal and a free dessert of their choice. If they are a first time buyer, they will get a 15% discount off their meal. Since we are planning on staying in the area of Las Vegas/Henderson/Summerlin, every customer will receive a stamp card, and for every 5 meals that they order, they can get a free lunch.

"Finally, online marketers use viral marketing, the Internet version of word-of-mouth marketing. Viral marketing involves creating a Web site, video, e-mail, cell phone message, advertisement, or other marketing event that is so infectious that customers will want to pass it along to their friends. Because customers pass the message or promotion along to others, viral marketing can be very inexpensive. And when the information comes from a friend, the recipient is much more likely to view or read it." (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management 10th Edition, Armstrong Kotler, page 467)

Distribution

"Companies often pay too little attention to their distribution channels, sometimes with damaging results. In contrast, many companies have used imaginative distribution systems to gain a competitive advantage." (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management 10th Edition, Armstrong Kotler, page 312)

Since we will be in a mobile truck, it'll be easier to distribute our products everywhere we go and hopefully gain more business by the word of mouth either in person or over the internet, since we will have a site where everyone can find out where we will be, what we serve, and what our general prices are. When serving the food, we will put everything in a biodegradable box (kinda like the boxes you would get at different restaurants, where you can place three different food items inside) with our log on it and fancy plastic silverware and different size paper cups for drinks that can be recycled.    

Product

"Developing a product or service involves defining the benefits that it will offer. These benefits are communicated and delivered by product attributes such as quality, features, and style and design." (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management 10th Edition, page 214)

Breakfast Menu -

 

Pancakes (Chocolate chip, strawberry, blueberry, apple cinnamon, plain)

Ham and eggs

Texas cut French Toast sticks (dipped in cinnamon vanilla batter)

Omelets

Scrambled eggs, either regular or egg whites

Fruit parfait

Muffins

Assorted fruit

Donuts and breakfast pastries

Eggs (Choice of 3: over soft, medium, or hard, sunny side up, poached or fried)

Lunch Menu -

Cold cut sandwiches (choice of turkey, ham, salami, roast beef, chicken)

Meatball sub

Chicken Parmesan sandwich

Hot turkey sandwich with gravy with optional small side of mashed potatoes

Burger with or without cheese

Caesar Salad

House Salad (with their choice of 3 toppings)

Fruit Salad

Dinner Menu -

 

Porcupine Meatballs w/ egg noodles and a side of gravy

Chicken w/ mashed potatoes and a choice of vegetables

Lasagna

Macaroni & Cheese

Vegetarian lasagna

Veggie wrap

Veggie plate

Clam Chowder

Broccoli and cheddar soup

Ham and potato soup

Goulash

Fillet with gravy and mashed potatoes and asparagus

Chicken, broccoli and rice bowl

Fried chicken w/ sweet potato mash and carrots

Desserts -

Cupcakes and Mini Cakes (different kinds)

Chocolate sundae

Cookies (chocolate ship, sugar, etc.)

Fruits (bananas, strawberries, etc.)

Brownies

Drinks -

 

Soda (Coca-Cola)

Coffee

Juices (apple, orange, etc.)

Milk (chocolate, white)

Water

Tea

Target Market Strategy

"A 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." (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management 10th Edition, Armstrong Kotler, page 186) Our market strategy is to target mainly business workers, colleges, and construction workers and target men and woman from the ages of 20 – 50s mostly. "The company identifies different ways to segment the market and develops profiles of the resulting market segments. Market targeting (or targeting) consists of evaluating each market segment’s attractiveness and selecting one or more market segments to enter." (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management 10th Edition, Armstrong Kotler, page 175)

Situation or SWOT Analysis

"The marketer should conduct a SWOT analysis, by which it evaluates the company’s overall strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T)." (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management 10th Edition, Armstrong Kotler, page 55)

 "Strengths include internal capabilities, resources, positive situational factors that may help the company to serve its customers and achieve its objectives. Weaknesses include internal limitations and negative situational factors that may interfere with the company’s performance." (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management 10th Edition, Armstrong Kotler, page 55) Our strengths are the quality of our food and our friendly service. Our weaknesses are our limited space, so we can’t carry all of the food we would like to offer and make profit. "Opportunities are favorable factors or trends in the external environment that the company may be able to exploit to its advantage. And threats are unfavorable external factors or trends that may present challenges to performance." (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management 10th Edition, Armstrong Kotler, page 55) One opportunity is the growing trend of mobile food trucks, and the second is that office workers are looking for something closer to work for food with a good price. And they also have the opportunity to eat comforting home food right at the office. Our threat is other food trucks, and the seasonal change in weather, forcing the change in our menus if we want to keep the customers happy. Another threat to us since we are a food truck is the thought of running out of food during the day.

Objectives

With every business, you need some sort of objective. “Under the strategic plan, the major functional departments—marketing, finance, accounting, purchasing, operations, information systems, human resources, and others—must work together to accomplish strategic objectives.” (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation 10th Edition, Armstrong and Kotler, page 43) Our main objective is to provide the customer with fast and efficient service along with a culinary experience they will never forget. One of our goals is to make the consumer feel like they are eating home cooked meals even while they are at work. We want them to be able to relax and enjoy our food and take a break from work in a comforting manner. "These objectives should be based on past decisions about the target market, positioning, and the marketing mix, which define the job that advertising must do in the total marketing program. The overall advertising objective is to help build customer relationships by communicating customer value." (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management 10th Edition, Armstrong Kotler, page 386)

Buisness Mission Statement

“What is our business? Who is the customer? What do consumers value? What should our business be?” (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation 10th Edition, Armstrong and Kotler, page 39) Our mission here for Home Sweet Food- food truck is to make things like how they would be made in most everyone’s home. Using fresh products like meat, vegetables, and fruits, everyday and creating a meal that would bring the customer into feeling as if they were home, away from work. We want to provide great customer service as well, like becoming a friend with our customers and offer them a friendly environment, hoping they’ll enjoy our services and want us to come back.

The shorter version of our mission is this; “Bringing you homemade meals to your work, to keep you going throughout the day and providing you a friendly service where you are the boss.”

"A mission statement is a statement of the organization’s purposes—what it wants to accomplish in the larger environment. A clear mission statement acts as an “invisible hand” that guides people in the organization." (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation 10th Edition, Armstrong Kotler, page 39)

All other information can be found here: http://homesweetfood-foodtruck.weebly.com/ 

Week 8 EOC; My Creative Content

What I wanted to do for my creative content was to create a website through weebly.com and also design the outside of the food truck.

Edit: I wasn't able to get pictures of my food or the design of my truck, but the website for Home Sweet Food is up and running. http://homesweetfood-foodtruck.weebly.com/ 

The design of my truck though would look like a house, and the window where we would serve the food would be designed like an actual window from a house, with a little shade covering the window.

Week 7 EOC; The Pitch

Sweet Home Food Truck

The comfort of home wherever you are; Breakfast, lunch, or dinner at your work. This truck will serve medium size portion of meals so that we have enough for everyone, we will have different menus for each time of the day and will also serve a different variety of drinks; soft drinks, milk, tea, lemonade, etc. We want our service to be like family and treat our customers like family, we want them to be comforted by our food and enjoy. For breakfast, the menu will consist of coffee, orange juice, different sorts of tea, and milk; eggs, bacon, hash browns, omelets, pancakes, cereal, etc. For lunch, we’ll have a larger variety of foods and regular soft drinks, lemonade, tea and what not. The menu for lunch could consist of chicken pot pie, macaroni and cheese, Spaghetti Pie, sandwiches, Italian Chicken Salad, etc. For dinner, we’ll have some of the same items from lunch but add a few more things like, porcupine meatballs with noodles and gravy, goulash, chicken and mashed potatoes, and more.

What we really want to do is have the food ready to serve to you when you come out to get your breakfast/lunch/dinner so that you have time to enjoy it.

EOC Week 6: Me x 3 Products I Use

When I think about my life and the products I’ve used over the period of my teen life going into my young adult one, I realized there were three things I am never without. The first thing has to be my comfort, and when I mean comfort, I mean my shoes. My mother got me my first pair of Birkenstocks when I was about 13 or 14. Now these sandals are amazing in my opinion, they formed to my feet and I’ve never worn a different pair of shoe since I was introduced to them. They last a long time as long as you take care of them, and you can wear them pretty much everywhere; I’ve worn them hiking, I’ve worn them in theme parks, on the beach. Whenever I hear people complain how their feet hurt and I see that they aren’t wearing Birkenstocks, I normally tell them about the brand and how they help eliminate pain since they are the type of shoe/sandals to form to someone’s foot no matter what. I know that the shoes are pricy, but they are well worth the money.

The next thing is what I drink. I’ve never cared for water, I like milk, but since I was younger, I’ve always drank Sunkist, orange pop. It had the right taste and the right amount of fizz as silly as it sounds. I drank Dr. Pepper and Coke, but they were too fizzy for me and I didn’t like the taste of them, so I’ve never been without Sunkist. I’ve tried Crush and Fanta, but their orange taste wasn’t the same, there was a more chemical like after taste to item which was definitely a turn off, so I’ve never had to look for another brand other then Sunkist because they get it right every time I take a drink.

The last thing I use every time I was my hair is Tresemme curls shampoo and conditioner. I have naturally curly hair and since I was young, it was hard to contain the frizz that came from the curly hair. It took me a while to find this brand, but when I did, I’ve never bought anything else because nothing else really worked directly for my hair and what I needed.

EOC Week 5: Social Networks and Job Hunting

(Will Finish Later)

EOC Week 4: Consumer vs Business Marketing

There are a good few differences between consumer buyers and business buyers. First of all, consumer market is made up by many people, who buy things for personal use. Business buyers buy goods and turn around to re-sell what they buy, for a profit. Another difference is what influences the buyers are under. "Often, consumers themselves don’t know exactly what influences their purchases. Consumer purchases are influenced strongly by cultural, social, personal, and psychological characteristics. For the most part, marketers cannot control such factors, but they must take them into account." (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation 10th Edition, Armstrong and Kotler, page 6)

"Business buyers are subject to many influences when they make their buying decisions. Some marketers assume that the major influences are economic. They think buyers will favor the supplier who offers the lowest price or the best product or the most service. They concentrate on offering strong economic benefits to buyers. However, business buyers actually respond to both economic and personal factors." (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation 10th Edition, Armstrong and Kotler, page 48)

Though it may seem like the consumer buyer has more decisions to make, it is actually the business consumers who have the most complicated decisions when buying something. "Business buyers usually face more complex buying decisions than consumer buyers. Business purchases often involve large sums of money, complex technical and economic considerations, and interactions among many people at many levels of the buyer’s organization. Because the purchases are more complex, business buyers may take longer to make their decisions." (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation 10th Edition, Armstrong and Kotler, page 41)

"At a general level, marketing medical imaging technology or diesel locomotives to business customers is like selling refrigerators to final buyers. It requires a deep-down understanding of customer needs and customer-driven marketing strategies that create superior customer value." (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation 10th Edition, Armstrong and Kotler, page 39)

Week 3 EOC: My Demographics

 In society today, there are three known generations of people. Following World War II, there were 78 million people born, this generation being called the baby boomers, and the generation lasted until 1964. A year after that, the next generation was born, the Generation Xers, lasting until 1976 were 45 million people were born during this time, in the “birth dearth” following the baby boom. After that generation, the Millennials (or Generation Y) were born, 83 million children of the baby boomers, born between 1977 all the way to 2000. I was born in 1991, so I am considered to be a Millennial. “One thing that all of the Millennials have in common is their utter fluency and comfort with digital technology. They don’t just embrace technology, it’s a way of life." (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation 10th edition, Armstrong and Kotler, page 17) This is where I belong, I have always been in love with technology and I always wanted the new gadget that came out, whether it be a game, phone, and mp3 player. I love the technology of the new smart phones, with all the games and apps, making the internet easier to use on the phone, it’s perfect for me.  “ “Young people want to be in control of their relationship with a brand. They want to customize and personalize.” ” (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation 10th edition, Armstrong and Kotler, page 17) This is something I also agree with, if I can’t personalize something to my liking, I’m not going to go back to that company. “Marketers of all kinds now target the Millennials segment, from automakers to political campaigns. However, the Millennials are bombarded with marketing messages coming at them from all directions. And rather than having mass marketing messages pushed at them, they prefer to seek out information and engage in two-way brand conversations.” (Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation 10th edition, Armstrong and Kotler, page 17)

All I can say, is that I’m glad to be one of the Millennials.

Week 2 EOC: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

Star: Downloadable games for iphones/smartphones
Cash Cow: Nintendo
Question: Sony
Dog: Microsoft

In the gaming industry, all of the competing companies – Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, etcetera – have something to offer everyone.  The question though is which company is selling the most and making the most money? Doing a BCG analysis, I’ve learned where most of these companies stood, in my opinion. 

In the Stars position -we talked about it in class and I thought it was spot on- are the games for the smart phones or iphones, they are the most popular since they can be taken anywhere and can be played for hours on end; like the game Angry Birds. It’s free, but people tend to buy the upgraded version for the special levels and for more hours of fun. 

People want simple games when they travel, and can download good quality games for 99cents or less.

The cash cows are - in my opinion - is Nintendo.  They’ve been around for a longer time and have come out with great games for almost every generation when video games started getting more advanced. At the moment, they are the hottest on the market, for the games they are releasing to the systems they are releasing as well.

“With the DS and Wii, Nintendo has two hit consumer products and in the minds of the investment community that can make the company as valuable as all of Sony Corporation.” http://www.lunabean.com/news/20070629_video_game_market_analysis.php

The question mark is Sony. It all depends on what they come out with if it’ll be their downfall or their winning ticket. After they made the PS3, they seemed to go downhill in sales from the outrageous prices for the consoles.

“Sales data shows that while the introduction of the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable were initially greeted warmly, potential buyers quickly lost interest because of a lack of games. The fact is that games drive sales of video game hardware. Sales of the PlayStation 3 have also been hampered by its price tag of $800, which is significantly above prices for the Xbox 360 [$400-$600] and the Wii [$250].” http://seekingalpha.com/article/40770-the-video-game-industry-nintendo-back-in-the-lead

The dog at the end of this list is Microsoft, for their Xbox. They put more money into their consoles then they could get from it in sales.

“In terms of long-term strategy it is worth comparing Microsoft and Sony. Microsoft has shown an even greater willingness to lose money to try and build long-term market share. The Xbox 360 was the system that could benefit most from the PS3's slow, late start. One of the biggest events (or non-event) over the past year is that the Xbox 360 did little to solidify its lead.” http://www.lunabean.com/news/20070629_video_game_market_analysis.php

Week 1 EOC; About Me

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had a camera in one hand and a pencil in the other. Finishing my high school education, I went ahead to pursue my passion behind the camera and learn more about my soon-to-be tools of the trade. I’ve already had that eye for spotting detail or that something special when looking through the camera lenses, I wanted to perfect my skills in the field.

From capturing those special moments between families, the fun times between friends, beautiful landscapes during those family trips or vacations, or those quirky animals, be a dog or cat, I’ve always loved what nature has to provide to us. Venturing out to become a world wide known photography, I want to give it my all in pleasing my clients with their unique photos and be well known for the quality in my pictures.

Keeping my dream alive and my passion still burning, I have the support from my friends and family to keep me going, and the clients that I meet to continue my interest in finding those unique pictures that no one else has taken or composing a completely new idea for an image that no one has thought of. So that is the thrill of my life, through my lense.