Week 13 Discussion

1.      Which pricing strategies does Airbnb use?

An algorithm offers dynamic price tips to property owners. The price tips are based on a system known as a classifier that takes all the available information about a listing and compares it to historical data, other homes in the same neighborhood, and local events around the booking dates to come up with the maximum price that travelers will be willing to pay for each listing.

2.      Does the number of reviews matter for an Airbnb host?

Yes - travelers are willing to pay more for a listing with only one review than they are for a listing with no reviews.

3.      The article mentioned the various attributes affecting an Airbnb rental list. Which attribute matters the most? Why? 

Geographic location is "hugely important" because travelers will be planning on going to a certain area. An AirBnB that isn't close to their desired location is much less valuable to them.

4.      How does the machine-learning model help a host manage the rental list?

The host doesn't have to spend hours doing their own research on similar listings, and doesn't risk losing potential income or visitors due to improper pricing. Additionally, the machine-learning model can take into account historical data that the host may not have access to.

5.      Listed below are a series of pricing strategies/polices. Place them onto the correct section of the matrix and explain you choose that strategy.

• Holiday Inns try to fill hotels during winter weekends. - skimming. Holiday Inn is not necessarily a high-end hotel, but can get very expensive quickly.
• Burger King introduces a new range of value meals. - economy. The price of the meals is low, however the nutritional value is also low.
• Nokia launch a new videophone. - penetration. Nokia phones are known for their durability and low pricing.
• Wall-Mart launch a new range of own-label soups. - economy. Walmart brand products are much less expensive, however typically lower quality than name brands.
• Cunard launch two new cruise ships. - premium. Cruise ships are an expensive, luxury item and customers must pay for such.
• A cable TV provider moves into a new area and needs to achieve a market share. - penetration. The most important part of this endeavor is convincing customers to leave their current provider, which requires low prices and superior service.

Week 12 Discussion

I placed Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook in the maturity phase because all three are popular platforms with a large user base. They are adding new features and continually working to draw in new users. Fax machines are in the decline phase because they have become mostly obsolete due to the increasing use of digital communication. Myspace is in the decline phase because its user base has dropped drastically - in fact, I looked up whether it still even exists for this assignment (it does, barely).

Customer Satisfaction Survey

We would appreciate if you would take the time to answer a few questions to ensure that we provide you with the best possible experience. After filling out the survey, your name can be entered into a drawing for a $25 gift card to our store!

When was your most recent visit to our store?

Were you greeted when you arrived?

Were you offered the assistance you needed in order to make a purchasing decision?

How easily were you able to find the products you wished to purchase?

Have you used our product support service?

If so, please rate the quality of the work done on your product.

Very poor - poor - meets expectations - above average - great

Have you reached out to our customer service staff regarding a previous purchase?

If so, please rate the level of service you received.

Very poor - poor - meets expectations - above average - great

Week 11 Discussion

Q1) A customer-centric company builds long-lasting relationships by focusing on what satisfies and retains valuable customers. Discuss how Petco follows this customer-centric philosophy.

Petco creates this focus on customer satisfaction by providing customers with an outlet to share with each other their thoughts and experiences with each product. Customer reviews are valued and encouraged, because they show 1) that people are buying the product and 2) what the consumers' experiences are.

Q2) Go to Petco.com and read some of the customer reviews for various types of products. Do the one- and two-paw ratings tend to outnumber those with four and five paws, or the other way around? Can you find a customer review that Petco could use to market a product in a company circular or email ad?

Most of the reviews on products I looked at were positive - while no product will ever satisfy everyone, there were far more positive than negative reviews. For example, one dog crate has 376 five star reviews and 15 one star reviews. One of the 5 star reviews on the Midwest iCrate Single Dog Folding Crate has a picture of the dog in question relaxing inside, with the reviewer stating that the whole family was satisfied by the product. A review like this could be an excellent marketing tool because it refers to pets as a part of the family, something that Petco customers will likely relate to.

Q3) Now that Petco has identified the type of customer most likely to write reviews of its products, discuss the kinds of promotions that might encourage continued loyalty and response online from them in the future. What could they do to appeal to these customers?

Petco could offer loyalty programs for reviewers such as coupons or drawing entries after a certain number of reviews. 

Q4) Many mainstream retailers are still hesitant to post customer reviews on their websites. If you were consulting with one of these companies, what arguments would you use to convince management to try them?

Reviews show potential customers that the product is worth purchasing. Trying to sell products without reviews sends a red flag to potential customers that the company doesn't have faith that their customers will be satisfied with the product.

Q5) Read Chapter 11 and explain what brand associations mean.

Brand association is the way that people think about certain products and what they might connect those products with. For example, a Petco customer might purchase a new toy for their dog, find that the dog loves the toy, and then have a positive notion of Petco, associating the store with their dog's happiness and fun!

Q6) Nielsen "BuzzMetrics" initiative measures word-of-mouth ("buzz") on nearly 100 million blogs, user groups & social networking sites about brands & products. Read “Nielsen’s Brand Association Map” and also go to www.Nielsen.com and read about BuzzMetrics. Explain how it works and why it is a valuable tool to some marketers.

BuzzMetrics is a valuable tool to many marketers because it offers such a variety of insights. The dashboard will allow users to keep an up to date view of how consumers view their product as well as the development of potential threats.

Week 10 Discussion

1.  What is the difference between secondary data and primary data (please refer to Chapter 9)?

Primary data is gathered by the researcher themself in real time and applies directly to the situation being researched. Secondary data, on the other hand, is gathered by someone other than the researcher on an issue that occurred in the past and may relate to the situation being researched.

2.  Please give an example of a Portland-based business that performs marketing research. How does this company collect marketing data? List sources (i.e., URL) if necessary.

Portland Research Group (portlandresearch.com) is a firm that performs primary research through methods such as product testing and trials as well as many other research services. The company will analyze the experience of current customers, as well as the effect that current marketing efforts have on current and potential customers.

3.  What is the relationship between Advertising Expenditure and Sales (please refer to http://www.mktresearch.org/wiki/Regression)?

The independent variable in this relationship is advertising expenditure, which is directly correlated to sales. Given this relationship, higher sales should be connected with higher marketing expenditure.

4.  How do you interpret the coefficient for the variable “$Online Advertising Expenditure” (please refer to http://www.mktresearch.org/wiki/Regression)?

Advertising expenditure must be broken down into categories - i.e. how much is spent on radio, TV, billboard, online advertising, etc. In this case, the coefficient of online expenditure is 3.2, while TV expenditure has a coefficient of 4.1, indicating that TV expenditure is 128% as effective as online expenditure.

5.  What is the most important statistics when interpreting a regression table (please refer to goeppner-multiple-regression-analysis_a-case-study)?

The most important statistic on a regression table is the adjusted r squared value. This value allows us to determine how much the dependent variable is actually influenced by the independent variable while accounting for degrees of freedom.

6.  Which variable is the most important for predicting monthly rent (please refer to goeppner-multiple-regression-analysis_a-case-study)?

In this case, the rented square footage was the most important variable for determining the lease rate, however many variables were determined to be significant.

7.  Will Big Data replace market research? Why or why not (please refer to Will Big Data Replace Market Research?  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-FsyW3l9Kg)?

Early in the video, Beth Schneider states that understanding why certain events happen is pivotal to effective marketing and corporate decision making. While Big Data is certainly useful, it can't provide these explanations that market research can uncover, so I believe that while Big Data may take on a more major role, market research will always remain a pivotal part of the marketing process.

Assignment 3

Find the predictors or the independent variables, and the dependent variable in that news story. Interpret any picture or graph included. Do you believe the conclusion to be true or not? Why? Is there anything you find to be interesting? If you are asked to redo the study, what shall you do?

I chose the story "A Look At The Effectiveness Of Anti Drug Ad Campaigns". In this segment, Ari Shapiro and Keith Humphreys discuss the public health emergency that is the opioid crisis. The independent variable here is the advertising campaign that Trump plans to put into place, and the dependent variable is the rate of opioid usage in teens and young adults. The goal of the campaign is to "get to people before they start" (NPR, 2017) through advertising that promotes a drug-free lifestyle.

Shapiro and Humphreys compared the advertisements against substance abuse that we see today to those that were promoted in the 1980's and 1990's. In the past, PSAs of this variety tended to send a straightforward message that drugs are bad, and that adults and authority figures want children to avoid drugs as they grow up. Humphreys pointed out that this type of language was actually correlated with an increase in marijuana use by teens and young adults.

In these ad campaigns, advertisers were trying to appeal to Congress, trying to appeal to, as Humphreys put it, "a 60-year-old white man or woman in a suit". Young adults are known, however, for wanting to rebel against authority and make their own decisions. As the problem became worse, Congress noted this, and shifted their anti-drug PSAs to a different tone. The new ads promoted the idea that youth should be rebelling against the influences in their life that would lead them towards substance abuse. By saying no to drugs, youth began to hear that they were proving they could make their own choices and rebelling against unhealthy influences.

In the end, Humphreys pointed out that the most effective method of substance abuse prevention is providing kids with a community and things to do. With social ties, activities they find fulfilling, and something to keep them busy, even high-risk children are much less likely to turn to substance abuse as they get older and more likely to focus on activities that will provide a reward in the long term rather than the short term reward and long term damage caused by drugs.

According to ProjectKnow, the government spent $31 billion on drug control from 2009 to 2012, including prevention programs, advertising, addiction recovery, incarceration, and law enforcement. The same article mentions the fact that much of the goevernment's drug funding in the past has gone towards studies on the dangers of marijuana, but that the public's attitude has changed over time, rendering any efforts on marijuana a failure. Additionally, many of these studies have shown that the drug is not dangerous should proper controls such as taxation be put into place, however these results have not been acted upon at the federal level (ProjectKnow, n.d.)

I find it particularly interesting how Humphreys chose to highlight the fact that drug prevention advertising campaigns may not be the most effective way to prevent drug use. Finding and promoting alternatives to drug use without bringing information on specific drugs into the equation certainly seems like it would be the most effective method to prevent youth from getting involved in illicit drugs. I think that the information Humphreys presents would be more interesting and applicable if he went further into detail on which types of alternative activities see the highest success rates, and which age groups respond best to alternative activities vs. advertising campaigns. By analyzing these factors, we would learn exactly where government funding should be going in order to most effectively fight the use of the most dangerous drugs.



Works Cited:
1. A Look At The Effectiveness of Anti Drug Ad Campaigns. NPR. 1 November 2017. Accessed 3 April 2018. https://www.npr.org/2017/11/01/561427918/a-look-at-the-effectiveness-anti-drug-ad-campaigns
2. How Much Money is Spent on Anti-Drug Campaigns in America? ProjectKnow. n.d. Accessed 3 April 2018. https://www.projectknow.com/how-much-money-is-spent-on-anti-drug-campaigns-in-america/