Cultural Influences on Consumer Buying Decisions

The iPhone was one of the biggest products I can think of that had the most influential buying factors in its favor. All of the factors that affect consumer decision making, cultural factors, exert the broadest and deepest influence. If all of my friends have something that makes me want it even more. This is a very important thing for marketers to understand is that if its in people culture and society and its accompanying values, as well as their subculture and social class, all influences their buying behavior.
If a company understands this it gives them an advantage to how they can get products to appeal to consumers and for it to be the "must-have" product.
Other organizations that can take advantage of the influential factors is clothing stores, electronics, music, and restaurants. If all these things are well known in societies, people have more knowledge about the product or service, which creates a bigger target market.

What are the biggest influences on consumer buying decisions in your opinion?

In Response to Joe Littlewood

What do you think about Nikes strategy back then?  If you were making the decisions would you have made all those risks and put your company in jeopardy?

Nike's strategy back then took a huge risk. In my opinion, I think taking risks is what a company needs to succeed. Some risks organizations take dont always end up in such success as this one, but thats what makes certain companies so much more successful than others, they were willing to take huge risks with a creative idea and run with it, in hopes to have a good turn out.
If I were making the decision, had valid facts, useful information, and a solid projection or business plan for this situation I would go for it. I dont think Nike expected to have such huge success from this decision, but if it was never made in the first place who knows where that company would be today!

Technology, Marketing, & Social Networking

The evolution in technology has created many new and different opportunities for the marketing aspects of organizations. This was before I knew what technology really was, but the fax machine is what had once been the greatest inventions for the workplace ever. They are still used in the workplace today, but then soon after came e-mail. Email changed the workplace completely from sending letter through the post office or physically having to meet up. This was alot cheaper option than both of those. Technology has been changing so quickly it makes you wonder what the next big thing it will be. In my opinion it will be holographs. They are used in companies today, but arent something you see in our everyday life as students or even small businesses. But what we do see alot in our everyday life is all the different social networking services that have opened up opportunites for people to use for marketing. We use everything from Facebook, to Twitter, to even more business -focused networks like LinkedIn. 

Marketing is everywhere, whether we notice the little ads on the sides of each website we use, or we are looking into the marketing aspect of business for a career, even viewing companies on LinkedIn that are trying to get you know more information about their organization.  

In Response to Nick Vita

Do you think that humor is the best way to advertise on TV these days, or does it make a company look less serious than it should?

In Nick's blog he talked about commercials and the different ways producers and companies try to get your attention. I have seen the Geiko commercial he is talking about and I think it is a great way to get everyones attention. I too realize and remember that commercial from only seeing it a time or too. They used the strategy of bringing in a well known athlete, catching the viewers attention, then throwing comedy into it keeping their interest in the commercial and keep watching. Having such a well known company bring in those two factors created a very effective result.
I think that humor is a very good way to advertise on TV because it catches the audiences attention. It doesnt make the company look less serious because viewers already have their opinion and knowledge about the company Geiko to begin with, so by creating a humorous commercial, in my opinion worked well. Although there are many different types including appealing to vanity, bandwagon, celebrity endorsement, and parodies. Some work better in different situations depending on the product or service they are trying to present to viewers. 

Self Regulation vs Government Regulation

I believe that self regulation and government regulatory agencies need each other to work efficiently. Self regulation is defined as control by oneself or itself, as in an economy, business organization,etc., especially such control as exercised independently of governmental supervision or laws. Government regulatory agencies do their job by making sure the business environment is fair, allowing room for companies to have their own morals, rules, and ways of running themselves. If we did not have government regulatory agencies there would not be a nation or world wide set of ground rules everyone is expected to follow. If we did not have self regulation, it would not allow organizations to be different from one another or have the freedom they need to succeed. 

Does anyone know of an organization that relies on strictly government regulatory agencies?

In response to Katie O'Hurley

In Katie's post she talked about the amount if money that was spent on the marketing campaign which was 3/4 the amount that was given to the charity.
In my opinion if they had advertised that amount going to the charity they should have been honest with the amount. I know they turned down the 100% of profits Gap requested to be going to the charity, but the product (RED) wanted to keep a long term campaign going and by taking that request they wouldn't have been able to keep the campaign going for the long term they had intended to have.
I agree with Katie when she says that both the campaign and Gap could lose supporters and loyal customers due to the rumors or inaccurate proceed amounts.

Cause-Relatied Marketing

Over Christmas break I was offered an internship at a private brokerage company, where I was the relationships, event planning, marketing intern. I touched upon all those subjects while being there which gave me a great background for the field I want to be apart of once I graduate. Today in class we talked about cause-related marketing. Cause-related marketing is when an organization joins forces with a non profit organization, or a foundation to help both companies gain more revenue. 
One of my jobs was to research non profit organizations or an act of helping the environment that we could do as each person registered for the conference we were setting up. I had reached out to certain companies inquiring more information about where the money goes, how it is used, and if we would see results from our donations.
We decided to pick a Go-Green company that would plant a tree every time someone registered for this conference. There were about 500 prospects coming to this event so it brought in a good amount of attention to the company and was a good way to get people to actually register because they knew they were doing something good for the economy.

Has anyone had to research certain companies to do this type of thing? If so, did they get good results from it?