Sun Drop

      The other day I was watching TV and a commercial came on for a new soda called Sun Drop. The commercial caught my attention because of the the humor that was displayed through a girl drinking the soda and dancing to the popular song from Snoop Dog called Drop It Like It's Hot. The song was what originally drew me in and then when I looked up at the TV there was a girl drinking the soda and dancing in places where she seemed very out of place. This was very comedic to me and it made me pay attention to the product that was being advertised which was Sun Drop. After watching this commercial I was very intrigued by this new citrus soda, so I did a little research on it. I was surprised to find out that what I though was a new soda was actually developed in New Haven, Missouri in 1949. I found out that it was invented by a man named Charles Lazier who happened to be a salesman of beverage concentrates at the time. He was driving around in his car one day and all the sudden had a light bulb go off in his head with the idea for the perfect soda. He wrote down the receipt for the soda and gave it to his son Charles Jr who would go on to create it. Sun Drop was initially launched in 1951 with the original name of Sundrop Golden Cola or Golden Girl Cola. The rights to the soda was passed between a few different companies until it was finally acquired by Dr. Pepper who is producing the soda today and distributing it nationwide for the first time ever. It seems as though Dr. Pepper is trying to market this product towards the younger age group and my first thought was that it reminded me of how sprite is marketed. Sprite has taken a movement to market towards my age group and has done so through hip hop. That is why I made a connection between these two products. I am interested to see and wondering if people will think that Sun Drop will strive in the beverage market? 

Charity Fraud featuring U2's Bono

After recently reading an article and also hearing chatter of allegations towards Bono, I have learned he is now involved in a Scandal that includes his charity and fraud occurring. In the article that I read, it alleged that Bono's charity named ONE only donates one percent of their proceeds to the actual cause. Over 50 percent goes to paying salaries of the workers and the rest goes to promoting their campaign for the cause. Mostly talked about, his charity is dedicated to fighting poverty in Africa and Aids Worldwide. If these allegations turn out to be true it is definitely is going to put a dent in his image. In my opinion this is one of the lowest things that you could steep to and shows poor decision making as someone who is supposed to be a role model. Although he is still a normal person like anyone else he is still held at a higher standard than most because of his ability to persuade people. When you are someone as famous and popular as he is a lot of people would see him and think that this is a great cause to help, when in fact hardly any of your money is actually helping.
When his charity was confronted about this matter they responded by saying the money goes towards promoting for the charity and they defended how the charity is run. Ethics is a huge issue in this case and their is absolutely no question that if these allegations turn out to be true Bono will never be looked at the same again.

In responce to Erik Bergstrom's "Super" Marketing post

I agree with everything that Erik said in his post about the Super Bowl. Every year when the Super Bowl comes, I always here people saying how excited they are to watch it. The funny thing about this comment is that a lot of times the people that are saying this are only watching the game for the commercials. Whether you are a football fan or not the majority of the public watch the Super Bowl and company's have definitely made it a priority to advertise during it. The Super Bowl is considered one of the most watched programs of every year as this past year, viewer turnout ended up at around an estimated 111 million viewers. It is because of numbers like this the company's shell out millions of dollars for as little as a 30 second commercial. With a number like 111 million people watching it is no wonder why marketers take advantage of this once a year phenomena.

As to Fords newest marketing campaign with their new gas saving Focus I would once again agree with Erik that this is their attempt to show off their gas saving car. As Erik stated Toyota and Honda pretty much have this market locked down and it is a market that Ford needs to get into if they want to keep up with their competitors. Ford and their slogan "Built Ford Tough" has always had the image of, and been known for building quality trucks. However now-a-days gas saving cars are all the rage as the "Go Green" movement has swept the nation and people are demanding more fuel efficient vehicles.

Using the Marketing mix in the Job Market

When your in the market for a job there are a lot of questions that you need to answer before starting your search. The marketing mix is a very useful tool that can be extremely helpful while going through this process. The marketing mix consists of the 4 p's which include; price, promotion, place, and product. The great thing about the marketing mix is that you can use these 4 p's to come up with the questions that you need to ask yourself before starting your job search.

Product- The first question that you need to ask yourself is what is your product? In this case the product is simply yourself. Your trying to market yourself to employers that your the best possible candidate (product) for the job. Also once you answer that question for this specific product you should ask yourself, what are your strengths and what are your weaknesses? Once you identify these characteristics about yourself it will allow you to better understand who you are and what job would be best for you.

Place- When dealing with place there are a few factors that come into play. Not only do you have to think about where it is that you want to work, but you also have to think about where you live. These two locations are directly linked because they will determine how much of a commute you will have to make everyday. Not only do you have to consider is it worth it or not to drive a long distance to and from work everyday, but you also have to consider whether it is worth it or not to cover the cost involved in driving.


Promotion- Promotion is all about selling yourself to your possible future employers as being the best person for the job. This is where asking yourself what your strengths and weaknesses are comes into play and to your advantage. Once you identified these characteristics you can point out in an interview what it is that you offer and what you can bring to the table for that company. Also you can sometimes spin your weaknesses around to almost seem like a positive thing to some employers. For example if one of your weaknesses is that you are a perfectionist, you could say sometimes you take too long on certain tasks because of that and that is a weakness. An employer could look at that like it is a great weakness to have and it is also something that can be worked on very easily.

Price- Price is a very complicated variable because it is one that is not completely in your control. One way that you can have some control over what you get paid is being willing to work for a lower price than your competition. This is a strategy used to get the job over others and it is done with the thought that over time you will see a pay increase. Another strategy that there is a fine line with, is trying to go for the biggest salary you can get. This if successful comes with a huge reward but if not you can over price yourself and end up not getting the job.

Marketing, Advertising, Propaganda

       Marketing, advertising, and propaganda are three words that a lot of people tend to believe mean the same thing. Although these words do share similar meanings and purposes they are not the same by definition. In my opinion marketing is a term that defines a complex and well organized strategy that someone would use to attract customers and keep them brand loyal. The biggest difference to me between marketing and advertising is that marketing involves a lot more research than advertising does and it is also based more on a specific target market than advertising is.
       Advertising is a form of promoting a product or service that is meant to reach a large audience. Although advertising is meant to reach a target audience it often reaches an audience that is not a part of there market because advertising is so much based on quantity rather than quality. For instance the Super Bowl is a great example of how advertising is utilized. Last years Super Bowl attracted over 106 million viewers who saw advertisements for a wide variety of products and services. Although these companies, who were promoting their names, were trying to reach a specific market they were also reaching a lot of viewers who were not in their target market because of how many people watched this event.
       Propaganda is a form of promotion that is used in a way to influence or persuade a group of people toward a specific thought or cause. I think that it is a mix between marketing and advertising because it is used as a strategy that you have to do research for, but at the same time it is meant to reach a large number of people because with propaganda, your target market is everyone. The most famous example of propaganda was used by the Nazi party during WWII against the Jewish religion. The Nazi's would use propaganda against the Jewish people by creating posters of Jewish people depicting them in a negative way and spreading false information about them being bad people. The term propaganda is used more as a political term because of this event and it is used primarily as a tool of persuasion and influence.