In Response to Abby Hajec

"There's been some rumors that they may even offer it for free even with Prime members," Kessler said. "I think we're heading for sub-$100 price points for e-readers."

If it does eventually reach below $100, or become free, do you think this will generate more profit or do you think the Kindle Reader will be on the decline?

I would agree that with the decline in price for the Kindle, it will increase revenues. People will be more drawn to buying the Kindle and once they have they are apt to but more  and more books. It gives people more of an incentive to spend more money on buying books through the Kindle if the price is cheaper. Amazon will definitely benefit from lowering the cost of the Kindle. They would also catch the group of people who are on the fence about buying one. If it is cheap or even free then why not?

Do you think with the decrease in price of the Kindle there would be an increase in price of books on Amazon sold through the Kindle? 

VH1 Gets A Makeover

VH1 is aiming at a new target, women 25 to 35 years of age. Due to a recent drop in ratings the channel is looking to regain its spot in the market. "We saw ratings deteriorate, and we were hearing from our audiences that there was a fatigue level with some of our shows," said Tom Calderone, president of VH1. This past Sunday they introduced their new show “Mob Wives” which shows females who have married into well known mob families. In May VH1 is going to launch a new show called "Big Morning Buzz Live," hosted by Carrie Keagan who is 30 years of age. In later May they plan to show "Single Ladies," which is hosted by Queen Latifah. 

The station believes that men are the typical ‘funny people’ of TV such as Colbert, Leno, Letterman, etc. So they are introducing the ‘funny women’ in hopes to gain more of an audience. 

"VH1 is in a continual state of reinvention, and part of choosing not to grow old with your audience is realizing when you have dined out on certain formats too long," said Mr. Toffler President of MTV.

"As professional women continue to become more affluent and make more inroads into the working world, advertisers are growing more desperate to reach them," said Brad Adgate, an analyst at advertising and marketing firm Horizon Media.

Women control 80% of the consumer market, so why wouldn’t you market the media to the majority of the consumers? Do you think it is smart for VH1 to market more towards women? Will that be more effective to gain more of an audience?

Privacy Bill

I found an article that closely related to the discussion in class with the guest speaker Mr. Faulkner. It relates to our discussion on being ethical, and if it was ethical for Mike Vitone to acquire email addresses and send emails to people without their approval or knowledge. The article was from the Wall Street Journal, click here. Apparently Senator John Kerry (D., Mass.) and Senator John McCain (R., Ariz.) passed a bill called the Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act of 2011. This bill will allow people to see what information is being sent out about them as well as require permission for their information to be shared.

"These companies can do virtually whatever they want with our personal information," Sen. Kerry said. "Sen. McCain and I seek to change that."

Do you think it is ethical for Mike Vitone to e-mail people without their knowledge that he has their addresses?

In Response To Kristen

Kristen posted the question, what other features could this company market to potential consumers? She is talking about the video which I posted below about the roll top computer idea. I think it is amazing how quick technology grows and changes. I found this article and picture about a bendable, almost paper like computer which is being worked on by Arizona State and HP. Here's is the link to look at it:  http://elitechoice.org/2009/01/10/flexible-computer-screens-from-hp/. Today the latest rage is the iPad, which acquires a lot of the same features that the roll top and the paper like computer do. However in response to Kristen's question, it has more features that will be appeasing to consumers. Some of these features would include flexibility, not as easy to break, and even more portable. I would pose the question how soon will these items be on the market, and will the iPad or items alike be able to keep up?

In Response to Britney Perkins

What do you think about Viral Marketing?  Do you think that this video was a good marketing decision for Smart Water?

I would agree that viral marketing seems like a great new way of spreading marketing advertisements to a wide array of people. Marketers are always striving to find ways to get their products shown to a large amount of people. What would be the point of an advertisement if only a few people could access it? Marketing on sites, such as Youtube is a great technique. People will recommend Youtube videos to friends and family which would ultimately cause this 'viral marketing'. As for Smart Water marketing on Youtube and trying to go 'viral' it obviously was a great idea! 8.7 million people have  viewed the advertisement so it clearly proves that it has been viewed by a wide audience, and isn't that the point? Do you think other advertisments would do better or be better seen if they were viral on sites such as Youtube?

Google "Plus One"

Google is continuously finding new ways to keep up with the rapidly changing world on the internet, especially with the increase of usage on social networks. Google is known for their reliable search engine Google.com. Today however there is a huge increase of sharing on the web via social networking sites such as facebook and twitter. Some people are able to find articles or pictures based on someones facebook page if they posted something that they want friends to see. Also blogging is a way of gathering information on useful webpages, articles, pictures, online videos, etc. People don't necessarily have to go to Google anymore to find an article, etc. that they want to see or that their friends want them to see.

So how is Google planning on keeping up with this trend?

Google is introducing the "Plus One" button, similar to the "like" button on facebook. Google feels that this will bring more attention to their search engine and make it more competitive with social networks. They feel that the "plus one" helps show searchers what is a more valued article etc.

 

Do you think that this will make Google more competitive against social networking sites?

Response to Ashley Guidi

What’s Green? I would agree that companies use this idea of going green as a way to make more money. Most people don’t investigate a company if they are green or not when they go to the store. So if an item says something ‘green’ on it, most people would believe that. Consumers want to feel good about what they are buying also, if something you bought was less harmful to make or had a positive impact on the earth you might feel better about buying it. I think that there are some companies who are actually going green however. I have an internship at a company called UNFI and I know that they are putting solar power panels on the roofs of most of their buildings. If a company is going to market that they are green however, they should legitimately be green and ethically it would be the right thing to do. Do you think that the majority of 'green marketing' is a scam?