Starbucks Perfect Pairing

As an avid Starbucks goer, I was intrigued by their new perfect pairing combos.
They offer your choice of:
A Tall Brewed Coffee with either of the following
- New Artisan Bacon Sandwich
- New Artisan Ham Sandwich
- Reduced Fat Turkey Bacon Sandwich
- Sausage Sandwich
or
A Tall Latte with
- Reduced Fat Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake
- Perfect Oatmeal

All for the low price of $3.95

I thought this to be a good deal consider my drink costs about $4.50. Yet it reminds me of fast food combo meals which I thought Starbucks would never resort to because of their inelastic demand for coffee products.
However, I thought this was a good example of price bundling because obviously one item is the more expensive like the latte, and then you get some little pastry that probably only costs them .50 cents. Or you could get an expensive sandwich and a cheap drip coffee that is just ground beans and water.
Either way, it is a good if that is the kind of products you like from them.

Measuring Service Quality

One of the best companies that I know of who has excellent service is Nordstrom.

I think they are successful example of gap between management's perception and quality standards. I think this because they have excellent quality standards because of their return policy, which is, they dont have one. They will take anything back, EVEN A TIRE! They want to ensure excellent customer service which their employees also provide. This also makes them very successful at the gap between service quality standards and service delivery. This is because there simply isnt one. The employees know how to provide excellent customer service that customer's come to expect.

Nordstrom always handles situations in a very professional and polite way. I think other companies should strive to be more like them and implement Nordstrom qualities into their business practices because they are such a great example.

New Comcast Commercial

Here is the youtube link to see the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTcol9UVkWs



The first time I saw this video I was so creeped out by the kid on the skateboard. You cant understand what they are saying because they all sound monotone and dull, yet everything around them is crazy and colorful! What was up with those alien on the bouncy ball...that really freaked me out!

I was very intrigued by the commercial but I had no idea what it was even about until the end...COMCAST!! Now I am really confused...



All of the people in the commerical are young, except for the older black guy at the end, and maybe the lady on the tampoline (hard to tell). Who is there target audience? Young kids. I think this ad is horrible, but interestingly enough, if you look at the youtube video and all the comments underneath...everyone loves it!!!



Most people thought it sounded like the movie Juno. Was this an intentional attempt to relate with todays youth, but why would they be buying comcast? Trying to get there parents to buy it for them? Seems funny to me.



I think this is an awful commerical and the most creepy commerical I have ever seen. I hope they change their look soon but atleast it got your attention right!?

Herbal Essence Follow Up

Living in a sorority, you see a lot of products that girls use. I decided to see how many of these girls used Herbal Essense in comparison to other shower products to see the effectiveness of H.E.'s advertising.

When surveying girls shower baskets I found the following:

12 out of 56 women used Herbal Essence Shampoo or Conditioner.

3 out of 56 used Garner Fructis/ Dove products

41 out of 56 used something other than the listen above brands, most were Salon products, Sauve, Loreal, or Tres Semme.

What I found was interesting was the following:

There are 3 bathrooms in the sorority. 1 where all the freshman are, 1 where all the sophmores/freshman are and 1 where all the juniors are. (seniors live out).

In the freshman bathroom I noticed most girls used the "other" product category.

Of the frehsman/sophmore bathroom, I found that most girls used Salon Products or Loreal.

However on the Junior bathroom I found that most girls used H.E. Juniors are in the age range of 20+ years old. So perhaps this is the target audience H.E. wishes to reach....?

Herbal Essence Shampoo

When looking in the March 2009 edition of Glamour Magazine an interesting advertisement caught my attention.

We currently live in a new marketing era which is characterized as selling to and targeting the individual. Companies want to make you feel like you with their products by making the products more specific to needs of customers.

Herbal Essense does this with their line of hair products such as Shampoo/Conditioner. Whether you have curly, colored, fizzy, in need of volume, you name it, they have one for you.

(full product names see below)

But once again they have created a new type of shampoo series about targeting your hair because it is what "your hair's been thirsting for"....I didnt know my hair was thirsty...

The ad continues to say for one of the specified products Feather Weight Shampoo -- for hair that NEEDs body...once again I wasn't aware that MY hair needed anything. Its funny how they word these ads. It really makes the consumer think "what does my hair need" not what "i need" but my hair.

Its funny with women, because we all hate our hair. My hair is too straight and I wish it was move voluminous. I don't even own a straightner, it makes people jealous, like my roommates who all want my hair. Why can't we just switch hair. Now that would be a high-demand product!

Names of Product: see if you can guess their purpose

Body Envy

Color Me Happy

Break's Over

Dangerously Straight

Drama Clean

Hello Hydration

Long Term Relationship

No Flakin' Way

None of Your Frizziness

Totally Twisted

I didnt even know there were that many types of hair...

iPods

Thinking about to when I was in elementary school and junior high, I remember having a walk man that I would bring with me and my case of cds. I always found it frustrating when I had to buy a whole cd just for a couple songs. Then came the age of Napster and buring CDs. I remember that being the cool thing to do until Napster became illegal for pirating.

Then in high school this new thing call the iPod MP3 player came out. I remember seeing a couple people have them at first and then after one christmas I came back to school and EVERYONE had iPods. I didnt even understand what they were exactly. I remember the first time I used it...I had to have some help figuring out how to navigate through the music.

I didnt get my first iPod until I graduated high school in 2005.

My point of this story is that I thought this was a good example of how the diffusion of innovation is spread throughout a population.

The early adoptors and innovators were those very few kids in the beginning who had iPods before it was the cool thing to do.

All the kids who came back from christmas break with iPods were the early majority. After they saw their friends using them and became more familar with the product, they wanted them.

I on the other hand was on the tail end of the early majority, not quite late majority since they still are a tried.

My parents on the other hand we more of the late majority. They got iPods only justy recently, which was probably a smart idea since the product is more perfected with new up to date technology.

I also love their advertisments. I think it is a very good branding campaign. They are instantly recognizable and familar to the consumers.

Price Bundling

One of my favorite perfumes is Juicy Couture. I never really noticed it before but the use a lot of price bundling for their products.

For example, the picture above shows their perfume, lotion and body wash. You can get all of this in one package for about $100. Which is a great deal considering the perfum itself costs around $50, the lotion and body wash are about $40.