EOC Week 10: Features vs Benefits

For the most part, chocolate IS chocolate, that’s just how it is. The trick with creating chocolate products is of course trying to make and create a new feel and twist on such a classic product that has been around since forever. A key to making a new twist and feel is definitely knowing how to make the best of what you have and what you can work with. For instance, with Duos, the simple benefit is that you of course get your chocolatey fix, BUT the key feature is that it mixes two separate types of chocolate and blends them together to make new flavor combinations. Benefits are clearly something that customers want in products, it doesn’t matter what it is. “A market-oriented firm defines its business in terms of the benefits its customers seek” (Pg. 10). Features on the other hand, are just simply reasons why your product will stand above the rest and how those features will make consumers choose yours over the other competing brands. “A competitive advantage is a set of unique features of a company and its products” (Pg. 23). Features of course depends on whether or not you have a product or a service such as the UFC Gym; “the UFC Gym features standard fitness equipment, a café, and signature classes like Hot Hula and Hi-Octane Conditioning” (Pg. 96). Now, because of these unique features, certain people and people that are interested in those services or anything like that will flock towards the UFC gym because of the convenience of having all these features altogether. Features against benefits are extremely important to take in mind because when really looking for a product that we want/need, it’s crucial to really know what we are looking for

EOC Week 9: Social Media

EVERYONE uses social media nowadays, it’s just simply the best form of entertainment and the best way to connect and keep in touch with others. Knowing this, I know that social media is the absolute best way to promote my business and to promote Duos as a whole to the world. I plan on going about this by implementing discount codes depending on the social media program/site. For instance, a discount code would be associated with the hashtag #DuosInstagram for white chocolate with milk chocolate center Duos ONLY. The same will be implemented with #DuosFacebook for milk chocolate with dark chocolate Duos ONLY and so forth. “Social media may be teeming with hashtags now but its power cannot be underestimated. Its usefulness can be seen by how information is spread and how it aids online searches” (http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/hashtag-tools-for-marketing/). By implementing this system of utilizing hashtags to promote Duos, I believe that it will definitely get the name of Duos out to the general public and of course to all chocolate lovers out there especially. “Using hashtags goes beyond casually plugging them into your tweets and posts” (http://keyhole.co/blog/5-valuable-hashtag-marketing-strategies-proven-to-engage-audiences/). One does not necessarily have to know this exact fact to know that hashtags are everywhere. On popular social media sites/outlets such as Facebook and Twitter, there are sections where it literally tells you what topics and hashtags are trending, and it doesn’t take a special link to get there, it’s practically right in your face. “Winners, a popular Canadian apparel store, uses #WinnersFabFinds across all social channels. Both catchy and unique, Winners promotes the brand hashtag both online and in-store” (http://keyhole.co/blog/5-valuable-hashtag-marketing-strategies-proven-to-engage-audiences/). So with these discount codes consumers can use for different types of Duos, it encourages people to search up these hashtags with their respective sites and what respective type of Duos the discount will be applied for. As an example as someone who has never quite used Twitter before, if I found out that my favorite type of Duos or just the type of Duos that I would like to try or that I am curious about had a specific discount code ONLY for Twitter users, I would just make a Twitter to be able to obtain the discount code for those type of Duos that I would like to taste. It wouldn’t involve anything else, but just participation with the hashtag for the respective site. To push the social media advertising for Duos even further, I would also request that the user would also follow/like our Duos social media pages to push the discount up by 5% so the total discount price one would get from participating with Duos on social media would be a 30% total discounted price on Duos.

EOC Week 8: Creative Content

How I plan on carrying out the vision of “Duos”, originally I wanted to make a commercial emphasizing the joy and excitement as well as the flavors that I would want my consumers to feel and experience “Duos” themselves, but I thought how could I properly portray the true uniqueness of “Duos” in a commercial if I don’t have the product handy? I have come to the conclusion of showing how the packaging of “Duos” will look in terms of its own presentation and first impressions from the very design of the packaging itself because we all know that the most flashy of designs and packaging definitely grabs the attention of consumers, no matter who you are. I’ll start by brainstorming and browsing for ideas on how I feel would properly give off the uniqueness of “Duos” with the bag/package shape first, because I feel that if it’s in a regular plain container such as a box then it wouldn’t compliment the nature of the design that I will be brewing up. Next, I would want to start with the layout of points of interests, where I would place certain colors or where I would especially place the picture of the “Duo’s” themselves. I want to go for a very sleek design that would catch the attention of young adults, but also be pleasing to the eyes of the elderly. Regardless of whether or not they would board with the idea of “Duos”, it would be great just knowing that they saw the packaging and was curious as well as intrigued by the very design and would be very tempted the pick up the package and look for themselves. I feel that if I can capture the unique feel and twist of “Duos” starting with the package design, then I would already, in a sense make consumers already have a certain and curious taste of “Duos” themselves.

Implementation Evaluation Control

Now, with everything with Duos set from it’s purpose all the way down to it’s packaging and price, it’s time to make Duos happen. First thing’s first, and that is to begin production of the Duos themselves. There are TONS of tutorials online on how to first go about how to create fillings within truffles, so I won’t worry about that until later on, but once we can get a set time and place for the Duos to be made, then we can work on a starting price for each bag, because if we tell people about our plan, then once we actually start making them at first, of course they won’t be in their final production form so we can’t charge people full price when it’s just the first few batches, we need to express warranty by first letting people know that these are just the first few batches of Duos and that if they want to follow us on social media, then we can easily let them know of any future pricing and quantity changes that would take place. “Any warranty that does not live up to this tough prescription must be “conspicuously” promoted as a limited warranty (Pg. 188).”

Then, once we get a decent amount of followers through selling to family and friends, slight profit will start to come in from successfully selling a few bags of Duos, and as we start to get our name out locally through said families and friends, we can really start diving deeper into the true production of Duos. Once we get more and more profit, we can start hiring friends and family to help with the production of Duos. From there, everything will start to easily fall into place, after we hire a great staff to help produce more Duos, myself and a few others can start looking into the production of the official packaging we would want to achieve and so on.

With this example of implementation of Duos to the world, I can already see the general public have a different perspective on chocolates and how they will be enjoyed later on in the future in general and with Duos.

Marketing Mix: Price

When it comes down to a good price for Duos. This, I feel is where market research really comes in handy and could either give your product the boost it needs, or it could give off a really bad first impression for possible consumers. “Marketing research has three roles: descriptive, diagnostic, and predictive (Pg. 152).” Just simply looking up your competitors and how they’re pricing their products will definitely give you a great edge in competing against them. You can easily research online for just straight up prices from their direct website, or you could take a trip to your local grocery store or wherever your competition is distributed to see if any sales prices are applied, or if it stays true to the original price that the company had intended. “The Internet is an important resource for gathering CI (Competitive Intelligence), but noncomputer sources can be equally valuable (Pg. 173).”

For Duos themselves, I’d sell a regular bag of Milk over White chocolate for $18.99. Why you ask? Simply because a box of 75 Lindor Truffles sell for $28.00 and since Duos won’t be focusing on premium ingredients for our chocolates, it will be easy to sell Duos for cheaper because we are just using the different types of chocolate to our advantage. To be more exact, I would sell specific bags of Duos (I.e. Milk over white, dark over milk, etc.) for $18.99, but as for the variety bags with all different kinds of combinations of milk, dark and white, they would sell for $15.99 a bag because since it’s a variety, people won’t know for sure what they’ll get in the next truffle in the bag so just the sheer excitement in not knowing what truffle you’ll get next, I think, will be worth the money.

Marketing Mix: Distribution

In terms of distributing Duos to the general public, I wouldn’t want them to sell in places that of course aren’t a normal place for chocolates to be sold in the first place, but I also don’t want them to sell with stores that are all about candies and that are those places where kids go to get candies. Instead, I want Duos to sell in stores amongst other semi-luxurious chocolatey giants such as Lindt, Dove and even Ghirardelli. I want them to be distributed along with other products that will compliment the semi-luxuriousness feeling that I want to give out with Duos and of course not with products that wouldn’t make sense to be bought with. “A product that is purchased for personal or family consumption or as a gift is a consumer good (Pg. 116).” If Duos are going to be sold to basic grocery stores as well as some office stores so I can still aim for that college student target market and how Duos will compliment being bought with school or office supplies will be interesting due to the fact that they are two totally different products to purchase. “If that same product, such as a PC or a cell phone, is bought for use in a business, it is a business product (Pg. 116).”

And with this uniqueness with distributing Duos to the right stores and vendors, I believe that not only will I reach college students, but other demographics as well due to the variety of the stores that will be receiving Duos. In terms of the possible future products of Duos, I feel that if I still distribute to those same vendors and stores that already have Duos with the newer products in the future, it will benefit our company even more “Providing different customers with different levels of service is a very sensitive matter (Pg. 133).”

Marketing Mix: Promotion

Promotionally, the first thing I would want to tackle in terms of how we can expand and get the Duos name out to the public and possibly the world is simple, through social media. “Global marketers use social media not only for understanding consumers but also to build their brands as they expand internationally (Pg .89).” Social media is used so much nowadays to the point where it’s part of everyday life to just simply look into Facebook, Twitter, etc. to see what’s going on in the world and to see what’s trending as well.

With the uniqueness of Duos, whether it would be good or bad to the public, a short term goal for us is to just having Duos trending all around social media sites just to intrigue those who will look at it and wonder what it is, of course to start locally hoping we can get the word out around Las Vegas, but if it goes well, I would really want to expand from Las Vegas to other places around the world. I’m not looking for overall global fame, but just to outreach to other countries would of course be a more long term goal for Duos. “The word global has assumed a new meaning, referring to a boundless mobility and competition in social, business, and intellectual arenas (Pg. 68).”

The only problem I see with attempting to expand to other countries are the possible and potential boundaries that would be trouble to try and cross or to go over. Blending all the basic responsibilities (economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic) together while keeping a stable and just company will definitely be a way for Duos to have a good name for us and the company as a whole. "These four components are distinct but together constitute the whole. Still, if the company does not make a profit, then the other three responsibilities are moot (Pg.41)." From there we will get the pot stirring in terms of free advertising and word of mouth as well which of course just about every company wants with their own companies.

Marketing Mix: Product

Duos will of course start out as the regular truffles they were intended to be, but over time depending on how much the public likes them, I have some ideas that continue to play and mess around with the different types of chocolate in terms of blending them together and making other products that feature those different types of chocolate. Thinking about it, chocolate is very huge within the European countries and although it is huge here in the United States as well, it just doesn’t compare. Switzerland for example is known for just having amazing overall chocolate and their whole sub culture with chocolate is truly something that I want to kind of play along with when first introducing Duos. “minority populations embrace other cultures while continuing to patronize companies that understand their native cultural preferences (Pg. 57).”

Thinking basically back to Duos and the whole concept behind them, I already know that there WILL be people out there that will think Duos are completely disgusting simply because I have embraced the fact that “A product may be defined as everything, both favorable and unfavorable, that a person receives in an exchange (Pg. 174).” The evolution of Duos based on how well or bad they are received will play a huge role in how we will develop Duos in the future. Even if we don’t get spot on with the target market audience, it will definitely be surprising because “The term “market” means different things to different people (Pg. 134).”

Duos as a product will for sure continue to grow from both positive and negative reviews and feedback through the constant experimentation of different flavors we can use to our advantage along with the different types of chocolate. Products take time to grow and develop as companies reach out to their followers and communities for more ideas on how to improve their product and how to make it overall more enjoyable for customers everywhere.

Target Market Strategy

Target markets are crucial to a company’s success because it’s the first step in letting the company know if their product is truly for whoever they want to target in the first place. While this is true, if the company don’t succeed in winning over their target market, but succeed in winning over another target market they don’t suspect, it could potentially flip their future plans upside down. For example, the ever so popular game franchise Call of Duty is obviously meant for young adults and up, but instead the large audience for Call of Duty games tend to attract a much younger audience from its fast paced gameplay and simple controls and mechanics.

When it comes to attempting to cater to a certain age group, not only of course do you need to take in mind regular profits, but as well as the rules and ethics with possibly releasing content that could interfere and break certain rules “At the same time that it pursues profits (economic responsibility), however, a business is expected to obey the law (legal responsibility); to do what is right, just, and fair (ethical responsibilities); and to be a good corporate citizen (philanthropic responsibility) (Pg. 41).”

My intended target audience for Duos is a simple, yet complex target to aim for simply for its intense diversity, college students. The reason why I have chosen college students as my target audience for Duos is because of the simple fact that a vast majority of young adults still enjoy chocolate from time to time, and with college students always being busy and always in a rush for a quick snack or a quick bite Duos is perfect because it has the immense flavor that people crave and the snack sized nature of Duos add extra mobility to them. I feel that if I can get a hold of the feature of mobility with college students, it will become a huge benefit for college students of all ages and walks of life everywhere and as with every product, word of mouth will definitely help because If a good or service is meeting its profit goals, positive attitudes toward the product merely need to be reinforced (Pg. 114).”

SWOT Analysis

All companies need competitive advantages when trying to get their product out and about to the world, and the absolute best way to start that off is of course to take a step back, and see what you have at your disposal in terms of advantages and to take a close look into who your competition is to make sure they don’t overshadow you and your product because “Marketing planning is the basis for all marketing strategies and decisions (Pg. 20)”.

In terms of strengths, the overall idea and concept of Duos themselves is the pure foundation of the strengths that would set apart Duos from the other chocolate products. For starters, other chocolates tend to only feature one type of chocolate whenever they make variations of their own product. For example, Hershey’s chocolate, by standard, comes in milk chocolate, but they also have a dark chocolate version, as well as their own “Cookies and Cream” version which of course feature while chocolate with little crunchy bits to mock the cookies. Duos on the other hand will of course feature those same different types of chocolate but at the same time in a snack sized truffle that is sure to mix and blend two types of chocolate together to create a whole new flavor and experience.

The only weakness I can see with Duos is simply just the fact that consumers could get tired of them. I can see Duos achieving their first goal by standing out and having that new twist, but the question is, how long will that hype last? As with just about every product in the world, the fear of their product just not standing the test of time is always a fear because "If the brand is not succeeding, however, the marketing manager must strive to change target consumers' attitudes toward it (Pg. 114)." If Duos do end up not lasting long in terms of uniqueness, then I would have to resort to having to scramble around and make up more Duos related products, and that could easily end up badly, so I want to make sure that I don’t end up in that position to begin with.

With opportunities and threats, the only primary threat that comes to mind when it comes to truffles and chocolate balls in general seems to be Lindor truffles. Lindor Truffles have actually been a family favorite among my own family, but that won’t stop me from taking them on. With that in mind, the opportunities are clear, and that is the fact that I can play and mess around with the different flavor combinations within the types of chocolate.

Objectives

Objectives are extremely crucial for companies to thrive and keep themselves in the right direction for what they want to achieve. As for Duos, our objectives simply revolve around the new flavors that consumers will experience through Duos for “Marketing has two facets. First, it is a philosophy, an attitude, a perspective, or a management orientation that stresses customer satisfaction (Pg. 2).”

One objective that I want to always actively pursue is to always make sure that we serve our followers, fans, and consumers efficiently and adaptively enough to where we will be able to satisfy the mass majority of our consumers because there will always be someone out there that has a certain preference when it comes to products and customer service “Consumers’ product and service preferences are constantly changing (Pg. 90).”

Social media is EVERYWHERE at this point in time, and that will definitely be another objective that we will focus on, is to always remain contact with our followers and likers on Facebook, Instagram, etc. so that whenever we receive feedback whether good or bad, we will be able to take it into consideration. I know for sure that if we can nail that perfectly, getting our name out and advertising will improve and of course gain through word of mouth as well “So it is critical that marketing managers have a thorough knowledge of consumer behavior (Pg.90).”

With all these objectives in mind, the last main objective that I want to pursue is to put ourselves in locations that are of course thriving and that will help us out in the long run, because even though it isn’t something that most people tend to think about first, it could truly give your company the head start it needs because “Sometimes products or companies are repositioned in order to sustain growth in slow markets or to correct positioning mistakes (Pg. 150).”

Business Mission Statement

With Duos, my plan and vision is to bring a whole new dimension to the chocolatey world that everyone seems to be familiar with already. This world only knows that there are separate types of chocolate that are usually enjoyed separately and by different groups of people. With the creation of Duos, it is my mission to change that and to bring out entirely new flavors for the world to enjoy and to even open the eyes of some of those that are too close-minded to enjoy the other types of chocolate. The ultimate goal isn’t to JUST make a new type of chocolate to enjoy, but to also inspire others with the new unique flavors they will be experiencing through just eating Duos, as well as to create great memories with those who you will be sharing Duos with as I did back in the day when I was growing up with chocolate. My aim with creating everlasting memories with Duos is making sure the memories you make with your friends and family will be associated with the new flavors in Duos. The procedures that the Duos team and I will make in order to properly and efficiently serve and interact with our fans and followers will definitely be looked over constantly to make sure we can keep up with efficiency as well as consistency when responding to criticism and especially complaints because we want to grow with all of the feedback we will be receiving to make sure we are always satisfying our consumers. We just aren’t aiming to be the best chocolate in the world, but to be the most memorable chocolate in the world. The same concept also goes for our competition, we don’t want to defeat them, we just want to stand out from them.