New cell phone marketing: I really do enjoy marketing, but I must admit that creative marketing can get annoying. I just read an article about marketing that explains a new method advertisers are using. They call your cell phone and let it ring for only a few seconds so that it shows you have a missed call. If you return the phone call to the number that called, you get a pre-recorded advertisement message. At what point can we say marketers are going too far and becoming too intrusive?

Intrusive Marketing: Everyone says that marketers are the only thing worse than lawyers. I was reading an article on intrusive marketing that really got me thinking about this. Marketing is intrusive. I study marketing, I love marketing, and I am still annoyed when I am constantly bombarded with advertisements. It's only getting worse. Companies are beginning to send consumers advertisements using text messaging on personal cell phones. So here's my challenge: How do I create advertising that is entertaining enough to consumers that it does not seem to be intrusive?

Creating a new brand: In one of my marketing classes, we had a guest speaker from Hershey's. She told us the story of developing the new brand they are in the process of releasing. It is called Cacao Reserve by Hershey's. It was amazing to listen to the whole process. Hershey's also recently bought several premium chocolate brands. Someone is my class asked why they did not simply develop their own premium cholocate for each segment, rather than buying other brands. She explained that developing and marketing an entirely new brand was very expensive and time consuming, not to mention how difficult it is to gain recongnition against already established brands. I had never thought of how much it costs to create a new brand. It made me reconsider franchising a restaurant, rather than trying to start my own. Also, Cacao Reserve chocolate is amazing!

Everyone keeps telling me how difficult it is to run a restaurant. I think they are trying to scare me away from the industry. I have been researching a lot trying to gather advice on successful restaurants. I found a blog today that gives some great advice on restaurants. It's a blog by Keith Eddleman, CEO and of spillover, inc. and can be found at http://thespillovereffect.com/ This guy knows his stuff and is actually very entertaining to read.

Email marketing and click-through rates: Restaurants in the lead with a 57.5% click-through rate
I have an internet marketing class where we learn about many things, but recently we have been talking about click-through rates. (people who click on your link and go to your website) Email marketing is a tough thing to do well, especially with the growing strength of spam blockers and peoples hatred for obnoxious marketing. I was surprised to find that restaurant email marketing has the highest click-through rate of all industries. To see a complete list of the stop industries, visit http://www.metrics2.com/blog/2006/09/13/email_marketing_restaurants_enjoy_the_best_clickth.html

Brazilian Churrascaria - I think they are the new big thing in the restaurant industry, especially if you can keep them low cost (around $20-$25 per person) These Brazilian steakhouses are starting to pop up everywhere, not just in big cities, which is where they started as very high quality, expensive restuarants. Churrascaria is a buffet style restaurant with all-you-can-eat steak and other meats and authentic Brazilian foods. They have a fun atmosphere and great food! The key is making them economical enough to put in smaller cities, like Pocatello, Idaho.

Free stock trading! I posted my last blog entry earlier today on stock market trading. It was a pretty random though that is suddenly applicable. In about three days a new website is opening that is offering free stock trades. www.Zecco.com This is going to be huge upset in the online trading market. How are websites like Etrade and Scottrade going to compete with this? When my brother and I did some experimental stock trading, out biggest problem was that we were poor college students and $10 per trade is too expensive for small investors. Zecco is the first of its kind and will allow you to trade as much as you want for free. They claim they will make money from other premium services. I wonder if they can stay alive on that? I hope so. More importantly, I hope I can find some money to get back into trading.

The stock market & utah driving
You have to have money to make money. And if you do have money, you should be using it to make more money. A while back I realized this and did a little bit of amatuer stock market investing to learn the game. I'm not sure if I have the risk tolerance to handle the stress that it brings. However, I realized I handle a similar type of stress every day. I call it "Driving in Utah." While I was driving around I developed this analogy for stock market trading:
The main roads have 3 or 4 lanes for me to choose from and way too many stop lights to get stuck behind a car who is going to go slow off the line. It's always a big decision for me as I approach an intersection which lane I should get into. And it's never what you expect. Sometimes the longest lines are the fastest, or you can get stuck behind a single slow car, and all the other lanes will just fly past you. Then you've got to decide whether to stick with your slow lane, which may suddenly pick up, or if you should try to jump into one of the faster lanes, which could slow down at anytime if someone has to turn or merge. The most frustrating is when your lane is going slow, so you switch. And then your new lane slows down and your old lane takes off, but you can't get back in because they are going too fast. Anyway, this is all like stock market trading. It's all completely unpredicatable. You might buy a stock or sell a stock at just the wrong time. One stock looks great so you jump in just in time to hit a red light or get stuck behind a grandma car. But oh well. You have to take risks once in a while. So there's my theory/analogy.