Life as Seen Through a Marketer's Eyes

I love marketing, just ask my husband, who listens to me analyze every piece of marketing we are exposed. Here's some of the the random things I think about.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

World Domination (or atleast less annoyance) via Cell Phones

An Annoying Situation That Could Be Solved by the Genious Marketers: Today I thought of a way to use an innovative marketing technique for my own personal benefit. Here's what happened.
On campus, I usually eat at a cafeteria that opens at 12. Since most classes start at 12:30, this leaves you only 30 minutes to order your food, have it cooked, eat it, and get to class on time. Today I was standing in line at noon wondering why they hadn't opened yet. They usually open a few minutes early, if not right on time. Then, I noticed all of the girls who work at the cafe sitting on the floor in the hallway that led to the cafe. They just sat there talking and laughing for five minutes. Finally, at about 12:05, they noticed me glaring at them and all stood up, but instead of coming over to help they went into a closet (with a glass window). All four girls stayed in there for an additional five minutes with every one of their cellphones open. They were showing each other text messages! By this time there were about 20 people in line and the cafe was supposed to have been open for ten minutes already. I was mad!
So here is my idea... One of the latest marketing techniques, which is mostly used in Europe for now, involves cell phone text advertisements. They can detect you cell phone within a certain range, like if you are in a subway station, and they send you a text message ad. I need this capability. I want a device that I can carry in my backpack that I just point at someone and it will detect their cell phone number and allow me to send them a text message. I would have sent every one of those girls a nasty little text message while they hid in the closet!
I think I'd also use it while driving in Utah. For those of you have never been been to Utah and don't understand the driving situation, imagine the busy traffic of California combined with the stupidity of cavemen (no offense to the popular Geico Cavemen). I would point my magical little device at every idiotic Utah driver that decides to run a red light and cut me off while talking on their cell phone. I would call them, give them a few carefully selected words, and tell them to hang up (Or I would instruct my passenger to do this for me... so that I wouldn't become one of those annoying cell phone drivers).

Monday, February 26, 2007

Isn't it amazing the immense loyalty you feel to a company when they first hire you? I wonder how long that lasts... As I have mentioned before, I recently signed with Melalueca to begin working in business development/marketing when I graduate in a few months. I don't even know the company that well, but I feel very loyal to them. The other day I was talking to someone and they said, "oh, isn't that one of those pyramid skeem companies that forces customers to sell to other customers." I was so offended! It was like they had insulted a member of my family! Melalueca is a consumer direct marketing company! Anyway, I thought back on it and laughed at how I feel personally associated with this entity that I don't even technically work for yet. I wonder if that loyalty will last in a few years when I get a better job offer from a different company.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

We are watching funny commercials and I just found a new one that I had to share. I'm sure most of you are familiar with the classic San Francisco bouncy ball commercial. They actually dropped thousands of bouncy balls down the streets of San Fancisco. It is amazing. I just found a spoof on it that is even better. It involves some delinquent fruit. Fruit Commercial

I'm back and I'd like to share my all-time favorite commercial. My husband and I just watched it four times. We laughed every time. I hope you enjoy it. Dodge Commercial