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When a company is run it is important to track efficiency and quality, and that is what KPIs (key performance indicators) bring to companies. Teams in multi-million-dollar companies and even small companies are able to use KPIs to immensely improve business as a whole. KPIs assist companies in areas like Finance, Marketing, and Sales. KPIs measures progress and creates data-driven solutions, allowing businesses to monitor, formulate, ensure clarity. KPIs are usually run with the criteria known as “SMART” , this criteria stands for Specific, Measurable Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. KPIs help businesses to set and reach goals in a more efficient manner. KPIs are a very useful tool that allow businesses to measures important company factors therefore allowing them to reach their goals.

When one thinks of advertisement, they usually think of someone talking to them or to someone else about a product. It’s usually a person with a problem, and then a random person talks to them about how a certain product will fix all their problems. Although that works very well most of the time, silence is another great tool to get the viewers’ attention and give them time to think about the ad. A lot of time when ads are speaking, we don’t always think, this happens because the ads tell us what we have to think and they plant the thoughts in our minds. When an ad or commercial is filled with silence, we are left to make our own ideas from what we see. This makes the ad keep us more engaged and be more memorable for us to remember. Author and Professor of Marketing G. Douglas Olsen states “silence can increase attention and subsequent retention of information in an advertisement”. A good example of this is the “Break Free” ad by Adidas, this ad shows an old man thinking all day about how he used to run and be active when he was younger. There are no words spoken in this ad, so the silence and the light background music reel you in and keep you engaged at all times.   Silence can be a fabulous device to keep people’s attention, allow them to retain information, and make them feel the emotion that the main character is feeling. It is a difficult tool to use, but when used correctly it can do wonders and it can be the difference between a good ad and a great ad. Image by: Rodrigo Guerrero

A company’s dream is to have the popularity and fame that brings a bunch of people’s attention to their product. But what happens sometimes is that companies can’t please everyone, every person has different likings and opinions when it comes to the things they buy, let it be food, clothes, or technology. That’s why companies use segmentation, which is the process of grouping customers within a market according to their similar needs. By tailoring marketing strategies and messages to each segment, businesses can increase the effectiveness of their campaigns and optimize their resources. A good example of this is the car industry, and the multiple styles of cars that each brand has. Toyota sells sedans, crossovers, SUVs, minivans, and trucks to have different options for everyone. The sales of these vehicles change depending on the needs of the customer, if a person has a big family, they will probably buy a minivan or an SUV but if they are young and live by themselves, they will probably buy a sedan. The same happens in the food industry, take Lays Chips for example. They have different flavors of chips so if a person doesn’t like the Barbecue chips, they might like the Sour Cream and Onion chips or the Ranch Chips. They also have different types of chips, like Lays Poppables, Lays Stax, and Lays Wavy.  It’s all about giving people options, and when it’s in a market like the food industry its incredibly important that people have options.   When it comes to the preferences people have there is no way to really appease everyone without giving them a lot of options. The purchases people make on the day to day are subjective and as a brand you need to make sure you can give different types of people what they like. Segmentation allows companies to target specific groups of people with specific products based on their characteristics and traits. Image by: Rodrigo Guerrero

Music is an art that is a part every person’s life, everyone enjoys music and listens to music throughout the week. Music sets an ambiance and a mood in a way that is hard to explain sometimes. Music can evoke feelings to people with its rhythm, melodies, harmony, and lyrics. Advertisers use music to make their commercials more memorable, this is because the catchiness of a music or a jingle stays with us for a long time. We associate different songs with people, places, and usually companies. When processing music, we use the same parts of our brain that we use for memory and emotion.   When it comes to commercials music can help tell a story in a sad, happy, or comedic way. In the 2008 Swiffer-Sweeper Vac Commercial they use the song Baby Come Back by Player to tell the story of an old broom being left behind by their owner after being replaced by the Swiffer-Sweeper Vac. This is a great example because it uses a very popular song that is played on the radio and in stores all the time, so people when people hear that song on their day to day they will remember the Swiffer-Sweeper Vac commercial. Another example where music is used in a different way is the Nike 2024 Olympic Commercial . In this commercial, orchestra music is used in the background to assist the narrator in his storytelling. It sets the mood and catches the audiences’ attention, keeping us glued to the screen and making the commercial memorable.   Music can make us happy or sad, it can hype us up or it can calm us down. There are so many different genres of music and they all evoke different feelings on people. Advertisers and marketers take advantage of this and make us remember their products with music. When marketers can infuse a creative mix of storytelling and music it is a truly wonder art of its own. Swiffer-Sweeper Vac Commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHxG6-SzeWo   Nike Commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwLergHG81c Image by: Rodrigo Guerrero

Culture can be defined as traditions, beliefs, and many more things, and when marketing it is important to understand culture because you don’t want to offend people or support stereotypes. Marketers have to be understanding of religions, genders, heritage, etc. In a Forbes article Bridget Brennan talks about the importance of not falling into the old stereotypes and changing views, when it came to the Women’s Consumer Market . But there can also be other examples like the Latino Consumer Market. When working in the Latino in the U.S. for example it is important to make them feel accepted and respect, since some stereotypes of Latino are that they take jobs and that they are illegal. Understanding culture is just as important as finding your target audience because it can help you build a strong relationship with many different types of people. Always try to not reinforce dangerous stereotypes in marketing because a mistake like that can ruin the credibility of any brand big or small.

The purpose of Marketing is to drive sales of whatever product one is selling, but sometimes the way one drives those sales can be seen as manipulative and unethical. The Trojan Horse Marketing metaphor is a very interesting topic because it can sometimes be seen as positive and sometimes negative. The Trojan Horse Marketing can be seen as a positive because it is a way to attract high paying clients. It tries to build a strong relationship with the client first before the purchase of any product. Unfortunately, some people use this method to take advantage of people and trap them to profit off of them. Author Stephen Woessner states “If you do it as a tricky stratagem, it won’t work: if you use it as an honest relationship-building strategy, then it will work wonders”. Even though the purpose of Marketing is to drive sales up, it is also important to be honest with customers and to never manipulate or take advantage of anyone. People will be able to see through the lies, and it will never end good for those marketers.

A marketing mix includes multiple areas for a successful marketing plan. These are known as the 4 P’s, which are product, price, placement, and promotion. Many companies use these strategies in different ways.   When it comes to the Product companies in like Mercedes Benz have a great quality product, product variety, and an iconic brand name that makes them very successful. When it comes to Price a company like IKEA is incredibly successful because of their low prices compared to their competitors in the furniture business. Nike comes to mind when one is talking about Promotion since it is a company that has great advertising and direct marketing. A perfect example for Place is McDonalds, since they have so locations and coverage not just in the United States but in the entire world. A marketing mix works with the combination of various factors, but on the whole, it integrates key marketing strategies that create brand awareness, build customer loyalty, and drive product sales. Even though each one of the 4 P’s can be used by itself it is important to understand them and combine together to have a better result.

When a person walks into a retail store and buys an item, there is more going on that the eye can see. It is not just a person buying and a person or company selling. There can be many things being exchanged depending on the store that one is purchasing from, but I will use Nike as an example. Nike is one of the biggest companies in the world and thanks to their strong marketing throughout the years they are able to have a strong hold to society and be able to conduct mutually beneficial exchanges with their customers. The customers obviously give Nike their money, but Nike doesn’t just give this person a pair of shoes for example, they also give them an invigorating feeling since their branding makes them so desirable. A big reason why Nike is so desirable is because of all the famous Nike Athletes that represent the company every time they play their said sport. Most of the time people don’t leave thinking “I just got some new shoes” they leave thinking “I just got my new Nike shoes”. This feeling that people hold for the company Nike as a whole adds a higher value to the shoe that might not be thought of when looking at a simple exchange.