In Response to Joe Cretella

Joe asked... If companies did not care about the marketing environment would people still value their product and continue to buy it?

I have wondered myself many times why certain companies spend all the money they do on marketing. For me when I wonder about this I often times consider companies like Pepsi and Coke. At almost all times I can recall one of their ads. This could be from the radio, TV, or some sort of banner at the local convenience store. For me I feel like these companies are well established and without certain aspects of marketing they would still be successful. For example all the money they do spend on all these sorts of ads. For these companies, from my perspective, if they did not pay attention to this aspect of the marketing environment I would still purchase their products.
Although as far as caring or not I think all companies need to be aware of the marketing environment. I feel as if this applies for all companies. There are companies that sell milk, bread, and gasoline and basically things that nearly every person cannot go with out that still must be aware of the marketing environment. I think in the process of providing something that is so important to many peoples lives these companies need to have some sort of care for the marketing environment and some sort of values. Marketing is expansive with many companies essentially providing the same thing or substitutes for similar products. With this being the case I think if companies didn't care for the marketing environment people would seek alternative brands and because of this they wouldn't value the product or continue to buy it.

What companies do you feel as if you have a commitment to and why? Do you think their marketing aspects reflect how they feel about their company and customers? How so?

E-Marketing

E-marketing is a huge part of life that I rarely give any thought to. In this day and age nearly every person has a computer or access to a computer that can get onto the Internet. For myself I notice I am always trying to find the best deal. I will often times to go stores and see items I want to buy but hold off on buying them until I have looked them up on the computer. This has proven to be beneficial in many cases. For example, I purchased my school books offline and spend $40 for a book that the bookstore was charging $180 for. Along with being cautious about sales I also find myself reading reviews about products I am interested in. I think this is where e-marketing becomes very important to companies. Many websites have sections where you can write reviews of a specific product and these reviews can essentially make or break a product. If a company puts out a good product reviews will directly show this.

However, e-marketing can prove to be a bad thing for companies, atleast from my perspective. For me there is nothing more annoying that when I am browsing the web and my computer suddenly becoming slow because a pop-up is trying to load. I purposely try not to support companies that market via pop-ups. Besides pop-ups ads can be seen nearly everywhere, whether it is on a banner of a web site or along the side of a web page. I think subliminally these ads have an impact on the way I shop. For example when I am in stores and I see a new product and I remember seeing it on a page I happened to come across I am always a little bit intrigued to give it a shot. Although this is the case I find it to be with items that are inexpensive often times for things like a new type of snack or beverage.

Do you find yourself being influenced by e-marketing? What is the most effective way that this type of marketing gets your attention, pop-ups, banners etc...? Do you find yourself reading reviews before buying products?