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Reply to Juliette 1:
I do agree with what D’Souza is posing in his article, however I also think it’s a little bit of both creating comparisons across your products as well as comparing them with competing products. If you’re at a store looking to buy a product, you’re not going to just zero in on one brand unless you already had the intent to purchase from that specific brand alone. You’re going to inevitably be looking at the other brands that are in close proximity to what you’re looking for regardless. I do think that it’s so important to create variety within your own brand in order to create that optimal middle-of-the-road priced product so customers feel like they’re getting the better quality for a reasonable price.This Business News Daily articletalks about avoiding the misconception that low price means low quality and rather that it’s about the way you build your business model. It states “Ideally, if your company uses an everyday low-pricing model, your customers will not think about how cheap your product is or how low quality it is; instead, they will think about how they get value from your product.” It’s all relative to how you want to approach, but at the root of it, it depends on the way you build your business model and if you want to be differentiation or cost-leadership. After establishing your brand, you can then create price comparisons among your own products as well as competing products on the market.
Reply to Stephaine 2:
Having the lowest price isnt always a good thing. It can give consumers the impress that your product is a value brand and lead to the assumption that the product is lacking in quality. I agree with DSouza that having a selection of products with a gradient of prices is imperative. If theres one thing working in the automotive industry has taught me, its that setting the right price point for vehicles is crucial. Customers are developing more complex needs, so determining product features and their prices is more important than ever. Price tells a story about a good or service, so its important that product lines fit the narrative companies are trying to tell. My one caveat on DSouzas theory is that competitor pricing shouldnt be ignored. Since this is the digital age, its easier than ever for consumers to quickly run price comparisons. In fact, when making large purchases, 81% of consumers did research online first and the average lead time to making a purchase was 79 days (Study, 2013). It is unrealistic to think that price can be determined without looking at the opponents pricing options unless there is a very unique competitive advantage specific to your company that others cant recreate.
Reply to Juliette 1:
I understand where Mark Schaefer is coming from in this article, but it came across as someone who is resistant to change and adaptability. He doesn’t like that there is a rise in competition, barriers to entry, and thinks that content consumption is doomed. I really don’t think this rise in content is going anywhere, so whether we are comfortable with it or not, it’s the new marketing norm. I am personally pro-content marketing because with all the other algorithmic technology that is out there, the content we see is more or less tailored to ourselves and our own interests. It’s content we want to see. Schaefer also discusses the amount of content we are able to consume a day and how it has increased tremendously over the decades. To some degree, we are able to control the amount of content we consume in our lives, so his argument about that was a bit of a stretch for me. This Forbes article discusses how content marketing is a way for business to connect directly to people, because at the end of the day, businesses are just made up of people too. The article states that “Its about creating camaraderie and accountability that inspires us to build better products and workplaces, to live more healthy and meaningful lives. This is the standard to which we should hold ourselves and the companies we support.” (Crooks, 2015). Brands need to use content to connect directly to their customers in a genuine way to make content marketing a sustainable strategy.
Reply to Jessica 2:
Content marketing has become extremely more common with the increase in social media use during Covid-19. I don’t think it is doomed to become perceived as clutter in the media landscape, depending on how companies do it. Mass media advertising has developed a perception of clutter because thats just what it is. There are hundreds of billboards down the interstate, millions of TV commercials that run constantly, and it’s impossible to go to a news website without having pop up ads everywhere.
To avoid this in content marketing, companies should put money towards specific marketing research for their demographic. Find out what kind of content your demographic typically watches, and find out specifically who to market your content to. A great example of this is American Eagle and TikTok. American Eagle knows who their biggest consumers are, and they know the type of content they watch. The company recently partnered with famous TikToker Charli D’Amelio. “Digital sales rose 33% year-on-year, including a 75% gain for its Aerie brand… an #AerieRealPositivity effort generated almost 2 billion impressions. So far in Q2, the company has seen a 100% jump in sales for Aerie and 50% gain for American Eagle” (Williams). It’s evident that content marketingcanwork when you know not onlywhoyour audience is but what kind of content they consume. This is a key factor in the success of content marketing for a company. I typically get ads for things that are similar to things I already buy or companies I already love. When companies spend the money on research to find out more about their consumers than just who they are, their content marketing can be successful.
