EOC: Week 10: What are the benefits vs the features?

With our product it’s important to let people see the difference between the benefits and features of the drinks. Lets start by defining features according to the book;,” Features are a competitive tool for differentiating the company’s product from competitors’ products. “ That’s simple enough, the features are the aspects of our drinks that set-up them apart from everyone else. The way to describe benefits isn’t so copy and paste, but there is this quote “ These benefits are communicated and delivered by product attributes such as quality, features, and style and design. “ Those are the parts of the product that come together to provide the benefit, the happy feeling after a drink.

The features of Czekolada Beverages are firsts that its infused with several different chocolate flavors, there is no single chocolate flavor that’s better than any other so why not make a few different ones. The next feature of Czekolada Beverages is that all of the drinks are low-calorie, when compared to their competitors. The final and perhaps most underrated feature would be the smoothness of the vodkas; if the drink doesn’t go down easily then why drink it. Those 3 features are why Czekolada Beverages stand out from other premium vodkas; its variety of flavor, low calorie count and the smoothness.

All of the features only help add to the benefits of Czekolada Beverages offers. The flavor and smoothness combine to create a benefit of a great refreshing new way to mix to vices together; fine chocolate taste and booze. When you take the low-calorie feature alone it provides many a benefit most obvious would be allowing people to enjoy the drink with out worry. The final benefit of Czekolada Beverages is that it is new kind of drink and early adapters will have a since of pride in that they discovered something unique.

Week 9 EOC - 3 Mission Statements

The top three mission statements, (no real order) to me areas follows.

Cocoa Cough’s mission is to make people happy around the world by selling the highest quality, most unique tasting experience made with passion and innovation to help cure the common cough. - Joaquin Lares http://j-lares-photography.blogspot.com/ 

Choco-Nachos Mission Statement: "We give families the opportunity to taste a delicious blend of natural flavors that everyone and anyone from all ages can enjoy. " - Jose Francisco http://audiofrancisco.blogspot.com/ 

The mission of Wasted Candy Company is to provide delicious candy and alcohol mixtures to the world. Our goal for every candy order is that it results in a “delighted customer” who will tell their friends. We would like to revolutionize the candy industry and make it almost inevitable for the world to eat Wasted Candy products. - Cameron Doresy http://freshflyandfitted.blogspot.com/


The first thing that stood out about these three examples is that they all start by saying that this is a mission of the company. I like that they are so right in your face about what they want to do and don't leave any mystery to what their motivates might be. Next they all are about what they want to do to the people of the world, make everyone happy, give families some they all would enjoy. And each mission statement then explains how they will be doing this with a vague description of the product. The product is not needed to be described in great detail for a mission statement and none of the example above do.

Week 8 EOC: Creative Content

For my project I plan to build a website for the product. This website will have a couple really nice Web 2.0 features and will be coded mainly in HTML5/CSS3/jQuery, not just thrown on top of CMS theme. Since the website will need content I will also create a company logo, packaging and a product style guide for the project. Different parts of the project may be pulled and used in the site as the text content.



The book refers to the type of site it will be as a corporate site. “The most basic type is a corporate (or brand) Web site. These sites are designed to build customer goodwill, collect customer feedback, and supplement other sales channels, rather than to sell the company’s products directly. “Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip. Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation. 10. VitalSource Bookshelf. Pearson Learning Solutions, , Monday, February 27, 2012. And that’s exactly what the goal for the site will be, not to actually sell anything but to raise awareness of the product.



The site its self will most likely by a 5-6 page site with just the info for the product and static display images. The site would feature a home page, about, contact, beverage list page and a social media page. The Photoshop images for the packaging would be he most used images on the site. The site will be built in Photoshop first as a mock-up and then the assets will be used for the real site creation.



I will also ensure that the site is set-up to be social media friendly, by putting in things like Facebook like buttons and Pinterest “pin it” buttons. These little buttons are what starts things to go viral so having them will make the product look more real. I also see the site have a cool jQuery gotobyscroll effect being used with a floating nav box. The site will be linked to the blog and be wrapped in an iframe so that all the effects come thru.

Final Project: Implementation Evaluation Control

Once the product is out in the world the most important task will be to continually ensure that the company does not slow down. "Truly sustainable marketing requires a smooth-functioning marketing system in which consumers, companies, public policy makers, and others work together to ensure socially and environmentally responsible marketing actions. "Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip. Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation.Chapter 16 page 512. To ensure that Czekolada Beverages does remain a responsible company policies will be created. These will include policies to ensure that the high quality of the products remains and also that the social media presence of the company continues to grow. Product testing will also be very important so that a downturn in quality will be avoided at all cost. The company will also develop new flavors, explore different avenues for our beverages and try to innovate. "New products are important—to both customers and the marketers who serve them. For customers, they bring new solutions and variety to their lives. For companies, new products are a key source of growth. Even in a down economy, companies must continue to innovate." Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip. Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation Chapter 8, page 245. This is where the strength of not just making one chocolate infused vodka comes into play; we make many different flavors just as chocolate has many different flavors and combinations. The ability to update and expand our offering will provide the product growth needed for the company to remain.

Below is a mock-up of the home page for the company website.

Final Project: Price

"Price is the only element in the marketing mix that produces revenue; all other elements represent costs. Price is also one of the most flexible marketing mix elements."Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip. Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation Chapter 9, Page 275 Our products will be priced to compete with other mid-shelf flavored vodkas. Price will be set from our company at the bottle level of $20 for the 750ml bottle and $35 for the 1750ml bottle. Individual resale of the product, such as in bars, would be left up to the retail business themselves. Our goal is that by staying within the same price range as our closest competitors the quality of the product will allow to stand out. "The steps in the selling process as just described are transaction oriented—their aim is to help salespeople close a specific sale with a customer. But in most cases, the company is not simply seeking a sale. Rather, it wants to serve the customer over the long haul in a mutually profitable relationship." Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip. Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation Chapter 13, Page 430.  This is the goal of our company’s pricing program to take the cost out of the consumers decision and trust on our products to be successful.

Final Project: Promotion

"Although television, magazines, newspapers, and other mass media remain very important, their dominance is declining. In their place, advertisers are now adding a broad selection of more-specialized and highly targeted media to reach smaller customer segments with more-personalized, interactive messages." Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip. Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation  Chapter 12. Page 375 This explains why Czekolada Beverages will choose to skip over tradition print and television advertising and focus on social media. The social media presence will offer examples of different drinks that can be made using the product and a bunch of lifestyle advice. It will also allow for more creative promotions like, extremely limited online offers and consumer rewards. "Examples of sales promotions are found everywhere. A freestanding insert in the Sunday newspaper contains a coupon offering $1 off Pedigree GoodBites treats for your dog. An e-mail from LLBean.com offers free shipping on your next purchase over $100. A Bed Bath & Beyond ad in your favorite magazine offers 20 percent off your next purchase." Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip. Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation  Chapter 13, Page 432 These online promotions should foster an environment where consumers will want to check on our online sites daily to weekly. These are also ways to help the product go viral and gain exposure to a larger audience. This method of promotion will also be easily scalable into the global level and translate well into other countries.

Final Project: Distribution

In order to get the products to the market is important know what the distribution model will be. The product will follow the standard three-tier distribution method for selling alcohol in the US. The company will sell the drinks to a licensed distributor that will then sell it to the retailer, who then will sell it to the end consumer. The retailers will be the most important link in the chain of selling the product to the consumers. "Retailing plays a very important role in most marketing channels. Each year, retailers account for more than $4.4 trillion of sales to final consumers. They connect brands to consumers in what marketing agency OgilvyAction calls “the last mile”—the final stop in the consumer’s path to purchase. "Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip. Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation Chapter 11, Page 346. Since the global market is not required to follow American law Czekolada Beverages will just "Straight product extension means marketing a product in a foreign market without any change. Top management tells its marketing people, “Take the product as is and find customers for it.” Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip. Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation Chapter 15, Page 496. Since the product is such high quality and the globalization of the world connecting everyone, marketing in other countries will only require slight language changes.