Week 3 EOC: My Demographics

I am part of the Millennial or Generation Y demographic. Millennials are:

·      “Born between 1977 and 2000, these children of the baby boomers number 83 million, dwarfing the Gen Xers and larger even than the baby boomer segment. (Marketing: An Introduction 73)"

·      “One thing that all of the Millennials have in common is their utter fluency and comfort with digital technology (Marketing 73)."

·      "The Millennials were the first generation to grow up in a world filled with computers, cellphones, satellite TV, iPods, and online social networks (Marketing 74)."

I was born between 1977 and 2000 to be more precise I was born in 1992. I didn’t grow up using iPads or any type of tablets, phones, or social networks. However, I was exposed to digital technology at an early age. In Pre-K I was already being taught how to use computers and it’s various functions. I can still remember my teacher showing me how to use the keyboard to type a letter in the computer, and how to use the mouse to click on what I wanted to open. For my generation and younger ones it was common to use computers to seek out information and learned. To others, “older generation” thought my generation was just lucky to use this new technology, as they still couldn’t figure out which button was used to “search the web.” Thus, when smartphones became widely used we didn’t find the new technology intimidating. Actually, even before that we had better knowledge of using the old flip phones better than our parents did. This knowledge my demographic has of digital technology enables us to get information faster. Which then enables to figure out things quickly like: how to fix our game systems, how to connect our devices to wifi, or how to figure out a problem in matter of minutes. For example, I had a friend who couldn’t understand why his computer wasn’t connecting to his printer. I went over to the printer and press one or two buttons then input the password, and to no surprise to me it was working again. No matter what the problem is we know how to get the information we need. My demographic has a this motto, “If you don’t know the answer, just Google it.”

Week 3 EOC: Making Money for Good

Redbull was co-founded by Chaloe Yoovidhya and Dietrich Mateschitz in the mid 1980’s. However, in the company’s website Dietrich Mateschitz is the only one credited for the formula of the Red Bull Energy Drink. The famous “speed in a can” or “liquid cocaine” did not originate in Austria, were the company’s headquarters is located, but actually began in Thailand after Dietrich became addicted to a similar drink that help him with jet lag. It was not until April 1^st, 1987 that Red Bull Energy Drink began selling in the Austrian market. As of last year 2014, Red Bull has sold more than 5.6 Billion cans worldwide, but in the same year the global premiere of the Wings for Life World Run began. “Wings for Life is a non-profit, state approved Foundation for Spinal Cord Research. Goal: to find a cure for paraplegia (Wings for Life).” The men behind the Foundation are two-time motocross world champion Heinz Kinigadner and Red Bull founder, Dietrich Mateschitz. The foundation began due to a tragic accident that involved Kinigadner’s son Hannes that had left him tetraplegic. Ground-breaking discoveries made by Prof. Dr. Sam David in 1981 and by Prof. Dr. Martin Schwab in the early 1990s showed that injured nerve cells in the spinal cord are capable of regeneration after specific types of treatment. Fast-forwarding, after realizing that research for spinal cord injury was heavily underfunded Wing for Life was established. Wing for Life has been recently hosting annual worldwide runs called Wings for Life World Run. From professional athletes to everyday people all over the world run to spread awareness of spinal cord injury. 100% of all proceeds collected from event are donated right back into the foundation. However, Redbull is the foundation's main contributor; "Progress in spinal cord research is largely driven by private funding. Wings for Life is dependent on donations from individuals and companies. 100% of all donations are used for research purposes because all administrative costs are kindly covered by the Red Bull Company (Wings for Life)."

Week 2 EOC: Boston Consulting Group-Video Games

Boston Consulting Group, or BCG for short, is an approach used by various companies to organize and classify their SBU's, strategic business unit. "An SBU can be a company division, or product line within a division, or sometimes a single product or brand" (Marketing: An Introduction 43). When comes to certain products companies compare the market growth rate, “provides measure of market attractiveness,” to relative market share, “a measure of company strength in the market” (Marketing 43). By comparing this two things companies can classify their products into 1 of 4 categories: Stars high-growth high share, Cash Cows low-growth high-share, Question Marks low-share high growth, or Dogs low-growth low-share. Cash cows are the most preferred because “Cash cows are low-growth, high-share businesses or products. These established and successful SBUs need less investment to hold their market share. Thus, they produce a lot of cash that the company uses to pay its bills and to support other SBUs that need investment” (Marketing 44). Videogame companies release various consoles from at home to portable hand held systems. Since not all there systems are successful in the market Videogame Companies would most likely categorize their products by using the Boston Consulting Group approach to determine which products need more attention and which ones are not worth the investment. Playstation’s PS4 would be considered a Cash Cow it sells units but it is not rapidly growing and selling out. However, PS Vita is considered a Dog since it hasn’t really captured the attention of gamers as the company was probably hoping it would. Xbox One would’ve been considered a Star when first release beating out Playstation 4 in the console wars, but now it would be considered a Cash Cow. Not surprisingly, Xbox 360 falls into the Dog category. Until, Nintendo decides to release a newer more modified system their Wii is still a cash cow. However, Nintendo 3DS is in the Question Mark category closely falling into the Dog-house.