Week 6 EOC: Me X 3 (times three)

  In the world of consumer products and consumption, I find myself being brand loyal on very specific items.  Mainly due to their superior quality and longevity with their market share, I am confident I am using the best product from companies I have grown to trust.   For example, nothing shall ever replace my Skippy brand peanut butter.  Why?  Because to me, it’s the best. It is creamy,and as i was first introduced, naturally creamy.  Not because they added extra lard to make it smooth, but because they beat the peanuts into a creamy submission.  This is the flavor I am loyal too.

"...a company must identify the parts of the market that it can serve best and most profitably. It must design customer-driven marketing strategies that build the right relationships with the right customers." (Fundamentals of Marketing; pg. 175)

My second product that I am brand loyal with is Downy Liquid fabric Softener.  There was a time in my life when we only had a few choices in this product. And for most of my childhood Downy was the only choice.  Did this create my brand loyalty?  No. I tried other, cheaper, various fragrances, dry sheet and liquid alike.  I came back to downy for a few reasons. I appreciated how long downy held onto the market share in liquid fabric softeners, but more importantly, that they understood environmental impact they make on the world. This is something protector & gamble became aware of in the 1980's. How their products can change, effect and assist the world.  They became ecologically aware that they needed to take responsible for being a super power company.  This pleased me as a customer and made me lifetime loyal.  Now when I use their product I know where some of the profit margin is going; to the the Downy "Touch of Comfort" fund.  Giving hospitals, workers, patients and volunteers funds for quilts.  i am sure they are Downy clean as they are being distributed.

"The brand’s full positioning is called its value proposition— the full mix of benefits upon which the brand is positioned." (Fundamentals of Marketing pg.193)

  My final item that completes my times three post is my one and only brand of Tea. Lipton Tea.  Now, I have become flexible on how I consume this product and in what packaging I purchase this item in. However, let me set the record straight.  When I first introduced to Lipton tea, it was in the form of tea bags that went through a process called sun stewing. We literally hung the tea bags in a large mason canning jar, in the sun, until it was brewed. Not until the mid 1970's did the instant in the jar become available.  There was something about the taste, the rich flavor, the aroma of the Lipton brand that made me loyal.

"The seller can ignore segment differences and target broadly using undifferentiated (or mass) marketing. This involves mass producing, mass distributing, and mass promoting about the same product in about the same way to all consumers: (Fundamentals of Marketing; pg 186)

Lipton's mass media marketing style worked, because for awhile, they owned the instant tea market.  But it was the way the segmented their product into variations of the same thing to accommodate their customers.  What if they had no water available? They could purchase bottled tea.  What if they prefer brewing their own? Guess what, the original bags are still made today.

   These are just three items I have chosen to share with in "Me times three."  trust me, there are many more, for even more stranger reasons.  A company must adjust and listen to the consumers in order to survive. The consumer has become more fickle, more demanding and customer service oriented. Overall, it is clear to me, the big companies, do pay attention to what the consumer wants.  If they didn't (over my 40 year life span) they would not be in business today.