Required Responses:

Chapter 13: Your book lists 3 "types of advertising" under types of advertising. List, define and provide examples of each.

* Product advertising- is any method of communication about the promotion of a product in an attempt to induce potential customers to purchase the product. Advertisement usually requires payment to a communication channel. The general objective of product advertisement is to increase brand awareness or to demonstrate the differences between the product and competing products to induce purchasing.
Example - Products or services that appeal to the general public are often advertised on radio and television because they reach a broad audience.

* Institutional advertising - focuses on touting the benefits, ideas, or philosophies of your business, or its entire industry, to enhance or repair its reputation rather than selling a product or service. Since institutional advertising attempts to build a positive image, it's closely related to public relations. In fact, it's a form of advertising that may be used in a public relations campaign. Institutional advertising relating to an entire industry is usually funded and developed by industrial, trade or professional associations rather than individual businesses.
Example- a tobacco company can use institutional advertising to produce an antismoking commercial that warns consumers of the dangers of its products. Beer and liquor companies can also run commercials that warn consumers of the dangers of drinking and driving

* Cause advertising- institutional messaging that promotes a specific viewpoint on a public issue as a way to influence public opinion and the legislative process
Example - Your Company can incorporate cause advertising into its mission and marketing tactics by donating time, rather than money, to a charitable cause or organization. You and your employees can volunteer at local homeless shelters, act as pen pals to senior citizens or organize and participate in cleanup events or blood drives.

Chapter 14: What's the difference between 'Data' and 'Information'? How does a company protect their proprietary information? Hacking is a serious problem in our high tech society. Do you see problems or opportunities for businesses going forward?
: What's the difference between 'Data' and 'Information'?
Data is raw, unorganized facts that need to be processed. Data can be something simple and seemingly random and useless until it is organized. When data is processed, organized, structured or presented in a given context so as to make it useful, it is called information. For an example each student's test score is one piece of data. The average score of a class or of the entire school is information that can be derived from the given data.
How does a company protect their proprietary information?
In general, for information to be considered proprietary, companies must treat it as confidential. Thus, information that is readily available in public sources will not be treated by the courts as proprietary. In addition, proprietary information should give the firm some sort of competitive advantage and should not be generally known outside of the firm. A company must be able to demonstrate that it has taken every reasonable step possible to keep the information private if it hopes to obtain court assistance in protecting its rights. Courts require that trade secret holders take 'reasonable' steps to maintain the secrecy of their trade secrets. Courts do not require that companies take all measures conceivable to maintain the secrecy, nor do courts require absolute secrecy. Rather, the confidentiality measures must be 'reasonable under the circumstances.
There are several steps a company can take to protect its proprietary information. Key employees with access to proprietary information may be required to sign restrictive covenants also called confidentiality, nondisclosure, or non-compete agreements that prohibit them from revealing that information to outsiders or using it to compete with their employer for a certain period of time after leaving the company. These restrictive covenants are usually enforced by the courts if they are reasonable with respect to time and place and do not unreasonably restrict the former employee's right to employment. In some cases the covenants are enforced only if the employee has gained proprietary information during the course of his or her employment.
In addition, the courts generally consider it unfair competition for one company to induce people who have acquired unique technical skills and secret knowledge during their employment at another company to terminate their employment and use their skills and knowledge for the benefit of the competing firm. In such a case the plaintiff company could seek an injunction to prevent its former employees and the competing company from using the proprietary information.
Companies may also develop security systems to protect their proprietary information from being stolen by foreign or domestic competitors. Business and industrial espionage is an ongoing activity that clandestinely seeks to obtain trade secrets by illegal methods. A corporate system for protecting proprietary information would include a comprehensive plan ranging from restricting employee access, to data protection, to securing phone lines and meeting rooms. In some cases a chief information officer (CIO) would be responsible for implementing such a plan.
As Kay noted, other means of demonstrating reasonable efforts at secrecy include marking documents as "confidential," prohibiting people from making photo copies of trade secret documents or removing them from company premises, limiting the access of employees to sensitive materials, creating a written trade secret protection plan, and bringing suit for the theft of trade secrets as required.
On the other hand, small businesses are unlikely to prevail in cases involving trade secret protection if they sell a product or publish technical literature that discloses the trade secret, expose the trade secret to employees or colleagues who have not signed confidentiality agreements, publish information about the secret in professional journals or on the Internet, or disclose the trade secret in public documents such as court records and government filings.

Current Item: The Company Apple is a master at marketing new products. How did they market so many millions of iPods, iPads and improved iPhones during the past few years? There new watch is expected in April 2015. What do you think will be their next success? Does it bother you that almost all of Apples devices are manufactured in China by worker who earn about $2 per hour?
Although most of us think of ‘marketing’ as a must have ingredient for success, you may not have noticed how one of the world’s biggest and most successful brands has succeeded in marketing their products all the way to the top spot on little more than a shoe string marketing budget.
Apple do not have a marketing budget. They never advertise their mobile phone products anywhere. That means no SEO, PPC, Social media, TV, Radio or print ads of any kind. They simply do not promote their iPhones what so ever.
You might think that mobile operators are stupid for what is effectively paying for Apple’s advertising but what choice do the networks have? Apple is the bestselling smartphone year after year. If an operator wants to get a bigger slice of the ‘Apple’ pie, they need to advertise that they have it. And they can’t advertise Apple’s trademark without conforming to Apple’s branding guidelines.
The secret to their success is in Apple’s marketing strategy. They use what is known as the Exclusivity Technique. You would have seen this technique used, or maybe even used it yourself before. The Exclusivity Technique is typically executed with relative success by businesses giving a select subset of customers a special deal on goods or services. For example some companies make certain offers exclusively available to existing customers or Facebook fans. This is the Exclusivity Technique at its most basic form.
The exclusivity technique works by making the eligible subset of customers feel special. This creates a better customer business relationship and is proven to increase brand loyalty. Apple have taken this technique and put their own spin on it to develop what has been one of the most successful, and probably low-cost marketing techniques of all time.
Instead of making a special offer exclusive, Apple made their entire iPhone product range exclusive. The cherry on top for Apple is that they orchestrated the Exclusivity Technique to make their mobile phone the world’s most popular, despite it supposedly being exclusive. So what did Apple do differently with their iPhones? They deliberately restricted the flow of their iPhones to customers and mobile phone providers.
When the first iPhone model came out it was made exclusively available from just one mobile provider for its’ entire life span. When subsequent iPhones were released there were “stock problems”. IPhones’ were issued on a first come first serve basis. Those who wanted one had to cue and sometime camp outside an Apple store. This attracted media attention and generated free publicity for Apple.
For those who didn’t get and iPhone, stock shortages ensured they had to wait until the next batch was released, often weeks after the official launch date? These restrictions of stock generated tension between those who wanted one and those who had one. This tension was vocalized openly by anguished customers across the web. The desire was infectious. People who didn’t even care about an iPhone picked the desperation of those that expressed their want for one. It generated an increased demand because as more people talked about wanting one, the more people that thought “hey what’s all this fuss about? If this thing is so good, I want one too”. The device became a rare commodity, a must have gadget.
The beauty of Apple’s exclusivity technique is that it creates two opposing groups within society (those with an iPhone and those without) and it creates conflict. The conflict is verbalized through blogs, forums even in person.
This purposely incited speculation and bickering about iPhone is Apple’s method of generating free publicity. It is what keeps the spot light firmly on the iPhone and makes it a perpetually hot topic.
Word of mouth has been recognized as the most effective form of promotion for any product or service because of its honesty and non-commercial intent. Forums and blog comments have become this century’s extension of word of mouth. Apple recognized this and capitalized on it early on.
It costs Apple nothing for the world to bicker about whether iPhone is better than any of the Android, Blackberry or Windows flagship devices. Whether you love of hate iPhones, if you have ever contributed to any online debate about Apple, then you have unwittingly taken part in promoting selling iPhones to the next generation.