Another Day, Another Dollar

Everyone knows the saying, "Another day, another dollar" because most of us either have heard it from our parents, friends, or even coworkers.  Mostly to me this has to do with motivation in the work place.  There is different factors that motivate each and everyone of us.  For some it could be money, recognition, or even just a the fulfillment of reaching a goal.  Last summer I worked three jobs, not because I'm insane but because I had the drive to make money and each job I went to gave me great motivation to go back everyday.  One of my jobs was working for a car rental agency and that job was the one that gave me the greatest motivation because I made hourly plus commission which was great!  The job I have now for me doesn't have any motivation for me.  We are suppose to promote and sell memberships, but what happens when we do sell them?  Nothing, but if we don't sell them we get in trouble and told that we can do better.  To me it seems like a lose lose so I usually try, but don't push them on the customers.  So like the saying says another day, another dollar.  No matter where you work you will always experience something that doesn't make you happy.  As I have heard from my parents so many times, its a job and your making money so just take it as it is.  What's my motivation for staying at the job?  The money because with out I wouldn't be able to afford rent, groceries, or of course clothes on my own.

Why we buy what we buy

Everyone says diamonds are a girls best friend, but for me my favorite brands are my best friend.  So why exactly do I buy the type of clothes that I buy? Or the type of shoes that I buy?  Well honestly its because I either like the design or I love the brand.  My favorite brand for clothes is fox.  The reason why this is, is because first of all its a dirt biking logo and I love to ride dirt bikes.  I also wear fox because I love the colors and designs.  When you think have Rob Dyrdek you think off DC clothing, or his shows.  People who are fans of Rob wear is clothing brand.  So why exactly do we choose the brands that we do?  Is it because of the people or things that they represent or is it to give us a status in the world.  If you have a Prada bag people think you have money, just like if you decide to buy the real thing or a knock off brand.  But does the type of clothing you wear, or the things you buy define who you are?  Some people may think so, but others disagree.  I wear my clothes because they look good and represent things that I do.  If I see a famous person wearing certain types of clothes I don't just go out and buy it cause they wore it.  I am my own person and if people judge us for how we dress they could essentially be missing out on someone very cool.  So let what you wear express yourself and don't let people judge you for the type of clothing you wear.

Why Advertise?

So with my last blog I talked about how advertising works and it gets people through the door of your company that want to buy that product.  So what happens when the company doesn't have the product in stock?  Well from experience I can tell you what happens.  Our company launched a new product at the beginning of April.  We put up signs and advertised for it so we could get people to come in and reserve one.  The advertising did work and it brought in a lot of traffic to our store, but since we have gotten the reservations we have only received 8 of them since Mother's Day weekend.  We have more than 8 reservations to uphold to so when the customers call us asking when their product will be in we can't even give them an honest answer because no one truly knows.  Sometimes the customers understand this and other times they don't and we get yelled at.  So why advertise a product that you don't even have enough quantity of to fulfill peoples reservation?  You have customers coming in excited for the product, but you have to tell them that we don't have any in yet and were not sure when were going to get more in.  In all honesty, company's should have enough of the product on hand and prepare for the worse before they decide to advertise a product and say that they are in the stores now.    

Advertising Appeals!

For most companies the way they get their product across to the customers that they want to reach is through commercials.  Commercials are usually annoying and some people including me automatically switch channels whenever commercials come on.  Yet during the super bowl I tune in to watch the commercials because they are new and usually the best ones.  So the best way to get customers to see your product is usually during the super bowl or you get a catchy song to go with your advertisement.  According to Ads of the World the best ways to appeal to customers are emotional appeal, personal, social, fear, human, sex, scarcity, rational, and music appeal. How is it that the annoying commercials are the ones that you here people singing the jingle to?  It's because the tune is so catchy, they repeat it over and over again, and it is easy to remember.  So think about any advertisement off the top of your head and see if you can just remember the jingle that goes with it.  Mine is "Like a good neighbor, state farm is there."

How to sell the right product

In my line of work I have to be able to give customers exactly what they're looking for or at least be able to suggest products that they would enjoy.  I work at a book store and we have to be able to give assistance to customers even if that means spending a half an hour just to track down the book they are talking about.  The best part is when you get customers who come in saying that they don't know the title or author of the book, but they remember that the color of the book was blue.  With just that much information it is very hard to pin point the book they are talking about, but yet they expect us to find it with our computer system which is very difficult to do.  We also get customers who want suggestions on what to read and we have to be able to give them the right suggestions and meet their needs in order to get the sale.  Marketing is a big part of my job.  We set up displays in order to attract the customers eyes, we also set up displays in front of the cash register because that is where a lot of people do their impulsive buys whether it be magazines, toys, or more books.