Business Mission Statement

Emporia Vodka is a brand that people can trust. We simply seek to give customers a high quality product with the highest quality of ingredients. We don’t seek to force a product on people.” Instead the mission should focus on customers and the customer experience the company seeks to create.” (Armstrong & Kotler, Marketing: An Introduction, Pg.40) Thats exactly what our brand is all about we are creating an experience that goes far beyond our product we create. “Too often, mission statements are written for public relations purposes and lack specific, workable guidelines.” (Armstrong & Kotler, Marketing: An Introduction, Pg.41) Which is why at Emporia our mission is meant to be simple and clear. Emporia vodka simply put pure ingredients. At Emporia quality and customer experience is our one an only mission. We are a customer oriented company not a product oriented company. 

WEEK 8 EOC; Creative Content

As far as creative content wise I plan to create a 15-30 second radio ad for my vodka brand Emporia Vodka. To do this I will simply script a commercial and record/edit it in ProTools. I will most likely star in it unless I find someone who I feel has a voice that better fits my product and message I am trying to get a cross with this brand. I will also create music to go behind the commercial to definitely help set the mood for the commercial. I think this will be a unique way to separate myself from others in the classroom. I also plan to create some kind of a mock flier for the vodka. I know that fliers aren’t an often used asset these days but I think it will still be another nice addition to my creative content. I could maybe also post it somewhere and take a picture of it as if it is having some kind of presence out there in the real world. This will require me to take full creative control and creative a mock bottle, label for the bottle, color scheme, slogan, etc. I think the use of this visual aid as well as creating an audio bit will be more than enough to cover some creative content for this assignment. I definitely think it will set me apart in terms of the ideas to I doubt most people in the class will create a commercial for their brand and the flier like I said maybe a little bit of an outdated idea now in the modern world however I think it will give a nice clean view of the concept without just creating a cheap looking bottle and taking photos of it. 

WEEK 8; Marketing Plan

We plan to market Emporia mostly over social media. Due to the fact that the world we live in now a days is blanketed by social media we should have no problem getting our brand out there to people. “Through strategic planning, the company decides what it wants to do with each business unit.” ( Armstrong & Kotler, Marketing: An Introduction, Pg. 55) This is no different within our company all of our marketing has a strategic element to it. Another way we plan to market is to use the big college men’s basketball teams at our disposal. Since we are based out of Kansas we would use the University of Kansas for marketing as well as the UNLV men’s basketball team. This would fit well with our demographic since we want to be a brand that can be affordable to college students but still desired by the older demographic also. Thats why,  “Marketing planning involves deciding on marketing strategies that will help the company attain its overall strategic objectives.” (Armstrong & Kotler, Marketing: An Introduction, Pg. 55) With our strategies we will target our perfect demographic and price our bottle at $24.99 because we feel that is an affordable price that shows we are still a good quality. 

WEEK 7 EOC; The Pitch

I plan to create a vodka made with only the best of ingredients it would be 80 proof meaning the alcohol volume is 40%. My vodka will be called Emporia vodka. It draws its name from its roots in Emporia Kansas. The inspiration behind the name and concept is that it will be a U.S. made vodka made with an award winning municipal water supply which can be found in Emporia Kansas. The concept is to make a simple made vodka with literally just the ethanol and water from Emporia to create a simply made vodka with pure ingredients. Just three years ago they were awarded the cleanest municipal water supply in the U.S. I like the idea of taking this and using it in a vodka and marketing it as a top tier vodka made with only the best of ingredients. In fact in my mind the bottle would read Emporia Vodka only the best. I think the best part of the concept is the fact that it is promoting a place in the U.S. that people most likely aren’t going to be familiar with. Also I think people like the fact that its roots are in the U.S. as an American I personally like when I buy products made in the U.S. because now a days with production costs it is becoming a rarity to find products still being made here. Marketing will obviously be a huge part of this. I plan to use the traditional online marketing through social media obviously in todays world that is a huge and inexpensive way to get a brand name out there. Also I would a youtube channel to make funny videos that would attract fans to our brand. I think this is an underused marketing strategy. I plan to use the UNLV men’s basketball team to help get the name out there also. The whole concept of our vodka is that it is quality made but at a good price. We want to be able to attract all kinds of customers including college students and even the older demographic who might prefer more expensive vodka. 

Weel 4 EOC: A New App

Procrastination seems to be a huge problem for many people I know myself personally I struggle with this problem constantly. So as a solution to this problem I suggest an app that helps the user to stop with procrastination. This app would be available to both Android and iPhone users and would cost 99 cents to buy. When activating this app it would lock the user out of all other apps on their phone but still allow messaging and calls in case of emergency purposes. By doing this it would cause the user to have to focus on whatever their task was because they would have nothing else to distract their attention away from their work in theory. Of course this isn't 100% full proof as their are other things that can distract people besides their phones however I feel for the typical college student it would be some help to the problem of procrastination. It just takes one more distraction out of the equation. Now the way it would kind of work is there would be an amount of time you can select in increments of 15. So the least amount of time you wouldn't have access to all your phones feature would be for 15 mins with the most probably only being 2 hours. During this time you would receive no notifications from any of your apps whether it be social media an app game etc. The whole point is to keep maximum attention on your task at hand while minimizing the amount of distractions available to you. The best thing about this to is that apps can now be put onto computers too. So you could activate this on a laptop and it would limit your ability to access social networks online also. I feel that this is an app that could be very successful and helpful to some users. 

Week 3 EOC: My Demographic

My demographic is the Millennials. From reading out of the book I would say I identify with a lot of what it said. I am definitely very comfortable with technology and find that it comes very easy which is good because I am an audio student. However I would say that I don’t think I frequent the web as much as it implied in the reading. I am on social media also but I don’t find my self not being able to live without it or constantly having to check it like most millennials do. But I do use instant messaging everyday which I am sure half the people in America do by this point it’s 2016 we don’t live under rocks anymore. I agree with the fact that we are bombarded by ads and I do often seek my own research to make informed decisions about those ads before clicking on them. I really don’t agree with the last part of the passage at all to me it seemed as if it was trying to say our generation is easily influenced by technology and almost that technology controls us. I feel that doesn't apply to me at all I form my own opinions. Although smart by the obama campaign to use the strategy they did to attract millennials I definitely don’t identify with the supporters because I made my own informed decisions on the matter. Rather than buy into the website they created for him and the brand they built of uneducated millennials. I think the assessment of millennials is fair for the most part in my opinion however I think the book also suggests a little to much that we are controlled by technology and that doesn’t apply to me at all. I am my own free thinker that uses the technology to make my own informed decisions. 

Week 3 EOC: Making Money for Good

NBA cares is a division of the National Basketball League who's mission is simply just to give back. They do this not only through money but also through starting programs for families all over the world. Since 2005 they have donated more than 270$ million dollars for charity. Spent more than 3.5 million hours of hands on service. Also have built more than 995 places for children and families to learn and play in their communities. As a former college basketball player and athlete for all my life this is something I can personally identify with I really think it is important to always give back. I like the fact that an organization such as the NBA recognizes that they are nothing without the support of fans and many of the communities they help out are the very fans who support them. I think it is amazing that the players spend their own time to donate to this cause also. These aren’t just professional athletes to a lot of children out there they are real life super heroes. As a fan of the NBA personally I feel good knowing that I support a company that goes above and beyond to give back to people. I am and will continue to be a fan of the NBA due to these contributions they make.