Week 9 Reading Reflection

I was most surprised by the different pricing strategies mentioned towards the end of this weeks reading. While I've always known that competitive pricing is important to stay relevant in some markets, I was not aware of the large number of developed strategies available. Some of these strategies, such as "skimming" seem counter intuitive to me but make sense after some thought. Early adopters are more willing to pay more money for early access to a product and as such can provide more capital for new businesses.

I was most confused by the web design tips as seen in Table 10.3. The first tip on this table states that in order to provide a description of the firm one should avoid scrolling. While I understand that it's important to display the most important information first on a website, most consumers have no problem scrolling to see what other information is available. I would argue that having a clearly visible "About" section would perhaps be a better tip as this is where most users will head to to find out more information about a firm.  

Given the opportunity to ask two questions to the author I would ask what the cheapest form of marketing would be and which marketing strategy is primarily used for immaterial products, such as businesses based upon a software product. One of the tables in the chapter (Table 10.2) laid out the different aspects of traditional marketing strategies, such as direct mailing, telephone, and mall intercept. I would be interested in finding out which method provides the most reliable feedback and the lowest cost. Most of my business ideas and opportunities are related in one way or another to technology. Therefore, I would be interested in learning if the author has any information about marketing specific to the tech-field.

I did not directly disagree with any of the points made by the author, but I do think more relevant and up-to-date information could be presented in the "Internet Marketing" section of this chapter. The Internet is very susceptible to change and is constantly changing in regard as to what consumers are attracted to. In the past companies have relied on pop-ups and other forms of Internet ads that created such an unpleasant browsing experience that individuals went out and created ad-blocker tools to stop these ads from appearing. The Internet is undeniably a wonderful medium for marketing a product or business, but such marketing plans should be well thought out. Inexperience with marketing over the Internet can often times cause more harm than good if performed incorrectly.