EOC Week 3 Making Money For Good

Humanities is started by the actor Paul Newman, I don’t know if many of you have heard of him but he was pretty famous back in the day.  Newman’s Own Foundation is an independent, private foundation formed in 2005 by Paul Newman to sustain the legacy of his philanthropic work. Funded entirely through the profits and royalties of Newman’s Own products, the Foundation does not maintain an endowment, raise funds, or accept donations. The Foundation believes that each of us, through the power of philanthropy, has the potential to make a difference.  We support nonprofit organizations committed to having a direct, long-lasting impact on the challenges they take on. Since 1982, when Paul Newman first declared, “Let’s give it all away,” more than $370 million has been donated to thousands of organizations helping people in need around the world. (http://newmansownfoundation.org/about-us/)  This is the exact quote from the website about what they do.  However there is a man named Jude Wallenbrock who instead of creating a wine company just to sell wine he has started a company that gives to charity.  Now he isn’t associated with Newman foods but he used them as a big influence in how to get his business started.  The winery has one unsalaried employee (Wallenbrock) and no assets save a few wine barrels. The only overhead is a cell phone. Wallenbrock has chosen three charitable causes: homelessness, hunger and literacy. After studying which charities work best in these areas, he has decided to donate to Habitat for Humanity, America's Second Harvest and Reading Is Fundamental, all philanthropic organizations with a national or international reach. (http://www.humanitaswines.com/assets/client/File/SFChronver2.pdf)  He actually does work for a wine company too but he hopes to one day move away from that and focus solely on Humanitites.  Their goal still first and foremost is a wine company though and they want to make good wines.  But Humanitas is first and foremost about the wines.  We are wine people -- pure & simple.  Our goal is to make outstanding wines and sell them affordably.  And we also want to 'do something good' for the world.  We married these two passions and Humanitas was born. (http://www.humanitaswines.com/Our-Story)

Week 3 EOC My Demographics

So according to the book I fall into the category of Millenials which is somebody born between the years of 1977-2000.  Apparently there are 83 million of us and we have somewhere close to 730 million dollars worth of purchasing power, which sounds about right.  Right now we are the digital generation, the majority of us grew up with access to a computer.  For me yes, I can't even think back far enough to remember not having a computer to go onto.  I can barely remember not having the internet, but for the most part it has been a huge part of my life.  As more people have come to the United States yes the country has gotten more diverse.  However that really doesn't apply to me being the typical Caucasian, blue eyed, blonde hair male with no barriers to stop me from achieving all of my goals.  Just like every person my age we are very technology savy, there's no way any of us don't know how to use a computer or go on the internet, use facebook, heck even build out own webpage and start a blog or tweet about god knows what.  All that stuff is second nature to all of us and someone not knowing how to do it really blows our minds.

We are definately demanding of a more independant marketing strategy coming at us.  We are a generation of individuals who are out to all make a name for oursleves.  It seems like everyone in this generation wants to me famous in some way.  I know myself I want to be a famous Rock Star.  The strategy is to make things independent to us, say something like make it your own or custom made just for you are the best ways to get to us.  Like I say every body wants to be famous or treated like someone famous.

Week 2:Boston Consulting Group

Obviously you have the big three when it comes to video gaming consoles, Playstation, XBOX, and Nintendo with its WII.  When it comes to analyzing them on the BGC scale, I would say they may fall into different places on the chart.  Now Nintendo is a weird story because it has the DS as well as the Wii which according to figures is the bestselling platform right now.  The younger audience definitely is the target market here, you see tons of kids with DS and as kids get older more of them are getting them so it would definitely fall into the Star category on the BGC chart.  “Nintendo in June sold more than 155,000 of the 3DS console, more than 150,000 of its older Nintendo DS portable and almost 95,000 Wiis, the company said in an e-mailed statement today, citing data from researcher NPD Group.” (http://newyork.newsday.com/news/nation/nintendo-ds-handheld-sales-surpass-5-million-1.3839546) I may have to make Microsoft the question mark on this especially after introducing the new campaign on the kinnect featuring the Nike Fit program.  “Microsoft Corp said on Monday sales of its revolutionary Kinect sensing device for the Xbox game console have hit more than 18 million just over a year since launch.  Popularity of the device has helped Microsoft Xbox recently outsell Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PlayStation in the United States game console market.” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/09/microsoft-kinect-ces-keynote_n_1195735.html)  Sony is sitting in the Cash Cow area, I don’t feel like they are making any innovations but they aren’t losing any customers either.  I would say they appeal more to the older gamer, people around my age because they have more mature level games with more adult material in them.  They haven’t come out with anything terribly new and revolutionary to compete with the Kinect so they may lose some potential customers because of that.  “That might come as a surprise to those who have been following research firm NPD's monthly game industry sales announcements. Earlier this month, NPD revealed that for October -- and for the 22nd month in a row -- Microsoft's Xbox 360 sales outpaced all other consoles. Microsoft announced that it sold 270,000 units in October and held 56 percent of the current-generation console sales during the month.” (http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-57551097-235/watch-out-xbox-360-here-comes-the-playstation-3/)

Great Customer Service

There’s a web site called Sweetwater.com what they do is specialize in music and sound recording equipment.  I didn’t find out about them until I started going to school here but they blow every other company I’ve dealt with on and off line out of the water.  They actually have experts in the fields that call you once you place your order and a few days after your order arrives to make sure it was what you wanted and that it’s working well.  I was beyond impressed the first time I bought something off of their website.  In fact I almost felt like it was too much, I was shocked like why are they calling me?  Yeah I got my shit and yeah it works just fine, if it didn’t I would have sent it back or called and complain.  I’m not spending a ton of money because most of your stuff is expensive to have it not work.  In talking with the people I was impressed with their product knowledge and courtesy, they really do know their stuff.  So from now on I get everything I need from their web site and I would really recommend it to anyone else who is looking for a good place to buy this equipment.  Now I’ve never had a problem and had to send something back but I’m assuming that it wouldn’t be difficult at all.  I’m sure they will replace whatever I needed replaced without any hassle at all.  I am really glad I found this place once again and hope that it will continue to be in business for years to come as I am excited to buy more and more stuff to make my studio awesome!! 

Week 1 EOC: My Voice

Sound is amazing isn't it?  You can’t escape it no matter where you go or where you are.  My interest in sound shaping for the most part, I am at heart a musician but the last few months my mind has been opened up to the possibility of so much more in the field of sound.  However music is my only passion in life, I constantly have a song going on in my head at all times.  My friends will tell you most of the time it’s not only in my head but I am singing out loud the majority of the time.  The only thing I can see myself doing is the world is creating or shaping or designing some sort of music so that the world can maybe hear what I hear when I look at something or feel something.  I mean the ultimate dream is famous musician and I’m constantly working on that every day.  Whether it’s playing my instruments for hours upon hours each day or writing down possible song lyrics on my phone or in my notebook, I’m usually thinking about how I can rewrite a song or create a new one.  I honestly believe that music means more to me than anyone else in the world, anytime I’m feeling anything at all I find a way to make a song out of it, I guess that’s just how my mind works.  I promise that one day the world will know my name and my story and really appreciate what I bring to the table.