My Final Thoughts on Blogs

To be perfectly honest I wasn't very excited to write blogs this semester. Although I initially wasn't interested in blogging, I did my best to embrace the idea. In the end, it was a much better experience than I had originally expected and I feel that I got a lot out of the experience. I think I greatly improved my writing skills over the course of the semester and was able to learn a lot about marketing, consumer behavior, and blogging in the process.

My initial blogs were in most respects not very good. They were far too wordy and often didn't offer the reader any interesting content. After reading a few of my peer's blogs, I changed the way I wrote them and I think my blogs went up considerably in quality. I began to add more photos to break up the text and learned how to add gifs and Youtube videos using HTML. After about my third blog I felt I truly go the hang of it and was able to make some quality work.

The most difficult part of blogging for me was coming up with topics that I felt could I could write about that would be interesting to my reader. In the case of my blogs on Harambe, Kony 2012, and Nickleback I chose to take strange topics that most writers may not think of and related them to lessons I've learned from marketing and consumer behavior. These blogs were by far the most fun for me to write and also turned out to be some of my best work.

My favorite part of blogging was getting the opportunity to choose my own subjects to write about and then research them. Although it was difficult for me to pick out my topics, I felt that once I found topics I truly was interested in I had fun researching them. I think I learned a lot about some interesting marketing concepts and was able to dive deeper into areas that intrigued me.

Although it was initially very difficult for me to embrace the idea of blogging. Once I got used to the idea it became a very rewarding experience and one that taught me a lot about marketing and other areas that interested me. Although I think it was a great learning experience I don't think I will continue to blog for fun!

Wrap Up Blog

This semester I tried to focus my blog posts primarily around topics we talked about in class. I also wrote a few blogs about the books we had read for class and how they related to my everyday life. Since this is my second to last blog I've decided to choose five of my favorite blogs from the previous semester and give the reader a brief overview of why I wrote them and what I learned. I've chosen these blogs because I believe they best represent my interests and skills as a writer and marketing student.

5. The Four P's of Alpine Ski Marketing

In this blog, I really wanted to find a way to discuss the Four P's of Marketing in a fun way that interested me and my readers. I chose skiing because I felt that the way that skis are marketed is slightly out of the ordinary and presented a great subject matter to demonstrate my understanding of the Four P's. When marketing a ski it is very important to highlight the product and what differences it from the other skis in your lineup as well as in your competitors' lineups. The price isn't near as important as most skis fall into the same price point. Promotion of skis is critical as it is important to get your skis into the public eye through event promotions and sponsorships. Finally, the placement of your skis is limited to brick and mortar and click and mortar retailers.

4.  The Worst Ski Boots I've Ever Owned

This blog ended up being a bit more of a rant than I had originally intended but I think that it still does a great job of explaining how marketing and advertising can be misleading. In this blog, I focused on my experience purchasing Full Tilt Boots and how my negative experience will affect my future purchasing choices. Although my problem wasn't resolved I was able to learn a valuable lesson in how a crowd mentality can influence my decision making.

3. Do You Remember Kony 2012?

This blog was one of my favorites because I had a lot of fun writing it! I was looking for a strange topic that most of my readers would be familiar with and decided upon the Kony 2012 campaign and how its successes and failures have had a lasting impact on viral marketing strategies. In my research, I was surprised to find a few articles similar to mine. These writers also had very similar viewpoints to mine concerning the lasting impact of the Kony 2012 campaign. I believe that although the campaign was a financial success it's humanitarian impact was nearly non-existent. The most important lesson to be learned was how large the potential for viral marketing truly is!

2. The Marketing and Capitalization of Harambe's Death

Although this blog was written mostly as a tongue in cheek look at the popular Harambe meme culture it presents an interesting perspective on how social media can generate a market on its own. In the case of this story Harambe the gorilla's death sparked an outrage and slew of online jokes. Eventually, an online community developed as well as a demand for Harambe merchandise. This market grew to a considerable size with a large number of retailers on many different platforms.

1.  Nickleback...

This was by far the most fun blog for me to write! I'm still fascinated by how much everyone hates Nickleback even though they are one of the most successful bands in recent memory. I explored their massive success as well as the overwhelming hatred for them that is expressed by the general public. Although I was unable to pinpoint a specific reason that everyone hates Nickleback, I determined that it was most likely a result of their lyrics, image, or general lack of differentiating features.