Brand Sponsorship of Musicians

I play guitar in a band and one of the biggest things next to getting signed by a label, is getting sponsorship from a company. One of the biggest sponsors is Redbull. When you go onto a bands facebook, website or myspace, you can view who sponsors them and then you may be more likely to use those products or services. It's crazy the boundaries that marketing extends into.

Who is your favorite artist sponsored by?
Are you more likely to buy that product?

In response to Roland

But is this type of ad fair to consumers? Does it cross any ethical or legal boundaries?

I think that by trying to get your consumers to sign up for a mailing list when their product is available is not only clever, but also misleading. Now American Eagle can spam them with offers and generate more traffic to a site where people may not normally go. This isn't a very ethical marketing scheme, but it is pretty clever

Movie Marketing

I found an article on the marketing ploys of Major films. While reviewing these pages, I found it interesting just how far a company will go to promote its product and build the hype about it. My personal favorite marketing scheme is placing the characters and their likeness on chilldrens foods.

Here is a link to the article.
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/movie-marketing2.htm

What is the craziest marketing ploy that you have seen?

In Response to Roland

Does product placement make a difference for you?
Is it going to influence your buying decisions if there is a Nike swoosh on your favorite, or not so favorite, college basketball team? 

Product Placement is huge in media. Without labeling myself with free advertising for a company, how else am I supposed to show my allegiance to a brand? While it is overrated and expensive, it is how most 'mericans are raised. the more expensive our material goods, the better we appear. while this whole process is ridiculous, it is how we are brought up to show support for our teams and who we are as individuals.

Target Market

In class we are currently designing a marketing plan for a new line of Gap Inc. called the Keene Kollection. We are marketing inexpensive clothing to college students and town folks in hopes that this will become a successful company. I am in charge of the Price aspect of this project and with this aspect I have to determine how we get our merchandising for the least amount of money and how we then sell our product to generate as large of a revenue as possible.

What would be the most ideal target market?
What would make the Keene Kollection stand out and become a best seller?

in Response to Roland

Does free trade mean fair trade?

I think that since we are a capitalistic society, we should be doing what we can to help our country to prosper, but that doesn't I'm for it. We are living in a country where everyone does whatever it takes to take it to the top and grasp the American Dream by the tail and turn it into a fur coat. 
The fact that we are outsourcing is merely because we are looking to make cheap and sell large. these methods lead to high profits and more money to cover the holes in our gold lined pockets.
the fact that they cannot produce enough crops to sell for cheaper than ours is great. I enjoy eating my American crops and I do so with my silver spoon and a half full glass of Florida orange juice (half full because I am an optimist)

Marketing in America and our Image

I was watching T.V. with my girlfriend when a commercial for prilosec came on. This heartburn medicine isn't anything out of the ordinary, but what did catch my attention was the celebrity endorsement. These commercials are supposed to grab the average American celebrity and of all the famous faces we have,  they chose Larry the Cable Guy. This to me was not infuriating, but more disconcerting that the average American was an overweight redneck. No disrespect towards the comedian, but in my mind the average American shouldn't be some uneducated redneck, but a working class hero. What are your thoughts?