The topic this week is sponsorships.

The sponsorship I chose was Coca Cola and their sponsorship with the Olympics. I believe this is effective for both brands, to be honest. Coca Cola is a huge, international brand that everyone knows. Likewise, the Olympics is a widely known event that occurs on an international level. For this reason, the two brands help each other out immensely.

Coca Cola has been a sponsor for the Olympics since 1928 and continues to do so to this day. According to blog.optimy.com, Coca Cola "promotes the higher involvement of youth in the Olympics" and aims to "bring together more people under the #Thatsgold campaign and have it reach further." This sponsor helps promote the Olympic games because Coca Cola aims to bring people together, especially family. Everyone knows the brand and that is what makes them a powerful sponsor. On the other side, the Olympics helps promote the Coca Cola brand as well. The Olympcis brings everyone together- fans of all sports, of different countries, and origins gather together to watch the event. Because of the size and popularity of both brands, it is wise to call them "partners" rather than a brand being a sponsor for one another.

Both brands do a great job at promoting each other. Their biggest strong suit is their loyalty to each other. Coca Cola did a fantastic job of relating "what winning a gold medal felt like" to what Coca Cola tastes like and feels like when you drink it in this commercial:

These brands have been partners for so long, I think they have honed every skill they have needed to hone.

The topic this week is promotional tools that marketers use to advertise their products.

The promotional tool that I am discussing today is in- or on-package premium marketing. One example of this would be companies giving away toys in cereal packages. Some advantages of this include "adding value and enhancing the brand." Disadvantages are more rampant than other tools, however. According to the text, "premiums can boost sales; however, they usually are not as successful as coupons" (Clow, Baack, 2014). Clow and Baack also state that premiums can also damage a brand's image if the premiums are overused.

It is important to choose the right premium. Marketers want to add value to their brand, and too much exposure can do the opposite. Overall, in-package premium marketing has become less used, due to new laws and regulations, and costs required to use the tool. However, it can still be used if necessary, but the marketer should have the goal of adding value to the brand image rather than having the goal of profit in mind.

The topic this week is the use of direct mail ads which CRM strategies the company uses while employing the advertisements. 

The above ad is a Mitsubishi car dealership ad that was obviously sent out during the holidays. It is hard to go wrong with direct mail since you know the consumer is going to receive it (whether they want to or not). This explains why 77% of companies send out direct mail to their consumers. (Clow, Baack, 2014). The ad above would work best with customers who have shopped at Mitsubishi before because they probably would not give it a gander if they were loyal to another car brand already. 

The ad most definitely uses the lifetime value of a customer metric from the CRM model. Mitsubishi  hopes that by sending this ad out, potential buyers will finally make a decision to buy their product. Because these are most likely sent out to current Mitsubishi owners, the company knows  what they like in their ads. The use of elements such as the brand, type of car, and holiday theme, Mitsubishi ultimately hopes and aims to enhance customer loyalty.