Business Marketing

"Just as internet retail sites are not required to charge state sales tax, most Ebay sellers view themselves as free of any tax burden associated with selling items online. ‘Why should I pay tax if a corporation isn’t charged the same tax?’ they legitimately wonder".(http://searchling.com/does-uncle-sam-care-about-ebay-sellers)


According to HR 5660, the so-called, “Main Street Fairness Act", could impose taxes on internet sellers, especially Ebay sellers, who are mostly low to middle income citizens depending upon their total Annual sales, which isn't merely enough to pay all the bills including tax, and selling fees from both Ebay. Also don't forget the shipping and handling charge which includes postage and traveling to ship it. 

Advertising & Public Relations; Sales Promotion & Personal Selling

The popularity of Ebay has spread due to the fact that they had an array of mediums for exposure instead of just utilizing the internet as a means to attract potential buyers and sellers. Television, was and still is, an excellent venue to advertise a business or product. They incorporated fantasy and humor into almost all of their television ads to portray that bidding is not just an excellent way to receive a major discount for shopping on Ebay, but it is also fun at the same time. 

As another form of advertisement, Ebay also held promotions through Groupon.com, a website where you can find coupons for discounts half off for your favorite neighborhood venues, stores, or service salons. What the promotion was for $7 for a $15 gift certificate on Ebay. Also, there are a host of others sites where you can receive discounts on Ebay purchases, and the site is not just for Ebay, it's for a host of other online shopping sites too. If you would like to receive the link for the websites just email me at: allysiagarcia@hotmail.com. In turn I will send you a link for 3 websites, just make sure that you sign up. Thank you!

Developing And Managing Products

Ebay is a e-avenue for buyers and sellers worldwide to shop and sell online for the fraction of the cost of your average store front market, and in the comfort of your home or on the go. Over the years their selling policies have changed including their buyer policies I have discussed before on my last blog, EBAY: Acquiring Different types of Products For "Different" Uses.

Even though Ebay is a e-shopping experience, it also has to create new programs to better improve services offered by Ebay for customer satisfaction. They offer an array of different programs for sellers to list their items for sale such as Auctiva, Auctane and Link to UPS WorldShip for sellers to efficiently ship items that were just sold with ease and also these programs can offer more than just shipping like picture files for all your current listings to be shown on all your individual item listings, with each item specified with current amount and time ending. It is shown in the form of cascading pictures that are randomly selected with a zoom effect. Ebay is not the creators of all these apps whatsoever, but the point is that they offer these services to make the seller's job much easier and have other added effects that the regular Ebay listing form does not offer. They allowed these app designers to design these programs specifically with Ebay in mind. A lot of these app designers also broaden there business aspects by creating apps, not just for Ebay sellers, but also Amazon.com and buy.com sellers in mind too.

 This generation has so much to offer for the world with an e-market developing dramatically with ease because of the help with apps that makes life less complicated on one end and sometimes difficult to use or time consuming on the other. Also you have to consider the market of people that are not all that interested in the ever evolving app world. That's why Ebay is always updating their "List An Item" form periodically to make it easier for all users. Ebay has and will continue to be an excellent source of shopping as long as the internet stays around.

EBAY: Acquiring Different types of Products For "Different" Uses

Pricing Concepts

Pricing plays an important role when involved in a transaction of a product or good. The buyer has to acquire the ability whether to buy an item based on the quality or need, and the seller has to rely on whether if the price for an item is an acceptable fee, or if the item is something in demand and, have the ability to make a profit from the price.

Buyers and sellers on Ebay have the advantage whether to pay or sell an item in the price range to their liking and also Ebay can become very competitive about the price subject amongst other brick and motor facilities selling the same or similar good. For instance, you have a buyer looking for a brand new Accutron by Bulova watch where he had seen it at a local jeweler spot in the neighborhood. The price that the jeweler is talking about is not what the buyer is willing to spend. So he goes price hunting online, and stumbles across the same watch at a much lower cost, nearly 80% percent cheaper than the jewelry store. The thing is that the watch on Ebay are sold by multiple sellers, one where the watch is selling for a Buy It Now price for $159.99, and another seller has a Bid going for the current price of $89.99. That sounds great, but the problem is that the bid ends in 4 days and the current price is not guaranteed until the bid ends. There are 13 bidders already bidding for the watch. So the buyer decides to wait for the bidding to end in 4 days instead of buying the one priced for $159.99. By the time the bid ends, the watch that was $89.99 about 4 days ago is now $209.55, and the watch that was selling for a guaranteed price of 159.99, has been sold. So the seller winds up not winning the watch and missed out the oppurtunity of buying the Buy It Now priced watch. The best bet for the seller is to wait and find the same item or buy a similar item or go back to the jeweler and buy the watch.

One could only wonder how much of a profit both sellers on Ebay had the ability to have a high-end good sold for substantially for pennies on the dollar, and was able to make a profit from it. How could they have the advantage to have purchased it cheaper to resale it again? First off, they have an advantage over their store front competitors for not having to pay rent to sell their products possibly. When it comes down to the fact that a product has to bring in profit for a business, the seller has to incorporate a fee for rent, especially store that has to pay rent for a building. That's why most of the time, it is best to shop online for a discount on the same item you just seen on the streets. Secondly, the e-seller may have received this item as resell, meaning that someone could have pawned the item and never had a chance to buy the pawned item back. Or the e-seller could have bought at a time for retail price and decided that he no longer wants to own it and tries to resale it that way. Whatever the case may be, the e-seller has n advantage to sell the watch for whatever price he wants.

All buyers should fully educate themselves before paying retail for any luxury good, or any good for this matter.

Intergrated Marketing Communications

Ebay has undergone series of promotional strategies, advertisements and public relations since founded in 1995. It has a competitive advantage on other auction sites like Overstock.com or Bidz.com, because it has been around for many years, also it has no bidding fee for the buyer other than the winning price of an item, unlike Bidz.com. Overstock.com, however has temporary auctions and for a first time bidder on the site may seem to bring about difficulty. For one, Overstock.com, also known as O.co, does not have the selection of goods to choose from like Ebay has, because like I stated earlier, Ebay is more trusted and has been around for quite sometime. Ebay is very simple to use in buying or selling a product. 

Ebay has an intensive search engine that specifies in your product's description or category. What is very unique about Ebay is that sometimes, by accident, a seller doesn't necessarily add detail in the title of the listing, for example:"Nice brown shoes". The item is really a brand new pair of Coach boots that the seller mistakingly or on purpose use lack of description in the listing title of the item. So depending on the selling situation it may take longer to sell or very low bidding on the item because the item was not searchable as "Coach" with specifics added. But lucky for the buyer that happens to be looking for something simple or who knows "search tricks" and clicks on this item that happens to be beyond his or her expectations at a good price or happens to be an item that is one of a kind. 

Ebay, I believe, has the best personal selling experience on the web. It makes it simple for anyone to sell or buy something worry free also, you can broadcast your listings with relatives or friends on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. You can catch excellent deals with free shipping on their DailyDeals link on their homepage. You can truly find unique stuff at an excellent price anytime of the day. It's a million-dollar business and also it can either be an excellent shopping destination or an business achievement.

EBAY: Acquiring Different types of Products For "Different" Uses

Lately I have been blogging about Soul Train, but since Chapter 10: ProductConcepts really has no relative stance with "Soul Train", I decided to make this post about Ebay.com: a website where millions of people worldwide perform business transactions through "Auction" or "Buy It Now" status. Thousands of people shop everyday on Ebay for different types of products, from a missing piece for a espresso machine to wholesale items to help supplement a business, and also automobiles and homes could be found on this website. 


Ebay has a new policy known as the "Buyer's Protection Program". Buyers are qualified for this protection if they use Paypal, an online payment company owned by Ebay, to make payment to a seller if they are not satisfied with an item or have issues with the product that they purchase or issues with a seller. Several outcomes can come from this once a claim is filed against a seller. Either you can receive a full refund from Ebay or the buyer and seller can come to a mutual agreement about the item sold. 


A lot of people worldwide use Ebay as a means to sell unwanted household items or to create an online business which Ebay has several different programs for a potential seller to achieve this. ANYTHING could be sold on Ebay. This website is probably one of the best outlets for a buyer and seller to either pay what they want for a certain item or receive a desiriable payment for what they sell. Specialty, convenience, consumer, business, unsought, and business products could all be found on EBAY!

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Market Research On An New American Household Name

Marketing Research is the process to planning, collecting, and analyzing data relevant to a marketing decision.

Soul Train, like most companies, have to undergo a Marketing research to stay in business and to be "known". This information is critical and is passed down the line as in linking the consumer, customer, and the the public to the marketer through information. Soul Train conducted a lot of surveys about the shows pro and cons, what needs to be enhanced, what needs to stay, and what have to go. Not only did the creative team behind the show have input on the set design and selection of guess appearances, it was the audience too.

What most people don't realize is that all the products that we use daily, all the shows we see, all commercials played, and all the music we listen to has to undergo this process because it's about what the "people" want.

Soul Train has now joined forces with a company called Foursquare to promote citywide events of upcoming Soul Train shows, runway shows, and concerts that gives them a push in the matrix for internet savvy 18-35 year olds that require update info on demand. As time goes, so does technology. And with this collaboration, Soul Train has a better advantage of sticking around for years to go. Currently these events are only available in the Atlanta, Georgia area, but both companies are pursuing to go to different major cities together.

Distribution of the infamous urban store "Dr. Jays"

The Sunday that just passed, I stopped by Dr. Jays to buy my kids some new sneakers. At first, I thought that Dr. Jays was a franchise, but in fact they are a chain store ownership. A lot of people don't know this but, Dr. Jay's is NOT only located in New York. Actually they are located in all the major cities on the east coast (also, I found some information about stores located in California). Dr. Jay's has been around since 1975, and the first store opening in New York.

Even though Dr. Jay's is conveniently located through out most cities, especially in New York's five boroughs, they also have a website where you can also shop which is, http://www.drjays.com.

Dr. Jays has stores catering to not just the urban man, but also women and children alike. The female version is called Dr. Jay Ladies. The children's department is more than likely, located in the main Dr. Jay's stores, and even women's footwear and accessories could be found in the main Dr. Jay's stores other than Dr. Jay Ladies.

Dr. Jays is a urban mainstream retailer, and it seems as though they are here to stay. So considering that they cater to the urban styles such as Rocawear, Sean John, Coogi, North Face, Baby Phat, Marc Ecko, Nautica, Polo Jeans Co., Akademiks, and host of other popular urban styles, they must be classified as a specialty store. Most of the time they can have moderate to high prices on on clothing, shoes, and accessories unless they have a major clearance event to make way for next season's inventory of the latest styles.

The Concept of Market Segmentation

Soul Train became extremely popular during the late 70's and early 80's. In result to that, their audience was no longer just African-American teenagers, it was a melting pot of all backgrounds, age groups, and nationalities that were patiently waiting for the show to come on Saturday late night.

So to cater to everyone's needs, Soul Train featured other mainstream artists and Soul Train dancers than their usual famous black musical performers and dancers. For example, they featured Elton John. and Michael McDonald performing and also, Rosie Perez was also a featured dancer bringing a new diversified mix for their viewers to watch.

As a showcase, Soul Train is no longer popular, but the award show still remains, and is shown annually on B.E.T. and Centric.

Soul Train's Impact and Decision Making Marketing

Question: What helped Soul Train become successful the way it did?  Answer: The people that were watching it. But how? 


Let's think about this for second. Yeah I know I said it a few times before, but Soul Train was one of the longest shows in American history. The reason behind that is because the producers and marketing team knew what the people that were most interested in the show wanted. And as time goes by, so do people, so they had to implement different strategies by studying what young African-Americans were most interested in. The 70's music was becoming a thing in the past. In the 80's there was a new genre of music that came out that was known as "Rap" music. Some people, at the time, did not know if "Rap" music was really music at all. The show had to continue, but had to change in some perspective, and still remain "original".


Soul Train marketing team had to do major research from what's "cool"" in the fashion seen of adolescents to the different styles and dance moves that were done on the streets. Also, they had to know who are the "It" artists that the streets were craving. Most importantly, they had to understand what "Rap" music was all about.


Even though Rap/Hip Hop music was, at that time (and still to this day), the music that kids were listening to, R&B still remained a genre that will never play out (unlike Disco). Rap music became a big influence on style and sooner than later, the style portrayed on Rap artists was reflected on R&B artists. Don Cornelius felt that the show would undergo a whole other route. Which eventually, it did.

Soul Train Across The Globe

Who would ever imagine that the infamous showcase "Soul Train" would reach boundaries much further than the whole United States of America, given the fact that Don Cornelius had such a hard time for Soul Train to be aired on another city's network besides the single local network located in Chicago, IL.? 


For the Global marketing concept of Soul Train to be known across the globe, it had started another branching by hosting a reward show dedicated to the performers of soul. In 1985, the Chicago based Tribune Entertainment company became the exclusive distributor/syndicator of Soul Train. In 1987, the Tribune company helped to launch the "Soul Train Music Awards." This program is a live two hour television special presented annually in prime-time syndication and reaches more than 90% of U.S. television households. The Soul Train Music Awards represent the ethos of the Soul Train program which is to offer exposure for Black recording artists on national television.



The first annual "Lady of Soul" reward show was aired on August 6, 1995. The show was hosted by Gladys Knight, Tyra Banks and Brian McKnight. Performers included Monica, Brownstone, Da Brat, Mary J. Blige, Naughty By Nature, Queen Latifah, Brandy and CeCe Winans. Debbie Allen was the recipient of the shows "Lena Horne" Award. Salt & Pepa received the Aretha Franklin Achievement Award.


From there Soul Train had received so much publicity, and from there on, and word of mouth and promotions, it reached homes across seas. This greatly boosted the narrow demographics that it once had in America.

Marketing Environment of Soul Train

Demographics played an important key role for the distribution of Soul Train on different television stations across America. Don Cornelius had gone through a series of research and strategic planning with the help of endorsements to get the show on air, opening to more than just African-American teenagers as an audience, but to African-American adults and Caucasian households as well. Chicago, IL was the home of Soul Train, and from Chicago, the show broadcasted in New York City, Washington D.C., Philadelphia and a host of other city networks. At the time during the flood of advertisements and promotions of Soul Train, there was competition with another showcase called "American Bandstand". Soul Train at the peak of it's game, was often compared with American Bandstand and was also referred to as the "Black American Bandstand". But, American Bandstand had nothing on Soul Train pertaining to the style advertisements aired during Soul Train's commercial break and so forth. 

Strategic Planning, Ethics & Social Responsibility

Soul Train's memorable Showcase can never be duplicated. Why? Because the marketing team behind this infamous show had an original and clever idea of how they would set up their slogan, their acts, and even their dance routines. Their social responsibility at that time was to bring Love, Peace and Soul (which was Soul Train's slogan) to every household and also to bring self love to the African-American community with the influences of Johnson hair care products of black beauty.

Overview of Marketing for Soul Train:

Soul Train was an American musical variety show created by Don Cornelius, who also served as a host and executive producer, that aired from 1971 to 2006. Through its 35 year history, the show featured performances by R&B, soul, and hip hop artists. Funk, jazz, disco, and gospel artists have also appeared, but wasn't as popular as the other genres. A lot of new revolutionary stages and phases of soul music like the "Philadelphia Soul Movement" artists, also made their mark here.

Soul Train made a claim in their opening in later sequences claiming to be the longest running, syndicated show in American History.

Don Cornelius is now a multi-millionaire with the help of Soul Train and his hair care products that became successful due to the publicity of Soul Train.

"Production was suspended following the 2005-2006 season, with a rerun package (known as The Best of Soul Train) airing for two years after that. Despite this, in years on air, Soul Train will continue to hold the honor of the longest, continuously-running first-run syndicated program until at least 2016, if and when its nearest competitor, Entertainment Tonight, completes its 35th season." (Wikipedia.com)