Alexa Zapata

Annotated Bibliography

Barone, Adam. Marketing Strategy. 12 December 2021. 4 April 2022.

<https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marketing-strategy.asp>.

Summary:

A marketing strategy is a business's plan for attracting and reaching its target audience

and converting them into customers for its product. A marketing strategy involves the company's

main proposition, key brand messaging, the date on target customer demographics, etc. The goal

of a marketing strategy is to achieve and communicate a sustainable competitive advantage over

rival companies. Typically, the Four Ps are a type of marketing strategy that's commonly used.

Different from a marketing strategy, a marketing plan helps the company direct its money to

where it'll have the most impact.

Evaluation:

This article was very informative article for my research, especially for me since I was

completely new to marketing and wasn’t aware of specific marketing strategies. This article

wasn't biased at any moment and was very informative and well-researched. I relied on this

company (Investopedia) for most of my research as I found it to be very credible. This article

included the author, Adam Barone, and when it was last updated. The date of the last update also

happens to be not long ago, 2021, meaning the author did a good job of editing and reviewing

any information that he wanted to either add or remove. Not only that, but it also includes the

sources which they received their information from.

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Reflection:

This article especially helped me with my mentorship because it gave me a good

introduction to marketing. Before starting my mentorship at Mountain King Potatoes, I didn’t

have a very good idea of what marketing was. Instead, I had an idea of what marketing was

based on what I saw in the media, such as social media and tv shows. However, I learned

marketing was much more than that. Marketing is everything a company does to help it succeed,

which may involve a marketing plan, as well as a marketing strategy.

Mann, Kiran. Challenges Business Leaders Need To Be Prepared For In 2022 And Beyond. 19

January 2022. 11 February 2022.

<https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2022/01/19/challenges-business-

leaders-need-to-be-prepared-for-in-2022-and-beyond/?sh=2e42f7af70d2>.

Summary:

This article explains different ways in which business leaders need to prepare for this new

year of 2022. It explains how due to the first year of the viral outbreak, around 200,000

establishments in the U.S alone have permanently closed. This pandemic has caused a lot of

trouble to businesses since they lost a lot of money and didn’t know how to handle the situation.

Thus, instead one could’ve prevented this by modifying their business to fit the demand of its

customers. For example, Spotify’s new mental health and how to deal with isolation podcasts

helped customers during these hard times, which also helped Spotify become more successful

since it was giving its customers something they wanted, even if it wasn’t their original plan. In
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addition, business owners lacking leadership skills also struggled since they didn’t take the

correct measures and made no planning. As a solution, business leaders must use this time and

experience to prepare for the future in case something happens again, and businesses start

crashing to avoid their business from doing the same.

Evaluation:

This article relates to the essentials because it’s related to the career path my mentor

specializes in. Not only does he promote and sell his products, but he also must be able to

communicate and negotiate with his customers to attract more customers and more selling for his

products. And that sounds similar to business. Thus, I wanted to learn more about how to

negotiate within one’s business with the help of this article. After reading this article, I also

learned that being able to adapt to what’s going on in the world is a huge factor that should

impact one’s business. Business owners should also have an open-minded mindset to provide for

their customers’ demands. They also need to keep an eye out for the market and competitors that

could help business leaders grow and succeed. In addition, they need to keep up with new digital

technologies to relate more to their customers.

Reflection:

For this month’s current event article, I decided on a business article rather than

specifically a marketing article, which is the career path I’m mentoring in, in hopes of learning

more about business since it’s included in marketing. I’m also hoping reading this article can

help me decide if anything other than marketing interests me that is also involved with the
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business career path. I figured this article would help me learn other things about a business such

as how to adapt to customer’s demands to become more successful.

Moran, Douglas, Catherine. Blue Apron highlights personalization in fresh marketing campaign.

12 April 2022. 13 April 2022. <https://www.marketingdive.com/news/blue-apron-

personalization-creative-campaign/621965/>.

Summary:

Blue Apron, a company dealing with providing its customers with prepared meal ideas,

recently announced on Monday the launch of a new national brand campaign that has kicked off

with two advertising spots. One of them focuses on the convince of their services, while the

second one is an online video series highlighting the flavor, nutrition, and ease of preparation of

its meals.

Their 2022 marketing strategy, as stated by Dani Simpson, Blue Apron’s chief marketing

officer, is said to be centered on efficiently engaging consumers and offering them a more

personalized experience. However, this isn’t just the only planned initiative for this year, Blue

Apron has more in store for its consumers to help increase customer awareness, orders, size, and

frequency.

Before switching to this new marketing strategy, Blue Apron relied on segmentation

research done over the last year to try and understand its customer demographics and insights to

then determine how to match its target customer with the company’s value proposition.

Blue Apron hopes to gain more customers after meal kit sales slowed after the start of the

pandemic. With the help of their new strategies, the company’s net revenue increased by 13% on
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December 31, 2021. Thus, the number of orders increased, although its customer count

decreased. In addition, its competitors such as HelloFresh have also continued to expand and

innovate. These meal kits and prepared foods companies have also gained more competition

from restaurants and grocery stores.

Evaluation:

I decided to research this article because it talks about marketing and Blue Apron’s

marketing strategies and whether they helped the company. Thus, I learned more about

marketing strategies and got a better insight into what works and what doesn’t. However, it all

depends on the company and its goals, thus, one can’t be biased.

I learned that companies need to try different marketing plans and strategies to see what

works for them and their customers. For example, what I gained from reading this article is that

Blue Apron works hard to find new ways to gain more customers by offering discounts. For

example, it offers customers $110 off meal plan subscriptions at the end of some of the new ads.

Also, Blue Apron works towards personalizing meals to fit and match the specific customer,

which is a smart strategy since they’re highlighting the significance of individualism. This goes

hand in hand with creating a good professional relationship with your customers to gain their

trust and loyalty.

Overall, this article helped me get closer to deciding whether I want to pursue a career in

sales and marketing since it helped me realize it can be difficult to beat the competition and give

customers what they want while continuing to maintain a successful company.

Reflection:
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I found it interesting how companies like Blue Apron don’t rely solely on just one

marketing strategy to gain more customers. I’ve heard a lot of sayings like, “if it’s not broken

don’t fix it or replace it” meaning that if something is currently working well, don’t try to change

it because it might make it go downhill. However, it’s very different with marketing because a

lot of companies instead try to try different marketing strategies to figure out what works for

them and what attracts more people.

Renardson, Amy. Organic Social Media vs Paid: Key Differences. 22 February 2022. Digital

Agency Network. 2 March 2022. <https://digitalagencynetwork.com/organic-social-

media-vs-paid-key-differences/>.

Summary:

This article explains the pros and cons of organic and paid social media. The author

makes sure to explain both definitions before going into detail.

Organic social media is any free content posted on social media such as posts, photos,

videos, memes, and stories that social media users can share on their feeds. Some pros of organic

social media are that you don’t have to spend your money and it allows you to establish a brand.

On the contrary, some cons are that it may be time-consuming if you don’t have a team or

agency. You may also have to rely on your followers to share your brand.

However, paid social media is paying to boost your content on social media to reach a

wider audience who may be more interested in your brand. This will allow you to target ideal

audiences. Especially since social media has grown from simply being a place where users can

communicate and share funny memes and thoughts, to being a place that allows marketers to use
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this platform to share their brand with people who are willing to buy from them. Some pros of

paid social media are the ability to reach your target audience through categories such as

location, age, gender, or interests. However, some cons are that if you don’t get the targeting

right or don’t work towards improving your paid campaigns, you may be paying for ineffective

ads that just end up wasting your money. One can’t experiment with their target audience as

much since it’ll hurt your budget.

Evaluation:

This article helped me further learn about marketing, especially the role of social media

in digital marketing. Digital marketing is the promotion of brands using the internet. The article

also included how all marketers should be using social media to promote their business and/or

product since this generation has increased the use of technology. You see, technology has

become more significant, especially when COVID-19 hit. The pandemic made almost everything

virtual and online, meaning most people switched from going grocery shopping to online

shopping and have realized it’s easier and faster. Thus, most people began buying from Amazon,

making it earn the most money it had ever earned. However, smaller businesses were harmed

since people couldn’t buy from them anymore. But like how I’ve learned from previous articles

used for my current events, business owners had to adapt to the effects the virus caused and

make it possible for their customers to buy from them online as well.

Reflection:

I found this article very interesting because, at one point, I wanted to sell my products

online with the help of social media. Last Christmas, I made my mom a necklace with a charm of
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the moon phase of her anniversary with my stepdad and she really liked it. Thus, I thought I

could make more similar necklaces, promote them on social media, and sell them to customers.

However, I never got the chance to do so because I didn’t know where to start. But this article

has provided me with the information I needed, meaning I might go through my plan.

Twin, Alexandra. Marketing. 10 November 2021. 4 April 2022.

<https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marketing.asp#:~:text=Marketing%20refers

%20to%20activities%20a,on%20behalf%20of%20a%20company>.

Summary:

Marketing means all the different activities a company does to promote and sell products

to its customers. Marketers especially use advertising to seek the attention of their target

audience. Some examples of advertising they may use are catchy phrases or slogans, significant

packaging, or media exposure. They may even use the Four Ps. And to keep their customers,

they may do kind gestures such as returning calls and emails quickly and meeting with them for

a cup of coffee.

Evaluation:

This was the first article I read this semester when starting my marketing strategy and I

think it was very helpful to introduce me to marketing. This article was a very informative article

for my research, especially for me since I was completely new to marketing and wasn’t aware of

specific marketing strategies. This article wasn't biased at any moment and was very informative

and well-researched. I relied on this company (Investopedia) for most of my research as I found
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it to be very credible. This article included the author, Alexandra Twin, and when it was last

updated. The date of the last update also happens to be not long ago, 2021, meaning the author

did a good job of editing and reviewing any information that he wanted to either add or remove.

Not only that, but it also includes the sources which they received their information from.

Reflection:

This article also helped me accomplish my final product because I learned how important

it is to do kind gestures for your customers. My mentor also greatly emphasized how important it

is to get along with your customers. He explained one should always try to have a strong

professional relationship with your customers since it'll make them think y’all are friends and

will want to keep working with you. While being on-site, my mentor received a call from a

customer, and I realized the customer seemed to feel very comfortable with my mentor by the

friendly way they conversated. By doing so, my mentor was even able to convince his customer

to buy a different type of potato even though the customer was asking for another type, which

was unfortunately out of stock.

—. The 4 Ps. 2 March 2022. 4 April 2022. <https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/four-

ps.asp#:~:text=The%20four%20Ps%20of%20marketing%E2%80%94product%2C

%20price%2C%20place%2C,approach%20a%20holistic%20marketing%20strategy.>.

Summary:

The Four Ps are product, price, place, and promotion, which all come together to an

effective marketing service for the public. The Four Ps work together by interacting with each
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other to help companies succeed. Product means the good or service the company offers to its

customers. Price means the cost customers pay for the product and how much the consumer is

willing to pay. Place is where the company sells its product and how they deliver it to the market.

Lastly, promotion is the advertising and promotional strategies to help reveal the product to the

consumers.

Evaluation:

Before reading this article and researching more about the Four Ps, I realized they were a

lot more common than I thought and are used in many companies. This article was a very

informative article for my research, especially for me since I was completely new to marketing

and wasn’t aware of specific marketing strategies. This article wasn't biased at any moment and

was very informative and well-researched. I relied on this company (Investopedia) for most of

my research as I found it to be very credible. This article included the author, Alexandra Twin,

and when it was last updated. The date of the last update also happens to be not long ago, 2022,

meaning the author did a good job of editing and reviewing any information that he wanted to

either add or remove. Not only that, but it also includes the sources which they received their

information from.

Reflection:

This article helped me accomplish and enhance my final product because, for my final

product, my mentor and I decided I should create a poster promoting Mountain King Potatoes

Butter Russet potatoes. I also had to formulate a speech, also known as a pitch, where I try to

convince my audience to buy the potatoes. To do this, I used the Four P’s which I learned from
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this article. I specifically used the last P that stands for Promotion. I included the many ways one

can cook and serve Butter Russets to help persuade my audience into buying the potatoes. I

included that one could serve Butter Russets in a soup, baked, or even chips!