Week 2 -- MKTG 6101 -- Google Sites for the Guerrilla Marketer

In Guerrilla Marketing, Jay Conrad Levinson explains, "small companies or individual entrepreneurs can flourish merely by gaining a tiny slice of an industry, a fraction of a market" (17). What Levison means is, not all companies require market dominance for financial success. Does this type of strategy work for your small business? If so, you may be asking yourself, "but what are some marketing tools a guerrilla marketer can use to gain market share?" Two simple tools coupled with innovative AI technology can make creating a marketing campaign easy.

Google Sites & Google Domains, for the guerrilla marketer, are cost effective and efficient ways to help create a unified marketing campaign and gain market share. These tools can be used to expand a small businesses marketing footprint online. Google Sites offers a user-friendly website building tool that enables individuals to create and manage an online presence. Custom themes and an intuitive drag-and-click interface make creating a website easy for the guerrilla marketer. Couple Google Sites with technology like ChatGPT & DALL-E 2 and you can create a website quick and inexpensively. Plus, Google Sites is free!

The Google Sites drop down menu makes adding textbox, pre-separated sections, images, hyperlinks, and additional website pages easy.

Once you're done creating your website, Google Domains is the next step in your marketing efforts. Google Domains allows to turn your Google Site from https://sites.google.com/view/marketingmuse/home to something like marketingmusechicago.com. This tool is extremely easy to use. Simply type in your desired domain name and the available options are generated automatically. Google Domains even gives you advice about your domain name (a helpful marketing suggestion(s) in the considerations section).

Additionally, Google Domains allows customers to add Google Workspace to their domain name which further expands the ability to push a consistent marketing message. The additional applications through Google will allow you upgrade your marketing campaign as well as your business.

I'd imagine Levison may say that this is a good start, but marketing is not just a single sprint--it's a marathon. Good luck with these exciting tools that will let you crack into your local market share! And keep finding new ways to reach your target audience!

Week 2 -- MKTG 6101 -- Certification & Traditional Education

My nephew, a junior in high school, faces a life changing decision, a fork in the road, some may say, and he may not even know it. Athletic, talented in music, as well as incredibly wicked smart, he has been accumulating accolades in both school and extracurricular activities, achieving two cybersecurity certifications, Distinguished Honor Roll (4.0 GPA or higher) every semester, and a letterman for both golf and band. He is beginning to be scouted by Division III schools for lacrosse, and, if everything goes according to his academic plan, he will have earned enough credits to begin his college career as a sophomore. A hardworking and down-to-earth young man, who one day seeks to join the cybersecurity field. Pretty impressive.

However, how important is a college education for today's youth? For my nephew's goals?

Over the past few decades, college education has remained paramount for employment, career advancement, and networking, during and after graduation. During my young adulthood, if a young person was not in university, employers and peers often viewed them as less qualified or lazy. However, there no longer is such a strong stereotype about the correlation between college education and talent. Steadily, more employers are seeking applicants with specialized certifications rather than a traditional secondary education.

IT certifications are more desirable to IT professional than traditional college education (varies by specialty and company, but more often than not). Real world experience and a portfolio of completed projects/work are signs to employers that less hands-on training and supervision are required. The more work ready, the better. Despite all of this, should someone who is seeking to join the IT field avoid college and seek specialized certifications instead? 

Like I said, a fork in the road.

With all of my nephew's achievements, his choice seems simple: attend college, accrue more IT certifications, as well as seek real world experience by volunteering his IT abilities to a local business or getting an internship with a cybersecurity company. But is this choice the correct one for everyone? Should some only pursue a college degree? Others solely certification? A blend of education, certification, and hands-on experience is ideal. Despite me saying this, everyone's situation is different and one path or another might be best for each individual.

It's up to each individual to decide which path they seek.

Personally, a blend of certifications, education, and experience are required for success in today's fast paced and technology driven world. Currently, I am seeking my master's in business administration with a concentration in marketing. I am learning additional skills by practicing GoogleAds, GoogleSites, and am developing a plan for an online business on Shopify to learn real-time marketing skills and strategies. Additionally, I am considering an IT certification due to the increased demand for such skills in all fields. My education and additional skills coupled with my work ethic are allowing me to be seen and heard throughout my company. Keep in mind to build your brand as I am. Today's employees want to become like Batman's toolbelt, equipped for every situation in their line of work. Make sure to stay consistent in your image and message to your customers and employer. If your desired field requires you to learn Spanish, do it. If you need to gain a bit of experience in your field of choice, seek mentorship or start your own small business offering the service for free. You gain experience and may eventually generate income. Finally, a college education goes a long way for when promotion time comes along--so, consider it if it's the right fit.

Let the journey begin!

Week 1 -- MKTG 6101 -- ChatGPT: Helpful A.I. Tool for Marketing?

ChatGPT offers an interesting service, as well as experience, that can be integrated in various application, such as chatbots, dialogue systems, and question answering systems. I had seen ChatGPT on Reddit and YouTube and thought that it was an interesting concept; however, I did not ever imagine the potential and already lasting implications of A.I. live chats. I asked ChatGPT the following question:

I wondered if an A.I. program could be used to offer individualized customer service, suggestive personalized selling, inventoried service history, and eliminate overhead. Well, A.I. can do just that.

Through the lens of Guerrilla Marketing, my experience with ChatGPT changed how I view the A.I. space as a whole. As a salesman, I believe selling could be taken to a whole new level with A.I. suggestive sales. A.I. software could track buying patterns, average price point of purchase, and other details to refine a plan for the chatbot interaction. A.I. chatbots could drastically improve customer retention through more reliable customer service--it's not always about new sales. Additionally, this is an unexplored space which could be bought and sold to the highest bidder. A Coca-Cola ad on the McDonalds chatbot might not be such a bad way to sell another soda or to increase revenues for a A.I. Chatbot Marketing Company that specializes in A.I. Marketing tactics for larger companies.

Additionally, ChatGPT could be used for teaching flatforms for the education system, for small business owners who need consultation for their businesses, other interactive programs like video games, and all while marketing books, media, and services to customers. This is an exciting space to see grow. I believe tapping into the marketing space of A.I. chatbots will be a strong way to increase customer retention and impulse purchases. Furthermore, the advertising revenue that can be generated from a short interaction with a chatbot seems endless.

I believe ChatGPT can be an immensely successful tool for marketing; however, are people getting tired on interacting with computers and automated answering systems when faced with a real-world problem? With the frustration automation can cause, do you believe customers want an ad blasted on their screen or an upsell from a machine? Only time will tell.

In conclusion, I believe A.I. chatbots, like ChatGPT, with all their abilities, will become more commonplace from the time of writing. I believe A.I. chatbot tools will be extremely helpful with targeting customer needs, eliminating overhead, and generating large amounts of advertising revenue. Buckle-up because the future will be upon us fast--are you ready to make money with this marketing opportunity?

Week 1 -- MKTG 6101 -- A.I.: Friend or Foe?

Growing up, computer technology and innovations never resonated with me. I often found myself avoiding social media (ultimately, deleting all personal social media for several years), using outdated cellphones (I thought rejecting change was "cool"), and never had the up-to-date video game systems or televisions (so my place was not the destination of choice for most hangouts). So, with my lack of screentime and limited connectivity via the internet, I turned to reading literature, writing short stories, and drawing pictures to gift to my friends and family.

The years went on and the importance of computer technology became unavoidable, so I embraced the innovations--learning all the social media platforms, diving into VR, learning website software, some graphic design, etc. It was time to wake up and adopt the unrelenting technological changes. The rapid advancement in artificial intelligence, however, is as alarming to me as the rise of the internet and social media. Or am I only avoiding change again?

Before beginning Dr. Todd Kelsey's book, Surfing the Tsunami, I always felt tech dystopian worlds, like Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano or The Matrix, could never be possible in the near future. However, I may be wrong. Dr. Kelsey believes A.I. development will increasingly change automation, software, and our lives, but how much and how fast? Will A.I. software bleed into the unthinkable like religion or the humanities? Will A.I. automation replace teachers? Will A.I. programs be able to create complete marketing campaigns using Big Data and learned "behaviors"? Will A.I. software become better artists, musicians, and writers than mankind?

 

Dr. Kelsey provides us with three solutions to these types of questions about A.I.--to adapt to A.I., to adopt A.I. or to be adept in A.I.

Which will you choose? Or do we reject advanced A.I. all together?