Student Research Conferences

Session 1: Casino Loyalty Rewards, Kyle Jenkin

After attending Mr. Jenkin’s presentation, it is apparent that the consumer holds a lot of power in determining how companies will respond to their clientele’s needs. Throughout his presentation, he hit main points such as, Consumer Relationship Marketing(CRM), customer loyalty, information gathering, and what research was discovered. Specifically, Mr. Jenkin had researched the casino known as Harrah’s Casino. Based from his findings, he found that Harrah’s was having trouble with retaining their customers. This problem could be solved with Consumer Relationship Marketing techniques, and that’s exactly what Harrah’s did. Mr. Jenkin explained that Harrah’s set out goals for the casino which included, increase consumer loyalty, increase frequency of visits, and to provide an excellent service experience, etc…All of these factors could be solved with the help of a data base, and that data base came in the form of the casino’s Total Rewards Card. This card came in many classes and forms, but the purpose of the card was to gather information on their consumers. This data base was a case study of sort, which showed what consumers were buying, how often they gambled, if they lived near or far to the casino, and much more. With the use of their 45 million plus consumer data base, the casino was now bettered to tailor their marketing to each individual. This in turn generated revenues and profits, and because of the tailoring, customer loyalty was at an all-time high. Based on the experience that Harrah’s encountered, it is apparent that they did adapt and learn. I also did learn. First, you must know your consumer, and do your research. Second, each consumer is different, and tailoring your marketing strategy is key. Lastly, focus on your average consumer as they will be the majority of your market.

Session 2: The Effects of Price Index and Money Supply Growth on Exchange Rate Determination, Nicole Millar

Throughout Ms. Millar’s presentation, the main points discussed had to deal with the exchange rate being effected by price index and the money supply growth. She explained that we must recognize that the economy we live in is actually a part of a larger one, and that outside forces do influence us even if we recognize it or not. She explained that the exchange rate is the price of foreign money in units of domestic money, or vice versa. This is important because if a domestic resident wants to buy abroad products; one must exchange domestic currency. This relationship is important because the exchange rate is related to the price level because it shows the connection between domestic prices and foreign prices. With concern about the money supply growth, it is the total amount of money in circulation or in existence in a country. Many factors can influence this such as inflation, interest rates, relative strength of other currencies, etc…Based on these factors, they can drastically alter the exchange rate between countries. Ms. Millar then did an example of how much these two effects do have on the exchange rate, by showing the calculations and number outputs. Considering the information, the key findings were that exchange rates have many influences, and that it doesn’t stay the same for long. What I ended up personally taking away from this presentation was that money is never what its face value displays. A $1 bill may say $1 on it, but in actuality that $1 varies drastically day by day by multiple factors unseen from the everyday consumer.

The Best and Worst Super Bowl Commercials

While watching the brilliant performance of the Broncos, I almost forgot to even pay attention to the commercials. With this said, my favorite commercial that was shown, hands down, had to be the one promoting the Audi R8 V10 Plus car. The commercial’s name was, “The Commander”, and it sends us to the “moon” with a story of an astronaut who was retired, but rediscovers his passion for life and powerful machines. The astronaut had been depressed sitting in his house all alone. His son took him outside to this luxurious classy car and it was like all the life had been put back into the man.  As he got into the car and began to drive, it reminded the man of how it felt to take off again in a spaceship. While this was happening, David Bowie’s 1972 hit track “Starman” was playing in the background, and really set the tone of inspiration and ingenuity. I liked this commercial because it symbolized the innovation and class of the brand known as Audi. Finally, seeing the brand’s new sports car in action captivated me, and inspired me just like the astronaut in the commercial. 

On the flipside, one commercial did stand out to me that I thought was ridiculously weird. The commercial was a Mountain Dew commercial, with named “Puppy Monkey Baby”. This commercial to me was very odd and made no sense to me of how the Mountain Dew brand related to this strange made up creator, “Puppy Monkey Baby”. It seems to me that Mountain Dew was trying to just create attention with their customers and make them wonder what the creator was while not actually focusing on the product itself. For me though, it seemed very redundant and annoying, and didn’t convince me to want to purchase Mountain Dew products.