Let's Find Marketing Treasure: Perceptual Mapping & Google Maps

Nate Davies
Jimmy Xu
Business 260 - Marketing
March 22nd, 2018

Let's Find Marketing Treasure: Perceptual Mapping

     The most similar cereals are "healthy" cereals like Fiber one and Special K products. The other similarities are "tasty" or more marketed towards kids with cereals like Captain Crunch, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Reese's Puffs. Adult cereals tend to be marketed by health benefits versus children's cereal which are colorful and emulate flavors of candy and sugar.

     The dimensions I choose is the dilemma of healthy versus taste. The health benefits were determined by protein, fiber, and sugar levels. The healthy options have high protein and fiber with low sugar. The tasty choices are based on high sugar levels and flavor appeal. Many people like chocolate and peanut butter more than cinnamon. In general, cereals are low in fat and are all fortified with micro-nutrients like vitamins and minerals so companies can make the claim "part of a balanced breakfast."

       By doing this assessment, I feel I found more of a correlation between adult and children's cereal as an  unlabeled third dimension. It is unfortunate I do not think there is a blended product. A cereal that could cover demographic differences in age and health benefits would be extremely profitable because everyone in the house would eat it. The closest thing I can think of for this would be Frosted Mini Wheat. I don't think kids ask their parents to buy them it typically; however, there is a sweet aspect about them as well as heart healthy and digestive benefits of whole grains  that both parties can enjoy. From the options given, I felt Corn Pop's had the best balance of heath benefits. They did not possess the fiber or protein of healthier options, yet they did not contain the same amount of sugar as the tasty alternatives. 

     Customers definitely perceive Special K and Fiber One as healthier brands. I have used both products for their healthy attributes. Special K Original has the most protein per serving than anyone other cereal. On the other hand, there is roughly 35% of your daily fiber intake in a serving of Fiber One. Many adults do not get enough fiber which causes problems with your GI tract that can evolve into mental and further health problems. Finally, most cereals are candy for kids with micro-nutrients with flavoes like Oreo O's, Reese's Puffs, and Cookie Crunch.

The Codfather's Impact on Maine Fish

     This past week I attended a data science workshop. At this event, I learned a quite a bit about data science this is because I knew nothing previously; however, the help for this week's assignment came from the young man sitting next to me and his knowledge of the "Codfather." The gentleman sitting next was a Bate's graduate in biology who who worked at a local private non-profit studying fishing patterns. I told him I was interested in data sciences because I was an accounting student who wanted to work in fraud with forensic accounting; therefore, databases are imperative to understand in this economic and technological environment. He informed me that Carlos Rafael had recently been caught violating federal laws through primarily tax evasion and accounting.

     I started researching the topic a couple days later. I learned Carlos Rafael is a Portuguese immigrant who moved to the U.S. over 30 years ago. He started as a fisher cutter in New Bedford, Massachusetts. This was a very common lower-income and immigrant job. He was interviewed by VICE News in 2013 because it had appeared he had achieved the "American Dream" with his fleet worth nearly 100 million at the time. He was publicly known as an outlaw and a pain to do deals with wholesale buyers.

       The Codfather is not a stranger to shady behavior. Rafael had tax evasion problems in the late 80's when he first began his business. He claimed he was unaware of such laws. His operations continued as he ran his business from a cell. In 2008, the federal government created laws that would favor larger fishing fleets. The law proposed a limit in pounds per boats. Rafeael expanded his fleets and starter mislabeling fish as well to create bigger catches. He had a connection in New York Harbor that would buy the mislabeled fish and sell it to the city and distribute it further north too.

      How does this affect the people of Maine and fish markets? I used the information I learned from this project and researched prices from the Portland Fish Exchange over the last year. During this time, Carlos was indicted last spring and sentenced in the late fall. The price of Cod for example has gone up from approximately $1.80/lb to roughly $3.40. This is due to the fact that some smaller players have more selling power now that Rafael does not flood the market. We live in a capitalist society so this free market will most likely soon adjust back down in Rafael's absence as a new leader will emerge. In the mean time,Carlos Rafael was sentence to 46 months in prison and a $1 million dollar fine as well as his fishing boasts being seized. The once flourishing harbor of New Bedford now looks like a ghost town.