Advice on planning a Marketing essay

Planning a Marketing essay

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Good Morning Little ones (nearly the afternoon), just managed to get writing this, but I got my results back yesterday from my first exam; and I am more than happy with them! But this got me thinking, the only reason I manged to get such a high grade; was because I planned strategically hard. If you do Marketing, or if you struggle writing essays, then give this little blog post a read. I'm also going to interject some examples that the exam gave me.
Have a great day Little ones, I will also see you later on today as well! Can't wait!

If you want to read other advice blog posts, click here!

Analyse the question:

If you are anything like me, looking at the question time and time again can get rather frustrating. Appose to staring at it and hoping that it’ll give you the answers, take out the key words and put in your own words what it’s asking you to do. This way it’ll be easier to understand, and you won’t want to pull your hair. In my perspective, my exam asked me to, “Is there a fine line between persuading and manipulating customers into buying products/services. And does cooperate propaganda still exist?”.

First impressions were this is all over the place, immediately I thought that it would be best to find the definitions to manipulating and persuading. With this information, I was able to find techniques to both phrases, which I knew would help when analysing one of my points. I then thought that it would be best to find two companies that persuaded customers and one which manipulated them; this way I was able to differentiate between the wrong and right way to promote products to future consumers. On the other hand, the second aspect of the question was about propaganda, in my situation I found out the definition and applied the companies I had already researched, being Apple and Superdrug, and applied it to their advertising strategies.  

Apply the correct essay structure:

Fundamentally, having the correct essay structure is the foundation to a perfect essay. If you know what you are going to write about, and how to do it, it’ll be a walk in the park for you. Whereas if you struggle then this is the construction I would follow:

Point-have a strong and engaging point. This shows that you know what you are talking about from the beginning and will give you extra marks because of this. Keep it brief and to the point, I’ve made mistakes from this in the past; but I have learnt from those. 

In my exam, my first point was, “fundamentally, a company that successfully persuades their customers would be Apple. They give clear descriptions of the product offering, no hidden costs, and they are specific”. This gives a brief description about the company and how they work, as well as putting your own opinion across to the examiner.

Evidence- to make your point strong, you need to have factual evidence to support your point, or the examiner could think that you made this up. In my situation, I referenced the Apple advert for the iPhone 7 release. ALWAYS use evidence, whether it’s from moving image or print, always use it. 

Analyses- this is the most CRUCIAL part to the essay! This is what shows that you understand the question. When analysing you need to put forward your argument, you need to answer the questions, why they did it that way and how. If you constantly have the why and how in your mind; and you can answer that, that’ll give you high marks … 100% guaranteed. 

An example of my piece of work is as followed:

“Portrays and states “25% brighter retina display, longest iPhone battery ever”. This is a proper way of persuasion because they are not lying to their customers, otherwise it would be manipulation. By keeping it brief they are not boring their consumers, they are keeping their attention; which increases Apple’s chance of persuading their customers to buy the iPhone 7”.  

Reference- I can’t stress this enough! YOU NEED TO REFERENCE! You will lose marks! If you can’t state where you got the information from then you are in trouble! Also, when you are referencing, you have to do it in the Harvard style. For example, when it came to refencing the Apple advert I presented it like this: Apple, 16-09-2016, Apple-iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in 107 seconds, video, online ULR-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geoveidgym4. Lat moderated 7-09-16. 

Link-ALWAYS link back to the question. It always rounds up your original point and makes it neat and tidy. That way that point is officially closed and you can move on to your next point.

In contrast to this, the essay structure should look like this:

Introduction: define the keywords, input what you are going to be doing in this essay and apply any context information about the companies (if needed).

Point one: make your point, back it up using PEARL and repeat.

Point two: make your point, back it up using PEARL and repeat.

Point three: make your point, back it up using PEARL and repeat.

Conclusion: conclude what you have done, and say what you final opinion is and relate to certain points of the essay, and then link back to the question as a final round up.

Depending on how many words and how much time you need is dependent on how many points you can come up with. I managed to write 3 key points in the space of an hour with a clear introduction and conclusion.

Thank you for reading this blog post Little ones! It’s a shame that it’s now over, but I will be back later! I’ll be writing a blog post in the middle of LAN (gaming society that I help run at University). But I have missed you all so very much! See you VERY soon! 

Stay safe and stay tuned Little ones! :D  x x x

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Advice

Applying to university-personal statement

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Email: missamymcguire@hotmail.com

If you need to ask me any other questions about this or any other topic don't be shy! Talk to me on my social media platforms above or below this blog post!

Good morning Little ones! How are you doing? What are you plans for today? I know that I'm going to be writing a review later on! I can't wait to share it with you :).

Any who, I have decided to help people who want to apply for University; but first things first, your personal statement needs to be PERFECT! 

In this blog post I am going to be:

• Showing you how to plan your personal statement; 
• what not to put in your personal statement;
• how to write your personal statement;
• the rules and regulations;
• my personal statement
  If you need help, or just need some inspiration, have a little look! I just really hope this helps :)
• Also, I hope to make 'applying to university' a series. For example, later on I want to tell you my experiences with applying for student fiance, my first year at university etc. 

If you want to read other advice on my blog, click here!

When I started studying my second year of Sixth Form (A2), they drummed into our minds the importance of applying for University, and that your personal statement had to be perfect! I remember walking into the hall, and before we were welcomed back into the new academic year; our head of year had a long and boring speech based on just personal statements ... Yes my summer was lovely; thank you for asking. But with this speech were just words, they went over my head; they didn't explain how to do it; they just wanted it done ASAP. 

This meaning, we were alone, I knew what I was best at, and that was planning to the extreme.

TOP TIP NUMBER ONE:
PLAN

When it came to planning my personal statement I used various strategies. For example, when I needed a generic guideline I put the subject which I wish to study in the middle; which was Marketing, and placed hit words of why I wanted to study it. With this I branched out on the why, and started analysing this with: marketing articles, quotes from people in the marketing field etc. And used this valid piece of information and linked it back to the question of: why I want to study marketing, and why I am the best candidate for this course. ALWAYS have this question in mind or in front of you! MAKE SURE YOU ALWAYS LINK BACK TO THE QUESTION! If you ramble out of track you aren't answering the question; which shows your university that you aren't right for that particular course. 

WHAT NOT TO PUT IN YOUR PERSONAL STATEMENT:

As much as you want to, and as much as I wanted to ... Don't use intricate language. I know ... It's painful. But you need to make sure that it's easy to understand and to read. Keep in mind that your university has to read thousands of these applications they don''t have time to read your fancy writing. As much as you think it will set a good impression, it won't, it will do the complete opposite. 

DON'T PLAGIARIZER! I know it's a drag! Believe me I know you'd rather be doing your homework, but this needs to be done! Don't take the lazy way out and use someone else's personal statement! I have seen people doing it and their universities have turned them down! The sooner this is done the better! If you need to copy information, for example when I was writing my personal statement I needed quotes from famous marketing individuals, I referenced their quote. THIS IS OK TO DO! JUST REMEMBER TO REFERENCE ALL INFORMATION THAT ISN'T YOUR OWN. 

HOW TO WRITE YOUR PERSONAL STATEMENT:

When it comes to writing your personal statement, it should flow. You should know what to write, as you are writing about a subject in which you want to study; in some way shape and form you have an idea of what to write.

If I was to give any advice I would suggest to:

• Write why you want to study this course;
• why you feel you are right for this course; 
• where did your passion come from? Have you learnt about it before? Reading online?;
• what extra reading have you done? (Use websites-blogs, books, personal experience-where have you been which links into your course?) For example, I went on a marking trip when I was studying media.
• who has influenced you? Why does this impact your course;
• what have you done outside of school, your hobbies, awards etc.

These key elements will be your guide, this will help you throughout writing your personal statement,

When writing your personal statement, make sure that it's short and snappy. Make sure you are always answering the question, and that you are to the point. You want to show your university of choice that you know how to write, and you know how to answer questions. 

RULES:

• Your personal statement has to be a total of 4000 characters, this includes spaces, commas, new sentence etc;
• if there is any information that isn't yours, ALWAYS reference;
• be 100% truthful, don't lie in your personal statement, your university DOES check! 

MY PERSONAL STATEMENT:

I wrote this personal statement on my own, it took me a total of 4 hours with one attempt. This includes planning by the way! It normally shouldn't take this long, but I took my planning to the max! With that being said, after I gave it to my head of year I only needed to change a few words as they were "too complex". Which is why I mentioned earlier, that your language should be simple!
My personal statement was a total of 3840 characters with spaces! And was a total of 628 words.

Marketing and advertising Personal Statement-Amy McGuire:

Marketing and Advertising is unquestionably an influential part of civilisation. I want to study this course because it would enrich my knowledge, and give me more information and experience in the Marketing and Advertising field; and would help me gain a better understanding of my future occupation. My passion started for this course in my A Level Media Studies. Additionally a key strength I have would be the capability to work independently and research successfully. A perfect example would be, planning and researching for my EPQ which was based on historical and modern architecture.

Another key strength would be my ability to work well within a team. An example would be, in Business Studies we were set a task of selling roses, making a profit and giving that to charity. My role was to compare suppliers, select the cheapest and to advertise the entire project. I did this by creating posters and placing them around school. This gave me a better understanding of what Advertising and Marketing would entail, because creating various forms of advertisements (posters) is a must in this type of industry, especially when you have to engage the public eye. We all communicated with each other to make sure everything went well, and also helped our team by dividing the workload. We made a profit of £138.76 and gave it to The British Heart Foundation. Furthermore another key strength would be, my problem solving skills, for example when I was supervisor at Cargo I had to tackle issues which entailed: refunds, customer complaints, furniture orders etc. I had to use my knowledge and understanding of the business to figure out a way I would solve these issues on a regular basis.

What I’ve done outside of School includes: volunteering at The British Heart Foundation, attending my weekend job at Sainsbury’s, which helped me develop my organisation and communication skills, purely because I have to speak to people on a daily basis, and I have to organise my time wisely when at work so I know what tasks to do without overlapping. I also write a blog on how to deal with depression and anxiety, which have enriched my writing and analytical skills, in which I would need to be able to analyse Marketing and Advertising strategies. Within my free time I read around Marketing and Advertising, my main resource’s being: “Advertising promotion and other aspects of integrated marketing communications” (2013)-book by Shrimp, Terence A; Andrews, J. Craig. Another book I’ve read into is, “Advertising age: the principles of advertising and marketing communications at work”-by Thorson, Esther; Duffy, Margaret (2011). I found these texts significant because it gave me a detailed overview of what Marketing and Advertising was, the history of many advertising companies, for example Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), in which they help take down advertisements which are inappropriate. Furthermore I’ve followed Marketing and Advertising blogs, such as: AdverBlog and Seth Godin, only because they deliver new advice, knowledge and encouragement; especially Seth Godin. For example his main moto is “make something happen”, this is helpful for me because it gives me motivation to work hard in my studies and aim for a better future. But the information provided by him is good, purely because he’s giving his own view of what it’s like to be in the Marketing and Advertising industry, “Only in the last 20 years have we seen marketing change”. On the other hand some of the material provided by him can be deceptive, he keeps it too brief. For example in one post he’s explains “The other element of guerilla marketing”, I would’ve liked it if he could’ve analysed the process properly, because I would’ve understood it more. Altogether I do find my resources extremely helpful, especially when preparing for university. 

I hope this has helped you! I know that when I was researching on how to write my personal statement, coming across a good blog post really helped me. I hope this has the same affect on you! I also hope that you find it easy and less stressful; as I know going into your second year of A Levels is tough! If you don't already know and would like to know my Sixth Form experience click here!
If I can do it, then I know you can to! 

I wish you a very good day! If you need to ask me any other questions about this or any other topic don't be shy! Talk to me on my social media platforms above or below this blog post!

I love you all so very much! See you later on today! Stay tuned Little ones <3 :D x x x 

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Twitter:AmyRoseMcGuire
Email: missamymcguire@hotmail.com

 

Advice

How to plan a holiday 

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Twitter:AmyRoseMcGuire
Email: missamymcguire@hotmail.com

Good morning lovely people! How are you doing today? I've had a good old breakfast, and I' planning on posting three blog posts! Today is going to be a very productive and busy day for me; but I love a challenge! What are you guys up to today? Please let me know by commenting down below, or talking on my social media platforms! They are listed above and below this blog post!

I am heading to France with my boyfriend and his family in August, it's the first time I have ever been abroad! I know! I'm a very anxious bean, but this year I am fighting my fears and heading to France!
I thought that I would write this blog post to help people how to plan a holiday; as I've been planning mad for the last few months!
If you need help or advice on how to do this, have a little read below and enjoy!

P.S: if you are going on holiday, please tell me where you are going! I hope you have a lovely time!:D 

If you want to read other advice posts, click here!

Buy a planning book:

I bought this from John Lewis, but it can also be found on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1908170085/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=569136327&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0749556722&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=57VPQE7SM4SGKZQJHRBX
There are other planning books out there, you don't need to buy this exact one. It retails for £9.99.

When I found out that I was actually leaving the country for the first time in my life, I was so excited, but extremely nervous! I have NEVER been outside the UK. To stop my anxiety holding me back once more I decided to take matters into my own hands and buy a planning book. This enabled me to write down everything I needed to know. For example, within this book it has several sections which are essential when planning a holiday. 

Without this handy contraption, I don't think I would be leaving the country, I would be too nervous to remember the necessities at the top of my head. Having something organised to write everything down means I can look back on notes, any last minute adjustments can be made; and I can also record my encounters in another country. 

Within this book there are several sections, for example:

• Check list, 
• recommended websites to use;
• where to go; 
• where to stay; 
• what places you want to visit; 
• how you are going to get there 

This is a planners dream book! I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it! It changed my life as it didn't make me anxious, it took away my nerves of traveling to a different place. I highly recommend a planning book when you are going on holiday! I can't stress this enough! 

Ask yourself questions:

When planning a holiday, you need to ask yourself the important questions, if you can't answer these questions clearly, then you need to plan further.
Ask yourself:

• Where do you want to go?
  Where have you always wanted to go? Make your dream a reality. Where in this world has always grabbed your attention? Is it the culture? The atmosphere? The food? Architecture? Whatever you are interested in go and make it possible! I know that I have always wanted to go to Rome, and I am hoping that I will going this time next year. my passion for Italian food is unreal! Pasta is my weakness, as well as architecture. I love buildings, the way they have changed over the years due to war, weather and people. Neat and modern buildings don't interest me, I love imperfections and cracking within the bricks. I want to explore Rome, not just for the beauty,but for the adventure and fulfillment I will get out of it. 
• What is the budget?
  How much can you afford? This means that you need to plan, how long you are going to stay, where you are going to go when you get there, and what are you going to buy? I know for a fact when I go to France, I want to purchase little trinkets that remind me of where I have been; I want to make my memory realistic. You need to make sure that you know how much you are going to spend on the holiday, as well as getting there.
  To make this dream reality, you need to make sure that you stay within your budget, and don't go over the top. 
• Where are you going to stay?
  Have you looked at hotels, hostels, B&B's? What do you want to get out of the holiday, where do you want to stay during your experience? This question will be answered differently depending on what you want, and what experience you want. For example, if you want to head on an adventure and live is rough, I would say head to a hostel. They are inexpensive, and you get to meet various characters along the way. On the other hand, do you find hotels satisfying, do you want to live a world of luxury? Are you at home with bathrobes and private rooms? Bu then again, it depends on where you want to go as well. 
• How are you going to get there?
  When going on holiday, you need to make sure that you know how to get there. What way do you like to travel? Or what way is easier and less stressful for you? I know that I have a fear of flying, I have never been on a plane, and I don't think I've brave enough to do it this year. I know that the way I am heading to France is car and boat. This is the way Chris's family always does it; (my boyfriend). I find this completely perfect, I love car journeys, despite getting really sick, but after the nausea  has faded, I can sleep for hours on end.
  As long as you know how you are going to get there and back, then that's pretty much the majority of your planning sorted. 
• What do you need to bring?
  Depending on where you are going, varies on what you need to bring. For example, are you heading to Dubai? If so, do you have sun-cream? Do you have the correct clothing? Do you have the right money currency? etc.
  I know that when I head to France I need clothes that are appropriate for the British weather; you guys know what I'm talking about! Hot one minute, then cold the next!

I know that within the next few weeks I will be showing you how to pack a suit case, what you need in your suitcase, and what not to forget! As the weeks role by, I will be keeping you up to date on what I am buying for France, as well as planning.
If you need to ask me any questions,or to have a causal chat, talk to me on my social media platforms above and below this blog post! :D

Thank you for taking your time to read this! I hope you have a lovely day, and I will see you again later on today! I love you lots, stay tuned Little ones :D <3

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Twitter:AmyRoseMcGuire
Email: missamymcguire@hotmail.com