1. When it comes to benefits, our lecture talks to three kinds -- functional benefits (in effect, physical or tangible characteristics of a product or service -- these are sometimes called ADVANTAGES), emotional benefits (relate very powerfully to self-concept; they are cognitive -- how the benefit provides us safety, comfort, peace-of-mind, feel-good, etc), and symbolic benefits (literally, what the benefit means to us, e.g., ego or status).
I came across several good articles that take our lecture well beyond those three terms. Here are three of them. Please take ONE of these articles, read it, and comment -- do you agree or disagree with what the authors share?
Functional Benefits
Emotional Benefits
Symbolic Brands
2. Marketing in 1951 and marketing in 2016 - sixty-five years later - sure has changed! Let's look at this concept called 'crowdfunding' -- what is your comfort level with this concept? Will this be the trend of the future?