Joe Fresh, a clothing line launched by Superstore, has been relatively successful at distinguishing itself from the “cheap and mediocre” image perceived of Superstore. When the brand first launched in 2006, few expected it to expand globally and as noted in my classmate, Diou Cao’s blog, many perceived it as a low-end, mass marketed clothing line. However, I believe that the concerns noted in Diou Cao’s blog post regarding the perceived “cheap and mediocre” image are obstacles that the brand has overcome already.

Joe Fresh has been distancing itself from Superstore physically and metaphorically by changing the “place” element in its marketing mix. They have opened independent, stand-alone clothing stores located in popular shopping districts, rather than in Superstore locations. In Vancouver, there is a store located on Granville St., near high-end, luxury stores such as Holt Renfrew. In addition, the brand has successfully expanded to the United States to affluent neighbourhoods in the Hamptons, where shoppers are unlikely to know about the Canadian grocery giant, Superstore. Thus, consumers are less likely to perceive the clothing as a low-end, widely accessible brand.

Most importantly, the choice of location reflects the level of prestige that Joe Fresh is trying to achieve and further cements the brand as a upper middle-class clothing retailer. The head designer, Joe Mimran, was one of the co-founders of the international, high-end fashion company, Club Monaco. On March 30, 2012, Joe Fresh opened its flagship store on the prestigious Fifth Avenue in New York and hired the award-winning interior design firm, Burdifilek, to design and renovate the store.

The overall store design and furnishings reflect Joe Fresh’s minimalist and clean-cut designs and provide a sharp contrast to the collection’s bold and bright colour palette. There are custom fixtures and finishes in matte white, blackened steel and clear acrylic to create the classically modern look represented by the brand. The opening of this high-profile store has proved to be a major accomplishment for Joe Fresh. Since its launch in Loblaw stores, Joe Fresh has come a long way in establishing itself as an independent brand by understanding the importance of location and distribution.

The first thing that popped into my mind when I read Josh Andler’s (a fellow classmate’s) blog post about the increasing use of product placement in films, was the music video, “Telephone”, by Lady Gaga. The video features at least 10 different brands, including Virgin Mobile, Wonderbread, and Miracle Whip.

Warning: The video is not suitable for all viewers.

Here is a full list of the products and the time intervals at which they appeared:

1:34: Dr. Dre Heartbeats earphones.
2:06: Virgin Mobile.
2:17: Diet Coke.
4:15: Virgin Mobile
4:24: HP Envy Beats Limited Edition laptop from Monster
4:28: Plenty Of Fish dating site
4:44: Chevrolet.
5:37: Polaroid.
6:24: Wonderbread.
6:36: Miracle Whip.
8:31: Polaroid

I believe that this video was an effective combination of advertising and entertainment, due to the popularity of Lady Gaga and the successful merging of entertainment value and advertising.

The advertised brands are associating themselves with a well-known singer who receives as much media attention for her music, as she does for her wardrobe and public statements. On the first day of the video’s launch, the number of views shot up to the millions and to date, there have been 36,632,779 views of “Telephone” on Youtube (March 8). As the artist with the most views on Youtube, Lady Gaga has captivated the online audience.

As Josh mentioned, many of us probably leave the T.V. during a commercial break, but we voluntarily view music videos on Youtube in their entirety solely for their entertainment value.  Lady Gaga’s video, “Telephone”, has a distinct storyline that seamlessly integrates product placement. There is evidence from a study by Mediaedge: CIA and CTV that viewers enjoy programs with an increased level of product placement, especially if it is well-integrated into the script. Due to the (expected) bizarre nature of her videos, products that may seem random are able to fit well into Lady Gaga’s unique storyboard. For example, Miracle Whip and Wonder Bread is advertised in a sequence about making a sandwich.

By advertising in such a mainstream artist’s video, the brands have flawlessly become a part of their target market’s lifestyle. They can potentially reach a larger portion of the younger generation and be perceived as trendy, must-have products. However, they should be cautious and avoid overbombarding viewers, which can disrupt the entertainment experience.

Within 16 days of launching, Google+ gained an astounding 10 million users (a feat that took Facebook 852 days to accomplish). As blogged on “Drew’s Marketing Minute,” many business owners may not realize what a powerful business marketing tool Google+ is. I agree with Drew’s three main reasons for businesses to embrace Google+: personalized search results, easy searching for social networking profiles, and the display of relevant Google+ business pages with every search.  These features helped Google gain a relative advantage over other search engines, particularly Bing by Microsoft, and quickly increased the adoption rate of this new innovation.

To elaborate on Drew’s three main points, I researched further into the new search engine features and discovered some other potential advantages for business users. The personalized search draws from the user’s Google+ profile and photos to generate the most relevant search results possible. This could help firms find their major competition in terms of similar market offerings or substitute goods. If users find the search results irrelevant, they can easily switch between the “global” and the “personal” view with the click of a button. Companies could experiment to see what a typical consumer’s search engine results are when they type in certain keywords that are relevant to the company.

Another plus for business professionals and students is the easy profile search for people that we know or have just met. Ever had the experience where you meet John Smith at a networking event, but you can’t differentiate between the one that you met from the hundreds of others on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook? Google+ can draw information from the user’s profile and the their friends’ to find the right person.

In addition, businesses can edit their profile content to enhance their online presence and professional network. When someone conducts an online search for the company or employee, Google will draws from all aspects of the World Wide Web to find the most important content and display it in the summarized search result. There will also be a link provided to the Google+ profile. Other social networking profiles can be added to the search result by the user. The benefits are that Google can increase the likelihood of the company appearing first or higher up in search results, at no cost to the company. However, Google+ users will need to monitor their online presence more closely and try to minimize or eliminate any negative online content that is related to them. Business users can be reassured knowing that the service is free and can be ended at any time. The account and the social search can be deactivated and eliminated entirely from the search settings.

As Drew says, “you simply cannot ignore Google+.” Google+ is not just another social networking site (with the added feature of group video calling). Potential business users worried about the time-consuming task of maintaining yet another social networking site will realize that the benefits outweigh the opportunity costs.

Metro Vancouver launched the “Create Memories, not Garbage” campaign for the 2011 Christmas season to encourage the gifting of services, such as opera tickets, instead of material goods. The target market is consumers of all age groups who celebrate the Christmas season.  The website is user-friendly and easy to navigate, which is helpful for older users. It features e-cards, a forum for contributing green ideas, and “Garbage Issues” videos.

Metro Vancouver attempted to interact on a deeper level online with consumers, but failed, due to the overly broad target market and the ineffective use of generational marketing. There was a lack of advertisement exposure to children and seniors. Youth and young adults spend the most time online. In addition, the placement of advertisements was mainly in skytrain stations. Youth and the younger working class are more frequent transit users than are seniors and children. Also, each ad targets a specific age group, instead of their lifestyle. An advertisement featuring the line “Ryan’s giving Grandma square dance lessons- with Ryan.” seems tacky and irrelevant to the target market. Most young adults do not enjoy square dancing.

On the website, Metro Vancouver was not creating a two-way conversation with the website’s visitors. On January 10, 2012, there were no Twitter results for the hashtag “#GreenAngel” on Twitter. Most videos have one to three tweets or one share. When I viewed the video on the state of landfills after Christmas last week, I felt guilty after seeing piles and piles of garbage. If I had taken the time to watch these videos earlier, I would’ve tried to be more environmentally friendly in the types of gifts that I bought. Like many others, I was too busy trying to finish my Christmas shopping and did not have strong incentives to change my current shopping behaviour. Boxing Day sales also started early this year and many of the suggested gifts, such as bungee jumping tickets, are too expensive. Now that the Christmas shopping rush is over, many are no longer concerned with the idea of giving and will most likely forget the campaign by next year. Therefore, customers have little incentive to abandon the usual tradition of buying tangible goods.

I believe that the marketing tactic is unsustainable because it is short-term and focuses only on the Christmas shopping season. Perhaps the campaign would’ve been more effective if it had featured disturbing images similar to the “Garbage Issue” videos, which would’ve stirred up stronger feelings, such as guilt. This could’ve been more effective in changing consumer behaviour to a more sustainable one for the long-run.