Aaaand I’m back!
Hey world, it’s been a while. Posts for COMM 464 begin here! Enjoy.
Unrelated, but super cool! Check it out.
Fooled Ya!
By the end of Friday night I was getting really sick of the relationship status updates I was getting on Facebook. However, I very much enjoyed browsing the many innovative hoaxes that big time corporations had put up on the web just for the day. I don’t feel like April Fools’ Day advertisements are necessarily effective in gaining new consumers, although it’s great for us to see that there is a light, fun side to the overly serious business world. Here are some I found interesting!
I wouldn’t call myself a font fanatic but with my interest in graphic design I just had to go onto Google and type in Helvetica! This is what came up…Looks a bit different eh? Well I thought it was cool!
Here’s another one from Google. I’m sure most of you have seen this one though. I present you with Gmail Motion! It’s pretty hilarious the details and research they go into!
How about the Starbucks Mobile Pour? Many people I know would appreciate this smartphone application that allows Starbucks employees to track and deliver a hot, fresh cup of coffee to you wherever you are!
Keeps your eyes open for more next year!
Cookies & Cream or Cookies & Cream?
Having just come back from grocery shopping, my attention was drawn to Luke’s Blog#4: Colors that speak because I found myself making a final decision on a product based merely on the colour of its packaging! So I was trying to decide on a which ice cream to buy, and after having eliminated seven or so promising choices through flavour, price, and quantity etc. I was left with one flavour but two different packages…
With a closer look at their labels, now I see that one’s Classic and the other is All Natural. At the time though, I saw the light blue packaging and instantly thought it was of lesser quality and would likely be low-fat/taste watery whereas the black+green had a sophisticated feel to it and would taste rich and creamy (even though the Rich & Creamy was written on the blue package and I actually read when making the decision, I didn’t believe it). In the end, I left with a tub of the All Natural ice cream and was very pleased with the product! I just found this interesting because I never noticed how the simple packaging of a product can generate such assumptions in a split seconds time and have the final say in the buying decision.
Heineken WALK-IN FRIDGE
Remember this commercial that launched a couple years back?
It shows a young woman giving her friends a tour of her apartment. The women shriek with joy by the sight of the walk-in closet; however, their cries of joy are quickly drowned out by the guys next door who have just entered a gigantic fridge stocked with cans of Heineken beer.Created in the Netherlands, this well executed commercial portrays Heineken beer as the fashion equivalent for men.
As a complement to this commercial, I thought it was brilliant when they came up with the low-costing yet effective walk-in fridge boxes that were placed on the streets of Amsterdam on garbage disposal day capturing the attention of many by this unusual sight!
What do bubble baths and degreasing your car engine have in common?
For years of my life I’ve been mislead to thinking that if my toothpaste wasn’t foaming my teeth weren’t getting cleaned and if my dish soap wasn’t forming a mountain of bubbles my plates just didn’t feel clean. I found out recently from listening to a podcast on Stuff You Should Know that this foaming effect more or less just creates the impression of cleanliness that in effect help the product sell.
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) is a surfactant, in simpler terms it’s a foaming agent that’s commonly found not only in our daily personal care products such as shampoos, soaps, toothpastes, and detergents but also in a garage where it’s used to dissolve the grease in car engines.
While it degreases car engines, you could imagine what it does to your skin. Do you ever notice that your hands are awfully dry after washing a load of dishes? Well that’s SLS doing its charm in dissolving the oils in your skin. A report in the journal of the American College of Toxicology showed that even concentrations of 0.5% could cause irritation and that concentrations of 10-30% caused skin corrosion and severe irritation. It is known to denature skin proteins causing not only irritation but creates easy access for environmental contaminants into sensitive layers of the skin. It has been documented that SLS can lead to a variety of health implications as well.
Is this an ethical way to market?
The Canned Laughter of Marketing
Prior to the 1950s television sitcoms were filmed in front live audiences; this enhanced the performance of the actors and it also acted as a queue to when something funny was happening to viewers at home. However, a live studio audience came with many complications so a clever individual eventually created the ‘laugh track’. Here are a couple examples of the laugh track at work,
Stars Wars laugh track added: can’t help but laugh at some point
Big Bang Theory minus laugh track: not as funny with awkward silences
It’s very interesting the way laughter is contagious, and while reading Rohit Bhargava’s Influential Marketing Blog I learned that this principle is not only limited to sitcoms and laughter but can also be applied in marketing practices. In marketing you must demonstrate the desired customer behaviour so that you can get the same behaviour from wider group.
Similar contagious behaviours that are being used in businesses:
- Youtube ratings & Facebook ‘likes’ etc – Displaying the number of people who have viewed, tweeted or liked the page gives you an external validation on which content is the most popular, and potentially worth your time.
- Restaurant windows & patios – By seating people by the windows or outdoor on a patio it gives the illusion that the restaurant is packed and popular; thus, the people walking by will perceive it as a place worthy to dine at.
- Thermometer bulbs – This is often seen when tracking donations and it has proven to be quite effective. An example, tip jars are usually started off with some change inside and people will follow suit.
- “Sold out” banners – Creates the perception that the products will not be on the market for long so you better buy it quick before it’s gone.
“Ask your doctor today about [insert drug].”
“Do you suffer from allergy symptoms, depression, erectile dysfunction, or …?”
Doesn’t matter. You name it and they’ve got a drug for you!
“Ask your doctor today about Claritin, Zoloft, or Viagra etc.”
(Side effects may include nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea, other serious illnesses and death.)
Sound familiar to you?
In recent years, the number of pharmaceutical ads on TV, radio, and magazines has noticeably increased to a point where they can compete with, say, car commercials. This is due to a recent discovery that not only can they sell their products to doctors but they can also get the message directly through to the patients- the ultimate consumer.
This new trend of direct to consumer pharma marketing is so worrying because it’s terrifyingly effective. Numerous ex pharmaceutical representatives have come out to warn the general public about pharmaceutical companies and their crafty ways of marketing. Stick in a few devious tactics and consumers will buy anything. For example, with the use of easy-to-relate everyday folks, trustworthy medical professionals, celebrity endorsements, taglines, facts, and statistics all providing marketing (not medical) information that’s slyly shaped to clear through legal regulations.
The amount of money pharmaceutical companies are spending on marketing drastically surpasses amount that’s put into research (marketing > research). This is a very serious situation that should not be overlooked. It’s important we note the fact that not every symptom requires us to ingest a drug to treat it and that sometimes the potential risks of taking a certain drug shadow the benefits. Not to mention the amount of money people are willing to spend to get their hands on the latest prescription drug; but then again, someone ought to pay for all the advertising.
Gardasil – Using everyday women, pushing the fear of getting cervical cancer, pitching fact after fact, “ONE LESS” tagline
Peptobismol – Who doesn’t know this catchy jingle?
Latisse- A pill to grow lashes! What can I say…
B2C
When I was younger, I used to flip through paper catalogues imagining that by pointing at the items that I wanted, they would magically appear in front of my eyes. Silly! I know.
Little did I know… technology today is bringing us close to that very thing.
Clothing, books, videogames, electronics, music, automotive, tickets, art, real estate, and everything else- you name it- can be placed into your virtual shopping cart then purchased with a simple click of a few and lastly delivered to your doorsteps. In recent years, online shopping has become increasingly popular amongst the upper class (and now the middle class as well) societies. What people are looking for today is convenience, convenience,and convenience, so what better than to offer B2C (Business-to-Consumer) online shopping?
Advantages (for consumers):
- Direct access to retailer’s website
- Compare like products
- Read reviews from other buyers
- Minus the cost of the in store experience
- Offered in various languages
- Closing time? Kah-puushk! Open 24/7!
- Delivered to you or to the closest location etc.
Disadvantages:
- Outrageous shipping fees
- Cannot test/ handle the product (eg. camera, car)
- Is there a return policy?
- No salesperson to answer your questions (usually by email, sometimes phone call
- Fraud and security concern
I, myself, am not an online shopper fanatic; however, I have done a bit of exploring. As a consumer, what I’d like to see on a shopping site is a fresh, clean, no-clutter layout that’s easy to navigate. I’ve posted a screenshot of Urban Outfitters’ (http://www.urbanoutfitters.com) online shopping design and what I like about this is that it is very neat and concise. I’ve got the price, colour, size, and quantity; details, reviews, ask & answer; photos from different angles; and similar products that I may like! This is a very simple example but you get the gist, : ).
That’s all for now. Ciao!