Working on the Marketing Plan assignment has been a great experience for me. This group project allowed me to have more experience working and cooperating in a group, applying knowledge learned in class directly to a company, and to be creative with the video.  I felt that the various aspects of the project (the project outline, analysis, and video) allowed me to focus on applying every aspect of what was learned in class.

I most enjoyed the video aspect of this project as it differed from other typical group projects. This video allowed my group and I and take our knowledge of marketing and apply it directly in a way that would express how we had actually learned the material taught. Throughout this process, we were constantly thinking of our target audience, how they would interpret and receive the information, the different forms of media that we could use to best represent our company and its values, as well as the visual appeal of the film itself.

However, this video segment also proved to be the most difficult. Personally, I had difficulty trying to show everything I had learned throughout the term. The previous two parts of the project illustrated my group’s knowledge of the material and the company, yet it was difficult finding the best way to portray our knowledge creatively. As stated above, this was the most fun and interesting aspect of the project for me because it proved to be the most difficult. Marketing is about the consumers, and their relationship with the brand and company. Therefore in order to truly convey what we had learned, we needed to successfully connect consumers to the video.

I feel that knowing about the peer reviews gave perspective on the project. This provided us with a target audience beyond the professors, and allowed us to direct our video accordingly.

A strong and well-known brand is essential to the success of a company. Its brand, represented by its logo that acts as the first thing that consumers see, is meant to capture their attention, and provoke any existing or new feelings and ideas surrounding the product. Having a stable representation of a brand for any product is essential to how it is positioned in the consumer’s mind.

As described in my classmate Anita Facundo’s blog post earlier last month (https://blogs.ubc.ca/anitafacundo/) , the popular retailer for outdoor gear, Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC), had changed its logo from its traditional mountain symbol that has lasted 40 years, to one that simple shows “MEC” in a green box. This re-branding of MEC was to incorporate the fact that the company’s products have diversified into sports directed towards urban consumers such as yoga, cycling, and running.

Despite understanding the company’s motives to change the logo, I agree with Anita’s views on this change. Changing the logo that has been representing the large and trusted brand for 40 years may disturb customers and have them question what they knew about the company. Furthermore, the new logo seems to have even less to do with the core values of the brand. Removing the mountain image from the original logo and not having a replacement it in the new logo to represent the products of the company seems to take away from the outdoorsy and adventurous values the company used to portray. Even though MEC is trying to provide equipment for more urban activities, it is still providing equipment for these adventurous activities.

The new logo seems too generic and unspecified for this highly specialized market. It no longer captures the nature of MEC and will take a lot of extra marketing and promotion to build its strength to represent this long-time running brand.

As consumers, we view the purpose of marketers is to gather our interest and sell us products. Using the development of a company culture, promoting campaigns, and targeting certain people, marketers can better achieve their goal. However, when targeting certain demographics becomes extreme exclusivity, the question of ethics arises.

A well known example of this is the controversy involving Abercrombie and Fitch. The American brand is known for its “hot” image and aims, at all costs, to maintain its “cool” factor. When the company’s CEO, Mike Jeffries, stated that the brand is only for “cool kids”, this statement of exclusivity is supported by the fact that the brand doesn’t produce larger sized clothing for women. Furthermore, there have been numerous accounts of employees being fired or quitting for not adhering to the strict dress code of the store. Like many retail stores, employees are expected to wear the clothes of the company, yet to maintain its “cool” culture, Abercrombie employees are forced to remove religious symbols and clothing.

The public response to Jeffries’ comment highlights the current unethical nature of the brand as it offended many consumers and sparked some to boycott the brand.

It is important and strategic for companies to create their own culture and differ themselves from the competition. However,  when it begins to categorize people into those who are worthy enough for the clothes and those that are not, and interfering with their rights, it may be taking it too far.

Having a message like this representing a brand not only angers consumers, but offers a choice to society. Are we one that accepts this type of exclusivity and treats it like a status symbol? Or one that recognizes the ethical issues presented by this and strives to change it?

Being a relatively new concept, evolved and compiled from the concepts of businesspeople, social change, and innovation, Social Entrepreneurship is difficult to properly define and pinpoint. David Bornstein, in his blog post, The Rise of the Social Entrepreneur, addresses not only the misconception many people hold about social entrepreneurs, but also explores who these social entrepreneurs are and how they function.

Many people tend to think of social entrepreneurs simply as businesspeople who address problems, while Bornstein identifies them as any citizen who strives for progress and change- “to address problems more successfully than the past”.

Agreeing with much of what Bornstein has to say, the idea that social entrepreneurs go beyond the business and political world, into the everyday lives of any and all citizens is valid. Such a new movement must strike a different path than the others, and push past the typical boundaries of entrepreneurship. Being that entrepreneurship has connotations of innovation, the social aspect, to me, not only indicates that the goal is to impact communities, but that it is the raw community itself making the change.

For businesses, increasing focus and importance is being put on social responsibility, resulting in yet another thing to consider when making large decisions: how their actions will affect the rest of the community.

In Steve McKee’s article “Corporate Social Responsibility: Distinction or Distraction?”, he states that businesses have to decide to be either responsible to their stakeholders or to the rest of society, while leaning towards the former. He cautions that large issues like world hunger are distractions to businesses and that they should not address issues not directly related to the company.

However, I believe that businesses should always consider how their actions and movements would affect the greater population, or find a compromise of the two. Businesses cannot prosper without the support of society, and need to consider how their actions will affect others.

Supported by Mannat Cheema’s blog , ‘5 Hour Energy’, there is a growing need for businesses to voluntarily act ethically with their growing prominence in societies.  Having so much influence on what people buy, their jobs, working conditions, and lifestyles requires a degree of responsibility to aid the growth of society positively.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-08-09/corporate-social-responsibility-distinction-or-distraction

With new products such as the pink, skin protecting Honda Fit “She’s” model, and the new Bic “For Her” pen highlighted in Susan Krashinsky’s article Surge in gender-targeted products creates marketing headaches for companies, we can see how these companies view women, and separate men’s and women’s products. The article highlights the various products companies are aiming at women, and their ineffective ways of advertising them. When trying to direct products towards the women consumer category, companies seem to focus on making things pink, and pretty, assuming that that is what attracts women.

In our social culture today, these tactics are not only ineffective, but also off-putting. Though this form of advertising could attract some people, in our society today, at least where these products are marketed, are filled with successful women who desire more than pink accessories.

Women are a very large consumer group, which is important to target.  With the higher status of women in our society today, and the thinning divides of gender roles, companies should shift their marketing strategies to play on the success and value of women rather than assuming they have a desire to look pretty with a pink pen. Seeing these companies’ views of women through their forms of advertisement is off-putting and would not attract me to buying their products.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/surge-in-gender-targeted-products-creates-marketing-headaches-for-companies/article5358521/

Big companies, with the right resources and capital, are able to find target markets internationally and expand their businesses there in order to increase profit and efficiency. Contrastingly, it is also possible to acquire businesses internationally and have them incorporated into local firms. Many smaller Canadian firms have begun to do this, some with decent rewards, others with complications. Buying foreign firms a growing path to expansion, by Caitlin Crawshaw explores various small businesses that found advantages in buying struggling firms overseas.

Not all firms function in the same way, and larger firms definitely differ from smaller ones in term of capital, resources, and employment. The limited resources that some small companies face lead them to make large, and often risky, decisions with the hopes of success. As shown in the article, Angel Accessibility Solutions is a company in Victoria suffering losses due to the decreasing supply from the manufacturers of the products they sold. As a result, in order to save their company, the accessibility solutions company bought the manufacturers who product they distributed. This move can be criticized as risky and un-worthwhile, yet I believe is necessary in certain circumstances. Acquiring this overseas company gave Angel the ability to control product manufacturing, a solid international base, and growth to their company.

In all business, large scale or small, risks have to be taken in order to grow and prosper. Each firm has to strategically identify its issues, and the appropriate steps for economic growth.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-growth/going-global/buying-foreign-firms-a-growing-path-to-expansion/article4609615/