Adrian Wong's Blog

After reading fellow classmate Nazanin Mozaffarifar’s blog post entitled, “The Difference Marketing Makes,” I realized that Skechers’ success is a marketer’s dream. Amidst an athletic shoe industry dominated by Nike, Skechers has exemplified clever brand positioning being the first to claim a unique position in the minds of consumers. Nike is viewed as a predominately male brand that sells athlete’s shoes for athletes with emphasis on performance. Sketchers has intelligently positioned itself as fashionable sneaker brand specifically targeting women. By selling fitness shoes for people who are not fitness freaks, they are not committing to an athletic identity but rather one of fashion. Sketchers’ Shape-Ups toning shoes are offered in variety of colors and styles which implies their product can be worn anywhere besides the gym.

In other words, while Nike is a sports brand, Skechers looked at the lives of women who were seeking fitness and produced products that helped them do that while tapping into the fashion conscious nature of the demographic to sell them pairs in different colors and styles. The toning shoe market has no athletic credibility to Nike; therefore, for the sake of the brand, it does not enter. The next challenge for Skechers will be to manage its success. Considering Reebok’s recent release of toning flip-flops, it might not be an easy task. As the toning footwear trend picks up, where Skechers goes from here is anyone’s guess.  

“In the near future, Generation Y will hold sway on what is produced and what is not, and will most likely hold the sway for a long time.”

These bold words from fellow classmate Angelo Panas in his riveting blog post entitled “Generation Y” epitomize Generation Y’s influence on products and marketers. We are the most technologically savvy generation yet.  Our lifestyle is formed by the computers, smartphones, satellite TV, iPods, social media websites (Facebook and Twitter) that fill the world in which we have grown up. Technology has increased our exposure to marketing messages but over time we have adapted to the bombardment. Yet, as Angelo noted, some of us still find it rather annoying. In response, some companies are changing their marketing approaches, refraining from having mass marketing messages pushed at us. Case in point, 7-Eleven capitalizes on the popularity of social media by partnering with Zynga, an online social gaming leader, in an innovative campaign. Consumers can redeem exclusive virtual items within Zynga games with every purchase of the convenience retailer’s products. By co-branding, both 7-Eleven and Zynga create broader consumer appeal and greater brand equity. Since each brand dominates in a different category, co-branding allows a company to expand its existing brand into a category it might otherwise have difficulty entering alone. While the brand Zynga is more exposed to the convenience store patrons, frequent social media users/gamers (Generation Y) have more incentive to visit 7-Eleven.

 “I don’t believe you can do today’s job with yesterday’s methods and be in business tomorrow.” – Nelson Jackson

http://www.drewsmarketingminute.com/

In “Drew’s Marketing Minute” blog, the most recent post discusses the passing of Steve Jobs and how the average Joe can relate to him despite the success he has garnered. Drew McLellan believes there are 4 things we can learn from the recently deceased Apple CEO. Jobs was a firm believer in himself and his convictions, a genuine man, and an intellectual who understood the importance of simplicity and marketing. Much of Apple’s success derives from Jobs ability to create value for customers and to build meaningful relationships with them. By gaining fresh, deep insights into what customers need and want, Apple has developed a competitive advantage. Consider the iPod when it first came out. It was certainly not the first digital music player. But it was the first to be small and portable while possessing a storage capacity that rivals a computer’s hard drive back then. The user-friendly click wheel also added to its appeal as consumers could easily navigate through 1,000 songs on a digital music player as small as a deck of cards. Today, Apple’s iPod line continues to expand, creating iPods of varying sizes, colours and storage capacities. It now captures a more than 75 percent market share. The company’s success exemplifies the importance of customer insights marketing research and information provide. Consumers wanted simplicity, portability, and large capacity in their music players. Apple designed a product that met those needs – iPod.

Consumers today have grown accustomed to big budget, well thought out advertisements. To differentiate themselves, some companies have implemented guerilla marketing campaigns, which are unconventional yet simple advertisements targeting consumers in unexpected places and capturing their reactions. Carlsberg, a popular Danish brewing company, recently pulled a stunt in Belgium, secretly filming innocent couples and their reactions as they enter a movie theatre filled with intimidating, tattooed bikers galore. Enjoy.

As the commercial concludes with a hilarious ending, Carlsberg’s originality has attracted many viewers online. The use of comedy helps consumers remember the brand as strong expressions create deep impressions. Laughter compels consumers to review the ad several times and/or spread it to his/her friends and family members. With online marketing becoming more ubiquitous, Carlsberg has responded exceptionally well to the knock of opportunity.

Besides Carlsberg brewing recipe, its guerilla marketing recipe is also worth noting. 148 bikers, 4 hidden cameras, 1 cinema, and a good joke were all that were needed to have a strong impact on consumers. A relatively inexpensive production cost is the beauty of guerilla marketing.

My name is Adrian. I am a second year Sauder student born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. As much as I like Vancouver, it is not the greatest city. The reason being the weather, like the local hockey team Canucks, is dreadful on some days and decent to delightful on other days. But I have grown accustomed to it.  

I am taking Comm296 because it is one of the required courses for BCom. However, I do find marketing to be an enticing subject as we live in the age of ubiquitous bombarding of advertisement via television, radio, social media, billboards, etc. It is not within the realm of possibility to avoid some form of marketing each day. As a consumer, I will admit that I am very susceptible to advertising, especially when it comes to sneakers. Every time I see an Air Jordan or Nike advertisement, I feel compelled to head to the closest Foot Locker or Champs to make my purchase. Of course, my wallet gives me a cause for pause. I am brought back to reality once again. But the ability to elicit a desire to buy in consumers through a simple 30 second commercial truly fascinates me. Having said that, this is one of my all time favourite ads:

Michael Jordan, arguably one of the greatest players to ever touch a basketball, has received fame and accolades throughout his career. Despite all his accomplishments, he is still human and has failed team more than once. But failure is the fuel to his unrelenting desire to become better. As a fierce competitor, he refuses to give up, knowing that he will ultimately be rewarded for his hard work. His refusal to give up is what defines his greatness.  Using failure as a source of motivation to succeed is the notion the Air Jordan brand represents which appeals to athletes galore.

“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan

And something interesting about me: My favourite TV show is Entourage.

A few months ago, I walked into my first Comm 299 Career Fundamentals class under the impression that this course is going to be as boring as watching paint dry. I believed I was competent in writing cover letters and resumes since I have already worked two jobs.  In other words, this course is a waste of my time.  Little did I know how wrong I was.  After my second lecture and tutorial, which covered the techniques and format of a “professional” resume, it dawned on me. It was the realization of how much room I have for improvement. The sample resumes presented were like James Cameron’s Avatar – a visual Magnum Opus – while my resume was like The Blind Side – not as visually appealing but still contained solid content. To be able to compete for internships or careers after graduation, I need to get better to give myself the edge over other job applicants. Of all the techniques and tips on resumes, cover letters, interviews, networking, job searching taught, the most important lesson I learned is that there is still so much I have yet to learn. I have not written a perfect resume and cover letter, nor have I performed a perfect interview. But what I have done is leave this course with a penchant for improvement.

“I’m trying to do better than good enough” – Drake

 Sidney Crosby of the Canadian Men’s Hockey Team was not the only one who scored big at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics Games, so did TELUS by means of ambush marketing.

Ambush marketing is where a non-sponsor of an event deliberately tries to create unauthorized association between their brand and the event. Although Bell was the official sponsor, TELUS continued its community based sponsorship initiatives on Whistler, leading many consumers to believe it was associated with the Games. With that in mind, the ‘London Olympic Association Right’ (LOAR) was created to give the 2012 games’ organizers the authority to “grant licenses to authorized sponsors to use the symbols, words and logos of the event” (news.bbc.co.uk) preventing non-sponsors from creating unofficial association with the games. According to BBC News, “[t]here are two lists of prohibited expressions, with marketers falling foul if they use any two words in list A, or any word in list A with one or more of the words in list B.” The level of rigidity of the legislation minimizes the chances of ambush marketing campaigns in 2012.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8519967.stm

The newest breed of superheroes is not found on the big screen but in the small business community. Social entrepreneurs are “heroes” with the ability to recognize society’s problems and bring about change. Muhammad Yunus is a real-life Superman with a burning desire to create “social value.” He is one of the world’s most famous social entrepreneurs. As a Bangladeshi economist, Yunus founded Grameen Bank, an institution that provides small loans to poor people possessing no collateral to help them establish creditworthiness and financial self-sufficiency. His objective was simple: To help the poor escape poverty. Yunus received copious international awards for his ideas, work, and determination to change the lives of those less fortunate. (see here for list of awards: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/yunus-bio.html)

As the popularity of Apple’s iPad skyrockets, Rogers Communication, Canada’s largest wireless provider, plans to enter the emerging tablet computer market. Since iPad’s launch last April, more than 7 million units have been sold. With that in mind, Rogers intends to allow its customers to share data plans between the devices and their smartphones.

Rogers also claims that it would carry Research In Motion’s (RIM) PlayBook even in its first iteration. The 3G version has yet to be unveiled, but RIM has hinted that it will be released in the first quarter of 2011. With the belief that tablets are “the dashboards for the highways of tomorrow” (bnn.ca), Rogers expects to launch at least a few tablets every quarter throughout 2011 and to allow its customers to record Rogers content from tablets and share their data plan among multiple devices. 2011 looks promising for Rogers.

http://www.bnn.ca/News/2010/12/3/Rogers-eyes-tablet-bill-sharing.aspx

Traditional marketing departments are now confronted with a difficult task of competing against the ever-growing power of social networks. Beverage giants like PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and Labatt are beginning to abandon the traditional marketing methods switching to the use of social sites like Facebook and Twitter to promote their products.

With the intention of appealing to a young, social-media-savvy consumer market, companies resort to a method known as crowd-sourcing. Crowd-sourcing is using the internet to harness “the wisdom of crowds to tackle tasks such as product design or crafting marketing slogans that would normally be done by staff or contractors” (canadianbusiness.com). Coca-Cola’s VitaminWater brand, for instance, went even further using “their Facebook community to create an entirely new beverage for the company. They picked the flavour profile, the name, the packaging, the whole thing” (canadianbusiness.com).  While the resulting product, dictated by the whims of the consumers, will be well-received, the need for marketing departments is undermined. The traditional ways of advertising (i.e. 30-second television commercial) are losing their effectiveness as young consumers watch less broadcast television in favour of gaming and computer activity. Companies, therefore, resort to crowd-sourcing in order to remain competitive. But in doing so, traditional marketing departments will be rendered obsolete in due time.

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/technology/trends/article.jsp?content=20100412_10020_10020&ref=related