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Reading Eliza Lee’s entry on virtual grocery stores (https://blogs.ubc.ca/elizalee/2011/09/17/hello-world/) made me look up some other successful marketing campaigns on the internet.

It seems that there are an increasing amount of such “marketing success stories” on Youtube to show that businesses are listening to their harshest critics (via focus groups, surveys, etc.) and acting on the criticism to better their product/service.

I had personally stopped ordering from Dominos in early-2008 – a year before this campaign was released on Youtube – simply because (like many of the interviewed), I began to relate their pizza just a cheap, poor-quality pizza compared to other brands like Flying Wedge and Panago. I shared the opinions of many who said that “the crust tastes like cardboard” and “mass produced, boring and bland”.

This campaign though, has given me a little to think about, especially after much-maligned consumers were impressed at how (though they might only have said that because the Domino’s crew was around pointing cameras at them!) the pizza was “way better”.

It did attract quite a handful of viewers – close to 900,000. Sure, it didn’t go as viral as other advertisements like Old Spice’s and Nike’s World Cup 2010, but after watching the entire 4:21 of it, I may just consider dialing Dominos the next time I pick up the phone for pizza.

Here in Vancouver, just about everyone uses an iPhone, or a Blackberry. Sure, there’s the occasional Samsung, LG, or Nokia, but it just seems that sooner or later, they’re gonna be flattened by competition from Apple and RIM. So, reading an article (http://www.marketingtechblog.com/nokia-ads-windows-phone/) which boasted that Nokia captures 40% of the global market (more than Apple or RIM does internationally), with heavy shares in China, Europe, and the UK, had me pretty intrigued. And it doesn’t stop just there – Nokia has started a marketing blitz to win consumers in a bid to re-enter the US/Canadian market.

It’s said that you have to spend money to make money, and Nokia’s betting on a $127 million marketing budget to help sell its new Windows phones. New promotional videos have been released on Youtube almost every day, and in some instances, twice a day! Check out an ad to their latest Windows phone:

While Nokia hasn’t officially ditched their “ancient” Symbian or Meego projects, moving to the Windows platform may give them the edge that they lacked in their operating systems. Plus, something that was talked about in our Marketing class last week  Unlike Apple and RIM, Nokia appeals to a wider range of consumers with lower-priced phones targeting emerging markets with their Asha line of phones.

Selling like hotcakes immediately in the US/Canadian market would be reaching for the stars for now, but with the aspirations of a company resting squarely on the polycarbonate shoulders of the new Windows phones, it will be interesting to see what unfolds in the cellphone industry…

I’m probably not the only person who will be blogging on beer following Federico Fasano’s (https://blogs.ubc.ca/federicofasano/) post which was showcased in class… along with the much-loved ‘I am Canadian’ TV commercial.

I guess I never realized how much of an impact marketing had on my beer-buying decisions: Every time I step into a liquor store to purchase some beer (not that often!), I always tell myself, “Alan, you’re gonna try something different today”. Like Federico, I am not Canadian and I love to try out the products and services that are unique to the place I’m in. I’ll ignore the huge stack of Molson cases right in front of the entrance and walk along the “domestic” isle and gaze at the Moosehead, Granville Island, Kokanee, Sleeman, Whister, and all that jazz but somehow or another it always seems that I wind up bringing Molsons to the cashier!

I was first exposed to the Molson Canadian TV commercials back when I was in high school (see above, that was the first one I remember!) and from that moment, Molson had successfully carved a unique position in my mind as “Canada’s beer”. Since then, Molson had become the automatic choice for me – I had associated Molson with all things Canadian. Molson’s advertising doesn’t stop just at the TV – it has been a major sponsor at hockey games, the recent Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and at other local events –effectively creating a form of brand loyalty that Canadians should drink Molson, simply because they are Canadian! And boy did they use the successful ‘I Am Canadian’ rant to spearhead a decade of “proud to be Canadian” commercials (see below).

While other beers are arguably more Canadian (Molson’s owned by an American company, while brands like Moosehead, Granville Island, etc. are locally owned)… none of them have been able to market themselves the way Molson has, so it’ll take some convincing for me to swap over!