P.S. Heavy Dose of Satire. No Offence Intended!
Hockey Gear
$1,000!
Top Hockey Player
$7,500,000 PER YEAR
Economic Benefit of Stanley Cup Victory To Boston
Probably $10,000,000
Difference in Class
PRICELESS!
There are some things a money or education can’t buy. For everything else…There is MasterCard!
Almost every business in the world has customers. Unless you have someone consuming your product, you cannot succeed. To sell a product, it is essential to implement immaculate brand management. The most successful products, even if they aren’t necessities, employ successful brand management practices.
The same applies to us, as humans. In our lives, we try to achieve things. Amongst the factors that play an important role in our success is how we build our brand. When applying for a job, odds are, you and the next person who applied are as similar as water. You have the same skills and attributes to suit the job gained through different experiences, just like water is obtained from different sources. Imagine yourself at a convenience store at the aisle that stocks bottled water. It’s clear, transparent, and tasteless. Then why, do you pick up the bottle that you do?
Imagine a world where all water had the same price. Odds are if presented with two bottles, you’d end up picking the one which has more attractive packaging. Moving away from the water analogy, that is exactly what we as humans while applying for jobs are like. It is vital to build a brand for yourself and present yourself in a way that makes you stand out from the others. The reason a potential employer might pick you should be because although he knows that you, like water will give him benefits as a consumer, it is essential to remind him of those benefits in a way that makes them have a eureka moment.
And that, is precisely what my business communication class taught me. I am taking my first steps in the world by building my own brand and although we look at the lessons we learn from a employment point of view, it would make much more sense if we looked at them from a brand management point of view.
Since this is my final blog, I thought I’d do some community service. Hey Marketers, if you’re reading this blog, I’m going to give you some tips on how to market your products to a college demographic.
1.Youtube
Yes, we use youtube all the time! In Class, At Home, In the Library. Hell, some of us even use it when on the stall! Youtube is awesome. so if you can get your ad on Youtube you’re doing a great thing. Viral Videos = Win!
2.Facebook
We’re on facebook more than we’re on youtube. I guess that’s enough said.
3.Samples!
I mean, well, we’re usually broke most of the time. Most of our money goes in buying, other necessary stuff. Even if we’re really rich, we don’t really have TIME to go shop at places. So give us samples. Free Samples FTW!
4.Events
Sponsor our events and trust me, we’ll love you.
5.On Air Marketing
I know it usually works for kids but, sometimes watching our favorite character on our favorite show/movie use something really might tempt us into buying your stuff.
6.Any publicity is good publicity.
When Coach tried pulling away it’s bags from Snooki, that was a bad move. Why? Too many people watch Jersey Shore. That’s a lot of good exposure.
7.Hot Models
Sex Sells!
8.Athletes
Yeah, we’re really into our sports. Guys usually are, which sort of makes girls want to follow them too so well, that kind of makes everyone want to be like them and it affects everything
9.Be Green
Although we don’t really say it, we really do care a lot about the environment so if you do too, we’ll buy from you.
10.Let us get involved!
Customization, cause we love to be unique!
When I was 5 and first began playing soccer, every other kid on the team had a role model they wanted to be like. I remember being the only one on the team who didn’t want to follow anyone. Sometimes though, I wished I had some who influenced me. My coach once told me, it’s never too late to get influenced by someone.
This is a blog about how I got influenced by someone who I barely understood or knew the existence of until 16 months ago. Mike Sorrentino. Do you know him? Born in 1981? Italian-American? Maybe you’ll know his nickname. The Situation. Yeah, that’s right, the biggest influence in my life(only within 16 months) is The Sitch.
MTV aired a reality show about the Jersey lifestyle. And the rest as they say, is history. Although MTV comes out with many shows, not all of them do well. Jersey Shore surpassed all expectations. The first episode attracted 1.375 million viewers. That’s unprecedented for a premiere. It has only grown in popularity and the season three episode 2 garnered a whopping 8.87 million viewers. It has inspired an entire genre of similar shows. With a minimal promotion budget focussing on commercials, the show created a phenomenon, which is worthy of being studied in classes.
Back to The Sitch, He’s was an assistant manager of a fitness center who got unemployed and then shot to fame. A party animal, he uses his popularity not only to endorse his own line of clothing, vitamins, workouts, shoes, vodka and rap, but also being socially responsible about The Candie Foundation’s Pause Before You Play campaign.
His most famous contribution to mankind will be the discovering and categorizing the existence of“landmines, grenades, grenade launcher, submarine, tank and a-bombs.”
Did you hear about Alexandra Wallace? Hasan Baba? Rebecca Black? I’m sure you’ve heard of Justin Bieber then..no? Peter Chao? Each and every one of them is a Youtube phenomenon. While some turned out to be heroes, others flops. Irrespective of that they all share something in common, an unbelievably stratospheric rise in popularity and recognition. Whether or not their popularity is positive is another matter.
Let’s start with Justin Bieber. An obscure little kid from Ontario who hit big time through his viral videos about popular covers. While it can be argued that he had the talent, the fact that he got signed by Usher, under his music label is what counts. Rebecca Black, being touted as the next Justin Bieber, came out with a new video called Black Friday. Uploaded on February 10th, it skyrocketed to a point where she now has over 13.5 million views. Finally, let’s bring in Hasan Baba, while he has not made it big yet!, a video of his techno moves, rivaling Jersey Shore fistpumps, have already hit 6 million views in just 20 days.
Popularity is just limited to those who can perform, Alexandra Wallace who uploaded a rant about “Asians in the Library” created a sensation with almost a million views in less than a week. On the other hand, Peter Chao gets lauded for his risque racist humor and gets movie contracts.
This brings us to the potential of E-Marketing via viral videos. I truly believe that youtube videos are quickly becoming a preferable PR and attention grabbing tool by people wanting to create a sensation. The fact that videos are uploaded into the anonymous world of the internet assuring no consequences offers promoters a chance at promotion without creativity and time limit makes this one of the best forms of media.
P.S. Click on the Hyperlink to see the video.
Have you ever been on a website where an advertisement popped up, promoting something in the same geographic location?
While I do believe that it is absolute genius on the part of a company to target customers that way, I also believe that from a consumer’s point of view, it is a complete turnoff.
Honestly, it’s scary! Isn’t it weird to know that not only do these companies know where you live but, they also know what I like. I have a completely empty Facebook profile, very strict and high security settings and regularly clear my cookies but somehow, i’m still being tracked.
The funny part is I actually do remember most of the brands offered to me this way. I make sure I never buy from them again. Most of these advertisements are poorly conceived, relying on price as a basis of promotion. In my opinion, they lack creativity tying to entice the consumer by trying to differentiate the product based on price, which strips away almost all value from the product. Quite often they advertise sales/clearances, something which shows no confidence on part of the company in its product. I hope they stop soon. Because they are really annoying and are eating away at the reputation of the company.
