Time flies! I can’t believe that it is the end of the term already. I still remember the worry I had about the course  in the beginning of the term because everyone says that marketing has a lot to do. However, it turns out not bad. I guess it is because that I have an awesome group!

My group consists of a combination of different personalities. Some are more outgoing and proactive while some are more quiet. All of us have different specialized skills. Some are good at editing and planning while some are good at making video. But we have at least one thing in common, which is that we are all very nice and friendly! I think a group is likely to do well if the group atmosphere is friendly.

I really like the fact that our group is very organized. There was always one person in our group who initiated meetings, set timelines for each assignment and delegated tasks to make sure that we can get things done on time. Whenever one of us had questions,  the rest was always willing to help out.

I had never enjoyed group meetings as much as this time. We shared ideas as well as jokes. I felt very comfortable working with my group. Without them, I would not be able to finish these assignments by myself.

These assignments really strengthen my understanding of the material learned in class. Some of the marketing terms are hard to understand such as the pull and push strategies. When I was doing the assignments, I had the chance to analyze all aspects of a company, which provides me the big picture and thus makes the material easier to sink in.

All in all, these assignments are an effective learning tool! I had a great time in the course!

As almost every industry is getting increasingly competitive, marketing strategy plays a more vital role in each business. With the advancement in technology, marketing has evolved into so many different forms such as digital marketing, telemarketing and relationship marketing. Nowadays, companies are focusing more on the non-traditional marketing strategies, one of which is experiential marketing.

What is experiential marketing? Drew Mclellan in his blog post “Bring your marketing to life” explains and points out the importance of experiential marketing. Basically, experiential marketing means bringing marketing to life, as suggested by the title. Among the intense competition, traditional marketing is not enough. “Companies need to create tangible memory for consumers.”  Drew gives out a great example of experiential marketing, where Axe astronauts for their new product line appeared live in the street! The whole thing was attention-catching and thus ultimately capture people’s interests.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another great example of experiential marketing is a campaign carried out by Amsterdam water supplier, WATERNET, aimed to discourage people from urinating in the city’s canals.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvOh6fvIQPc]

 How they achieve this? They installed 4 urinal stalls in the street and turned peeing into a race. Whoever peed the most and fastest get their water taxes back. This campaign successfully engaged the public in an interactive, fun, educational and memorable manner, which was proved to be more effective and influential than a TV advertisement.

There is always so much going on in one’s life. If a company cannot create a concrete memory to consumers, chances are that there is no way for its products to be competitive in the market.

So, bring your marketing to life!

The reason that I am not buying organic food had always been the fact that organic food is much more expensive than non-organic ones. However, after reading the blog post “About Ethical Marketing for Organic Food” by Miranda Wen, my understanding of organic food has been enriched.

In her blog post, Miranda questioned the “ethics of various marketing strategies of organic food” because food labelled as organic is not necessarily safe, whereas, the advertisements about organic food all convey and reinforce the message that organic food is safer and healthier.

The marketing ethics of organic food is similar to the food labelled as “natural” as discussed in my previous blog post “Natural Misconception”. Whether it is for organic or natural food, the marketers play around with consumers’ misconception on the two words. By harnessing the ambiguity in these words, marketers give the public the false impression that natural or organic food is immune to bacteria and harmful byproducts produced as a result of the cooking process.

Despite the fact that labeling can lead to unethical marketing behaviour, labels are important with regard to characteristics that can’t be seen with the naked eye. “You can’t tell by looking at an apple, for instance, whether it’s been sprayed with pesticides—unless, of course, you see the ‘Certified Organic’ label on it.”As consumers, we rely heavily on labels to get what we are looking for, but it is the reliance that makes us vulnerable to unethical marketing.

After reading Burger King’s Lesson in 24/7 Marketing, I am amazed by the fact that marketing is literally everywhere and anytime! I am also surprised by how important the role of social media is in marketing.

With the advancement in technology, most companies are relying on social media such as Facebook and Twitter to market their products and values. They have a Facebook page and a Twitter account where they post updates about their products or to interact with their followers. However, technology is double-edged sword, the bad side of which is the notorious hacking. After Burger King’s twitter account was hacked, several inappropriate tweets were posted against its competitor, Macdonald’s. Such blatant act of sabotage does not, at the least damage Macdonald’s, but goes a long way in backfiring and damaging its own brand.

An analogy of this is when a person backmouths others. Most of the time, people just take it with a grain of salt, but they will become doubtful of the person who is talking about it. This person’s reputation is damaged by his own words. Lesson learned: the way we carry ourselves, the gestures we use, the words we say and our facial expressions speak a lot more than we realize. The way we behave is the way we market ourselves. Therefore, marketing is everywhere and anytime for us as well. If we do not keep an eye on our behavior and our words, they will catch up with us eventually. So to play safe, WATCH WHAT YOU SAY everywhere and anytime!

Not until the kickoff of the Super Bowl game, there was already a lot of discussion and hoopla around the coming Super Bowl commercials. Everyone was so eager to know who was to win this big game of advertisement?

With the wrap-up of the game, most people already have the answer. Among all the attention-catching ads, Budweiser Clydesdale 2013 is definitely the most eye-catching and bucking the trend. The ad features Budweiser’s famous Clydesdales horse. It starts off with a man tending to a foal who was only a week old when the ad was shot. Then it jumps to three years later, and we see a reunion between the man and the horse. With over 5.5 million Youtube views and the radio DJs’ talking about it on the next day, the company has successfully established its position in consumers’ retrieval set and potentially their evoked set by stirring up some heartwarming sentiment.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2prAccclXs]

Comparing to those funny ads or sexually suggestive ones such as Calvin Klein Orgy Billboard, Budweiser Clydesdale 2013 differentiates itself by tapping into the softest spot of human psychology and relates to consumers’ love needs as depicted in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Calvin Klein Orgy Billboard

It is the basic human love exhibited in the ad that can give consumers a long-lasting memory. For those sexy ads, it is nothing more than a gimmick which “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” is the common route to take. In this world of new advertisements being produced every minute, what can really affiliate with the public comes down to the most basic human emotion.

With the spike in living standard over the past decade, consumers nowadays are increasingly concerned about what they consume, from household cleaning products to food. They are looking for greener alternatives for both the environment and themselves. When it comes to healthy consumption, consumers always have the natural misconception that being natural is better and of greater nutritional values. With this ever amplifying social trend towards healthy living in place, companies like Frito-Lay and Seventh Generation, are tapping into such mindset by launching a wide range of “healthy” products, most of which feature their natural ingredients.

Lay’s Tangy Carolina Potato Chips is a good case in point. Its marketers pull the wool over public’s eyes and pass the cancer-causing potato chips off as a healthy alternative by reinforcing the fact that they are made with 100% natural ingredients. The marketers also feature in their advertisement the health-oriented Food Scientist Jaime Reeves making chips out of fresh vegetables for her families. However, the brutal truth is that potato chips are, in spite of all the natural ingredients, carbohydrate-rich potatoes cooked at high temperature with acrylamide as a byproduct. Health Canada has listed potato chips as products with highest concentration of acrylamide. Several studies have suggested a positive correlation between acrylamide intake and the increased risk of cancer.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2093wkKQEg]

Lay’s ethics has been called into question, raising the concern that featuring 100% natural ingredients in the advertisement is simply misleading and exploiting consumers’ misconception on the concept of  “natural”. Such advertisement targets the segments of market where people are addicted to chips and people who like chips but stay away from them because of their negative health effects. These “natural” chips give them an easy way out and justify their behavior of increasing potato chips consumption. As consumers, we really need to be skeptical about the 100%-natural label as “natural” can be of different meanings to us and to companies, who play with its definition to achieve their sales growth instead of assuming their corporate responsibilities.

 

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