Black Friday has always marked the beginning of Christmas shopping. In the United States, most stores offer large discounts on their products, similar to Canada’s Boxing Day sale. On Black Friday, I was Skype-ing with my sister, who lives in the United States, and she told me about how she had planned to buy a new television, and how she had just managed to purchase one of the few remaining ones. While this is understandable due to the high volume on demand from consumers, I also found this to be slightly peculiar because my sister mentioned that she had waken up very early so that she could go online to look for the best deals. I did not understand why the stock of a product would be very low even BEFORE Black Friday had begun. My sister explained to me that many stores reward their loyal customers by giving them early access to their Black Friday sales, thus explaining why some products may have been lower in inventory. I was quite intrigued by this idea; if signing up for a store’s membership card is free, why wouldn’t everyone sign up for them?

Upon further research, I found an article explaining EXACTLY what was happening.This article (#6) explains that my way of thinking was exactly how the companies wanted me to think. While I was preoccupied thinking that I would be able to secure a better deal by signing up for a membership card, the article explains that in doing so I am actually giving the store more of my information.

On a side note: the article, not just the sixth reason, is quite an interesting read!

Black Friday crowds

One of my friends worked for a telecommunication company which required them to gather information on corporations. Knowing that corporations would not release information to a rival company, my friend was instructed to mask their her as a survey, or introduce herself as a student trying to gather data for a school project.

I really struggled to decide whether this small lie was ethical. On one hand, I value honesty and believe that this action is unethical. On the other hand though, the information that my friend was requesting was hardly personal or incriminating. I feet that if the corporation is willing to reveal information to a student for a school project, then it is not so much a big deal. I also believe that if this tactic helps the telecommunication company, then it would be in their best interest to continue.

Although this issue can be analyzed from different ethical points of view, I truly think that in this situation lying is acceptable. When I compare the benefits (information on other corporations) against the costs (a small lie), I see that the benefits greatly outweigh the costs and is therefore a reasonable strategy. I am extremely curious to see though, what does anyone else think of this??

One of the most intriguing marketing campaigns in the past ten years has certainly been the Shreddies debate between the shape of the breakfast cereal. It all started when Shreddies decided to change the shape of its cereal from a square to a diamond as a way to boost sales. This led to a large debate as to which type of Shreddies cereal was better. With this slight change in their product, Shreddies has continued to maintain their high sales. (Fun fact: As of 2008, 66% of customers prefer diamond-shaped Shreddies compared to 34% of customers who prefer squared-shaped Shreddies).

Diamond Shreddies vs. square Shreddies.. Is there a difference?

When I had first heard of this campaign, I was very surprised; I did not understand how a slight (if any) change to a product could revive an entire cereal brand. I thought that the “45 degree rotational technology” was hardly a technological advancement, definitely not enough of an improvement to justify a new product. However, I now understand this campaign as an attempt at product differentiation. The company’s use of a voting system (diamonds vs. squares) was also a very creative way to sell the idea that the two products were very different. I realized that these marketing tactics were very unique because they did not sell a product, rather an idea. This was useful for me because I had previously had difficulty thinking of real-world examples of companies selling ideas and not products. I believe that this campaign was certainly an excellent example of just that.

Sources:

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/diamond-versus-square-shreddies-debate-rages-on-900167.htm

http://www.google.ca/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1366&bih=600&tbm=isch&tbnid=OSM_fRUJDAgeXM:&imgrefurl=http://blinkassociates.com/blog/cereal-marketing-breakthrough-in-canada/&docid=wmubWiNNAA17cM&imgurl=http://blinkassociates.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/diamond-shreddies.png&w=410&h=223&ei=92KXUIjSBKnOiwLk5ICICQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=297&sig=111944267125405791823&page=1&tbnh=140&tbnw=259&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:0,i:99&tx=69&ty=90