Month: October 2010

When Hedo Turkoglu was traded from the Toronto Raptors to the Phoenix Suns, I am sure almost all Canadian basketball fans are glad to see a lazy and out-of-shape baller leave their team for a usable player (Leandro Barbosa). However, being a Phoenix fan, I am not glad to see this trade on the receiving end. As the NBA preseason starts and finishes, my concerns about Hedo have become legit as he is inactive, unproductive, and seems to be “carefree” during games. However, the Suns organization, Hedo’s teammates, and Hedo himself have been saying all the right things about Hedo such as that he is a team player and a versatile addition to the team. Only time can tell whether this trade will be a bust, but looking at current results and performances, this may be a sign of post purchase (trade) dissonance!

Back when I was a kid, I often wonder through the stack of magazines in my father’s office, often picking up several magazines to look through. One of the magazine was called ELITE which is published exclusively for members of the Royal Bangkok Sports Club, which is a club with a membership of 9000, consisting of current and former prime ministers, military officials, influential businessmen, or basically, the Thai aristocrats. Looking through magazines, I often would look at advertising as they strike the young version of myself as colour and interesting. I understand why many marketers would want to advertise their product/service through magazines with a great reader base as they will get a lot of publicity, what I am confused about is why would they want to advertise in ELITE where the reading base is very small. However, it is only until now – having learned about STP – that I understand that advertising in ELITE, marketers (including BMW, Ferrari, and Lexus) are segmenting the market demographically (with income being the variable) to potentially entering a market segment with the biggest potential spending power in Thailand. By basically advertising in the right spot, they can eliminate the need to filter unwanted segments straight away. Now THAT is powerful!!!

Like many prominent athletes of this era (Kobe Byrant, Tiger Woods, Roger Federer) LeBron James has his own “brand” image as the King of Basketball. However, his highly publicized campaign during the NBA free agency has strongly damaged his reputation as a likable athlete that an average individual would like to associate his/herself with because of his arrogant and self-centered announcement via ESPN name the Decision. Why would anyone sane do something so egocentric as to announce on national television that they are leaving behind all home town fans and “his” city in such a classless fashion? May be “the King” will need better branding and follow the more humble approaches of those humble stars like Kevin Durant or Steve Nash.

In today’s competitive market, firms are always trying to expand their product/service line into new market in hopes of capturing new costumers. For example, we can see that McDonalds have attempted to expand into the premium coffee market through the introduction of McCafe in some of its locations or – as we all see in class – Ritz has introduced its “toasted chips” in invade the bigger and faster expanding chips market. Data-mining plays an important role in the introduction of new products because the trends and relationship between products that can be extracted by firms can significantly determine how a new product/service would do when introduced to a market. For example, McDonalds must have been confident that a decent portion of their customers would like to grab a cup of coffee after a meal there before introducing the McCafe.

The power of data-mining is evidential when we look at Budweiser, whose primary product is beer. My friend observed that another product line that has been introduced by Budweiser is BBQ sauce, which has been packaged as a ‘6 pack’ like a pack of beer. With a 100 guesses, how many people would have expected a beer producer to introduce a BBQ sauce product? However, if we really think about it, many beer drinker will drink during a BBQ with friends or with some snacks, therefore, the idea possibly isn’t that far-fetched after all… and here ladies and gentlemen: this is the power of data-mining!