Andrew Li's Blog

Since 2008, when the last election took place, it seems like every couple of months there is mention of a possible Canadian Election. This time around, after a budget vote of non-confidence a couple of weeks go, the usual probable election will become reality on May 2nd when Canadians will go to the polls and select a MP for their riding once again.

With the onset of a Canadian election comes an influx of political ads both for informing voters, and attacking other parties. On the first day of the official campaign, the Canadian Liberal party released a few ads, one being:

Another, that was made by the Conservatives a while earlier also seems to be prominent commercial being played on airwaves:

Personally, I don’t know what the Conservatives are trying to accomplish as the ad probably does more harm for themselves than it does for the party they are attacking. At the same time, the Liberal Party is not innocent in launching ad campaigns as they too have created attack ads against their conservative counter-parts.

At the end of the day, when we live in a society where everyone has an equal chance at running for political positions, parties need every advantage they can get. If planting candidate posters and signs on voters’ lawns is not sufficient, then maybe attack ads will give them the slight advantage, but then again maybe not.

I was beginning to wonder when I would get the chance to blog about the AMC television drama Mad Men, since after all it is about advertising in New York during the iconic 1960’s and this is a marketing blog.

The drama usually commences shooting at the end of winter/early spring. However after much hold up this year, despite AMC having reached a new deal with Lionsgate, and Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, it was announced Mad Men would not return this spring until March 2012 for the 5th season.  Among many reasons which include cast budgeting, and episode length, one reason that stuck out to me was needing more writing time for integrating more product placement into the series.

The thought of waiting an additional 12 months after already expecting the season to start is unbearable.  However at the same time, as a marketing student, it intrigues me to think of what additional types of product placement the writers could incorporate into the show.  Past product placements reoccuring over the series have included Heinekin beer, Cadillac cars, and Clearasil products.  Many believe additional product placement will take away from the plot show, however being a show about advertising, I don’t see how that’s possible.

Also, companies that want their products placed within the show receive a slightly different result. Different from regular product placement in shows/movies, their products will appear as a primary focal point of the plot rather than a sublte detail. This provides firms greater success in product placement. Looking at the big picture, this is all about money for AMC and lionsgate, as well as perhaps an altered version of their favorite show for many fans. Whether it will be even better or worse, we won’t know for another 12 months.

Being an avid Hockey fan for over 10 years, I found it appropriate I should blog at least once on something interesting that’s related to both marketing and the NHL.

Last week, one of the most horrific plays I’ve ever witnessed took place in a game between the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens. 6 foot 9 inches Zdeno Chara, captain of the Boston Bruins, crushed the 6 foot 2 Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty when he body checked him into the corner of the glass box that lies between the two team benches. Pacioretty suffered a severe concussion and fractured vertebrae in the incident as many across the hockey world called for a large suspension against the NHL’s biggest player.

Despite the horrific injuries sustained by Pacioretty, Chara was not suspended by the league as the play was deemed a “hockey play.” I completely agreed with this decision as Chara had done nothing unusual but rather it happened at a dangerous part of the rink. One party that was upset about this was the Canadian airline company, Air Canada. Immediately following the no suspension announcement, Air Canada issued a letter to the NHL threatening to pull all sponsorship if the NHL did not act accordingly in punishing hits to the head.

Eventhough the play was deemed a “hockey play”, Air Canada wanted no association of their brand with the controversial issues revolving around the NHL. This is similar to cases where Sponsors have dropped athletes due to controversial issues that went public, whether illegal or legal. The first cases that come to mind are when Michael Phelps lost sponsors to being photographed smoking out of a bong and when Tiger Woods’ marital scandal was reported. These cases all involve sports sponsors protecting their brands trying to disassociate from negative issues.

I recently came across a blog post by Beverly Cheung, Apple’s “Us Vs. Them” Approach.  The post describes Apple’s marketing tactics that they’ve used since the inception of the Macintosh computer in 1984. The tactic described is something called an “Us vs them” approach, where Apple markets its product as something that is hip, cool, and original.

A mac commercial made in the 1980s depicts a young attractive woman up against hundreds of brainwashed drones which parodies George Orwell’s 1984.  The ad clearly implies that the young, freedom loving woman is a mac user and is trying to stop the brainwash of everyone else. Fast forward 20 years later and Apple still uses the same marketing tactic.  As many of us are aware, most of Apple’s commercials depicts a chubby, nerdy looking guy as a PC and a younger, more hip looking guy as a Mac. This type of advertising conveys a message to consumers saying “you are either cool like us, or you are a loser like the rest of them.”

Although Beverly’s opinion is that these type of marketing approaches give Apple an image of a bully and aren’t winning over many customers, I respectfully disagree. I believe these types of ads are appropriate for a company like Apple because they sell luxury high-end products in their industry. The competitive advantage that they offer is the superior quality they bring, and therefore must sell that to the consumers in the best possible way.

I recently read Cyrus Cheung’s blog post about music being a form of branding.  The blog post mentions the importance of using theme music for TV shows in order to brand them and build brand recognition.  Catchy theme songs and jingles will not only help the audience/consumers suddenly remember a TV show but in general, will help consumers remember and recognize a certain product or company.

Jingles are just as if not more important for a company’s brand than their logos and slogans.  Jingles will often stay imprinted in the minds of consumers a lot easier than logos might. Thus making them more recognizable.

Two famous examples are from Intel, and McDonald’s.

Here, the famous I’m lovin’ it tune created by McDonald’s. When consumers hear this jingle whether with a commercial or on the radio, they instantly think of McDonald’s the company.

And here, the famous Intel Inside jingle that’s been used since the production of the first Pentium Processor in the early 1990s:

Both jingles have become two of the most recognizable over the past few decades and are just as important to both respective companies as their trademarked logos.

There’s nothing like a warm cup o’ joe to wake you up every morning, especially during the Canadian winter months, which seem to last forever.  Among the many individual coffee shops, and Blenz and Starbucks franchises, is an iconic Canadian force in the coffee market, Tim Hortons. For a 25^th straight year, Tim Horton’s annual “roll up the rim to win” contest returned this week with millions of prizes and greater odds to win (1 in 6 up from 1 in 9 last year).

Effective branding has made Tim Hortons into a symbol of national identity.  The “roll up the rim to win” marketing campaign reinforces this identity into Canadian Culture every year in March by generating awareness of the product with the familiar rolling r slogan, and rewarding customers with over 47 million possible prizes. In what seems great trade-off, sponsors donate prizes in exchange for being part of the marketing campaign, resulting with a large increase in coffee sales for Tim Hortons. Although it already dominates over 60% of the Canadian coffee market, March should see a heavy influx of the recognizable of red coffee cups with the giant upwards pointing arrow.

I too, have found myself become a regular customer at Tim Hortons every March giddy with excitement as I roll up the rim perhaps hoping to see that I’ve won a car or even a donut. Last year was resulted in a single donut from about 15 cups of coffee, and 0 for 2 so far this year.  Here’s hoping I’m one of the lucky 40 people who’ll win a new Toyota Matrix while not burning a hole in my pocket due to coffee expenditures.

The troubled Olympic village condominiums that seem to be talked about every week in local news are once again being put up for sale.  The difference this time around: an average price cut of 30%, and a name rebranding.  What was once called the Olympic Village with 70% unsold units saw 128 units sold in just four days.  The village, is now Known as “The Village on False Creek”, eliminating the word “Olympic” from its name removes some of the negative publicity associated with the developers past financial troubles as stated by UBC Prof James Brander on News 1130.

Another key issue surrounding the village is the original 250 units set aside for affordable housing.  That figure, which was later cut to 125, placed a black spot on what was supposed to a shiny new product of Vancouver’s Olympic legacy.  Although it is obviously important to consider including social housing projects when using Tax-payer’s money to fund luxury creek side condos, it is nearly impossible to market that plan to the high income earners who are the target market for this product.  The end result was the inability to sell a poorly branded village for the high price that the city wanted.

By branding the village as a high-income neighbourhood without any social-housing units, initial sales probably would have been a lot better.  Tax-payers may have profited, which city council could’ve used in developing social housing projects elsewhere.  In the current situation, city councils can only hope for minimized losses on the project.

In continuing with ruling the Internet, facebook’s new “Facebook Deals” entered the $10-billion online coupon market, most recently offering the service free of charge to Canadian retailers.  Facebook Deals work in conjunction with Facebook Places, where users “check in” to specific locations using their smartphone.  By “checking in” online for certain stores like H&M that have deals listed on Facebook Deals, users will receive discounts on purchases upon showing cashiers in store that have checked in.   Users will also have their current location shared with their facebook friends, allowing for word-of-mouth advertising easily being passed through social networks.

Facebook Deals

For all parties involved, it seems like a win-win situation.  Facebook users give up a little bit of privacy and in exchange for discounts at their favourite stores.  Retailers get to advertise for free through Deals and people’s facebook statuses in exchange for offering discounts.  While facebook will not be charging businesses for this service, they will receive further information about each individual user which they will be able to apply to their advertising revenue model.  While facebook says no personal information is shared with businesses, demographic information will be shared if the sample size of buyers is large enough.

In a blog post by Lara O’Reilly on Marketingweek.co.uk, she questions whether or not facebook’s new service is even a big deal.  Facebook Places has been touted as a killer of the popular social geo-tagging site “FourSquare”, and as well as a “Groupon killer”.  But as O’Reilly claims, “the arrival of near-field communications (NFC) and mobile contactless payment could be the “Deals killer” Facebook didn’t pre-empt.” NFC are automatic and requires less effort on the users’ part to look for deals. Regardless of whatever technology attempts to compete with facebook, marketers will have innovative social and digital marketing tools at their disposal.

In an attempt to reclaim a stake hold in the handheld gaming market, Sony recently introduced a successor to their PlayStation Portable, named “Next Generation Portable” or NGP. The new device features a 5 inch LED touch screen, motion sensors, two cameras and 3G network access. Sony’s main competitor, Nintendo is also set to release a next generation handheld gaming device, the 3DS which features 3D graphics without the need to wear 3D glasses.

Sony Playstation and Nintendo were and still are two giants in the handheld gaming market. However, due to changing technological trends, there is now increasing competition created by multiple Android smartphone devices and Apple’s iPhone in the market.  Although smartphones cannot offer the same gaming experience as do the 3DS or the NGP, smartphones like the iPhone offer convenience and multifunctional capabilities such as text messaging, internet browsing, social networking, push email, and several multimedia functions on top of casual gaming all in one cellular device. For many casual gamers, multifunctional smartphones usually suffice for handheld entertainment.

In realising these consumer trends, Sony Ericsson previewed on Engadget, a new addition to their Xperia line named the Xperia Play. This device features what you would commonly see on an Android smartphone, 4-inch touch screen, HD camera, and internet capabilities.   But instead of a common slide-out QWERTY keyboard, the Xperia Play deploys a slide-out control pad.  Much like the original PlayStation controller, the control pad features two touch sensitive analog pads and two button pads for the avid gamer.  It also features an Adreno 205 graphics chip, which will allow for significant improvement in gaming experience compared to other smartphone devices.  Coupled with the multi-functionality of the best available Android smartphones , this device is set to make for interesting competition.

The long rumoured playstation phone "Xperia Play"

In recent business news, it’s been well established that the American discount retailer Target has purchased over 200 of the Canadian born Zellers stores.  With plans of expanding into Canada and outside of the US for the first time, Target is set to convert the 200 plus Zellers stores into its discount retail outlets so popular south of the border.  Target will automatically compete with the other American discounter, Wal-Mart, as both retail discount fashion and home items among other things.

As a Canadian consumer, it means more choice and perhaps better value in price and quality of products.  For Canadian retailers, it means more competition.  Like Target, Fairweather Ltd, which also operates International Clothiers, is a Canadian clothing retailer that also offers cheap and chic clothing items to middle-class consumers. However, in addition to competing for sales in similar markets, Fairweather and Target are both vying for the right to the ‘Target’ trademark name.  Fairweather owns the Canadian trademark rights to the ‘Target’ name after purchasing it from another Canadian retailer Dylex Ltd over a decade ago.  With no stores operating in the ‘Target’ name in the past 3 years, the American Target wants its trademark released from the hands of Fairweather.  Coincidentally with the announcement of Target expansion in Canada, Fairweather has expressed their desire to open several ‘Target Apparel’ stores over the next decade as well.

Fairweather and Target are now entering a 250 million dollar court battle over a six letter name, and rightfully so.  For Target, the name and brand represents over 100 years of retail success and goodwill required for Canadian expansion.  For Fairweather, it means a multi-million dollar payout for a brand they purchased from another ailing Canadian retail store just ten years ago.