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When browsing the blogs posts of my classmates, I came across two interesting posts. The first was from Clayton Dang and his post of IMC and the importance of using multiple marketing channels to reach their audience. The second was from Aleksandar Novakovic and his post on the impressive wave of new marketing channels available to companies to use and the power they hold, especially social media.

I believe these posts read together very well, as while Aleksander is looking towards the future of marketing, Clayton is reminding everyone that multiple channels must be used to engage the audience. As the course has run, I have found myself looking at marketing in a very different perspective and believe that while marketing channels are extremely is important, there is still nothing more vital to a campaign than the concept behind the campaign and channels.

After watching Art + Gallery in class today, I feel that many marketing agencies have lost a sense of creativity because of the ease of advertising on social media. A vast majority of the ads direct consumers to their Facebook page or Twitter feed instead of trying to amaze the consumer right away. Although very effective, I also find campaigns centered around a celebrity endorsement to be lazy and unimaginative as well.  It is this reason why I still appreciate television ads, especially during the Super Bowl, as they work tirelessly to come up with the best campaigns possible.

I strongly believe television based advertisement still reigns as the most effective marketing channel. Social media has become so saturated with half hearted ads that many people ignore them without thought. It is very rare that I come across an ad that catches my eye and interests me on Facebook. However, clever commercials spread like wildfire and, to this day, continue to be extremely profitable for companies. I believe that for as long as people will watch television,regardless of the medium, television commercials will continue to be the most profitable for companies.

With my last marketing post, I leave you with a full round about and a video of my favourite campaign as stated in my first blog.

After reading Eva Ko’s blog post on the effort companies put into market research, I pondered for a moment.   Regardless of where I go, market research has affected almost everything I see. Even as I sit in CA Hall in the Henry Angus building,  I see the Exchange Cafe’s menu design and selection. I wonder how much research was taken to determine what they would offer. I see the colourful packages of snacks available and I wonder, why did they choose the colours they did? What extent of research did they use to think that blue packaging on rice krispies were better than green or pink packaging?

One thing I do wonder is, has the decisions made from market research affected how society has moved forward? This is a deeper thought than my past blog posts ,but I think it is such an interested aspect to think about. With the example of the blue rice krispies packaging, I think that is so common in Vancouver that if you asked anyone what they thought of if they saw a shiny blue square, they would say rice krispies! Any other colour now would look bizarre and out of the place; even just plain wrong.  So I leave you all with this question. Does market research results changed based on changes in society or does society change based off the decisions of market research?

The battle between Pepsico and Coke has easily been one of the longest and most talked about in terms of consumer products. I have personally always been a Coke person, and proved this during a blind Pepsi VS Coke test. However in terms of sustainable and ethical marketing, I think Pepsico has advanced substantially further than Coke has in recent years.

Both companies have started to be environmentally conscious and started producing bottles that were plant-based to be more green. Coke was the first one to introduce the PET((polyethylene terephthalate) bottle that was made from 1/3 plant based material. However, a couple months after Coke announced their innovation, Pepsico came out with a press release saying that their bottles will now be made from 100% plant-based plastic!

Pepsico has since then come out with more environmentally friendly products such as the first compostable bag for Sunchips (though the bag was so loud that they removed it from the USA and kept it for Canada) and powered some of the plant using solar power. They have also introduced green initiatives for their other products such as Aquafina, Naked Juice, Tropicana and Walkers.

Although there will be some aspects that Coke will win over Pepsico, they have lagged behind in environment friendly R&D and still continues to behind Pepsico to this day. Despite this, I will continue to a proud Coke loyalist! Perhaps they should consider a consulting project with CUS sustainability though.

Works Cited:

http://www.pepsico.com/PressRelease/PepsiCo-Develops-Worlds-First-100-Percent-Plant-Based-Renewably-Sourced-PET-Bott03152011.html

http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/citizenship/plantbottle.html

In class today we talked about SOPA, PIPA and some of the websites that are participating in a blackout as a sign of protest against the bill. We mentioned how many smaller websites have two reasons in participating in the blackout. The big reason is that the two bills would greatly affect them and potentially force them to shutdown. The second reason is positive marketing they get when a media
source groups them with the  behemoths such as Wikipedia.

This got me thinking about the other side of this. If the companies who are protesting this are receiving positive marketing, then are the companies who are supporting SOPA and PIPA receiving negative marketing? I came across the photo that showed many of the popular brands whom are supporting the bill and I don’t think that they are. Some of them possess strong enough brand power that they aren’t afraid of losing customers from supporting the bill, such as Burberry and Coach. Others have a strong enough value proposition that regardless of what customers think, they will still buy the products such as EA with their sports games.

Having said that, GoDaddy, the web host provider, lost thousands of subscribers to their competitor when they said they supported SOPA. They have now reserved their position but the damage has been done. Though I actually lost even more respect for them since they reserved their decision so quickly.

Final thoughts:  President Obama recently declared that he is opposed to SOPA. Do you think he is actually against the bill or was he advised to say it as a marketing ploy to try to generate supporters in the upcoming election year? 

Hi Everybody! (Hi Doctor Nick!)

Marketing has been a course that I have really been looking forward to taking for quite a few reasons.  I have always been more of a concept guy rather than a quant guy ( though I’ve done pretty well in accounting) . I really enjoy watching ads and have started analyzing them to see why they chose to go with this concept and why, even though I’ve never taken a marketing course. However the over arching reason of why I want to learn about marketing is because I have always been very susceptible to marketing. Once I see an ad, I have a craving to buy that product or go to the restaurant or consider using their service, to the point where my friends have called me “a marketer’s dream”!

As far as experience goes, I’ve pretty much only done basic marketing at Sauder for clubs and services. Some things have worked while others haven’t. However, I have done very well in the past in sales at Sears where we ended up having the most sales in BC for a year. My entire department knew how to sell very well and I learned a lot then.

I can’t name my favourite ad because I really enjoy so many ads, simple ones and ads so amazing that it blows your mind! But an ad I do appreciate was Apple’s silhouette commercial because it really showed that listening to an MP3 isn’t just when you want to drown out your parents or waiting for the bus. It’s a fun experience all on it’s own!

Finally something personal about me is that I love the free coffee provided by the CUS! empowers my coffee need and saves me money! What’s not to love?

Although I’ve had several jobs before this course, I was amazed at the amount of information that I was able to learn about getting a job. I thought my resume was good before this class because of the jobs I was able to get, including a job at the Canaccord Learning Commons. However, after seeing the degree of improvement in my resume, I was amazed at the change that occurred. I feel like before the change, I was able to get small jobs, but now I feel like the resume I have currently would be able to get my jobs that I love and would be able to rule the world. However I know that my resume is still not perfect as many HR recruiters I speak to do not like the Sauder Resume Template. I will continue to change and improve my resume in the ways that I have learned in Comm 299.

Olympic Village: $1 Billion

Olympic Paralympics Centre: $85.45 Million

Sea-To-Sky Highway: $600 Million

Richmond Oval: $178 Million

Canada Line: $2.05 Billion

These are just a few examples of the costs that Canadian taxpayers have had to bear. Built for years, host for weeks, but only competed for seconds. But in reality, the venues and transportation infrastructure will last us over 60 years. The Olympic Village has transform a industrial wasteland into a showcase of sustainable living for over 3000 people after the games. The Olympic Centres are acting as community centres, either as an ice rink or an aquatic centre. The Sea-To-Sky Highway will increase the provincial GDP by up to $300 million by 2025! It will carry 50% more cars 15 years from now. The Richmond Oval was converted to a multi-use sports complex. The Canada Line Skytrain created another means of transportation where citizens can now go from Richmond to Vancouver City Centre within 15 minutes. Although the costs for the Olympics were high, they also brought to us many things that will last for a long time. To say whether the Olympics was worth its costs differs between people. But for me personally, I believe that the Olympics created a great reputation for Canadians in the world, and I sure had an amazing priceless experience

Business Ethics has always been a topic that I have great interest for. As many consumers know, Walmart is the largest retail industry in the world. However, throughout the years, they truly have not shown business ethics in the community. Scandalous! Walmart uses Sweatshop (slave) labour in China, Taiwan, Honduras, Mexico, Bangladesh, India and many other countries. The workers are women and even children. They are beaten, forced to work 7 days a week and make everything from toys to clothes to computer products. The average Walmart factory worker in China makes $3 US/day. For many years, Walmart’s low prices have tricked consumers in buying their products. Did you know there their products come from? Their foreign products are actually made by cruelty of children in third world countries. Walmart ignores the social responsibilities to their employees, and not nearly spending enough on health care, especially compared to other retail-industries. Walmart CEO even stated: “No, we are not green.” Sure it is cheap, but at what cost to the rest of the world?

My score is 3.278 tonnes of CO2 per year. Not too shabby I must say.
with 67% Food is the bulk of my carbon emissions, but there isn’t too much I can do about that eh? I should get some credit for eating the cows that produce methane!  The site advises me to go vegetarian but I don’t think I would last very long.

at 22.7% Shelter is the next part, again not much I can do about that. I can reduce by turning my heater down and showering quicker, but with the stress of university courses (not comm 101 of course) my showers has become a place for relaxation and comfort.

Commute and Long Distance Travel is completes the pie chart. By not using a car, I am being fairly eco- friendly with my traveling ways. I don’t plan to work 25km to go visit friends in Burnaby nor am I fit enough to bike that length.

Overall, I think (and the website agrees with me) I am limiting my CO2 emissions. SCORE!

After the social entrepreneurship lecture, I found social enterprises very interesting. Since I do not know what type of businesses I want to work for in the future, working for social enterprises could possibly be a great career. For the time being, I don’t find passion for large cooperations, and who knows? I might find that when I explore the world of social enterprises more in the future, I will find great passion for a career where the my main goal is to help those in need.

Bill Drayton is a social entrepreneur. Drayton describes what led him to his current success in Ashoka (a nonprofit organization dedicated to finding and fostering social entrepreneurs worldwide). He claims that he has always had great passion for improving teaching, technology, health care, and finance. He was named as one of America’s 25 Best Leaders in 2005. The goal of Ashoka is to teach youth that they can lead and make important changes across the globe through a Social Venture Capital approach. Ashoka currently operates in over 60 countries and supports the work of 2000 social entrepreneurs. Ashoka envisions that one day, all universities across the globe will serve as an enabling environment where individuals have access to resources and opportunities to act as changemakers of the Changemaker Campus Initiative. Ashoka also invested in creating Youth Venture, Global Academy, Full Economic Citizenship, and Social Financial Services. Ashoka began as a social enterprise with an annual budget of $50,000, but it currently has an annual revenue of $30 million! This shows how both traditional companies and social enterprises both strive to generate revenue, and have a similar organizational structure, however, their values and goals are very different.