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Those marketing plan assignments were really interesting and were not exactly what I was expecting at the beginning of the semester. I actually think it was a good idea to not choose our teams so then we had to interact with individuals that were not our friends. As a result, it was more like a “professional” atmosphere that enabled the work instead of a too friendly one. Also, I think our team worked well and had a lot of good ideas. However, I have to admit I had a hard time feeling involved in the team as each member was fluent in English and most of the time, I did not have the time to formulate what I was about to say and explain my ideas. Until assignment 4, I also never felt that much support on that side and they probably thought it was just me who did not want to get too much involved in the team.

Those marketing plan assignments taught me that I was able to make research and being concise about the information. We had to deal with a lot of data but we had to find the right pieces of information that exactly linked with what we were asked for. I guess that next time, I would try to be more confident about my English to feel more involved in the team.

Since those last few years, the word “scandal” has never been so popular : from all those scandal TV shows such as  “The Real Housewives of …” and” Tan Mom” to scandal newspapers like The New York Post and its famous page 6, people like controversial and dramatic information. But has scandal become the new requirement to make money ? It seems to be the case.

Let’s talk about those TV shows. First of all, those shows are often targeting young people (from their 15’s to their 25’s) adopting their codes, points of views and ways to speak. Secondly, the more scandalous, the better. Although those shows are called “reality TV shows” and are allegedly following the real life of the characters, directors try to catch the attention of the public with dramatic scripts already written which are everything but natural. For instance, on of the most famous scandalous TV show, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, is a succession of allegedly “problems” (such as picking their daily outfits or finding a new caterer at the last minute as the previous one just canceled) that have to face the Kardashian family.

But those TV shows also have consequences. According to the Italians living in New Jersey, Jersey Shore is degrading the image of the whole community being so trashy. They also have a serious impact on kids who see the characters as “stars” ans want to want to be like them, adopting their attitudes and behaviors.

Hopefully, some politicians are reacting such as  New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who passed a new law forbidding children under 14 to get spray tans in tanning salons. Also, people under 17 must be accompanied by a parent when they go for a consultation in a tanning salon. Unfortunately, even if the law is useful, its not enough, it also has to come from the parents protecting their kids from that exposure to scandal media.

source links =

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/damien-hoffman/is-scandal-the-new-model_b_479377.html

http://adage.com/article/media/scandal-sheet/108781/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2302665/Jersey-Shore-look-18-New-Jersey-Governor-Chris-Christie-passes-ban-children-tanning-beds-Tan-Mom-scandal.html

    Liking a page on Facebook is a commonly used tool. With the “like” button which was launched in 2009, you can let your friends know that you are following that page but also be aware of the latest news posted on that page. However, it tells a lot about you to Facebook , known to store those personal data.

A few months ago, the social network, that changed its privacy settings, made it possible to search for people according to specific features. Now, thanks to “Graph search” and using crossed check information, you can actually look for dentists that liked Pringles and Haribo candies, teachers that liked the official page of the Communist Party or army soldiers that went to Iraq. Moreover, even more worrying, some studies were carried out and researchers linking different likes, were able to establish personality traits. For instance, 95% of the time, researchers were able to guess if Facebook users were identifying themselves as black or white and 88% of the time, they were also able to find out if a male user was homosexual. Thanks to those personality traits, it was also quite easy to determine if  the user was Democrat or Republican.

But, there’s more. Nowadays, smartphones have a GPS included, which means that when you are posting photos telling where they were taken, Facebook also knows it. Also, by using accessible data such as zip codes or locations, Facebook uses those data to target us better with marketing and advertising. For instance, if you like an artist on Facebook, you will see whenever he is coming to give a concert to the city where you live.

Hopefully, there are some solutions to prevent people from identifying and finding you on facebook thanks to your zip code or that page you liked. First of all, change your privacy settings to make your data only visible by your “friends” and be careful with the pages you like.

Source links =

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/11/facebook-likes-personality-traits_n_2854403.html

http://gigaom.com/2013/04/04/why-facebook-home-bothers-me-it-destroys-any-notion-of-privacy/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21699305

A few months ago, the horsemeat scandal exploded in Europe, letting companies accusing their distribution channels and consumers outraged. Everything started with suspicions about presence of horsemeat in burgers in England and Ireland.Tests were carried out on frozen dinners like lasagna or frozen spaghetti and it resulted that some of them contained more than 60 percent of horse meat. The problem here was that those frozen dishes were labeled as beef horse and were not supposed to contain horse meat at all. Moreover, horses are seen as companions and sporting animals only. After those dinners were analyzed, it resulted than there were not healthy risks.

However,  the core of the problem was deeper :  there were actually no transparency about the product, companies using horsemeat instead of beef because it was cheaper. To put it in a nutshell, companies were lying to consumers about what they were buying and this is a violation of the trust on which is based the relationship buyer-seller. And trust is mandatory for an exchange between to occur.

However, there are still some people who benefit from that scandal. Here in Canada, more people are trying this type of meat. According to Bill desBarres, chairman of the Horse Welfare Alliance of Canada, the scandal in Europe have raised consumer interest and people want to taste horsemeat. In Quebec, grocery stores like Metro or IGA sell the product. In Ontario, some restaurants like La Palette in Toronto, serve two horse tenderloin dishes. As well, this horsemeat scandal has helped fish sales to jump up over 20% in the European Union. As a result, lobster prices that have been stuck at $5 a pound for ages, recently reached $10.

source links =

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2013/04/02/pei-horse-meat-lobster-price-584.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/02/11/horsemeat-europe-scandal.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2013/02/22/can-horsemeat-europe-scandal-canada-foodie.html

Knowing your consumers very well is one of the key of marketing. Then, you are able to identify their needs and you are able to predict their future purchases before they even realize they need them. A lot of companies, like Target, are really focused on the purchase behaviour of every customer identified and registered in the system. Having an efficient costumer service that tracks every purchase enables the company to understand what kind of items costumers buy.

This is how Target found out that a teenager was pregnant before her father did. How come? Target assigns every consumer an ID number linked to their credit card, name or email address and stores in the system their purchase history. This purchase history is then analyzed to predict any future buy.

For instance, if a woman starts buying supplements (like calcium, magnesium or zinc) or even, scent-free soap and big bags of cotton balls, she is considered as a potential pregnant woman. Then, they send her personalized booklets with coupons for pregnancy products. And to be sure to attract her attention towards pregnancy products, those coupons are mixed with rebates for items she won’t probably buy like lawn mowers. This is how a father from Minneapolis called the company because her daughter was receiving coupons for baby clothes.

In that case, the costumer service of Target is really efficient. So efficient that it becomes really intrusive. Is it an attack to people’s privacy? Absolutely. What does that mean? Our society based on lure of profit is now reduced to spy on its consumers to make more profits. Unfortunately, we don’t have much of a choice. We are the first ones to give information about ourselves to companies from our email/mail addresses to the number of our credit card(s).

source link = http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/

Nowadays, CSR or Corporate Social Responsiblity has become an increasinly “fashionable” term. That concept, which is supposed to retarget agendas of companies on stakeholder’s real needs, has provoked an icreasing amount of corporate responsiblity policies since the crisis. But, are companies really commited to the community ?  Are all those responsibility policies sincerely made to show the true commitment of companies to the community ? Not really …

In 99% of cases, the real objective of companies is to improve their corporate image in order to get more customers and an increase of their market shares. And bigger market shares means more money…

But, WHAT IF companies decided to stop liying ? Okay, we all know that it’s probably  cheaper for them to spend millions of dollars to reduce their carbon footprints than improve the working conditions of their subsidiaries in developping countries .. But still, wouldn’t it be awesome to buy sneakers from a very famous sport apparel company without feeling guilty because you know that it was made by a someone paid 40 cents per hour in Vietnam ?

Besides, according to C. B. Bhattacharya, “Yet executives commonly don’t understand the most effective ways to design and implement sustainability programs. Because of that they can’t fully capitalize on the potential corporate responsibility has for creating business value”.

What does that mean ? Well, it means that if corporations sincerely commited themselves to the community, consumers would probably be proud of affiliating themselves with a socially reponsible company. This would create a genuine loyalty from the consumer to the company leading to granted profits.

Let’s take the example of The Body Shop which has done an amazing job in terms of corporate social responsibility. They have shown that it’s not so hard to make environmental commitment the core of the company’s values and marketing strategy… So what are the other companies waiting for to do so ?

Source link = http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/20/corporate-social-responsibility-leadership-citizenship-marketing.html