Marketing Assignment #3

When I heard about a marketing project, I though that it would be a research paper and presentation, and I couldn’t even imagine that it might be completely different. I really like the way how we do our project. It was not a boring paper since all assignments were focus on various tasks and requirements, and they expanded and enhanced each other. In addition, the assignments were not only interesting, but quite challenging because we had to think critically, analyze company’s strategy and implement our diverse skills.

The assignment #3 was the most valuable since we should fully understand the marketing strategy of our company and suggest our ideas how we can improve it. To fulfill this task without a strong foundation built in 2 previous assignments is impossible.

I enjoyed to work with members of my team. I liked that everyone contributed an equal part in all our assignment.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/benlee/

I don’t agree with Ben’s thoughts regarding why BlackBerry has been losing it’s market share and profit since 2010 and that BlackBerry has made a mistake when it launched the new Porsche Design smartphone.

Firstly, the company has started to lose it’s market share not because Apple released iPhone ( in fact, it was released in 2007), but because it didn’t suggest new technologies to their customers while Samsung, Apple, LG and other android providers were creating new very powerful smartphones. Unfortunately, BlackBerry understood it’s problem only a year ago when it decided to produce smartphones with attractive designs and powerful hardware.

Secondly, BlackBerry has been successfully co-operating with Porsche Design since they launched the first luxurious phone. Even though BlackBarry is not a luxurious brand and it’s products are quite affordable, it makes a good profit on these phones. In fact, BlackBerry is only a provider of smartphones, Porsche Design sells them in there stores all around the world and on the Internet.

Therefore, BlackBerry has a good strategy that allows it to make profit without big risks, advertize it’s brand more efficiently and target a new segment of luxurious phones.

http://www.the-cma.org/about/blog/battle-of-the-smartphone-brands-an-apple-loyalist-throws-down-the-gauntlet

 I have been reading with interest Bryan Tenenhouse’s blog called “Battle of the Smartphone Brands: An Apple Loyalist Throws Down the Gauntlet” because it is a great example of customer loyalty. He claims so emotionally that Apple is the best company and he will never even try something else. In order to support his point of view Bryan uses results of a survey that shows Apple customer loyalty is higher than Android’s one. Moreover, the blogger uses some “dirty” techniques to emphasize that competitors of Apple are shitty.

 Apple – iPhone 5 – TV Ad – Music Every Day

Even though I disagree with his reflections, I would like to agree that Apple has a great marketing company. It has not been very innovative for past 2 – 3 years, but it’s sales always beat records. Definitely, the reason for that is tremendously good marketing. Marketers perfectly know customers and their needs. Because of a quite broad, but not deep line of products, they can focus straightly on the targeting market.

Nevertheless, I suppose that if Apple will not suggest something really innovative in next 1 or 2 years, it may lose a lot of customers since we are living in the advance technology world where everything changes so fast.

As a real estate agent, I would like to write about a business that I know very well.

In real estate field the line between ethical and unethical marketing is quite blurred, so some Realtors ® use unethical marketing trikes. Sometimes it is impossible to determine whether a real estate agent acts ethically or not. Even if a licensee follows all laws, rules and restrictions, he may behave unethically.

Here are some common techniques employed by unprincipled agents:

1. The listing agent says potential buyers that he has already gotten some offers, or there are buyers interested in the certain property when, in fact, one or none of these is true.
2. The listing agent simply doesn’t show all the offers submitted to the seller because he wants to maximize  his profit (e.g., an agent shows only the highest offers or, in some cases, when he is interested in acquisition of seller’s property, the lowest offers).
3. The seller’s representative agrees to list an overpriced property in hopes to attract the new clients (e.g., some potential clients may call when they see his sing or come on his open house); however, most probably the home won’t be sold.
4. The buyer’s agent refuses to show for-sale-by-owner homes since he is afraid of losing his paycheck when a seller doesn’t pay commission.
5. The buyer’s agent doesn’t show listings with a low cooperation commission because he simply wants to get as much commission as possible.

I believe that there are, probably, two main reasons of unethical behaviour in real estate business. The first reason is that the real estate agents have an information power since their customers and clients don’t have an access to MLS system and cannot be aware of all the information Realtors ® know. The second one is that there is no ceiling to how much money a person could make in real estate; therefore there is never any room for satisfaction. Because of this, there is always a need to earn more, which could lead to an unethical behaviour.

Nevertheless,as an insider I can assure you that the majority of Realtors ® are very honest and dependable professionals whose marketing techniques are ethical.

If you would like to know more about unethical real estate agents techniques, please visit the following link: http://www.chicagonow.com/getting-real/2011/08/11-of-the-sleaziest-real-estate-practices/

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