Month: March 2011

Looking at Elisha Allen’s Blog, i realized that even in an overcrowded industry, new comers can make it big. Lululemon founder is now on Forbes’ list of billionaires.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/news/4413295/story.html

My marketing thoughts :

I would say that marketing played a great part in lululemon success. From the start , lululemon know what it had to do to become the best in the buisness. They had a great mission statement and the company objective was stated clearly. They focused on a psychographic segment where lifestyle was the main priority. How people view their life is a great way for lululemon to focus on. Nowadays since the trend of healthy living are being much better promoted by education institutions and mass media, they had a concentrated target segment where they focussed their marketing energy on only one group of people providing the needs. With time, lululemon managed to better by building their brand equity and loyalty through benefit product strategy.The company was much more customer oriented where it targeted the segment for value of its product. Lululemon not only offers unique clothing for women but also for guys. With that, they have a good product line that continuously attract customers. People normally gets bored with the same clothing. Lululemon really attracts people when we see new products on the shelves. With not a lot of retail outlets, I must say that lululemon has a small supply chain. Well, they dont really need to have a distribution centre as it would be very costly for the company. They managed to save a lot of money through it and put it into more marketing channel flow. With the limited supply chain, it facilitated spending since the product managed to diffuse swiftly and efficiently. Factors that provided this  scenario was relative advantage. There are not a lot of substitutes for the type of product those lululemon offers, so it gained acceptance from the population pretty easily. Branding was also a great part of lululemon. They had the right symbol and unique salient attribute which fostered brand awareness. Retailing was also to its best. Personal service once again is really important; Customer is king. Through multichannel marketing, they expanded market presence where the internet helped in broader selection and more information. The elasticity of demand is also an important factor for lululemon. They managed to target knowing how price sensitivity works in this market. With all this factors ,  i must say that lululemon managed to leverage and get great market share in that particular industry  since what they targeted was reachable. The next thing for lululemon to do will be diversification. Expand more outlet to other countries especially where labour is cheap

Looking at Francesco Mugnai blog, I learnt about the importance of creativity in Marketing. If creativity didn’t exist, we would probably be living like cavemen right now. Creativity plays a great part in our world leading to change in the way of life of human species. People always create something new that has some kind of value. Right now, with the help of mtv, we saw the arrival of the jersey shore culture while in the 1960, rock and roll was the trend. In marketing, creativity plays the fundamental part in a marketing campaign. We use creativity in the way we advertise and brand of a product. Without creativity, it is impossible to compete with our rivals and reach the target market. Creativity is key to brand differentiation. Creativity leads to ad effectiveness by stimulating demand due to increase in value perception, and facilitation of communication process. By brand differentiation, it leads to innovation which is the driving factor of our economy. For an ad to be effective, the message needs to be unique and radical so that that consumers react positively to it. If the message is successful, the company has a  has a great chance in gaining market share and it can foster brand loyalty in the future. For an ad to be creative, it has to be attention grabbing to the audience. This kind of marketing is  called guerrilla marketing. Guerilla marketing campaigns rely on time, energy and creativity  rather than a big marketing budget. Human psychology is a great part in the effectiveness in guerilla marketing.

Some examples of creativity and guerrilla marketing campaigns:

Dental Implants

Pepsi Twist

WWF donations

Audi

Folgers

Canada post

Puma

Nike

3m Sercurity glass

Gold Gym

Mr clean

Pictures Source: Google pictures , stumbleupon.com

Colour makes up everything in life. Imagine a world without colour. How will your perception change? Marketers in similar use specific colour to convey message to the target market. Visual appeal is very important on how we classify things. By using the right colour we can influence the behaviour of our consumers. Whether you are making a website or a luxurious good, colour is an important factor.

For example:

Mcdonalds- Red and Orange ( associated with fast food)- studies proven that those colours make people eat quickly and leave.

Toys, books and children websites- Primary colours- Young children prefer those colours and react more than they do to pastels.

Shopping habits- Impulse shoppers- red-orange

Jaguars- Black and silver- Assiocated with sophistication and prestige- People with high income, looking for prestige will certainly view them different if they buy the product

Here is a list and colour and attributes

Red –excitement, strength, sex, passion, speed, danger.
Blue –Reliability, belonging, coolness.
Yellow –warmth, sunshine, cheer, happiness
Orange — playfulness, warmth, vibrant
Green — nature, fresh, cool, growth, abundance
Purple –royal, spirituality, dignity
Pink — soft, sweet, nurture, security
White –pure, virginal, clean, youthful, mild.
Black –sophistication, elegant, seductive, mystery
Gold — prestige, expensive
Silver — prestige, cold, scientific

We also have to know that that colour interpretation vary greatly along cultures.  Green might be associated with jealousy in North America but in tropical countries the same colour might mean cool.

choose respectfully 🙂

Source : Stumbleupon.com ( Marketing)

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/4BBvkt/www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2008/06/color-psycholog.html