With the uploading of our video yesterday my time in COMM 465 has concluded (exam still to come!). Over the past three months I feel I’ve learned quite a bit about marketing, and more importantly have a better appreciation for the role it plays in business in general.

The class was extremely interactive and I found the many anecdotes told by Rui to be extremely entertaining and informative. I found the insights into the Asian market especially interesting as it was something I had never really discussed before.

I am a victory lap undergraduate student and found my group in COMM 465 to be on of the most enjoyable to work with. We all had a similar mindset and it was a comfortable environment where everyone felt their opinions were heard and respected. Everyone did their assigned work and we had no issues meeting deadlines. The video was enjoyable to shoot and came together very well, we divided the work amongst various individuals and it came together splendidly. If I was given the opportunity to work with the same group in future Commerce classes I would eagerly jump at the opportunity.

Leaving Comm 465 I feel better equipped to analyze all sorts of marketing materials thrown my way.

In September we discussed a blog in our class concerning the marketing of Molson 67.  After a bit of digging I found it was Jeff’s blog, in which he discusses the marketing of Molson 67 as healthy.

Jeff’s blog can be seen here. https://blogs.ubc.ca/effahje/2013/09/21/hello-world/

The fact a brewing company would have the audacity to label a beer as “healthy” really intrigued me and so I delved further into their marketing of Molson 67.

What I found was that it wasn’t promoted as healthy, but more so as “less bad”. It’s marketed towards the health conscious consumer that wants to have a beer, but would enjoy consuming as few calories as possible in doing so.

On their website http://molsoncanadian67.ca/en/index.aspx we can find links to their ad campaign, which focuses on “guyets”. A “guyet” according to Molson is essentially a scale…exercise just enough to offset your unhealthy eating habits. By listening to the actual dialogue we can see it’s aimed towards those that exercise (and care about their bodies) but still want to enjoy some of life’s guilty pleasures in the process. Molson 67 might appeal to these consumers as it offers them a beer that has less of a guilt factor.

It’s a marketing strategy that’s becoming fairly pervasive throughout the “diet food” community. Utilizing the word diet isn’t something that really appeals to the male demographic. By re-branding diet into something more interesting and less “girly” diet products can be focused in on guys. Some examples would be Coke Zero, Pepsi One, Dr Pepper Ten all reboots of Diet Coke/Pepsi/Dr Pepper. They’re all zero calorie sodas but their ad campaigns focus on their intense flavour and uncompromising brashness rather than their caloritic count.

It’s the same strategy as Molson 67. You can order a diet beer without having to say diet or light, and in the process save your manhood.

1-800-800-8553. Where your  car credit is guaranteed!

Pierre’s Money Mart. If I ever move to Seattle, run into financial difficulties and need a car I know where I’ll be headed.

That jingle is burned into my brain. I’ve heard it countless times on various Seattle area networks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LbvFnW0NVE

All and all, their production is lacklustre and the commercial itself is fairly unimaginative. However their closing “jingle” is present in all their commercials and through repeated viewings I often find myself humming the familiar tune.

While I ever ACTUALLY purchase a car from them? Probably not. However their jingle has resulted in a very strong brand. A Canadian that isn’t in their target demographic is AWARE of their existence.

The value of a strong brand is huge. It establishes loyalty, creates barriers of entry for new upstarts, reduces marketing costs and ultimately facilitates purchasing.

Simply having someone aware of your existence is a very valuable thing. Especially since that their product, budget cars, is in the category of “shopping” products. We expend time and effort in the process of purchasing a car. Users will actively compare between firms and do a significant amount of research prior to purchasing. Being at the forefront of the consumers mind while this process occurs will certainly aid their sales in general.

Going in search of a marketing blog I stumbled upon http://www.drewsmarketingminute.com/, specifically their post on direct mail posted on November 15^th 2013. It comments on the growing popularity of direct mail for promotion, due to the decrease in mailbox traffic in general.

I found the post interesting, because my roommate loves checking the mail. I’m not entirely sure why he derives so much pleasure from it, but hey, whatever makes him happy…I’m not here to judge.

Whenever he comes back with any sort of mail he makes a loud announcement. It’s actually fairly rare for us to receive things in the mail, which got me thinking…when I was a kid we would have massive stacks of mail delivered daily: bills, coupons, letters etc. However when we receive mail now, it’s a big deal. Whenever we receive coupons via mail we’re also much more likely to hold onto them and actually use them versus receiving similar coupons via e-mail (which are normally promptly deleted). The blog was right, at least in my case, in it’s assumption that flyers would be greeted much more warmly due to the overall decrease in “mailbox traffic”.

The blog suggests numerous traits that might make your advert more appealing in the mailbox. Briefly skimming through my own stash of flyers I found that nearly all the flyers I kept were shaped differently and brightly coloured which followed the blog’s suggestion to “be odd”.

I started to ruminate over the flyers. If all the companies were “odd”, did that make all the flyers normal? What could companies improve upon to become kings of junk mail? Obviously further innovations will arise if this market continues to be an attractive means of promotion.

Living on Davie Street I am surrounded by countless choices for takeout. There are dozens upon dozens of restaurants all competing for space in my stomach. KFC, McDonalds, Greek, Indian, sushi, Himalayan, pizza, burgers, Thai, poutine, sandwiches, comfort food, Chinese…the list goes on and on. How does one rise above the rest, and earn a spot in my stomach? Marketing.

McDonald’s and KFC rely on their strong brand to drive customers through their doors, a brand that has been acquired through the billions of dollars they’ve spent on advertising campaigns. However most restaurants on Davie are small businesses and as such aren’t so firmly entrenched in the average consumers mind. They’re forced to rely upon creative means of promotion in order to alert the consumer to their existence.

What does this lead to? Promoters. Signs. Coupons. Takeout menus. Hourly specials. Free samples. As a student I have very little loyalty to any restaurant, and find price to be the determinant variable when I decide what to purchase. As such I have a schedule made up of every deal occurring each day on Davie, in order to save as much money as possible.

As I was gorging myself on a half price burrito (Available between 3:30-5 PM on weekdays) I chuckled to myself about my frugality. However in the midst of stroking my ego I started to reflect on my consumer behaviour. I had been to the burrito restaurant several times in the past week, and actually had been a couple times when the special WASN’T occurring. The special had alerted me to the restaurants existence, and through product excellence differentiated itself from the other various restaurants. The restaurant was utilizing a relational marketing approach, they weren’t concerned about the profit they were going to make from one burrito. They were interested in the profit they would make off me in the coming months. Considering they’ve managed to alter my “takeout schedule”, I would say it’s paying off.

When I was in grade school I often came down with “the flu” so as to avoid going to school. These aimless days generally revolved around watching a rather large amount of daytime television. Maury, Judge Judy, TMZ…I watched it all. However my definite favourite was The Price is Right.

Anyways, ranting about my television habits isn’t the aim of this blog. What does this have to do with marketing?

There was one ad that was always shown during The Price is Right. It was peddling life insurance. It went essentially like: “When you pass away, do you want to burden your family with your funeral expenses? Don’t cause them financial pain in addition to emotional pain…with reasonable monthly payments you can rest easy”.

Even as a young teen I could see just how much of a rip off this “life insurance” really was. By simply depositing each monthly payment you could surpass the life insurance policy in a few years. Who would possibly pay for such a thing?

The elderly. Who primarily watches The Price is Right? The elderly. They were broadcasting an ad which in my eyes attempted to guilt the target consumer into purchasing something for “peace of mind”.

My grandmother actually purchased one of these policies when she was in her 60s and made payments until her death at 82.

When my mother calculated the payout vs payments, she received approximately 10% of the money paid in. Taking into account inflation, and the amount of money she could have accrued in interest over 25 years the payout was absolutely pitiful. Ironically enough this money did not cover the funeral expenses…but the payments she made throughout her life would have covered it several times over.

Is the company creating this need through manipulative advertising, or simply capitalizing on a market that already exists?

Much like all ethics questions, there’s no real clear cut answer. But if there’s money to be made, I’m sure I’ll continue to see these ads in between Plinko games.