Brenton Chin's Blog

Hey everybody!

Today in class we discussed why the hugely anticipated Superbowl commercials are only shown in the USA and not in Canada. Personally, as a  Canadian, I feel our tastes and buying habits are similar enough to the that of Americans that companies who advertise during the Superbowl would receive the same marketing outcome here as they would in America.

I found a post by a fellow Canadian blogger who also shares my view, lamenting that throughout the Superbowl, “[Canadians] mostly tuned out the same old Canadians ads when they came on, as [they] usually do”. I agree with his point whole heartedly, because while I watched the Superbowl commercials, none of the commercials that I watched were new or exciting at all.I

If American companies do not play their commercials in Canada during the Superbowl, why can’t Canadian companies pick up the slack and air their own? The same blogger that I mentioned above did, however, find ONE commercial – Budweiser’s – that was actually unique to Canada and aired during yesterday’s Superbowl – guess I missed  it since I didn’t watch the whole game.

You can check it out at his blog: http://letfreedomrain.blogspot.com/2012/02/best-super-bowl-ad-not-seen-in-us-shown.html

I think it’s interesting how the only commercial during the Superbowl that was unique to Canada was a HOCKEY commercial, but I guess the creators of the video are trying to appeal to our nationalistic pride of being Canadian – and what better way to do it through hockey – Canada’s favorite sport. It also reminded me of one the Chrysler commercials that has become one of America’s token Superbowl commercials: I have posted it below.

Like the Canadian Budweiser commercial, if you watch the video below, you’ll be able to see how this Chrysler commercial directly appeals to the robust nature of American culture – appealing to their hard work-ethic and the consequential pride they feel in what has become known as “The American Dream”. The video I’ve attached is this year’s, however, last year’s Chrysler commercial was deemed “so beautiful” by some Americans that by the end they had shed some tears. Crazy that a commercial can create such a profound response in Americans – but obviously this commercial wouldn’t have had the same effect here in Canada.

Additionally, i remember some one in class pointing out that maybe the CRTC limits American commercials to protect Canadian companies. It seemed pretty plausible when he raised his point, however I went to the CRTC website, which in fact, has a page regarding Superbowl advertising in Canada. It doesn’t look like they restrict anything at all – and blame the non-airing of American Superbowl commercials on “American advertisers choosing not to buy time on Canadian stations” . The only reason that they list – one that is pretty obvious – is that the American products advertised may not be available in Canada.

If you’re interested you can click the link to read more in detail: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/info_sht/tv12.htm

With that said, I think that American companies are already spending so much money on their commercials, so it should be a no-brainer to buy Canadian advertising and benefit even MORE off a commercial that they have ALREADY made.  An argument might be that our demographic may not be the same, but look how an American company was able to successfully “Canadianize” their American commercial:

This is the American Version:

This is the Canadian Version:

Blog Source: http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/iphone-news/samsungs-super-bowl-ad-mocking-iphone-users-revealed-video/

As you can see, all Samsung did was change the texts at the beginning from American cities to Canadian cities.. and voila!!! I realize this method won’t work in all cases, however, I feel a lot of the American Superbowl commercials could easily have been used in Canada.. all it takes is some creative thinking from the marketers!

Chapter 5 in the textbook recounts the way in which Proctor & Gamble are able to manage their marketing information and determine deep customer insights to help them yield a meaningful customer relationship. The example goes on to explain how their brand Tide has been able to develop a relationship with consumers  which has resulted in it becoming a “cash cow” for Proctor & Gamble. The fact that something as ordinary and generic as a laundry detergent brand can connect with consumers on a such a deep, personal level highlights the fact that brands are seriously a POWERFUL force that truly impact consumer buying habits!
So I thought to myself, what are some other brands that I feel that have been able to connect with in way that is intrinsic?

Apple is a brand that I know I really like. I love their advertisements on television because they show off the features of their products, but unlike other brands, they do so both tactfully and sentimentally by connecting with our emotions in a way that is heart-felt. They may show a little boy in awe about dinosaurs as you watch him reading a book bought from the iPad’s online bookstore, or a family having fun playing an iPhone game together. All of their examples are able to showcase their product’s features to us, but it also SHOWS us why these features are useful to us, while showing us the associate-emotion that we feel while using their products.
Here’s an example of their iPad commericals… how could you NOT want an iPad after watching it?

Kleenex tissues are a brand that I feel I was not directly AWARE that I had a connection with, but after thinking about it, I don’t know of a time time when I have not used a brand that is NOT Kleenex. When I sneeze at a friends house, I would usually say… “can you pass me a Kleenex?”… the tissue brand that they may be Scotties, or a no-name brand, but they know what I mean when I say Kleenex – even though the proper term I should be using is “tissue”. I suppose Kleenex has employed a very powerful marketing tactic by making the brand synonymous with the actual word people use to describe the product!!

Another example of what I just described above:

BAND-AID!

Here’s one of their commercials if you need a refresher:

Band-aid has become so synonymous to the product that it describes that when I tried to think what the actual product was called I was left drawing blanks! So I searched it up online, and apparently the proper term is “adhesive bandage”. Imagine yourself asking someone for an adhesive bandage, and I’m sure most of them would just give you a blank stare!

So I think its important for companies to build their marketing campaign wisely and I think the brands that I have discussed above have done just that. A commonality that these brands have is that they have marketed products in a way that truly show us how their product will touch people lives and alter it like nothing else can.

Hi, my name is Brenton Chin and I’m sure like everybody in this course , I’m taking it because it is one of the required courses in 2nd year. I’m planning to pick Marketing as my major because I like being creative. After taking the two accounting classes, calculus and COMM 290, I think I’d rather stay away from numbers and focus on studying things that are not so black and white.

My experience with marketing so far is mostly limited to being a consumer… and as I’m sure you’ve guessed, like everyone I’ve been subjected to many commercials – whether it be on TV,radio, YouTube… etc… In terms of my favorite ad, I like the ones that have catchy jingles that stick in your head. Off the top of my head I can remember one that I ALWAYS hear on the radio “call 1-800-267-2001…. alaaarrrm force!”  I think its pretty clever for the marketers to incorporate the company’s phone number into the jingle. You’d think it wouldn’t work, but here I am, able to sing all nine digits of the phone number off of the top of my head – the fact that I can sing this jingle without even thinking while barely being able to remember my grandparents number shows how powerful this jingle is for the company! Ads that I don’t like are the political ones where parties try to state all the negative attributes about the opposing political candidate… I guess it’s because its so depressing. Also, I dislike radio ads that use car honks as sound effects. There have been so many incidents where I have been driving and have gotten startled from hearing a loud car honk protruding from my car’s speakers. I know that the advertisers are desperately trying to get our attention, but they need to think about safety!

Here’s the video of the Alarm Force jingle that I like… it comes near the end.

Anyways, to get more of a feel of who I am, I thought I’d post some pictures of some brands that I like/admire:

Anyways, an interesting thing about me is that I am Chinese but sadly I don’t speak the language.. which is unfortunate, because my grandparents only speak Chinese so its really difficult to communicate with them using only hand signals. This is why I’m really enthusiastic about taking beginner level Chinese courses at UBC so that I will be able to communicate with them one day.

COMM 299 is a very practical course in that is applicable to real life. Because of this real-life practicality, there are a very diverse range of skills that I can now utilize in my life. The biggest thing that the course has helped me realize, is that I do have a very strong array of experiences that an employer would be looking for. Throughout lecture and tutorial, I have learned from Philippe and my TA Pia that a lot of what has to do with being hired is presenting yourself in a different ways that I feel will seem attractive to the specific employer. My job as a potential employee is to manipulate my language and persona in a way that allows an employer to view me in the best way possible while staying true to my existing integrity. After weekly mentoring from Philippe and Pia, I now know how to execute these two conditions favorably, and I am surprised to now say that I am quite positive in my feeling that I have the skills to succeed in the business world.

I have also learned that even though I may try my best to attract a certain employer, as Pia says, not every employer is going to like me  I now know that my best efforts at showcasing my abilities to a company may not result in a job offering; however, this is okay because every employer is looking for something unique, and the specific type of uniqueness that each individual employer is  looking for may simply not be possessed by me. As illustrated in my first paragraph, in order to attract an employer I need to be savvy, however, Pia taught me in tutorial that I should realize that every employer is looking for something different and despite my best efforts, a specific employer may not always be impressed; however, there are some that WILL be impressed. These employers who can spot the potential in me is why I need to constantly put myself out there when searching for a job while staying confident in my abilities and strengths, knowing that there is an employer out there who WILL want to hire me: I just have to find them.

One of the most profound lessons that I have learned comes from my previous manager at Staples Business Depot.  I was first hired at Staples during the end of grade nine. It was my job, and I certainly felt overwhelmed with the new sense of responsibility that I had now undertaken. The General Manager’s name was J.P. and it was him who had hired me. Feeling fearful of such an “higher power” or, superior, I was immediately intimidated and sought to work as hard as I could to impress J.P, who really me scared to death. As I was being trained I always had my guard up, making sure that I was always 100% focused on the task so that J.P. would see me as a hard-working employee… after all, I was the youngest employee at the job.

Keeping my guard up was not easy, because it wasn’t like myself to maintain such a serious demeanor. I think J.P. caught on to this, because he brought a garbage can towards me and showed me how kick trash into the garbage can. At first I was shocked, and thought to myself how could a manager be acting so mature… I mean, isn’t he supposed to be professional? Well, being an obedient employee I complied when he asked me to attempt what he had just done. Well after a couple of tries, I felt myself relax and a little part of my personality (which I had been concealing so far) began to shine its way out. After laughing with J.P., I felt less uptight and more at ease. J.P. then told me he had sensed my unease and told me when he works, he always tries to make sure he is having fun; even if he has to act immature at times! I smiled, and then realised that there was no reason for me to need to feel uptight, I could enjoy my work and be myself! From then on, there are times when I think back to the summer of grade nine when J.P. taught me a valuable lesson and after thinking about it, I then try to enjoy myself by being myself on the job: there is such thing as work and play.

The XBOX Kinect is the latest and greatest – just ask Canadian Consumers! 2.5 million units were sold in just 25 days, which is an amazing feat. The cool thing about the XBOX Kinect is that there is no controller? The players themselves are the controllers. How does this work? Well I had a chance to try out the new console and boy, is it a fine piece of technology. The character I was controlling (with my own body), stood the same way i stood, and when my arms moved, its arms moved! I was totally in control! This all works because of a camera that is placed to track your every movements

A marketing strategy on Microsoft’s (the maker of Xbox) part is that they released it just in time for the holidays. With Christmas, Hanukkah and other holidays just around the corner, XBOX takes advantage of consumers who are looking for a cool new present that they can put underneath this year’s Christmas tree. As shown above, the purchases of gaming consoles exponentially increases during the December-January period.

Wtih 2.5 million units sold already,  the XBOX Kinect will be able increase its overall market share, and also steal away buyers of the Xbox’s competitors: Playstation and Nintendo Wii. The above graph outlines 2007’s market share of gaming consoles.

Looks like this is a going to be a profitable Christmas for Microsoft!

To Read More:

XBOX’s official website: http://www.xbox.com/en-ca/kinect

The Daily Mail News: http://dailymailnews.com/1210/05/Snippets/index.php?id=3

The MMOROG business has proven to be a very lucrative business. After creating an addicting game, MMORPOG games usually rely on the constant subscription of users to feed their company with dollars upon dollars.  This may sound lucrative, however, it does raise questions dealing with ethics – at what extent will MMOROG’s go to addict their users to the game? As shown on the graph below, the rate of MMOROG is growing heavily…

I have been addicted to MMORPGs in the past, so I know how addicting they can be. However,  I’ve never been addicted to the degree that my other friends have been.  Presently, the most addicting MMORPG is World of Warcraft.. which single-handedly controls over half of the market share of MMORPGs! (you can see this below!)

What exactly is it about World of Warcraft that keeps its subscribers paying the monthly fee? Well, yes, I assume the game play is extraordinary.. however, I believe it also has to do with a strong business plan on their creator, Blizzard Entertainment’s part.

One of Blizzard Entertainment’s business strategies is to make sure that it is difficult for existing users to quit the game. I have heard stories of people quitting, then subsequently coming back to play within a couple of days. One of the ways in which this happens is through Blizzard Entertainment’s offer of a free week of play to people who have stopped subscribing. Though this may seem harmless, once a player that previously had been addicted to World of Warcraft begins playing again, the possibility of them becoming addicting again (and therefore renewing their subscription)  is very likely.

This method is very effective for Blizzard Entertainment, as they do not lose anything, and therefore can only gain from offering previously addicted users a chance to play World of Warcraft for free. This may be a good business model, however, is it ethical to benefit from addicted users who have quit? I believe this is unethical because I have seen firsthand people whose lives have spiraled downhill from the addictive nature of World of Warcraft.

Clearly, more and more people are playing World of Warcraft.. What do you all think? Ethical or unethical?

Air Canada was among a handful of airlines FINED by European Union officials Tuesday for fixing cargo prices. Altogether, EU anti-trust regulators fined 11 air cargo carriers $1.11 billion US. The carriers co-ordinated surcharges for fuel and security without discounts over a six-year period from December 1999 to Feb. 14, 2006.

In the biggest case, Air France was ordered to pay $474 million US — a HEFTY fine. Air Canada faces approximately $29.2 million US in fines. Air Canada’s penalty was reduced by 15% because of its willingness to co-operate with the commission. Air Canada said it can “more than adequately” cover the fine by dipping into the $125 million it put aside for this purpose in 2008.

For those of you who don’t know about cartels, they are an agreement among competing firms who agree to fix prices, marketing, and production. This relates to business ethics in that, by creating a monopolistic-like atmosphere,  it fixes prices to maximize company profits, while maintaining extremely high prices at the expense of the consumers.

I’ll leave you all with a video regarding the cartel scandal and a quote by vice-president for competition, Joaquin Almunia, stating that “it is deplorable that so many major airlines co-ordinated their pricing to the detriment of European businesses and European consumers”.

There are many things that I find WRONG with Canadian Cellphone Carriers. Recently I have been helping my friends search for new cellphones plans, only to find out that cellphone plans are 1) expensively priced and 2) don’t give enough “bang for your buck”

However, during my search, I ran into a new Canadian carrier called  “Mobilicity” (their logo below)

When I saw their plans, my eyeballs nearly dropped to the floor. Their plans are unlike ANY carriers! They’re cheapest plan is $25 per month, (which they call their “Unlimited Plan”). Subscribers get UNLIMITED calling, UNLIMITED texting & picture messaging, and Caller ID… all of that on NO CONTRACT! For $10 extra per month, one can receive UNLIMITED data.. (other carriers charge 30$ per month for only 1 gigabyte!!) This is unlike anything I, along with any other Canadians have seen!

Now, I had a conversation with a Mobilicity representative who explained to me why their prices are so unbelievably cheap. There are two parts to it. The first part, is that Mobilicity is “eliminating the middle man”, in that they have erected their own cell phone towers, instead of paying Rogers, Telus or Bell for THEIR cell phone towers (Wind Mobile, Virgin Mobile do this!). Secondly, Mobilicity has eliminated all the corporate structuring that other Canadian cell phone companies have: Mobilicity runs independently, which eliminates all costs associated with payroll at the corporate level.

This may seem ingenius, but this is commonplace in other countries, where cell phones plans are just as cheap as Mobilicity’s: (take a look at the graph above!)

Lets just hope that Mobilicity isn’t bought by the existing Canadian companies (like how old Fido was) .. which would be a step-forward for monopoly-like prices, and a step-back for Canadian consumers…!

In class last week, we were learning about assets, and what they mean to a company. Well, we also learned that people are a major asset to a company… and are sometimes a company’s biggest asset.

I believe this is the case, however I suppose it debatable. A company that fully believes that a people are their biggest assets is the company Virgin. Virgin spends a lot of time finding the right personalities to run their companies. It is sometimes a challenging task because Virgin seeks managers that have all the listed qualities:

1) good listeners
2) inventive yet organized
3) determined, yet ready to enjoy themselves

It is hard for Virgin to the find the right personalities to run their companies,because not only must managers take their roles seriously, they also need to see the lighter side of life and care passionately about the company (and not just their status within it)

Virgin is a firm believer of the saying: “Rot starts at the top”. This saying describes how the poor attitudes of “rotton” management will spread down to employee.s

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What do you all think? Do you agree that Virgin is correct in that a company’s biggest asset is their EMPLOYEES?