Category: Uncategorized

How justifiable is Google’s latest April Fool’s joke? Google introduced Google Motion, a program which allows users to control Gmail without a keyboard or a mouse.
You can check out the link here: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/gmail-motion-googles-april-fools-prank/147976-11.html

Although it’s obvious that Google is just doing this for the spirit of April Fools, what if this marketing tactic really had impact on their market share and stock values? What if people, for the sake of checking out Google Motion, actually signed up for a Gmail account?

Google’s true motives may not be as malicious as to use their power to create interactive and high production value videos to attract consumers, but does anyone actually believe that Google willingly invests time and money, simply for a holiday which many don’t even value? Even if they are doing it for the spirit of making a joke, they still want to generate interest in their product. By creating a fake and highly attractive product, but not actually supplying it, don’t Google’s efforts ultimately amount to a bait and switch deceptive marketing tactic?

Youtube users who enjoy scrolling down below the video to view recent comments probably notice the two comments which are “thumb up’d the most. Usually, these comments are unique in their generalizations, observations or most often comedic references to the relevant video. Recently, a trend, or a plague if you will, of these comments has been spreading throughout Youtube. They are as simple as “i love pocodot………………” or
“what is pocodot…?” The second comment embodies what 99% of viewers actually ask themselves. How exactly does such a shallow comment garner so many “thumbs up’s” that it can be placed at the top of the comments?

Pocodot is actually a relatively new social network company, not unlike Facebook or LinkedIn. As we’ve seen, its marketing tactic (I hope it’s short-term) comprises of a word of mouth spreading of their existence, namely by leaving intriguing, strange, yet highly approved comments on popular Youtube videos.

To me, this is despicable. Comparing my experiences to the AIDA model processes, while my awareness and interest have been grabbed in the face of this marketing (I AM writing a blog about it…), I feel zero inclination to want to use pocodot or spread the word about it, least of all add to the thumbs-up count. When I originally Google’d up pocodot to see what the hype was about, I felt extremely annoyed at the fact that they’ve actually taken time from my life to research a product which features borderline deceptive marketing.

I’m definitely not a big social media user, but I definitely do not appreciate pocodot’s marketing techniques. If anything, this just proves the extent to how much marketing can make or break consumer perception of one’s product.

Maybe I’m just not part of the target market…

After last week’s post about Air Canada considering backing out of their sponsorship deal, indeed others are contemplating the same thing.

http://www.torontosun.com/sports/hockey/2011/03/11/17586286.html

Does this disagreement between corporate partners kind of count as channel conflict? The entertainment value of the NHL is its most valuable service, and if that is being tarnished in the eyes of many consumers, can we really blame these sponsors for complaining?

Air Canada, a major sponsor of the NHL, is threatening to discontinue sponsorship if something is not done about the almost omnipresent and widely debated headshot rules. Just earlier this week, in a game between Boston and Montreal, a player was ran into the boards, eventually suffering a broken vertabrae which may lead to paralysis or even death. Furthermore, how many other sponsors will follow in Air Canada’s steps, if the NHL in fact does not respond?

Now, although hockey is suppposedly the #4 sport in North America (not Canada), it still demands a huge market, and sponsorship opportunities are rare and fought over. Just how badly do serious injuries affect Air Canada’s image so that it’s threatening to pull out?
Are they scared that consumers will view the NHL’s “dangerous” game in the same light as Air Canada’s own services? Or is this just a matter of ethics, and doing what’s right?

The hockey community awaits with bated breath.

I am writing this blog post in response to Michael Tsui’s posting a while back. I encourage readers to visit his blog at <https://blogs.ubc.ca/mtsui1/>

As someone who has also watched Inception, I can definitelyrelate to the scrambled, unorganized way in which Christopher Nolan directed this film. However, the key sentence which I took away from Michael’s posting was the last one: “I fell asleep 5 times in the cinema watching this”.

In the movie’s defence, even the greatest directed, acted out movie would be meaningless for a spectator if he were missing 5 chunks of it.

My memory isn’t that great, so I can’t really refute or prove the logical flow of the movie, but I imagine that Inception/Leonardo Decaprio fans would be eager, if not desperate, to defend this movie from the contradictions that Michael has pointed out. However, my memory of my personal satisfaction level when walking out of the theatre was pretty mediocre. Judging the experience from what I expected definitely was underwhelming; those great ads about entire cities crumbling, zoomups to Decaprio’s face, it was all enticing, but did the movie actually deliver?

The biggest marketing point that was advertised everywhere was the fact that Christopher Nolan was the director of the hugely successful Dark Knight film. Brand loyalty, anyone? I think I can speak for Michael and myself that, in the light of our not so great experience, that Christopher Nolan “got away” with this subpar movie from his earlier billing. And that’s completely fine; in fact, it’s marketing at its best.

How’s that for compatibility? Angry Birds and the iPod is tailored toward your lifestyle by allowing you to relax not only on the bus, in restaurants or at work, but in the washroom as well! It’s almost scary how seriously the creators of the video are taking Angry Bird, but they do have their points.

Just what makes Angry Birds successful? It can’t be the difficulty of the physics involved in the gameplay, as most apps on the market nowadays are highly developed, so science-wise, that kind of technology is almost expected. My group members brought up the fact that the game was cute, and I semi-agree on that. Yes, colorful graphics and hilarious cartoons can be attractive, but towards middle aged, male hardcore gamers? I just don’t see that happening.

As an owner of an iTouch and someone who has finished the game, I can agree 100% with the main point of that video; the addictiveness of Angry Birds originates from the randomness of the game. You can spend hours playing a level and never get past it, until that one lucky round, and you really feel like you accomplished something.

Actually, thinking back, I guess the cuteness factor is a fairly valid point. For the people who haven’t watched those animated short films, they definitely should, because they’re hilarious.

Just how important is culture in marketing, or even in daily life?

One thing I have noticed throughout my entire life that has consistently happened to me, not often enough for it to become annoying, but frequently enough so that I notice the trend, is how prideful my parents are of their Chinese cultures.

A great example is chopsticks. One night, as I was getting my usual fork from the drawer, my mom suddenly says to me, “Can you use chopsticks?” (in Chinese, obviously). “Why?” “Because we’re Chinese”. Just how does my ethnicity factor into my utensil choices? At the end of the day, chopsticks are just two wooden sticks of medium quality, and are perhaps even more cumbersome to use than a fork. And I’m fairly proficient with both instruments, so I’m not purposefully picking the fork to avoid using chopsticks.

As a side note, the reason why I use forks in the first place is because it’s difficult to eat rice, a main staple of Chinese food, with chopsticks. Just how ironic is that?

In a multicultural dominated society of North America, just how much can marketing wield this ethnic influence on peoples’ lives? We all know how detailed market research could become, but how is it possible to quantify, and will something so simple as people choosing to use chopsticks over forks translate into a marketing strategy?

After reading Rebecca’s blog post about the wonders of Justin Bieber, I still had mixed emotions about the guy.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a diehard fan, nor am I a diehard hater. I’m also not musically talented or qualified enough to judge the quality of his music. But I can observe. And what I have observed for the past few months is that virtually none of his music gets played on the radio!

I listen to The Beat and Virgin Radio quite often, and never once have I heard a Bieber song (not even “Baby”). The argument that his songs are old doesn’t stand, because they don’t play him even when he has new releases. Keep in mind this is purely observation: I haven’t trawled through their playlist history and control- f’d “justin bieber”.

This isn’t one bit surprising to me. It’s no newsflash that the wide majority of Justin Bieber’s fanbase is girls in their teens. But how do other age or gender groups view him? Although his talent and charm is apparent, haters are going to hate. And again, it’s not surprising to envision a hard working man in his 40’s, seeing a pubescent boy dancing around a stage yelling “kiss me, kiss me”, earn a hundred times his salary being a little peeved.

So despite Bieber’s success, radio stations still don’t play him often, if not at all. I guess stability-wise, this makes sense. It’s much safer to replay stereotypical songs again and again to satisfy the entire population than to massively appeal to one specific market, while simultaneously destroying the ears of their counterparts.

Most commuters should know about the Metro and 24/7 newspapers. How have these newspapers evolved into such popular and highly demanded products? Is it because they’re smaller than traditional prints? More entertaining/less black and white? Or perhaps because they’re free? Whatever the case is, both papers have upp’d the standards once again.

A year ago, seeing 24/7 and Metro newspaper boxes on every major street corner was not uncommon, to say the least; most were grabbed by passerby’s by noon! So how do these companies react to this undersupplied market? The hire out elderly people to wear tacky uniforms and hand out individual prints to commuters at every Skytrain or bus stop. Although I really don’t appreciate having these newspapers waved in my face every time I try to line up for the bus, I do admire 24/7 and Metro’s willingness to continue to incur expenses to provide a free product.

This is all good, nothing groundbreaking, but today at the Broadway Commercial station, I saw a new lady also handing out free prints: The Vancouver Sun! Just how much of an impact has 24/7 and Metro’s popularity had on Vancouver Sun sales? As a “real” newspaper which is normally sold for $1.50 and has dominated the Vancouver market with The Province, it’s quite exceptional to see the levels to which management would go to compete with even relatively new rivals.

To squeeze some marketing tidbit in here, how much has or will the Vancouver Sun’s marketing mix change in the future? In the face of new, trendy and free newspapers, Vancouver Sun has already changed its price and promotions factors. How will they continue to deal with a rapidly shifting target market? Will newspapers just be free from now on?

First off:

I remember watching this, amazed. But still not amazed enough to go watch The Social Network, although some friends have said it was awesome…

What my thoughts pertaining to social media is, what has made it so massively successful? What has made Mark Zuckerberg so ridiculously filthy rich? Is it that these websites have been so spectacularly programmed that normal folks have been so dazzled by its technological prowess that we just can’t stay away from Youtube and Facebook? That can’t be it, or any science fair would be generating massive amounts of revenue… Maybe it’s the convenience factor, how it’s just so tempting to plop down in front of your computer after school/work and enjoy a nice snack while surfing the Internet. Or maybe it’s that human tendency to show off and let everyone know just which restaurant you’re eating at, or which UBC classroom you’re currently attending. I’m sure someone out there cares…

Honestly, I’m the worse person to comment about social media, because I’m just not interested in it. Of course, I’m involved to some degree, from having a Facebook account to watching the occasional video on Youtube, but I normally abstain from participating otherwise. It’s probably due to laziness or my “non-outgoing/aggressive” personality. But back to the previous paragraph, the success of social media thus far probably encompasses all those points, and much much more. I wouldn’t know the exact details; if I did, this post would definitely be a lot longer than this.