How easily is it for the youth of today to be manipulated? It’s easier than it seems, as in Amanda Lai’s blog https://blogs.ubc.ca/inspiredmarketing/2012/03/12/the-we-generation-a-call-for-change-or-the-manipulation-of-youth/ details how Gen Y can easily be manipulated by the Media. She talks about how the Kony 2012 video made by the organization the “Invisible Children” uses social media, which Gen Y is based around for communication, to rally around the belief that Kony must be stopped at all costs. However is this goal worthwhile or even necessary? I completely agree with her that our generation can easily be tricked into believing things without doing proper research first, and also not realizing that there are always two sides to a coin. Showing only one side of a coin is a very deceiving marketing tactic, as the Invisible Children organization does, and in my opinion is blatant propaganda.

I would even go one step further and call the Invisible Children’s on their bluff and that they are deliberately scamming people for their money. It’s easy to see that the fact of the matter is with over 86 million views on their video, they are going to have a lot of people going to their store and buying an “action kit”.  This $30 “action kit”, is composed of a wristband, posters, as well as other accessories that will supposedly “help the cause”. This form of slacktivism will surely make North American consumers feel good about themselves, but does not create any practical effects in actually finding Kony. I could write a whole essay on why I think the Kony 2012 is a scam, but I will say this: there are other warlords out there just as if not way more dangerous than Kony(i.e in Africa) so capturing him will not necessarily solve anything, the Invisible Children is not a charity(not certified by Better Business Bureau), and only 30% of Invisible Children’s donations actually go towards helping those in Uganda. Compare this with an organization like the Salvation’s Army, a certified charity by the Better Business Bureau, where 85 cents of every dollar goes towards charitable donations, and one can see why I think the Invisible Children is a really shady organization with a hidden agenda.

The youth of today needs to be wary of these marketing tactics because I can see it being a very big problem in the future. It is easy to prey on the ignorant, as I think the Kony 2012 very cleverly does with slick movie production and filming. This will probably not be the last viral video we will see that calls for herd mentality and hopping on the bandwagon because it is the “right” thing to do. Being a part of Gen Y, I can honestly say the most important thing I have learned is to keep an open mind on everything, and not hop on the bandwagon just because someone tells you to do so. It is extremely important to be a healthy skeptic so as to not be taken advantage of, and only believe what you think is right after weighing both sides of a story. Don’t get me wrong Kony is definitely a very evil person, however calling for more United States military intervention is not the answer. Given the US’s current reputation overseas, I would say this is probably the last thing they would want.

Cold calling- how effective is it at getting people to purchase items? After reading this blog by Frank Rambauskas, a lot of questions were raised relating to if cold calling is even worth doing anymore as a way of advertising items. Frank in his blog mentions how coldcalling salespeople get frustrated with their low amount of sales.

To me this is not surprising at all as the way I see it, the people who do cold calling try and sell you a pretty much useless item that you would never have thought of or wanted to buy. Common salespitches include a fresh housepaint, window washing, windex cleaners and similar services. And often the services that they perform can be completely awful and of poor quality. For example, after a couple months many of the house paints done by cold callers start cracking and peeling off.

The problem with cold calling is that it does not take into account customer needs and what customers actually want, which is probably the main and most important thing I have learned from studying marketing. Selling people what they don’t want or need is in my mind a very big waste of time, and for very little profits. In addition to this it wastes the time of the customer you are trying to sell to as they have to listen to someone try and pitch them an item that they really couldn’t care less about. Cold calling is also a nuisance and annoyance for most people.

However, Cold calling can work, with a little special ingredient. And that ingredient is charisma; in particular having a really good sense of humor as is displayed in the video below. In this video Kenny Brooks, a cold caller aspiring to one day be a stand up comedian, is absolutely hilarious with so many one-liners I couldn’t even keep track. If this guy ever came to my house l probably wouldn’t buy his junk, but I would probably tip him $5 or something just for being so witty!

Frank Rambaukas Blog:

http://www.webworldindex.com/articles/Why-Cold-Calling-Is-Dead.html

Being a former avid gamer myself I could relate a lot to Vincent Lee’s blog https://blogs.ubc.ca/vincentl/author/vincentlee/  on micro transactions in video games. He talked about how one can essentially buy upgrades and better equipment to get ahead in the game with real money. Although he mentioned freemium games, games which you do not have to pay to play, subscription based games also have this same kind of “pay to get ahead” mentality. Games such as World of Warcraft, Maplestory, and Runescape have subscription fees, but what’s interesting is that the way one gets ahead in these games is actually illegal. All of the in game virtual items are actually worth real money, and one can sell these items for real cash, or buy virtual items with real cash to get ahead in the game. However, doing any of these trades goes against the creating company’s rules and can get your account suspended or even permanently banned, and for those who invest a lot of time in the game this can be an incredible risk to take.

This has led to a whole new underground black market for essentially “farming” or “grinding” virtual items by spending countless hours so that one can obtain these items and sell them for actual money. In grades 7 and 8 I remember playing Runescape and becoming extremely skilled at making in game virtual money, and was considering making it my “job” at the time. But after doing some opportunity cost calcuations I was disappointed to learn that I was only making a measly 3$ an hour; not even minimum wage. After my dreams were completely  shattered, I realized video games are meant for fun and enjoyment and not for making money. For those living in the poorer parts of China, however, this is a full time job for many and a decent source of income.

Here is a video that illustrates how paying real money for virtual items works:

Here is another video that illustrates the many “gold farmers” in China who farm virtual currency for a living:

Since this is our first marketing blog  I decided why not write about the kinds of purchases I make as a consumer and how I am affected by marketing. After evaluating my spending habits I realized that out of the 4 Ps, the most I am affected by is price. I buy a ton of stuff online from craigslist, ebay, and amazon just because it is usually a lot cheaper than buying from stores. The items I have bought include an ipod, headphones, mouse, mousepad, and even the computer that I am typing this blog on. The main exception to stuff I don’t buy online is clothes because I want to be able to physically try it on and make sure it fits.

My most recent purchase online was a new electric guitar, an Ibanez rg350dx which I got online from craigslist. Price again was a main factor, as the guy I bought it from sold it to me for $280 when I would have paid 300. It sells for $350 used on ebay so I was very satisfied with the purchase, although something I didn’t realize was that it had a floyd rose bridge which apparently is quite hard to setup for a beginner guitarist. I took my guitar to a guitar shop and the setups for that bridge are very expensive(around $100). Once again price is a factor, so I now have to try and set it up myself with youtube videos. Something completely unrelated to marketing but the guy I bought it from was a Ukranian guy my age and his whole family was having a jam session when I came to buy it including his dad who was 50 years old and his uncle who was 60. Makes me wonder, perhaps when I’m 50 I could be doing the same!