Category: Marketing Blog

While looking over my class mate Colton’s BLOG, I read his article about itunes releasing the Beatles. He talks about how itunes has positioned itself differently in an attempt to sell more songs from a band that has already sold so many albums. Colton questions whether or not such a big deal should have been made about the release of these albums on itunes. I agree that perhaps this wasn’t the news of the century but at the same time this is an example of remarkable marketing. First off, the publicity of this release was mind boggling, and it is crucial that when promoting an event, it must make it through all the clutter that people hear from various promotion channels. Secondly, they were targeting the generation of people who appreciate music and will pay for albums (rather than download them illegally) and that grew up with the Beatles musical influence. Lastly, itunes differentiated their product by releasing songs and collections not available anywhere else, creating value for their product and value to the customers. So all in all, Colton and I agree that perhaps the hype was unwarranted, but I got to hand it to Apple, they sure know how to market a product successfully.

Consumer behaviour is a very curious subject. All of the concepts and ideas are based around consumer behaviour being rational, meaning the people are well informed and that they make reasonable decisions based on logic. I read a very interesting  blog that I found on an external blog website written by Dan Ariely that talks about the irrationalities. I encourage everyone to read his post before reading on…

Dan speaks about four very common irrationalities concerning consumer behaviour and the decisions that consumers make in dynamic consumption situations. I think the first irrationality is hilarious! It’s funny because I know that I have been guilty of this exact behaviour while making purchasing decisions. For some reason, consumers think that discounts are proportional to the price of a good or service, me included. I don’t know why I would change my behaviour when the discount is low on a high ticket item rather than the same discount on a low ticket item, just that I have intuitively considered this rational behaviour.

The third irrationality I again was guilty of. He uses a volunteering example vs. a paid work position. I’ve done volunteering in the past where I’ve actually been offered money for my services but I’ve declined payment because I would rather know that I was volunteering than be paid because at that point I would  no longer be volunteering but rather doing paid work. On the flip side, when I do paid work, I expect to receive monetary compensation for my efforts. But it is interesting my irrational behaviour to decline the money option in order to receive the gratification of volunteering.

He goes on to talk about two other familiar behavioural irrationalities, both very common in every day situations. The thing that I found interesting about this blog is that it is easy to relate to the topics at hand. The irrationalities are so common that I found myself guilty of said behaviour without even knowing I was doing anything out of the ordinary or something that was no expected. It just highlights how difficult it is to pinpoint consumer behaviour in the real world because everyone acts differently. Every perceives reality different from the next person and many social factors also influence our decisions so to generalize consumer behaviour is in itself…irrational. Marketers must be very observant and detailed when studying the behaviours of consumers in society as each consumer will be different from the next in some way, shape or form.

While looking at my friend Kim’s blog, I came across a very interesting article that she wrote about from an external marketing blog. The article, showing similar ads from Wind Mobile and JetBlue, compares the effectiveness of the two advertisements and Kim expresses the effect that the commercials had on her opinion of the two separate products. I couldn’t have agreed more when reading about Kim’s opinion of the Wind Mobile commercial! I am one of those people that can relate to cell phone companies charging ridiculous fees for little or no benefit to myself. I cannot begin to express my incredible frustration when I find what I think is a good deal turns out to be a bust after all the add on fees, government regulatory fees, cell phone servicing fees, usage fees and excess usage fees. It honestly makes me lose all confidence in cell phone providers. How can I know if what is being marketed to me is the truth. The fact that the Wind Mobile marketing effort is so relatable as Kim states makes this marketing attempt a huge success. It doesn’t hurt that Wind Mobile uses satire and humor to make light of what most would call a very annoying situation.Kudos to Kim for finding this article and kudos to Wind Mobile for making such a simple and witty stab at those cash gouging cell phone companies.

Kim goes on to look at a different marketing ad found in the external marketer’s blog similar to Wind Mobile’s ad (the videos of these ads can be seen on Kim’s blog ) made by a company called JetBlue. Again, using the hidden camera technique, the street vendor delivers a product that is less than what is expected by the consumer, resulting in some comical and expected reactions. On a complete side note, it’s always interesting to witness people’s behavior in particular situations because I believe that it is the only time people tell the truth. When people know people are watching them, they act and react differently. But when no one is watching, people reveal their honest attitudes and behaviors. Just thought that was an interesting little insight. Back to the ad, I think the underlying point is received by the viewer of the video, that JetBlue will not under deliver their product if you choose to purchase.

I think Kim says it best when she says that both companies are using their marketing strategies to try and differentiate themselves from their competitors. Both companies are isolating particular characteristics that their competitors do poorly or have a negative reputation for, and exploiting them by saying they will not do these things, but rather the opposite. It is an effective strategy when thinking about consumer behavior because it is probable that by these companies focusing on what their competitors do poorly (ie Hidden Fees…man they are annoying), they bring up possible negative experiences consumers have had and prompt the consumer to make a change in their purchasing decisions. If the goal is to attract a larger portion of the target market, I believe both ads will have positive results.

Water is the lifeblood of humans, it sustains everything living. Water is what differentiates planet earth from any other planet in our solar system and without water, human life, or any life for that matter, would cease to exist. Water,  a molecule made up of 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom, covers 75% of the earth’s surface and is required by every human being to survive. Naturally, people would think to sell water as demand is limited only by the number of people on earth. But with this entrepreneurial idea comes competition. So how does a company differentiate its product from its competitors when the product is the same in every case? In class we looked at how packaging is used by water companies to distinguish its product from one another. Sure, packaging is an excellent and fairly simple way to differentiate a product from another when the actual product itself is identical. But I want to draw your attention to something that drew my attention, Ethos Water.

Ethos Water has a bottle much like any other water bottle: it has a clear label, cylindrically shaped, a screw on cap, made of plastic and uses an arial font. The packaging itself is very standard. But how Ethos Water differentiates itself from other water bottle merchants is what is written on the label. It reads “The Ethos Story: We began with a simple idea: “Lets create a bottled water and help children around the world get clean water.” We hope you like Ethos Water and that you’ll join us in our efforts to get clean water to those who need it most. Thanks.”

Ethos has effectively differentiated itself from its competitors by appealing to consumers who want to make a difference in the world. Ethos is offering a new unique benefit to consumers, much more than just the benefit of quenching one’s thirst. This benefit is psychological for the consumer, giving them the feeling as if they are helping impoverished nations get clean drinking water by purchasing Ethos water. Consumers are no longer just paying for the benefit of the water itself, but will now pay to experience this feeling of satisfaction on a moral level.

This brilliant marketing plan by Ethos is both effective and moral. It’s really a win-win situation, whereby Ethos benefits by turning a profit and satisfying its mission statement and consumers benefit from the water and the good feeling they get by knowing that a portion of the money spent on Ethos water is going towards helping those who need clean drinking water.

A product that I am particularly excited about is the release of the Nissan Leaf car in 2011. I am excited for this vehicle because it is 100% electric, running on a bundle of lithium ion batteries. The features of this electric car include its ability to travel 160 kilometers on a fully charged battery, seat 5 people, reach speeds of 140 km/hr and fully charge in 8 hours. Nissan has put a lot of research into electric vehicle technology and has been able to overcome many obstacles so far including safety requirements pertaining to the overheating of the batteries, especially in car accidents.The Nissan Leaf is a zero emission vehicle, which is great for the environment because it doesn’t release harmful CO2 into the atmosphere.

The entrance of the electric car is a product development and a market development. It is a product development in a sense that it is an entirely new, never before made product being introduced by existing car companies to existing consumer segments. But it is also a market development because electric cars target new consumer segments including environmentally conscious consumers. There is huge market potential for electric cars in today’s society, whether it be marketing to consumers who are hopping on the green social trend wagon or consumers who are tired of paying ridiculous amounts of money for gasoline. Personally, I like the idea of the Nissan Leaf because it will spur competition (hopefully) amongst car makers to create more environmentally friendly cars. I consider myself a little bit of an environmentalist and if oil and gas consumption habits do not take a change for the better, the earth is in some serious trouble.

These earth friendly vehicles with zero emissions will require a lot of marketing to the public to promote themselves as the environmental and economic friendly alternative to gasoline vehicles but I believe that there is tremendous potential in the electric car industry, and automakers and consumers might not be the only winners when all is said and done.

My marketing group chose to research Dove for our assignments, and recently we have narrowed down our focus to Dove’s Men+Care products, targeted for males instead of the traditional female market that Dove has marketed to in the past. I myself had little to no knowledge of a Dove brand developed specifically for men, which was surprising to me considering this was a product targeting males. The obvious question to me was how is Dove’s Men+Care line being promoted? Obviously Dove has had some trouble gaining Men+Care some exposure.

On the other hand, a brand of personal products that has done a fantastic job marketing their products to men is L’Oreal’s Garnier Fructis Anti Dandruff Shampoo. This new product has been targeting young males who watch sports and suffer from dry scalps, and has been aired on channels with sports highlights and sporting events. The new anti dandruff shampoo has also targeted insecure males who want to feel confident while being with women without having to worry about a flaky scalp. This is similar to the type of segment that Dove’s Men+Care products have tried to target, yet the new anti-dandruff shampoo is the only one that I have even seen a commercial for.

For those of you who haven’t seen the Garnier Fructis commercial, here it is.

I think that this commercial is an excellent way to promote this product and I believe that if Dove wants to grow its Men+Care product line, it needs to increase its exposure to this particular target segment. It’s very difficult for men to buy a product when they don’t even realize that it exists.

I was watching CBC Lang and O’Leary the other night and I saw something I had never seen before during a commercial. It was a commercial advertising a gold mining operation in Ghana. First of all, I have never seen a mining company promote themselves in the form of a commercial, and second of all, this advertisement made me SERIOUSLY raise my eyebrows about the ethics of marketing. The commercial started talking about how this particular company had “discovered gold deposits in Ghana” and that this was the beginning of a large scale mining operation.

I believe that the target market of this stock advertisement would be inexperienced and naive adults trying to make a quick buck on gold stocks. I say this because there are many gold and other precious metal companies that sell their stocks to finance their operations and they do not have to rely on advertising. I could also look at it from the other perspective that this company is exploiting an opportunity where they can use television to promote their product. However, I believe this is not the case.

In the commercial, the company’s president  (a shady fellow in my opinion) urges people to take advantage of this wonderful investment opportunity. My roommate, also a Comm 296 student, agreed that this was something he had never seen before and the commercial left us both skeptical.

At the end of the commercial, the stock name and symbols were listed at the bottom, and my roommate and I investigated a little further to see if this marketing strategy was working to improve the value of this company’s stock. Interestingly enough, in the last 2 days, the stock grew in value by more than 6%, much larger than any previous trends.

I’ve always followed the philosophy that if it’s too good to be true, it probably not. This commercial appeared to fit that criteria. I then remembered something I read about a company called Bre-X. Bre-X, a Canadian mining company, claimed to have found gold in the jungles of Indonesia. The company promoted this claim and their marketing strategy started a purchase frenzy of the stock, making it go from pennies to over $250 per share. Long story short, there was no gold in the Indonesian jungles, and furthermore the company’s core samples that they used to persuade investors and the public to buy their stock were actually fraudulently dusted in gold.

So here’s my point. Even though we haven’t yet covered ethics in marketing (ch. 3 I believe), I don’t think that there is a more important component of marketing than ethics. Without ethics, the promotion of one’s product is meaningless because the consumer doesn’t know whether or not one can be trusted. Ethics plays a huge role in maintaining the moral integrity of marketing and I believe that it should NOT be taken for granted.

As an avid skier, winter is one of my favorite seasons. I just love the feeling of going down the mountain after a fresh snowfall on a sunny day. One of my favorite mountains is Sun Peaks, just north of Kamloops. Often my family will take a ski vacation to the slopes and this made me think of marketing. It made me think of marketing because of the way that Sun Peaks markets their resort.

The resort focuses its attention on promoting its light, powdery snow, its fun-filled atmosphere, its quaint village, its affordable accommodation and most of all, its family oriented nature. Sun Peaks relies heavily on families coming and staying at their hotels, eating at their restaurants, shopping at their stores and shredding up their hills. To focus on families is an excellent marketing strategy in my opinion. Parents are slaves of their children, with children calling the shots, and parents willfully obliging. This demographic segmentation based on the segmentation variable of family status is an effective strategy, as Sun Peaks has been successful in gaining a sustainable competitive advantage over the rival mountains in the BC interior. Obviously, Sun Peaks segments their markets using additional segmentation bases and segmentation variables, but focusing on families allows Sun Peaks to capture the business of just many rather than 1 or 2 consumers.

Sun Peaks has effectively positioned the family as one of the target markets and they have done so successfully through several strategies. For example, cheaper accommodation and lift tickets for children, reduced rates on the swimming pool and outdoor ice rink, amusements for children such as a tube park and bungee trampoline and a snow carpet chairlift  for those beginner skiers and boarders. Using these strategies, Sun Peaks is attempting to illustrate the following message: Sun Peaks is a mountain resort for families, with entertainment for parents and children.

Because everyone knows, if a child isn’t happy… no one is.

I am a huge Vancouver Canucks fan, having grown up in a household where Hockey Night in Canada was our equivalent of “Family Game Night”. The Canuck’s inspired me to begin playing ice hockey at the age of 5 and I have been playing ever since. I’ve been thinking a lot about the relationship between the Vancouver Canucks and marketing and the relationship is significant.

The Vancouver Canuck’s organization sells a service: an entertainment service. They sell tickets for games, merchandise and apparel at their stores and food and beverages at their concessions. The Vancouver Canucks offer particular products and services, and to sell these products and services they need to market themselves.

A quick situational analysis reveals that the Canucks are in the sporting events industry, with their name and trademark being their most effective marketing strategy. Using the marketing mix, the Canucks have focused on the 4 P’s: Price, Product, Place and Promotion. Just focusing on one of the P’s for now, promotion, the Canucks advertise the sale of their seasons tickets online on their website, on TV, on the radio and in the media. It is impossible to walk the streets of Vancouver and not see a single item of Vancouver Canucks merchandise. The Canucks are being promoted everywhere, and this is contagious, with the Canucks having sold out every home game for the past several years and the fact that there is a waiting list for people wanting to become Season’s ticket holders.

This year is the Vancouver Canucks’ 40th year in the NHL and they have launched an advertising campaign to promote this milestone season. In my next post I will talk about how the marketing team for the Vancouver Canucks have segmented their fans to enhance their marketing strategy. For now, lets hope this 2010 season is a promising one for the Canucks!

and here is my favorite goal from last year

I work at Costco and while working there I noticed some very peculiar, yet intriguing situations concerning the marketing of products. I came in to work one day, it might have been the 2nd week of August and to my surprise, saw a display of fake Christmas trees. At first I thought it was a joke but sure enough, Costco was sellin’ Christmas trees. How about that. My immediate reaction was to laugh, thinking who in their right mind is gonna come to Costco and think “hey, I need a Christmas tree…in August”. But me, being the analyzing type of person that I am, decided that maybe this seemingly bizarre and misplaced idea was on to something.

Think about it for a second. In today’s fast paced world, where technology has sped up everything including day to day shopping, perhaps Christmas trees for sale in August wasn’t a hilarious mistake after all. People are going to want to get things first and to get things done early. If you buy your Christmas tree in August, you can forget about it for another 4 months. Are people willing to purchase the tree early and receive that “peace of mind” in return. Apparently so. It seems crazy but this marketing strategy has behind it some researched brilliance. Fast forward one month and Costco is now selling everything possibly Christmas related: ribbons, bows, wrapping paper, cards etc. It is only September and yet Costco is selling products that won’t be used until December. They have seemingly beat other retailers and merchandisers to the punch. I would have to say Kudos to Costco on a bold marketing strategy.

And now I leave you with another funny commercial