Hold that Thought

Last blog for the course. I have to say, it was quite fun reading up marketing-related articles and having to express my own views and opinons. It’s really gotten me to really relate to the course material and be more involved with what I’m learning.

All that aside, I was just reading up an article titled: “For Holiday Movie Posters, Too Many Versions Dilute the Message“. The first thing that popped on my mind was integrated marketing communications. The author of the article gave a few examples of movie posters for holiday movies. There was “For Coloured Girls”, “Harry Potter 7”, and “Tangled”

I agree with the author when he says that the different posters are just ways for the marketer to try to accommodate and attract different target consumers. For myself, I feel that having so many different posters have a negative effect on promotions. Consumers become confused about what the movie may actually be about. This uncertainty deters consumers to take the risk to watch the movie when it first comes out. Rather, they would wait and read other viewers’ reviews and then make further judgments. I think that posters are suppose to be something that excites consumers to go and see it. Perhaps its the movie content, but the marketing done for “The Dark Knight” was very exciting. The posters had an overarching theme that ran across all its posters. It was effective in the way that it gave people an expectation of the movie. Of course, in the end, the movie was able to deliver and meet beyond viewers’ expectations.

From this article, I can see now why its important for companies to adopt an integrated marketing communications strategy. It projects a consistent brand image to consumers, which ultimately will affect consumers’ trust and loyalty toward the brand.

Anyway, that’s all for this term. Good luck everyone on your exams, and happy holidays!

So, I was surfing my classmates’ marketing blogs, when I came upon Priyanka’s. Her blog entry titled, Repositioning for Starbucks? really interested me. I was at Crack the Case yesterday and the case was about Starbucks! So, I think this would be a great follow up to our team’s recommendation for the company.

One of the things that was identified in the case as a problem for Starbucks was its expansion into the China market (how much of this is true, I don’t know). While Starbucks is a very popular and well-known brand around the world, our team believes that it is necessary for Starbucks to cater towards different cultures and demographics of the world. Right now, everyone can expect to walk into any Starbucks and receive the same tasting cup of coffee and the similar environment of the retailer’s interior design. Perhaps, it is this similarity and expectation that is hurting Starbucks in some way. If Starbucks were to have specialty goods in each of the countries that it was open, it would create a unique and international experience for consumers. Of course, all the while offering the same coffee drinks, too. In China, apparently moon cakes are served during the Autumn Festival!

So, in relation to Priyanka’s article: I think it’s a good idea that Starbucks is test marketing wine. My suggestion, however, would be to limit it to only a few countries that would drink wine (i.e. France). That way, the exclusivity would be able to maintain the company’s brand image. When tourists are travelling around the world, they wouldn’t expect the same things from every Starbuck. Rather, the uniqueness of Starbucks in different countries will keep consumers wanting to experience the specialty limited only in that country!

I was reading articles on Time.com again, and I came upon this article. It talks about how schools in the states are lacking the financial support that the school boards have looked into other facets for help. In particular, the private sector. In order to support school programs and activities, schools are now allowing companies to have their advertisements posted all around the school. These advertisements can be found on lockers, hallways, the cafeteria, and even permission slips sent home.

I find this hard to believe. While I understand that schools are having a tough time finding the necessary support at a time like this, but why are companies so willing to uptake this opportunity to use such a communication channel? For myself, if I were to see an advertisement at school or on a permission slip, I would simply disregard it, even if it had the slightest relevance to me. Advertisements are a way to create awareness of the brand, not I strongly believe that the school is not the place to spread this awareness. There are a lot of other more constructive ways that a company can help schools out. Sponsorships of community events, supporting extra-curricular activities such as team sports or certain clubs, to name a few. I think this way is a much more effective way for a company to strengthen its brand image in the public’s eyes. Being a supporter of education, of outdoor events, of children’s growth development is a much better image than being a hard-sell or profit-seeking company.

Just a few of my thoughts. Reading this article really got me excited for when we’ll be going over marketing ethics and responsibility. I think I will really enjoy that section of the course.

So I thought I would find an external blog and comment on it. Without knowing where to start, naturally, I googled “Marketing”, and up pops Eric Friedman’s blog. Scrolling through his blogs, one of them caught my attention. “Why write a blog at all?”

In his blog, Eric writes: “Your blog will show up at any meeting, job interview, or other interaction before you step foot through the door”. At an interview, the interviewer simply chatted with Eric regarding his views of the world. This reminded me of what I learned in class. Marketing isn’t used just by corporations to advertise a certain product or service to their consumers, it’s also used by individuals to brand their applications so that it caters to what employers are looking for. Beyond that, individuals try to give off a professional impression during an interview. I never thought that blogging can be so important and so relevant for self-marketing. Employers read your blog and they can learn a lot about your views on certain issues, the way you think, the type of person you are, and your interests. And I think it’s a very good way for employers to learn more about an applicant.

After reading Eric’s blog, I decided to explore more into the reasons for blogging. I looked at our own Outline and Syllabus, and it says for marketing blog: “The study of marketing is enriched by individual exploration of personal views on, experience with, and observations of the field and its broad applications”. Beyond that, reading other people’s blog can definitely be a valuable learning tool. Eric’s blog definitely shed some light on my views on the reasons of blogging. I think that anything can be enriched by individual exploration. But I think another important reason for blogging, other than self-marketing and individual exploration, is self-reflection. In the past few weeks, my experience with blogging has been very enlightening. I learned a lot about myself and my opinions on certain topics of my interest. Blogging has definitely expanded and fostered my interests!

I was scrolling through my good friend, Kimberly’s blog today and came upon an interesting blog entry that she posted a few weeks ago about Windows 7. Being the tech-savvy guy that I am, I decided to continue on her evaluation of Microsoft’s marketing campaigns.

Microsoft recently launched a new campaign featuring its Windows Phone 7.

I thought the commercial was pretty funny, especially the scene where the smartphone user drops his phone into the urinal. I understand the point that the commercial is trying to communicate across to its audience: everyone is so connected these days that they’re missing out on the important things in life.

But, how does this relate to Windows Phone 7? The tagline: “A phone to save us from our phones”. So what is Microsoft trying to tell me? Well, we need saving from. So, the Windows Phone is more superior than the other smart phones in the market. Perhaps it’s more organized and efficient that it allows us to remove ourselves from our work and enjoy life more. But, this is hard to interpret from the commercial. An article that I read evaluating this commercial actually stated that perhaps the phone was very hard to use that users would just put it away in their pockets. Or it didn’t include any of the essential functionalities of a smart phone that people won’t even use it.

Here’s my take on it. Whether you thought the commercial featured the Windows Phone as a superior or inferior phone is not important. But rather, the way in which the message was communicated across. I think that the message was very ambiguous, and allowed for a high degree of interpretation from the audience. And people interpret situations differently. In the end, I think the commercial actually worked against Microsoft and didn’t help much with promoting the launch of its new phone.

Relating this all back to Kimberly’s blog, I enjoyed the Windows 7 commercials much more than the one I discussed. It was much more succinct and communicated to its audience well about what features were offered in the new Windows 7 Operating System. Perhaps highlighting the differentiated smart phone features would be a better way of selling this product, seeing how the growing trend is that people are always attached to their phones. Microsoft should leverage this trend to their advantage and differentiate themselves from other smart phones in the industry…

Thank you, Kimberly! Your blog really showed me the effect that simplicity in a commercial can have on consumers!

I was surfing the net this week, and I thought this article was totally appropriate for complementing what we’re learning in class this week.

Here are some my takeaways from this article:
1. “A brand’s value is simply about the extent to which it can sell its goods and services at a premium price.”
I totally agree with this. While we learned in class that “Brand = Trust”, ultimately, this trust is used as leverage to charge consumers a higher price and make greater profits.
2. The article begins by posing the question: “How much value do companies really derive from cultivating brand names?”
Looking at the situation in a different perspective, another question I would ask is: “How much value does a brand name offer to consumers for them to pay premium prices for the products?” Aswath Damodaran mentions in his presentation that “Brand Value is an illusion”. Relating this back to myself, I have an Apple MacBook Pro. I was willing to pay $1600 compared to other lower priced PC laptops in the industry. Why? Thinking back, did I really want this product based on the user-friendly interface? The sleek and nice design. How much are these functions on the MacBook worth to me? Probably around $1000. The other $600 are just because most of my friends have it, and I want to be seen by others as an artsy type of guy.
3. “Luck and serendipity are just as important as advertising.”
Something we haven’t discussed in class is the notion of luck and uncertainty. I’m glad that I read this article. In many instances, we spend a lot of time, effort, and money to do something, and we want to do it well. But a lot of things can go haywire. A company can spend tons of money in doing a situation analysis, but when it actually implements its plans according to its research, it might not go their way. I could spend my days studying for an exam to ensure my chances of a high mark, but I can never know what questions will be on the exam. For all I know, I might have studied all the wrong stuff and failed the exam.

Many of us would not think twice when making a purchase from a certain brand. Going back to what we learned in class, “Brand = Trust”. We trust in the quality of the products that the brand makes, the values that the company may stand for, and that is why we would buy their products. But, what it all comes down to for companies after building this trust is to reap the benefits and generate greater profit margins. Then again, from an economic standpoint, all companies are looking to make a profit. But my question is, how much are we willing to pay for these brand names?

I thought I would join the recent battle between Apple and Blackberry.

Here’s an article that I’ve read recently. The general gist of it is that Apple claims to have more iPhones sold in the last quarter than Blackberry has. Apple also added in that Blackberry will not be able to catch up with sales in the foreseeable future.

It seems inappropriate for corporations to be comparing each other’s success based merely on sales. While iPhones and Blackberry phones are smart phones and target a similar consumer market, I believe that both phones are very different in functionality. And from what we learned in marketing class, this is the differentiation between the products and ultimately influences each company’s positioning in the consumer’s perception.

Here’s my little assessment of the two companies:

Blackberry’s: More functions geared towards business professionals. Better security, easier navigation between email accounts, allows documents and spreadsheets to be easily accessed and read, for consumers who like the feeling of the keys while texting, etc.

iPhones: Greater use of your fingers (scrolling, zooming in), syncs with you Macbook, entails a wider range of entertainment (e.g. iPod, Apps, etc.), an entire App store for download and use

While I am biased on my evaluation, I think this is the main take-away from my blog. I don’t think it’s necessary for corporations to be fighting like little kids over who has more sales. I think that the most important thing is for corporations to be open-minded and aware of their competitions. Especially with technology, since it is changing ever so quickly, corporations need to stay on the edge, think of new sustainable competitive advantages. This is what drives innovation. This is what advances our society to come up with better and more efficient ways of doing things. And when corporations become too focused on sales, no one benefits.

Anyway, totally excited for new phone releases. I’m still not sure whether I want an iPhone or a Blackberry Bold yet…

Thought this was a very relevant topic since we are doing primary research for our next assignment. I was reading an article regarding privacy issues with the apps in Facebook. This has been a very prominent issue over the last year, regarding the information that we post up on our Facebook profiles. And now that I’m in marketing class, it only seems more fitting to discuss this.

Information is the most valuable resource for companies. The thing I find most interesting about marketing is consumer behaviour. Essentially, all the users of Facebook are its consumers. Everything they post up and click on are information that can shed light on the user’s interests and habits. Many times, this information is useful for marketings to target certain users that display certain behaviours.

Reflecting on our own surveys, I can’t help but think that now with the access to Internet, how easily the information can be shared and access. Information is very important in gaining a sustainable advantage over competitors and it is very often bought from companies that specialize in collecting this data, at very high prices. Personally, I think that I am often left in the dark in regards to the information that I give out.

While there is no easy way to solve this privacy issue, I feel that it is also the responsibility of the user or consumer to be cognizant of the information that they send out.

I was going to do some online clothes shopping at the Gap this week. The first thing that popped up on Google was some news about the Gap changing its logo! The public didn’t seem to like the idea at all. Some people described the new logo as being “designed by a child using an ancient version of Microsoft Powerpoint”.

The president of Gap North America, Marka Hansen, said that the reason behind changing the logo was so that the company can move forward while still honouring the company’s heritage. However, it doesn’t seem like the change has done much good for the company thus far.

In reading about the new Gap logo and the public’s response to this change, one article stated that a company with a strong brand recognition and has large goodwill shouldn’t change their identity.

I find it interesting. Does the new logo really matter that much? Will people stop buying Gap clothes simply because their logo looks amateur? Personally, I’ll still shop at the Gap. The logo doesn’t matter too much to me. I’m more about the quality and value they have to offer in their clothing.

I was walking on the sidewalk along a busy street this week and it smothered with people smoking! Made me think more about social marketing campaigns, and whether they’re effective in persuading others. So, I did some research and in the 40s and 60s, cigarette companies were really pushing its marketing campaigns to get people to buy their products and smoke.

Companies really appealed to authority! And these things worked for people, smoking dozens a day. And now, we’re trying to reverse all that. Get people educated about health issues associated with smoking. I just found a few interesting things about these anti-smoking campaigns. These campaigns are going beyond conventional ways of marketing. They’re using other mediums, like websites, http://www.nostankyou.com/. Not even just big corporations, but other people are in this campaign as well!

Enjoy!