Claudia Pisarek's Marketing Blog

Whenever there is a group project assigned, usually the first assumption is that there will be a presentation at the end of the term. It was refreshing and interesting that a different approach was taken by doing a video; the first video project assigned in university. As this approach is new and unique to the marketing course for the required second year courses, it is important to analyse and look at a comparison to the alternative – a presentation.

The advantages I noticed from doing the video assignment were the communication skills, technical skills of filming, and that the assignment was different and unique. In order to be efficient and to fit within the time constraint, my team members and I needed to efficiently portray information in the best way and align meaningful video footage. However, presentations have advantages likewise. A presentation provides the verbal communication skills that are needed in everyday situations as a business professional, whether that is in front of a group of individuals or the transferable skills for smaller group discussion. Another important aspect of team effort as well as sound knowledge is evident during question periods.

Both methods provide communication skills and involve a large aspect of creativity of putting information into forms that are appealing and can maintain attention of the viewer.

As stated by Forbes, one of the top 10 skills employers is “technical knowledge related to job”( 1). Personally, in the job that I envision doing, the technical skills of video editing and filming are not applicable and perhaps other technical usages in presentations would be.

Additionally, the assignment consisted of review of classmates’ videos. I thought this was a useful experience. It was good to see other students’ creative ideas and methods of filming. There were several times in which I thought “ Wow, that is a really cool idea. I wish I had thought of that!” It was interesting to see different perspectives and analyse videos from a third person objective. This helped to look at my team’s video from that perspective instead of a personal one. Additionally, receiving advice is also useful and can be used in the future for other assignments.

1)      http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2013/10/11/the-10-skills-employers-most-want-in-20-something-employees/

Although in the United States thanksgiving hasn’t even occurred, several companies have released Christmas advertisements already, the National Basketball Association being one of them. The NBA host a Christmas Day game for their fans of all the best players. This event has been called by some as a “mini-super bowl of ads” as many companies advertise during this watched event. Although the NBA receives money from some advertisements and the sales from tickets, they created a new line of uniforms for fans to purchase the solid team colour “BIG Logo” jersey.  This year’s NBA advertisement for the special edition Christmas Day jerseys is called “Jingle Hoops.” Each of the players in the ad is wearing their respective team BIG Logo jerseys. This is the second year that the NBA has done an advertisement like this. Last year’s “BIG:Color” advertisement involved 5 famous NBA players dribbling to the tune of carol of the bells.

Christmas BIG Logo Jersey

The “Jingle Hoops” commercial was released on November 14^th and in the first two days has received close to 4 million views. The combination of skills and basketball with the spirit and tune of “One Horse Open Sleigh,” creates an effective and entertaining advertisement.  Having LeBron James, Kevin Durant,Derrick Rose,James Harden,Steve Nash and Stephen Curry affects the consumer decision process,specifically social factors in the aspiration reference group. NBA has also expanded the product line to warm-up gear and basketballs,and therefore allowing consumers to choose exactly what they want or purchase several.

The NBA wants to maximize their consumer base and will show the ad across the league’s broadcast partners as well as internationally in regions such as China, Europe, Mexico, Brazil, Africa and Middle East. (1)

While reading through comments and posts on several websites, I noticed that many individuals really enjoyed the ad but do not like the sleeved jerseys. This could potentially cause a decrease in the sales. However, for the consumer segment that just watches the NBA and not necessarily play the sport, the design might not affect their decision and would still rely on the aspirational social aspect.

(1)    http://www.nba.com/lakers/releases/131114biglogo_uniform

In his blog post, Dale Buss presents a new series of advertisements launched by Dodge. Dodge is advertising their new brand extension or as it’s said in the commercials “new member of the family.” This partnership campaign allowed Dodge to leverage the humor of Anchorman in order to help attract and maintain attention while the Anchorman franchise receives publicity for their new movie. Dodge uses a popular form of brand licencing by using a created character, in this case, Ron Burgundy.¹ The advertisement focuses on the demonstrating features in an easy, appealing instead of a direct verbal dictation of features such as this Chevrolet Cruze commercial. Furthermore, the advertisements affect consumers’ decision heuristics by creating an amusing and enjoyable product presentation. This allows dodge to be one of the first brands to appear in consumers’ retrieval sets. For individuals who are aware of Anchorman and find it humorous, fit into a psycho-graphic segmentation that Dodge can benefit from in selling this product.

What is even better about this campaign is the diversity is presents. There isn’t one commercial that is played over and over but a whole variety on their youtube page.

This campaign has evident results of success, as Dale mentions which is seen by the increase of sales by 59 percent.  Additionally, it is mentioned in the blog post that Dodge states there is an “80 percent increase in web traffic.” The large amount of short ads, conveniently located all together on youtube, provide all consumers, whether planning on purchasing a vehicle or not, to watch all the videos. This also provides Dodge with secondary information for their marketing research.

Overall, I think that Dodge’s brand liscencing of Anchorman is great marketing – truly enjoyable and effective.

Lastly, I leave you with my favourite of the commercials: “Gumball Machine” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxWAFOVrYKA

¹ Grewal & Lewy, (2013). Marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Companies are trying to get consumers attention by attracting through colours.

On a regular basis, we don’t think of why a product or a brand is a certain colour – we just take it how it is. However, there is a lot of behind-the-scene work that goes into it. While reading Jin Park’s blog post on Colour Marketing, I decided to look more into the relationship between different colours in products and their impact on consumers. Jin used the example of Dewalt power tools being yellow and black, in comparison to other power tools which are mainly grey. He goes on to state that this attract attention and make consumers perceive “ manliness and [a] professional look”.

There is a lot of research done in this area of advertising in respect to psychology. Research conducted by Marie-Christine Lichtlé dives a little deeper as she suggests that “the attitude towards an ad is influenced by the emotion it arouses” (Lichtlé,2007,p. 43) .  Lichtlé’s shows that the effect of the colour is based on a person’s optimal stimulation level (OSL). For individuals with high OSLs, the attitude towards the ad is more favourable when the ad is of a red hue when it is strongly saturated” (Lichtlé,2007, p.17). Lichtlé concluded saying that colour does not affect everyone identically (as it is based on OSL) and marketers need to take that into consideration when decided colours.

However, whether indirectly or directly, the colour does create some response.  It could also be beneficial for market researchers to further segment the market in order to maximize returns and positive effects from the colour since individuals have different OSL levels.

                Also, we naturally associate colours with descriptive words and ideas that match. Furthermore, as Jin mentioned in his blog-the fact that colour attracts attention. It can be a point of difference in a competitive market. When used correctly, it is a cost effective method that can assist on brand awareness and success.

Sources:

Jin Park Blog Post: https://blogs.ubc.ca/lukatsky/2013/10/10/colour-marketing/

Lichtlé M. (2007). The effect of an advertisement’s colour on emotions evoked by an ad and attitude towards the ad: The moderating role of the optimal stimulation level. International Journal of Advertising, 26, 37–62

Samsung recently launched 2 new additions to their product line: Galaxy Note 3 and the compatible Galaxy Gear. The product I want to focus on is the Galaxy Gear-a digital watch designed to receive notifications and constantly be synced to your phone. With its sleek silver design of the 1.63 touch screen, the Gear provides quick access to technology in a not-so-noticeably-embarrassing-way. Some of the features of the Galaxy Gear include a watch (obviously), music, ability to answer a call, S Voice for commands, notifications from device, voice memo and last but not least the memographer—a camera. (1) The memographer particularly grabbed my attention. Although it is on the side of the strap, it takes good quality photos and is very easily accessible. (2) Also, the device includes a fitness log which will attract individuals who enjoy the sleek convenient access to information. 

Samsung could’ve used a stronger launch and introduction to this product. First of all, there has been no commercials or advertisements seen leading up to this product launch unlike the Samsung S3 which was immensely marketed and successful. Only after some negative reviews has Samsung started marketing which should’ve happened right away. (3)Furthermore, it is currently only compatible with the new Galaxy Note 3. Knowing that the product is not compatible may make the consumer disinterested since it doesn’t apply to them.  Samsung states that the product will be compatible with some of the other Samsung phones soon but this gives time for other phone companies to create a smart watch and take the target market-especially since Apple is rumored to join this market. (4) I think that an increase of compatibility and a greater marketing launch would have strengthened Samsung position in this market in the future and increase interest and sales of this product from the beginning.

Sources:

(1) http://www.samsung.com/ca/consumer/mobile/galaxy-gear/galaxy-gear/SM-V7000ZKAXAC-features

(2)Examples of photos taken: http://www.engadget.com/gallery/samsung-galaxy-gear-sample-images/1253169/#!slide=1253198

(3) http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-samsung-marketing-galaxy-gear-20131004,0,5608309.story

(4) http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/watches/samsung-galaxy-gear.aspx

For the past couple of years, several Axe commercials have been deemed unethical in their portrayal of women. They have started controversy and sparked conversation on whether it is just humorous or derogatory of women. Although some individual see humour, many women across the country see the advertisements as disrespectful and portraying women “as brainless (sometimes headless) objects who exist to please men.” (1) As Pamola Aleman states in her article, Axe connects with their target audience successfully but also portrays the message that women are mere objects and used for entertainment. (2) Not only offensive to many women, Axe fully exaggerates the effect of the product. One of the “Universal Marketing Practices” stated by the Canadian Marketing Association is “Accuracy of Representation [in which] marketers must not misrepresent a product, service, or marketing program” (3) Axe’s commercials exaggerate the effect to attract more users but through this, give high and false expectations.  Axe is completely using the tactic of ‘sex sells’ but doesn’t it cross the line?

Sources:

(1) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/01/axe-commercial-suggests-that-women-ruin-everything_n_3689409.html

(2) http://medialiteracyproject.org/deconstructions/axe-effect

(3) page 8 http://www.the-cma.org/regulatory/code-of-ethics

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