I’m proud to say that the team that we had for the Marketing Plan assignment was like none other that I have been apart of before.  We gelled very well and accomplished all of our tasks without any issues.

Our personalities were quite matchable.  Even though we had many different personalities, they all seemed to mold together nicely.  It just goes to show you that having people that are the same limits diversity, and lowers a team’s potential.  The diversity in our group allowed for quite the spiffy video for the final portion of the assignment.  With many different ideas coming into play, our video showcased the wide variety of minds that we had on our team.

I learned that I can make friends quite easily, regardless of who I meet.  I found that I felt comfortable in our team’s environment very quickly.  It’s a good feeling to have knowing that you’re welcomed, accepted and respected in a group of people.

Next time I’d say that paying attention to the fine details was important.  We lost some marks over some silly errors, that could have been avoided simply by going through a checklist of the detailed instructions.  In the end, those mistakes didn’t matter.  I can truly say that this is one of the best school project teams in terms of the bonds that were formed.

Instead of wanting to make groups with your friends, you get thrown into a group where no one knows anyone, and you come out as friends.  Doesn’t that seem like the better way to go?

Social media marketing has become, and will remain to be, vitally important to companies from many industries.  In a recent post by social media marketing blog Convince & Convert, they analyze exactly how effective “fan pages” on Facebook are.

Convince & Convert reports that posts to users’ “fan pages” can reach anywhere between 2% and 47% of the fans subscribed to the page.  That is quite the difference.  It really just goes to show you that you really don’t know how effective or worthwhile a fan page Facebook post will be.  Of course, there are potential flaws in the research.  However, I think that as a whole Convince & Convert provides us with a fair estimated range.  Facebook posts will never reach anywhere close to 100% of the fans because not everyone actively checks or logs into Facebook every day.

I think that what we can take from this external blog posting is that social media marketing is important, but it is not an exact science.  Even if a company has one million Twitter followers, nowhere close to every one of those followers will see the tweet.  Social media posting are all about posting at the right time, so you have to take into account various factors (age, geographic location) of your fans/followers.

For more information, check out this YouTube video from “Entrepreneur On Fire” as they interview Jay Baer of the blog Convince & Convert.

I definitely learned something today.  Unethical marketers are now targeting text message forms of contest entry to target unknowing individuals.  As classmate Katherine Caverly points out, these marketers send out text messages to individuals regarding a product or service that is completely unrelated to the contest that they entered.

This form of marketing is totally unacceptable and wrong.  People should not be faced with sky high cell phone bills for receiving unwanted text messages.  Something legally needs to be done about this “bait and switch” form of marketing.  As Katherine also points out, this form of marketing goes directly against Dr. Silver’s ethical marketing rubric.

I also believe that this is wrong because these marketers can take advantage of people that are not fully aware of the charges that are going to be applied to their phone bill after they enter these contests.  After all, they probably would not even enter these contests if they knew about these charges beforehand.

Aston Martin has successfully branded itself over the last fifty years, or so, to the extent that whenever most people think about an Aston Martin luxury sports car, they automatically think about James Bond.  Also, whenever people have a picture in their mind of James Bond, they think of him driving an Aston Martin.  It is as if you can’t have one without the other.  And is there really a better way to promote your prestige product (in this case a car) better than associating it with the playboy, super spy, badass James Bond character?

Aston Martin’s market is mainly “classy” men, who still want the sports car taste to their daily ride.  Well, I think that it goes without saying that there isn’t a better individual to make male Aston Martin drivers imagine themselves being than James Bond.  What more can a guy ask for other than exotic women, state of the art gadgets, and a “don’t mess with me” mentality?

I have to admit, being a James Bond fanatic (and I mean about as big of a fanatic as you can get) this branding has worked on me, because the Aston Martin has become my dream car due to this James Bond association.  But what is quite unique about the Aston Martin brand, is that you can still have that Rolls Royce feel of a luxurious, classy vehicle; but still get that sports car appearance.  For me, there really isn’t a better cross for cars of sports and luxury.  For me personally, it’s definitely worth the extra money to have that James Bond association with your car.  Prestige products can easily capture customers by using a similar association model that Aston Martin uses, as Aston Martin has shown how highly effective that it can be.

And oh, the roar of that engine in the commercial is so sexy.

This is a commercial that Sportsnet aired to build hype for the 2011 Toronto Blue Jays season.  The music featured is “Coming Home”, by Diddy, which perfectly sets the mood for the advertisement.  This commercial is memorable to Blue Jays fans thanks to how well it pumped everyone up for the start of the season.  I think that this ad illustrates how selecting the appropriate music for any commercial is so vital in determining whether it’s a success or not.

“Coming Home” was a hit at the time, so immediately the tune would catch the attention of anyone near a TV when the commercial came on.  But further analysis of the ad shows how well the Sportsnet producers tied in the lyrics with what was shown visually.

Firstly, “Coming Home” is perfect for the team which heads north from Spring Training in Florida at the end of March each year.  Fans of every team, of every sport are always excited for the season to begin.  The first half of the commercial is set to the slower tempo portion of the song.  It features slow motion effects; shows a sweaty and exhausted Aaron Hill to the lyrics “all the pain from yesterday” and also a night time aerial view of the Rogers Centre (home stadium) to the lyrics “my kingdom awaits”.

The music then shifts to the faster paced, joyful portion of the song which is teamed with joyful images of the players playing and fans cheering.  It’s pretty amazing how the music changes the mood dramatically, the producers of this ad did a fantastic job because they knew that the “high” experienced by viewers towards the end of the ad would be felt more if it were preceded with a “low”.

If you want to attract viewers, then this is how it’s done!

Video games have become extremely popular and marketable for the younger portion of society.  However, game developers realized that there was a huge market that was not being targeted: adults.

Call of Duty Black Ops’ promotional video was aimed at obtaining a wider variety of gamers for the product.  The video demonstrates a “real life” demonstration of how the game is played.  The song “Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones plays in the background (one of the favourite songs, if not THE favourite song of yours truly) to grab the attention of anyone passing by a TV when the commercial was aired.  The song, as popular as it is, was also originally recorded during the time period when the game’s story takes place.

The video shows viewers how exciting and action-packed the game can be.  With rockets and bullets flying everywhere, the developers of this ad clearly want to show you how you feel right in the combat zone.  But, the video shows all sorts of people participating in this battle.  Men and women of all occupations (concierge, food vendor, businesswoman), races and ethnicities apart of this battle.  Treyarch (game developer) is obviously appealing to a wider market of people to sell their game to.  They are also trying to get past the stereotype that only young men play shooter video games.  Heck, they even throw Kobe Bryant in there.  So if it’s cool for him to play it, then it’s cool enough for everyone else, right?

We could also consider the ethics of this ad.  Is it “right” to demonstrate this kind of violence in a “realistic” scenario?  Because even though no kids are used as actors, we all know that they are the target market of this game.  As violent of an advertisement as it is, I think it’s quite ingenious how Treyarch attempts to grab absolutely anyone who hasn’t played a Call of Duty game before by showing them how exciting it can be.

Air Canada is a joke.  As classmate Thomas Moult blogged about last month, air travel for Canadians is becoming too pricy, recently due to tax increases.  Being from Toronto, I am well aware (as all Torontonians are) that Pearson airport is one of the highest taxed airports in the world.  Many of my Toronto area friends, who wish to travel south for a vacation, drive two hours to Buffalo, NY, to fly at roughly half the price that it would cost them to fly out of YYZ.  Not only are “taxes ‘soaring’ ” as Thomas mentioned, but  there are non-tax related increases in price as well.

An update on the Air Canada employee strike regarding Air Canada’s Heathrow employees states that a new Collective Bargaining Agreement has been reached.  While the employees wanted more money, you can be assured that our airfares will take the hit for it.  Air Canada will make up for it somehow, whether it be charging even more for pillows and blankets, charging customers on Canadian domestic flights for luggage (US flight luggage charges announced recently), or charging an arm and a leg for fares.

Occupy Sky protests anyone?

Photo courtesy of The Globe and Mail

The leading retailers in Canada’s lucrative coffee industry appear set for a major competition war.  As classmate Angus Todd blogged about previously, McDonald’s has launched a marketing campaign to compete in the specialty coffee market with Starbucks.  It appears as though Tim Horton’s has also started a similar marketing campaign, as they have even gone to the extent of bringing in the “Starbucks feel” to Tim Horton’s locations.

The fact that Tim Horton’s is bringing in leather chairs and WiFi clearly demonstrates that Tim Horton’s is attempting to change the way that customers view the Tim Horton’s experience.  Personally, I never liked going to Tim Horton’s and sitting in the uncomfortable metal chairs.

Ahh, comfortable chairs

The move to targeting the espresso drinking consumers could affect business at Starbucks.  Starbucks will argue that they present better quality than McDonald’s or Tim Horton’s. If McDonald’s and/or Tim Horton’s significantly threaten Starbuck’s market, it will be interesting to see if our good friends at Starbucks respond with reduced prices.  Who would really wants to spend almost $5 per cup of coffee if there was a lower priced similar experience around the corner?

Photo courtesy of the Toronto Star

Today, when people think of innovation, they think of the latest high-tech products that are available in worldwide markets.  A massive corporation that is currently dominating the technology industry is Apple, based out of the Bay area in Cupertino, California.

Apple Logo

Apple began by selling computers.  Apple’s founder, Steve Jobs, was a brilliant person with tremendous work ethic; a work ethic that could not be present in the majority of humans.  Apple needed an idea to separate itself from the computer world.  Steve had the idea to create a music player that wasn’t ugly and bulky like the others.  Steve got his production team to create the iPod, a completely new form of mobile music devices that could fit into your pocket.

Today Apple remains ahead of cutting edge and new technology, improving iPods, new iPhones, and creating a whole new market for tablet devices with the iPad.  Apple even came out with an original legal online music downloading database, which eliminated the need to purchase CD’s.  The production of all of these products came with great risk originally.  Apple Inc. is the textbook definition of an entrepreneurship.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia