It was really fortunate for me to be in a team of lively people for the marketing plan assignments on Target, a successful business in the supermarket industry from the U.S. that just launched its grand openings at a couple locations in Canada. I had a good time both working with my team and studying on such an interesting subject. We had made a video on Target’s marketing strategies, where we present some insights on our “Target experience” from the project in the form of several interviews.

It could be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09g1B8YddQw

Aside from all the fun and thrilling experiences I had with my team members like our 2-hour night trip from UBC to the Target at Metrotown just to film some shots 10 minutes before the store closes, I have learned a lot analyzing the marketing strategies. Target has a relatively cheaper price on a wide range of products than it competitors, but what defines my “Target experience” was actually its unique line of fashion products. Besides selling cheap groceries, Target also cooperates with various brands to bring forth an unique line of designer items at a more affordable price, because who says price sensitive people don’t like fashion? Although such collaboration comes with the risk of diverting the existing customers from the original designer boutiques and shop at Target instead, it also serves as an instant advertisement to increase brand awareness for their products. After all, Econ101 has taught us that when the buyers spend less on essential items and find the price of fashionable products to be cheaper too, unconsciously they would end up spending even more than they originally do.

I have recently found out about the points programs at the grocery store I often go to. It does not seem like some huge discounts right at the sight, but considering if I shop there almost once every two weeks and spend a regular hundreds each month on groceries, that is actually a big deal. There are many grocery stores in Vancouver, especially in the downtown area, with almost identical product and services for everyone. Since the options are the basically the same, the consumers would be indifferent in terms of which stores to go to. Therefore it is very important for the business owners to create customer loyalty programs in order to keep them coming back instead of shopping at other stores. The programs varies among the stores, including point rewards that can be used for exchanging other products, discounts for the members, or just simply having different items go on sale each day of the week to keep the consumers coming back. Essential items like groceries have a low price elasticity, which means the consumption will retain at similar level even under relatively high fluctuations of price. This would provide the owners even more benefits when the buyers are loyal to a particular store, so that a higher prices set for the groceries would not drive the consumers away to shop at the competitor’s locations, but generate more profits instead. As a buyer, I am especially fond of the points reward system utilized by Save On Food and other business as a collaborative effort. The points seem to have a very high level of usefulness considering various places accept them. By getting the points for each dollars one spends at Save On Food, the price sensitivity of the consumers will significantly go down when they think about the points they will be getting. Although the points worth an insignificant amount compared to the amount spent to be rewarded them.

The invention of social media has dramatically changed the way people interact with each other. People can now “Like” posts and moments of their friends on Facebook, and “Retweet” interesting ideas on Twitter. The rise of LinkedIn has also changed the conventional business connections and broadened the scope for both employers and interviewees in terms of work portfolios.

Conventional B2B, B2C interactions has gone through revolutionary changes, as well. Business can now market and advertise their product and services on social media networks and blend into the buyers’ daily life. For example, Vodafone Egypt has launched its customer service department on social media networks to answer queries real-time, 24/7, on networks including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Foursquare. Vodafone’s excellent customer support has earned the trust of billions of customers and became officially the largest provider in Middle East.

A social media network is truly just like a huge society with tons of people sharing ideas everywhere. With such humongous amount of information being exchanged each second, we can expect exponentially increased marketing significance, and a much competitive environment for different companies to try to win more customers over. Especially when websites like Facebook and Google are able to collect user info to provide them with personalized ads that are relevant to their background and search history. This can save tons of money for a business by directing its advertisements to only the users who has shown potential interests to its products.

The following blog will be a response to an external marketing blog post “3 Ways Dumb Phones Might Save Nokia” by Rohit Bhargava:

http://www.rohitbhargava.com/retail-ecommerce

In the blog posted in September, the author talks about the “opportunity of the decade” Nokia had missed as it merged with Microsoft. While some critics has directed the discussion onto the question of “who will be dominate the smart phone market”, the author suggests a different view point, that the Nokia phones could have gained considerable market potentials if it had been targeting the right users and focusing more on the marketing of their new “dumb phone” with simple functions rather than competing with the big smartphone companies.

In contrast to the effort Nokia spent in marketing its new phone (The Nokia Lumia 1020), there was only one bland youtube video and a bland product page for their new “dumbphone” with a bland name (Nokia 515) which came out roughly the same time. Of course the Lumia 1020 seemed to be a great choice to put the marketing money on, however there are also tons of people out there who would be interested in buying a simple phone with less functions but a way longer battery life. Not to mention that leaving the smartphone battle field and focus on “dumbphones” could free up the engineers to research on the promising new technologies such as the Morph Device Concept. Nokia has lost its golden opportunity by omitting the needs of the “dumbphone” populations here.

I have always been fascinated by the power of human imagination. Through magical mechanisms it allows us to feel so much more than what is presented to us. When I look at a sizzling steak on a grill, I would be able to imagine how the flavor bursts on my tongue as I take a bite on the juicy meat; when I see a picture of clothes I can imagine how the material feels like, soft, furry, or firm; or when I hear a music I can feel the certain emotion conveyed through the rhythm.

Everyone can get an idea of a product, no matter how skewed, through its advertisement and learn at least some features of the product or service being advertised. However, in fragrance commercials, it is not very common to include anything at all about the product itself other than what the container looks like, unless a sample is attached to it on a magazine. I would tend to believe that the key feature buyers need to consider when purchasing a fragrance is the smell, but it seems like every single ad for fragrances are trying to lead the audiences into a whole new luxurious or sensual world, expecting people would anticipate about the smell through pictures of men or women in fancy dresses or barely have any clothes on.

Maybe perfume has already lost its original purpose and became a statement in fashion and taste, maybe some people now can associate different smells with different designated occasions, so they do have an idea of what it smells like when they see the men and women in the ads. However I highly doubt that most people are even aware of what they are buying in the delicate containers, merely by looking at the irrelevant pictures. The ads sneakily redirected the audiences into questioning their lifestyle instead of simply buying some liquid to make them smell better. Now the buyers want to smell like the women in the golden dress without realizing, its really her dress that grabbed their attention.

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