Comm296

For the past few weeks McDonald’s has had a special promotion for free coffee of any size, at any McDonald’s, and at any time of the day. At first I didn’t believe it, because I kept thinking to myself that McDonald’s would lose so much money if they gave all that coffee away for free! I hadn’t been to McDonald’s in a really long time, but I have been going quite a bit recently because of this promotion and because there is one on campus and I drive by it on my way home which is right about the time of day where I could really use a cup of coffee. Normally I would never stop, but because I heard about the promotion I thought I would give it a try. I didn’t expect McDonald’s coffee to taste bad, but I was definitely pleasantly surprised when I tasted it. I enjoyed it so much! I think that out of all the popular and well-known coffee shops (for example Blenz and Starbucks) McDonald’s coffee is my favourite. It has been a few days since the promotion ended and the price of coffee at McDonald’s is now back to its regular price, but I am still getting coffee from there after school. I now realize that by having this promotion not only will McDonald’s gain many more customers (not that they don’t have many customers already) for their coffee, but they may have also persuaded their rivals’ customers into coming to McDonald’s, and most of the people that went to McDonald’s solely for the free coffee probably purchased something else while they were there as well. By having this promotion McDonald’s is also showing their customers appreciation which will help increase customer satisfaction! I think that this was a very good marketing idea!

The sizes for Starbucks beverages are tall, grande, and venti (in ascending order)… Last weekend I was at Starbucks with my mom and she ordered a tall coffee. The lady gave my mom a grande coffee by accident instead of a tall, and my mom double checked with the lady that gave it to her, because she wanted to make sure she wasn’t taking someone else’s drink by mistake. The lady apologized to us and said she’d be right back… She came back with a gift certificate for one free drink of any size at Starbucks. In the end my mom paid for a smaller coffee than she got, and she received a free gift certificate because of it. I thought it was really nice of the lady to do that, especially since my mom and I weren’t even complaining or upset about anything. I couldn’t figure out how Starbucks would benefit by doing that because they would just be losing money for it. I then realized that because of how nice they were, I will most likely choose Starbucks over any other coffee place in the future (as long as it is fairly convenient) so in the long run they will be benefiting from it.  This just shows that Starbucks is aware that customer service and customer satisfaction is really important and they treat their customers well.

The Big Bang Theory is definitely my favourite television show along with Grey’s Anatomy. I have been a fan of the show since the very fist episode aired and it wasn’t a popular show yet. Recently the network and the show’s ratings have sky rocketed beating out so many other shows. Nowadays this is a very difficult task because the number of different tv shows that are out are incredible! For the past few weeks I have noticed that almost every single bus stop has an advertisement for the Big Bang Theory. Every bus stop starting from Broadway all the way to Rogers Arena downtown has a Big Bang Theory ad on it, and same with every bus stop from Broadway to UBC and every bus top from Broadway to Richmond.

I think the Big Bang Theory’s success over the past few years definitely has a little something to do with is effective marketing strategies, but tv shows are not like regular goods. For most goods once you have bought the good and used it or opened it you are stuck with it.. even if you don’t like it, it’s too late to return. For a tv show you need consistent viewers in order for the ratings to increase. I think that marketing for a tv show can help viewers tune in for the first time, but it is then up to the quality and content of the show to keep the ratings high and to become loyal viewers. Every episode of the Big Bang Theory is a build up of the previous episode, but the plot lines change significantly and the episodes do not end in suspense, there fore if the viewer isn’t completely satisfied after watching an episode, then they do not feel obligated to watch every episode and will not mind if they miss one… This made me think abut what strategies a tv show marketing crew could develop in order to keep loyal customers!?!

Today I was doing some research for a project on a Starbuck’s travel mug and the more research I did, the more I really started to like this product. I always knew that it was advertised with a no spill lid and two layers to keep your hot drinks hot and your cold drinks cold without condensation.. but I actually read many reviews from these travel mug users and absolutely all of the reviews were positive and very convincing. I have a few travel mugs that are not the To Go Tumbler travel mug from Starbucks and they are not useful at all. Everytime I drink out of these mugs I end up spilling warm tea all over me or coffee all over a new textbook. Not only am I impressed with it’s simple and efficient technology, but I also think they design is very cool. The reviews have persuaded me to go buy one of these mugs the next time I’m at Starbucks. If I hadn’t read the reviews I would never have even thought about purchasing one of the travel mugs. The online reviews are a very good marketing strategy because you know that they are non biased consumers and their opinions are based on actual experiences.

Moving out is a pretty exciting experience, but obviously at times it can be difficult. For instance, two nineteen year old girls who have had everything done for them and given to them their whole lives, trying to put together a kitchen table and a desk from Ikea. This is a very good example of how a company’s marketing skills are a huge success. Ikea commercials emphasize how their products (such as desks, tables, closet organizers, bedroom accessories, etc) make a decorating process very simple, efficient and rewarding.

The company has made very good decisions regarding the marketing mix…
Product: Ikea has absolutely everything which creates value because it satisfies the customers needs
Price: Ikea has very reasonable prices that are normally much cheaper than its competition which captures value
Place: Ikea makes it possible to receive almost all of the customers’ purchases instantly by packing everything in boxes that will fit nicely in a customer’s vehicle, but is not mandatory to pick up immediately if the customer wishes not to
Promotion: Ikea has a variety of advertising methods such as radio commercials, television commercials, newspaper flyers, etc. that are very convincing when it comes to simplicity and efficiency

What Ikea marketers failed to mention is that these results of simple and efficient decorating come after 4 hours of labour, 3 left over screws, and much frustration due to instructions that lack clear explanations.

I absolutely love shopping at Ikea and I am a loyal customer because I always go back to Ikea instead of other furniture shops, eventhough I know that it is really hard to assemble their products. I think that this demonstrates the power that marketing has when people make decisions about where to shop. Ikea’s effort in marketing the 4 Ps is so successfull that so many people choose Ikea over other companies even when they know the work that is coming.