Our group was formed individually with only pairs of people initially knowing each other so it was a little awkward getting the part one of the assignment ready. However, in retrospect, our group had different insights into our project, and the different perspective ultimately lead to a more descriptive and clean assignment.

The group experience wasn’t a completely happy one however; many times, one or two group members would not be able to make the meetings owing to differing commitments and class schedules. However, we worked around this by using Skype and Facebook to get in touch before or after meetings. In addition, we also had problems agreeing on which points to use and which points wouldn’t be necessary. In order to solve this issue, we spent a lot of time on discussing the different perspectives and which one would be ultimately effective in reinforcing our main points.

If we were to do another assignment differently, the first thing I would do is make a list of times that the group could meet consistently owing to the fact that Skype and Facebook are effective, but not as enriching as meeting face to face.

The video that Elaine wrote a post on was very entertaining and funny. While watching it, I didn’t even realize that the video was actually a subtle marketing scheme. However, overall, as much publicity as the store got, I don’t think that this was a genius marketing plan. Personally, a marketing ploy should be a strategy that helps the firm gain a type of publicity that will increase sale ultimately. Many people all around the world has seen this video, yet, the name is only shown on the screen for about 1 second and people that watch this video, will not go to this coffee shop if it is not close. Moreover, there is also the high probability that the frightened people in the shop at the time will choose not to back back to the coffee shop. While this video provides entertainment, I assert that the marketing value behind the strategy was purely mediocre.

The term value-based marketing, to me, evokes images of Coca-Cola advertisements that I see often on Youtube or on television. From placing names on the bottles of Coca Cola drinks to making heart-warming Youtube videos, Coca Cola has made a brand name that conjures up an image of happiness to the general consumers. In the video link below, Coca Cola has made a refreshing commercial on the little happy moments that life has to offer. It occurred to me while I was watching the commercial that Coca Cola was not in fact advertising their drink or talking about it at all. The whole commercial sets a “feel good” tone and tries to make viewers correlate the brand name Coca Cola to happiness and warmth and through first hand experience, I already know that this type of marketing is extremely effective. As a marketing student, I am aware that Coca Cola uses these heart-warming images in order to advertise their brand name, yet I can’t feel a little giddy and light-hearted when I watch their commercials.

Personally, I love drinking Coca Cola and I’m not even sure if I have an affinity for the product merely because I enjoy the product itself, or if I have been subconsciously coaxed into relating Coca Cola with happiness. Irrespective of that, I feel that Coca Cola has appropriately encapsulated effective value based marketing. Ultimately, although as we know from class that Coca Cola is no longer making profit in North America, their omnipresence here is undoubtedly the predominant factor in why the company is so well-known and successful worldwide.

Video: Coca Cola: Security Cameras

I was reading an article about Jeff Bezos explaining how several big corporations can maintain a stellar image while some companies tarnish their brand name when they become omnipresent in the marketplace. This made me wonder how Apple, Amazon, and Google can maintain such a stellar reputation among consumers whereas other massive firms such as Wal-mart, Goldman Sachs, and Microsoft have such a strong brand presence but is disliked by the general public. My question is, however, if a bad brand name indeed has a detrimental effect seeing as how Wal-mart and Goldman Sachs remains corporate giants in the marketplace.

Wal-mart is notorious for their brand image with the Mexican bribery scandal incident where Wal-mart tried to bribe the government into allowing Wal-mart to open various stores in the South American country. Moreover, they are also infamous for being accused to predatory pricing – the act of decreasing prices for the pure purpose of driving out small, domestic competitors.

Goldman Sachs is another company with a bad reputation stemming from allegations that they would “rip off” customers. The executive director, Greg Smith, tendered his resignation, publicly announcing that the working environment at Goldman Sachs was detrimental.

The question follows: how do these corporations manage to be so prominent in the market place if consumers dislike these firms? Consumers accuse one another of being hypocritical – telling one another to support local businesses but shopping at Wal-mart – and yet Wal-mart attracts so many customers.  In Wal-mart’s case, the low prices of their goods outweighs their bad reputation and in a culture that values frugality, this is enough for them to ignore the controversies.

Personally, I assert that a good brand reputation will definitely lead to a more successful firm; however, I am ambiguous about how a bad brand reputation will effect a company the size of Wal-mart or Microsoft.

Sources:

1) http://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-why-we-love-or-fear-companies-2013-10

2)http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/20/business/why-i-left-book-about-goldman-falls-short.html?_r=0

Sex sells. This popular precept has been the guiding direction towards which entrepreneurship has been heading towards over the last decade. However, this method, as effective as it may be is having a detrimental effect on the society today. According to Statistics Canada, while the teenage pregnancy rate originally had been dropping in the last decade, the pregnancy rate has been going up recently. I believe that this positively correlates with the increasing number of advertisements on billboards, television, newspapers, and the internet that use sex in order to market products.

Specifically, Axe has been using TV commercials with a very sexual theme. Most of these commercials follow a similar script – a dork uses an Axe product and is suddenly blessed with ridiculous sex appeal. Ignoring the obvious gap in logic, this advertisement is a good measure of how prominent the concept of sex is in our community. Simply owing to the fact that these commercials yields results is a good indicator on how much value our society places on sex. All these notions pressure both guys and girls to engage in sexual activity earlier than they would have liked. This not only has a detrimental impact by increasing unwanted pregnancies indirectly, but also through the blatant increase in sexual harassment crimes.

While advertisements targeted towards younger adults using sex is definitely effective, I personally believe that it is morally unscrupulous. I don’t believe anyone has the right to judge under-aged aged sex; however, I do believe that children shouldn’t be exposed to sexual content until they are old enough not to be easily manipulated by things that they watch on TV and on the internet. Ultimately, a trade-off must be made for the profits reaped by using sexual advertising with the harmful effects imposed by this growing trend.

Sources:

1) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/why-teen-pregnancy-is-on-the-rise-again-in-canada-and-spiking-in-these-provinces/article7927983/

2) http://www.charlatan.ca/2012/09/a-long-hard-look-at-the-porn-industry/Axe Commercial

Video Link: Axe Commercial

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