Reading Luis Santos’s blog post I’m Best Friends With My Brand…Are You? relating to how brands need to be personal and more “human” reminded me of the importance of building strong customer relationships. He touched on the fact that being more personal is one of the few ways a brand can distinguish itself from the competition and be successful is today’s highly saturated markets. His thoughts and ideas precisely captured what most consumers are really looking for from the brands they purchase goods and services from.

This led me to think about how customer service is continuing to become a more and more integral aspect for the majority of businesses. In most markets, there is little differentiation amongst the actual products or services provided, and therefore companies need to look for other ways to make themselves stand out. Customer service can be a valuable tool to do this. In order to provide this, brands need to be geared towards the long run and have the ability to build a strong reputation over time. They also need to constantly communicate with their customers and react to their changing wants and needs. This involves having in place a strong customer feedback system, and employing intelligent and helpful staff in order to personally assist customers with questions or problems they may have. Brands that are able to stand out in these areas will gain an significant advantage over their competition and if they can maintain a high level of customer service, will continue to succeed well into the future.

Reading fellow classmate Zane King’s blog on “Marketing at the 2014 Super Bowl”(https://blogs.ubc.ca/zaneking1/2012/01/16/hello-world/) made me think a little deeper about the complex marketing involved with and around the Super Bowl. Zane discussed the massive amount of marketing that occurs during the Super Bowl and how important it is for companies to take advantage of the opportunity to attract potentially millions of new customers.  This made me realize that not only are companies advertising their particular product or service at the Super Bowl, but they are also promoting these very ads well in advance of the actual event. Essentially, this means that there is marketing towards marketing occurring during and around the Super Bowl.

Rapid increases in the usage of social media have made the initial marketing of advertisements more important than ever. Companies are now given the opportunity to build hype about their commercials by posting teaser videos on youtube, leaking hints and clues on twitter, or creating event pages on facebook. By promoting their actual commercials, companies can gain an early advantage over their competitors by getting inside the minds of consumers before everyone else does. The timing of these early promotions is crucial to their success – too early and they are forgotten by the time the Super Bowl actually occurs, but too late and they have already fallen behind in the race to market themselves.

As the Super Bowl’s come along year after year, it is becoming more and more challenging for companies to come up with unique and effective commercials to air during the event. By taking advantage of the ever-changing social media trends, companies can stretch their marketing campaigns out for much more than just one day. This will be the new source of competitive advantage surrounding the famous marketing event that is the Super Bowl.

Kia 2012 Super Bowl Ad Teaser