Month: January 2011

In class today we went over the concept of market research and simulated and example of it using cookies and flat coke. The exercise brought up issues that one would encounter if they were to do market research, however the idea of using market research as a form of marketing itself was never brought up. This idea of using market research as a form of marketing, was demonstrated to me through an ad for a video game that I have been interested in called Dead Space 2. The ad used market research as a facade to gain the opinions of mothers on the particular video game, embracing the idea that if a mother disapproves of something, it is “cool”. The video shows their reactions after viewing clips of the video game:

After viewing the ad and watching the reactions of the mothers, I saw that the ad took a step in a very interesting direction in using market research as a form of marketing itself and the use of others dislike of the product to market it. You may think that I’m sadistic but, I found it quite humorous to watch the reactions of the mothers even when some looked like they were on the verge of crying. While I don’t agree that the disapproval of a mother determines how “cool” something is, I think that the ad provides an interesting and daring perspective of marketing an already successful product. This ad is one of many for the product which is being heavily marketed even after the release of the game using viral videos and more traditional ads such as this one.

Because of its marketing, the game has become fairly well known and is one of the most successful horror video games to date.

Since it has been well publicized, Toyota has seen a lot of negative press lately over the safety of their cars, especially in North America. This is because of an incident where a man named James Sikes, lost control of his Toyota Prius and it started accelerating without him stepping on the pedal. This sparked a lot of controversy concerning the safety of Toyota vehicles and led to a huge drop in sales for the company due to the negative press. This change in consumer behavior is due to a change in attitudes of the consumers towards the product. The public’s view towards the company changed causing them to see their vehicles as dangerous and unsafe. In response to this Toyota recalled its vehicles to repair any problems that may occur for other drivers.

This MacLeans article provides a different perspective to the problems with the vehicles also identifying the woes of the company mainly due to journalism, opportunity and idiocy. Furthermore the faults in the vehicles has been determined to be ” not electronic but mechanical, caused by ill-fitting floor mats in some models and sticky pedals in others.” The article states that it is also the responsibility of the drivers to have a knowledge of how their car works as well as to drive safely. The inability of the drivers to practice these skills also magnifies the problems with the cars yet these drivers are not willing to face the fact that they are partially at fault and would rather place the blame on someone else.

In order to repair the company’s image, Toyota has developed the star safety system that has been implemented in all of their newer models and has placed ads such as this one to re-educate the consumers about their product and change their attitude towards it:

Welcome to UBC Blogs. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!