Month: November 2013

Film production is by no means something I find particularly enjoyable; pre-production is tedious, filming is time consuming, and editing can be very frustrating. I can however see the value in having that skill set, especially when it comes to doing any sort of social media marketing campaign. Even if you are – rather than doing the actual production – overseeing a film-based marketing campaign, having done projects like this really helpyou to understand what is involved in the production process and how long it can take. This will certainly help if we ever need to make a timeline for when a video needs to be completed by. Pre-production is supposed to take the majority of the time, but as a group we found that getting a single, brief shot would often take a quarter of an hour.

I feel as though this project taught a lot of technical, practical skills and not a whole ton about marketing, but I have no qualms about that as there was plenty of marketing content in the lectures and readings. I’m glad we had this assignment as opposed to a group presentation or group paper, both of which bared their faces in other courses I was enrolled in this semester.

Gross, disgusting, abhorrent. There are countless words to describe finding a dead rodent in the bottom of your drink, and it certainly sends shivers down my spine to think about it, but is it as disastrous to the company as you say? I would beg to differ for a few reasons.

First of all, we have to look at the target audience. Energy drinks are not the fine wine of caffeinated beverages, and their flashy packaging, “monstrous” size, and sugary content are not targeted to the white collar worker looking for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up. While I am not suggesting anyone would be okay finding a rodent at the bottom of their can, I would bet that a large portion of their market base is not going to hear about the incident, and those who do would likely write it off as an innumerably rare accident. In more direct terms: Monster’s core market is likely a younger audience with a lot going on who has little time or care for current events, and if they do see the article, will be quick to right off the chances of it happening.

Then there’s the fact that this is not a normal event, and while it may seem to be the only thing we can think of every time we see a Monster can now, that effect is unlikely to last. While vivid cases such as this do stay in our memory longer than mundane incidents, they will eventually fade. Besides, if we value the benefits we receive from the product more than the unlikely risk of this happening to us, we may opt to still use the product regardless.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/kellysongmeigu/2013/10/09/the-monster-within-monster/

Coca-Cola has announced that “it will not be spending any money on advertising starting on November 18.” Is this Coca-Cola’s way of saying marketing is no longer necessary? No, not at all. Coca-Cola is instead redirecting their marketing budget to help aid relief efforts for the damage caused by hurricane Haiyan in the Philippines.

This move has brought a lot of criticism to Coca-Cola, as in taking this action it has indirectly drawn a lot of attention to itself. People are claiming that Coca-Cola is only offering the support because they know it will strengthen their brand image as a “caring” company. This seems like a reasonable claim, and if Coca-Cola was really doing this for entirely selfless purposes, they may not have announced it publically.

I think the thing to keep in mind in this scenario is that it would be unreasonable to expect a corporation to take an action which did not benefit them in some manner, and to keep in mind how appreciated the support they are sending is going to be. The storm was absolutely devastating, and Coca-Cola – among many other donors – is offering to help try and rebuild what has been lost. Whether Coca-Cola’s main objective is to strengthen and promote its brand or not, a by-product of this campaign is saving lives and helping to put people back in shelters. This sort of practice should be more common, and I will certainly be more inclined to support Coca-Cola after hearing about what they’re doing.

http://www.sunnyskyz.com/good-news/441/You-Won-t-Be-Seeing-Coca-Cola-Ads-For-A-While-The-Reason-Why-Is-Amazing