Dev Patel's Blog

In light of the social trend that has moved millions of people all around the world towards social media, LinkedIn has recently enjoyed an advent of fame and has become a significant tool for people regardless of their occupation. In Jordan Sandler’s article on the Canadian Marketing Blog, ‘Are You LinkedIn to the Max?’ the countless useful tools are described in order to show how beneficial this site is for people to get jobs and to be connected in a professional sense.

One of the tools which attracted me to LinkedIn is the resume builder tool which allows you to list your experiences and apply for jobs. From here I began to wonder what the difference was between applying to a job – and marketing. We have been discussing the use of STP analysis to target a market and position said market in order to successfully advertise a product. So what is the difference between Pepsico using the Superbowl to target the male demographic during the commercials, and me using LinkedIn to target a potential employer. In my opinion – there is none.

For example:

– Differentiated targeting suggests that Pepsico produces both Pepsi and Doritos, and both products were advertised in the Superbowl targeting different segments. I also see myself as someone who can offer many qualities, and I can target specific qualities to specific employers.

– The next step is brand positioning where Pepsico aims to position itself in the consumers’ minds and make itself desirable compared to its competition. Any student looking for work is also trying to position himself in a potential employer’s immediate memory and uses social media like LinkedIn to stand out compared to the competition – other candidates!

So whats the difference?

As Fumi Kimura mentioned in his first blogpost ‘Facebook: A new marketing tool‘ Nike Football has being spending a lot of money on using social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube to promote their product. I believe that this is a genius strategy by Nike Football to not only promote its product, but do what it is doing so well right now – promote the essence of Football.

If you follow these websites, you will see that Nike does the usual commercials which promote products using famous football players as brand ambassadors like below:

(That is Eric Cantona, legend of 1980-90’s football introducing the entire Brazilian starting football team from the early 2000’s)

But if you begin to research the meaning of the ‘Joga TV’ sign held up at the beginning, you see that Nike Football spends even more money creating short Youtube TV shows where they discuss the beauty, pureness and global culture that is football.

Nike Football targets young people with a shared interest in football and exposes them to the roots of football. These young people watch TV shows where they see their icons playing football in its finest form while using Nike products, thus compelling them to do the same and follow in the footsteps of the legends of football.

As a huge fan of football I can easily say that this form of advertising that uses brand ambassadors to show me the essence of football has truly hooked me, and I have not bought a football product that isn’t Nike since the launch of this campaign.

This is my favorite Joga Bonito video: