Step into FUN MKT!

Social Media is now a must-have for fashion brands-marketer nowadays. It is one of the most powerful forms of marketing at the moment.

Why companies want to get ‘social’ and being known through internet? I guess there are mainly several reasons for it:

1. there is a increasing number of social networks users in U.S as well as the other part of the world;

2. Passion connects the social media with the luxury brands. The ardent fashion fans who put their name on a waiting list for the latest Richard Prince bag from Louis Vuitton or pre-order their Chanel cocoon collection at the fall trunk show or stand in line to meet Miuccia Prada are the ones who are most engaged with the brand. They are also among the most loyal customers. Couldn’t we all use more of those these days?

3. Brand makers that don’t create their own conversation with their most passionate customers through social networks risk having a passionate consumer create that presence instead. Facebook and Twitter are full of brand sites that weren’t created and aren’t maintained by marketers. “How to use it in a correct way to maximize the outcome of marketing” is still a homework that marketers want to follow up.

This is not a sentence in the textbook, but through my own experience, that’s something I would tell people what I feel about today’s marketing.

“Location! Location! Location!” is so yesterday!

Just a simple example would explain everything: Let’s take BMW for example. As winter is coming, BMW is following up with customers in Canada by sending them Cold weather tire coupons, and trying to persuade people to get their cars new tire this winter. The cold weather tire is not only having better performance than the regular tire, it is also safer to drive in winter.

Timing for now is also about the Year End Sale! Just check out how accurate BMW group is when letting people know about their special offers: the good thing about having a Year End Sale is that, it is actually a win-win situation. BMW gets to get rid of their inventory, in order to have more space for new arrivals next year; customers gets to drive their dream car back home at a lower price.

You are right! The word spells as K-I-N-E-C-T! That’s actually really cool after the launching of the new macbook Air this winter!

Hurray! We finally got something new to play with this Christmas at home even with out knowing we are playing!

Kinect has arrived and finally frees our hands.

The coolest thing I learned when reading the article ( which I’ll paste the link below) is that, the importance of offering pre-order on such popular products. Managing the pre-order list is also something benefiting the whole sales.

Here is the article I read online someday: http://www.itworld.com/personal-tech/126454/the-kinect-launch-a-lesson-microsoft-marketing

What’s more, the Kinect putting in the middle of a lot of malls are also contributing a lot to the sale, because people gets to touch and feel it before buying it. More people would tell friends about their experience with it, thus they will get more customers.

Having learnt such great marketing strategies this semester, I’ve been thinking about maybe starting my own business someday after graduation. Thus, how to get started is the biggest issue need to be consider. Here is the list I could think of, if I ever want to success in marketing for my own company in the future:

1. Create a Web site for the company, and having its own logo.

2. Create a Facebook fan page. (Don’t forget to put a ‘Like’ button under the blog)

3. Start writing a newsletter.

4. Advertise the company in my industry trade magazines.

5. Train helpful sales person.

6. Keep a record on every single future potential customers.

7. Start a Twitter.

8. Open a LinkedIn account that represents the company.

9. Sponsor a local charity event.

10. Create unique business card and give it away when attending events.

Half of these new marketing and promotional ideas are related to internet-based businesses. Still, even those can usually be adopted in some way to other businesses.

1.Free gift teaser. Well, free gift is nothing new today, however, getting a free e-book to read when your writing an essay for your English course is still exciting! How does that sound if every other sources cost you lots of money to buy and to read in order to use as reference?

2. One hour coupons. This actually sounds more exciting if the time constraint is one hour. People tends to go more crazy about things they don’t really need when being given such coupons. Moreover, if it is a internet coupon, that’s going to attract more people getting it, and thus the promotion will be successful.

3. Group-ons. It is also a internet-base selling mode. It is using a concept that gathering a group of people everyday, to get a good deal on certain products or services. Usually they are 50% off the regular price. If they can get enough people who are interested in the deal, all people will be able to share the deal at a very low price. All that cost is just signing up and a single click if you like. How easy is that to save you more?

4. Cereal-box advertising. People who eat breakfast will spend a lot of time staring at their cereal box in the morning. Then how about putting ads on it? Brokering ads space on cereal box might be the next promotional strategy that marketers want to think about.

With the growing number of iPhone users, more App has been created to deliver information among people. Now the Apps are not only a good way to communicate, but also a good way to do marketing.

A lot of fashion brands are choosing iPhone App as a channel to publish their new products and new ideas. For example, H&M cross Lanvin, which had a very long line up on Nov.20th in Vancouver. H&M choose to publish their new line through iPhone App, which allows people to take a closer look even before all the dresses coming out. H&M is also providing coupons through App occasionally, people might get a 20%-50% off just by shaking their iPhone. What an interesting way! (Oops, there is obviously no coupons available for now =P Try again later!)

Another good example would be BCBG, they are putting all their tops and pants online for customers to match themselves. You can match whatever is on your mind and create your own look. You can even save it to your photo album or wishing list.

As a result, it is not hard for us to find out that how important choosing a right channel in marketing is! Just because fashion sometimes fade out easily, we need to choose a more convenient way to publish products if we were in the industry. There are two more pictures here which is from the ZARA App and DKNY App:

As the holidays are coming, people are getting more thrilled about Christmas.

There is one thing that comes to all the retail stores’ managers’ mind, how to get people to buy more and wants to buy more?

The traditional way of doing that is advertising both on TV and the internet. However, what can we do about the same advertisements year and year along? It is kind of boring to see the same post every year. There is one thing that should be considered the hottest gift lists this year—the Holt Renfrew new advertisement for their holiday shopping season. Here is how it looks like on the website:

See? You got a list for every single person you care and you love! What a thoughtful idea!

This is call “direct marketing”.

Thinking about getting a pair of boots for you and your loved ones? Want to keep warm even in the cold rainy and snowy weather? I guess the first thing comes to your mind would be UGG boots. If you are thinking that way, then that’s too LAST YEAR!

Have you ever noticed that there is a new product-line coming out this winter? The UGG x Jimmy Choo boots! YES! That’s exactly what you are getting this year! Let’s check them out first:

Aren’t they COOL enough to match your new blazer or jacket? Have you ever thought about how they become so successful in selling?

UGG x Jimmy Choo has not only create value for the boots itself, but also added value to a pair of shoes. Think this way: the regular UGG boots are $150-300, and the cross-over ones are around $525-725. It is just of pair of UGG becomes more stylish and charming, and the difference in price is more than $100!

UGG x Jimmy Choo is also making good use of the marketing mix, especially in pricing and promotion strategies. People didn’t give up buying UGG because it is more expensive, in contrast, those boots are becoming more and more popular and wanted. Marketers have determined the price carefully this time according to the potential buyers’ belief.

Now I’m thinking about maybe getting one pair for myself too…

Hey! Watch out! Starbuck’s xmas is coming!!!

Recently Starbucks are now promoting their ‘holiday drink collection’, which are very popular. Here is a picture of all the charming holiday drinks, enjoy!

iPad, iPhone, iPod, iTouch, Macbook…Nowadays we are living in a world surrounded by all kinds of Apple products. There is no doubt that Apple Inc. is a master of the marketing in terms of the latest technology. Not only young people are crazy about using Apple products, but also our parents’ generation are using Apple products every day.

You get to see Apple products anywhere, anytime: a morning exerciser with a iPod shuffle; a modern young lady playing her iPad when waiting for her boyfriend in Starbucks; a successful businessman travelling with his Macbook pro; a university student listening to online lecture on her iTouch. There are lots of things people can do today with their Apple products.

Although the world is simpler when apple and blackberry were just fruits, we cannot deny the huge change made to the society by Apple Inc. According to a lot of studies that list teens’ favorite brands, Apple is inevitably at the top of every brand list! Their success, of course, is associated with their marketing strategies.

Apple markets its products first by categorizing whom their target will be; obviously, young people are the best choice for their new customers. Apple dominated the educational market in the 1980s. When Mac geeks at that time become parents nowadays, Apple easily get a very large number of new customers—their kids. Of course, they become regular purchaser for Apple. It is also not hard to observe that there will be more loyal supporter and even advocate in the future, if Apple keep marketing their new fancy products.

Apple uses the widespread teen affection for its products wisely. Like every new product coming out, all the news began with the cool hunters and early adopters telling everyone how cool the product is and it spread until it became a cultural phenomenon.

Apple has to know its customer’s needs wants. Take teenager for example, music has always been teens’ No.1 love. Thus, Apple targeted for their special needs and provided a way for them to buy songs legally for 99 cents at the iTunes online store.

Apple then gets to know its company as well as the other competitors. They need to do the SWOT analysis, and also do researches about other existing direct or indirect competitors.

There are some other factors that Apple should take into consideration: for example, the design of the products as well as the wrapping; the various channel of their marketing; the age of Overload we are now in.