Category: Marketing (Comm 296)

As it is towards the end of the semester and every one is stressed over final exams, I’ve decided to post a funny commercial to lighten up the stressful atmosphere 🙂

Why are some consumers willing to pay A LOT more to obtain a product of similar functions as those with a much lower price?

The answer lies in the different perceived values consumers place on the rather similar products. For instance, a handbag from H&M would probably only cost $20 whereas, a handbag from Prada would cost a few hundred dollars, even though they carry the same function. Some consumers might prefer the Prada brand simply because its merchandises are expensive and therefore, by purchasing them is a way for those consumers to distinguish themselves from the public and to to signal their social status. With the high price that those consumers pay, they also have higher expectations for the products, or at least they expect the company who owns this luxurious brand to show them that their products are worth the price they pay.

Many luxury designer brands depend heavily on their official Web site portal as a way to bring values to its consumers by displaying the most recent fashion shows, new projects, gossip and news …etc. Prada is an example where the company displays its women’s fashion campaign by using sex appeal to tell its female customers that by wearing Prada clothings, you will have an endless supply of guys chasing after you.

In addition, Prada also features 20 short films about its production process, including shots showing artists sketching handbags, the makin of a Parada ballerina slipper, and more.

The featured craftsmanship reminds consumers why they pay premiums for these products. Consumers spend more time on these Web sites than ever before probably because the video, three-dimensional branding, and luxury appeal help create emotional connections with customers. Luxury retailers can distinguish themselves from other producers by allowing customers to feel as though they really know what oes on behind the scenes.

After browsing through several “best business blogs in 2010” on Google, I have found an interesting blog about Ikea by Sylvia on her “The Ikea Blog“.  This blog caught my attention because not long ago I have just read another blog about Ikea written by my fellow classmate, Chase Lee.  In Sylvia’s blog, a video clip from the episode Less Than Hero of Futurama where professor Farnsworth orders a supercollinder from πkea  was exhibited.

The πkea in this video is an obvious parody of Ikea. After reading Chase’s blog, I learnt that Ikea is currently holding a promotional campaign – “Improve your community. Improve your life.” In this campaign, Ikea tries to capture the interests of many customers to participate, and encourages and influences them to improve their own homes by using the IKEA products. However, I’m not so sure if customers who have seen this video clip would still want to participate in Ikea’s “Improve your community. Improve your life.” campaign.

I have personally experienced the low quality furniture from Ikea because I have moved twice in the past two years and every time I moved, my Ikea furniture always broke down. Nevertheless, my current room is still full of Ikea furniture because they are more affordable compared to other fashionable looking furniture and with my changing taste, I’d rather purchase new affordable furniture every time I move than being stuck with expensive furniture forever!

After browsing through several of my fellow classmates’ blogs, I have found an interesting blog post by Kim Choy on the trailer of “Morning Glory“. It is not the trailer that got me interested, but rather, Kim’s opinions on how the advertising of the movie utilizes word of mouth marketing technique instead of using the trailer to heavily promote its movie. His idea of using the consumers to promote for a product led me to think of many successful businesses that utilize this type of marketing technique, such as, Facebook and Network Marketing Businesses. The success in Facebook and many Network Marketing Businesses lie in the fact that the creator has invented an organized system, then it lets its consumers to advertise for its business and to generate income for them.

For example, the creator of Facebook only needs to invent the system one time, then us, as consumers of Facebook, become free advertising agents for Facebook. Similarly, Network Marketing Businesses franchise its products to its potential consumers then those consumers with the franchise will try to sell its products to their family members, friends, and friends of friends. I agree with Kim that the word of mouth type of advertisement is most influential because it is definitely more believable when our friends tell us about a product than reading product-reviews or watching advertisements. There is a growing trend in building client base marketing and the traditional expensive marketing in TV commercials and newsprint commercials are now shifting towards the more useful word of mouth or social net-work type of marketing. How many of us spends a great deal of time reading newsprints or do not flip through channels to avoid TV commercials nowadays?

I agree with Chase’s article- Mercedes-Benz C-Class in how its debut has brought forth the attention of a new segment of consumers who cannot afford luxurious Mercedes-Benz vehicles but still wishes to drive a car with the brand name of Mercedes-Benz. Another point Chase has made in his post is how the TV commercials of Mercedes-Benz allow consumers to trust, value, and rely on its brand, and I would like to elaborate on this point.



On The 2010 C-Class official website, the primary focus of the C-Class is to differentiate itself by adding more values to its consumers. Not only does it offer the latest in drive technology, it also carefully considers every last detail to meet the different needs of different consumers and to make sure that the C-Class Mercedes Benz will suit each customer’s unique personality. Before entering the main page of C-Class Mercedes Benz official website, it asks the consumers the question “What drives you?”, then it provides choices of excellence, power, control, logic, and style. Once you have selected your preferred key function, it then provides you with different features to further customize your own C-Class package! I personally think that Mercedes is smart in allowing its consumers to basically build their own cars by choosing all the  features that they value the most. This type of marketing strategy will capture the largest consumer values, at the same time,  maximizing consumers’ post shopping satisfactions.

The following picutre is a TV commercial from Softbank. The commercial is incredibly eye-catching and engaging with background music composed by the Academy award winning composer Ryuichi Nakamoto. This commercial features how the Samsung 930SC has extra functions that Japanese consumers feel are missing from Apple’s iPhone. For instance, the extra functions include allowing consumers to watch TV, to send emoticons and it also has a 5.1 MB pixel camera. These value-added features are a great success to Softbank/Samsung 930SC as it captures more consumer surpluses by increasing consumers’ values about the product.

In order to survive in this competitive business world, marketers always have to come up with new ideas and new products to satisfy the generation Xers and especially generation Yers, who are the biggest cohort since the post-war baby boom. Generation Yers are known for their fast changing buying habits and they get bored quickly of new products. Recently, a break-through thinking and nanotechnology has enabled marketers to keep the Generation Xers and Generation Yers entertained.

While it’s not entirely clear how the Viagra sheets actually work, such as how many washes they can go through, they do seem to portend a look up in the lives of some this coming year. The basic idea is terribly simple. Spanish genius Pep Torres, 44, has used nanotechnology to infuse the sex drug’s arousing ingredient into the fibers of a bed sheet.When people get into bed the viagra soaks into their skin and gets into the bloodstream. Pep said: “It started as a joke after we saw a German study that said businessmen get little sex because they are too tired from work. But we got so many calls after launching it that we’re going into production.”

Crabtree & Evelyn is a well-known shop for hand treatments. Recently it has recognized the marketing trend for Breast Cancer Awareness and quickly responded to it by adjusting their sales promotion to an “October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month Special Offer”. Thier marketing strategy is to target those who are aware of breast cancer and wish to participate in the fundraising program as well as those who simply just wish to take advantage of the special offer. Either way, Crabtree is gaining more sales by enlarging their target pool to include those who normally would not specifically purchase their products for the brand but might purchase it now for Breast Cancer Awareness. In addition, Crabtree & Evelyn offers an in-store “Saturday pink treats and lemonade”. This creates a comfortable shopping environment in which more customers would more likely to be attracted to step inside the store and check out its generous offers. Furtheremore, Crabtree & Evelyn is also aware of their customers’ post-purchase satisfactions. Everytime I shop at Crabtree & Evelyn, I immediately receive an email from them thanking me for making the purchase and attached with the email is a coupon offer for my next purchase at Crabtree & Evelyn.

Nissan Canada is positioning its new sports-cross vehicle, the Juke, as an urban legend in a 90-second video called “The Dread”. This video features a showdown between the Juke and a robotic car-mangling behemoth, and the ending is that the Juke triumphs. The video focuses on the Juke’s 188-horse power engine (in the video it is referred to as “1.6-litre turbocharged heart”). Nissan Canada’s director of marketing, Mark McDade, describes the video as Sin City meets Transformers. Furthermore, McDade said the online video is aimed at male audience between 25-34 where he describes the group as “hyper-connected” and “comfortable within the gaming world demanding high entertainment values”. The account director at TBWA/Toronto, Trevor Byrne, said the goal is for the campaign to grow virally, with “incremental” support through other online channels while McDade agrees that the online approach is “a nod to changing media consumption”.

Nissan worldwide is known for its innovation, both in how it speaks to its customers and how it delivers to its customers. By providing entertaining content into its advertisements, Nissan has found an effective way of marketing in the changing media landscape. Juke is Nissan’s first new product launch since the Cube two years ago that similarly had an online-only product launch. McDade describes it as a blend of a small sports cross-over and a multi-activity vehicle that he claimed represents “breakthrough territory” for the auto industry. The marketing, he said, needed to reflect that. “This is pioneering stuff for Nissan and [we’re] taking advantage of a very youthful segment and a very experiential segment,” he said. “We’re very excited by it, we think the possibilities are really endless.”

ArcelorMittal Mines Canada is a mining company that has recently launched a Quebec-based recruitment campaign using picture painting to show prospective employees what the company has to offer.  The 30-second TV ad was shot as one continuous take featuring how the talented artist Ilana Yahav uses only real iron ore on a blacklit glass tabletop to create different landscapes. A print ad follows in the same fashion with the image of a bridge that has been drawn into iron ore and both commercials drive potential employees to TransformerLavenir.com. (The official website of Arcelor Mittal Mines Canada providing information on recruitment, work environment, company’s mission, etc.)

http://www.marketingmag.ca/english/news/marketer/article.jsp?content=20101007_193839_7816

Arcelor Mittal Mines Canada is not particularly well known in the province, therefore, the company thinks it is important to explain to people who they are and what they do. This campaign really captures the audience’s attention because it is short and presents itself in an artistic approach with relaxing background music. Also, this type of advertisement with drawings instead of real people is unique and therefore it has the advantage of capturing audience’s attention by human curiosity.