Author: echeungg

In response to Jacqueline Chen’s blog, which can be found here.

Jacqueline brought out an interesting point about the massive amount of marketing that has been going on throughout Sauder clubs.  As a member of various organizations throughout my volunteering career, I know what it’s like for organizations and clubs to want to market all of their events in every way they can. This may mean inviting all of my Facebook friends to Facebook event pages, posting status updates on my Facebook wall, “tweet”-ing posts every few minutes, or simply trying to promote the club to my friends by word of mouth.

Of course promotion is important. There is no doubt about that. How are other people supposed to know about our exciting events if we don’t promote them? But when students are bombarded with promotions from different clubs every few days, it’s very easy for them to just ignore these promotional efforts altogether. As a student myself, I have definitely started to ignore these Facebook invites or promotional efforts by fellow students. It has come to a point where I simply choose not to notice them anymore because of the ridiculous number of events that students try to sell to me at the same time.

Any organization, whether it may be a club or a company, should be careful about promoting TOO much. It can easily become annoying to potential consumers, and they may start to ignore such promotional efforts. Perhaps this is something that our fellow Sauder students should think about when trying to promote their club.

Recently, I came across an interesting article about the importance of companies creating “new”, or at least, seemingly “new” products” (article can be found here: http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/the-power-of-new.htm).

The article suggests that studies have shown that seemingly new products, whether they are simply repackaged old products or truly new product ideas, are extremely attractive to consumers. This goes for brands that consumers have always used or brands that are completely unfamiliar to them.

Now, I don’t know about these specific consumers that the article is talking about, but if I have never used a brand in my life, I am not going to switch over to them simply because they changed their packaging or altered their product. For one, I probably wouldn’t notice the change if I wasn’t a fan of the brand in the first place. Second, I am not adventurous enough to go out and try new products. So like I mentioned before, perhaps I’m just not one of those consumers that are drawn to “new” products.

The reason why this article is so interesting to me is because in Comm 296, we talked about the idea of brand familiarity. We as consumers are automatically and subconsciously (because of complex reactions and signals that our brain gives off, apparently. Thankfully, I am not a biology major) drawn to brands that sound or simply look familiar. If we’ve seen the brand somewhere, we’re more likely to buy it. The article gives a perfect example, stating that “changing a brand’s logo might provide a short-term boost, but might also weaken brand familiarity and attachment”, which is why they suggest marketers to “emphasize the novelty of their offering while still using the power of long-term brand affinity”.

I definitely agree that companies should be careful of creating too many new products, ideas, and packaging. There must be a balance between what the company decides to change and what they decide to keep as their “veteran” products.

If you are a UBC student, chances are that you’ve probably been approached by a young male or female asking if you’d like to enter a draw for a free one-month Gold’s Gym membership. For those of you that have been approached, you’ve probably also been contacted a few days later by a representative from the gym telling you that you’ve won. And finally, for those of you that actually decided to redeem your prize, you’ve probably been disappointed at what they actually have to offer and all the little details that they “forgot” to mention.

At first glance, it seems like a pretty smart idea on their part: giving out free memberships so that students can try out the gym and see if they’d like to sign up for a full-year membership. The problem is, by redeeming the prize in the first place, you’d have to sign up for the full-year membership. It’d be fine if they mentioned that, but they don’t actually explain this “forgotten” detail until you go in to their office to redeem the prize, and by then it’ll already be too late to back out.

Thankfully, I found out about their poor business ethic practices before I actually went in. Just search “Gold’s Gym” and you’ll find hundreds or thousands of people who have had horrible experiences with the company. From what I’ve heard, their manager uses forceful marketing techniques and pitches in order to get you to sign up for their full year membership in order to redeem your prize. Sounds like a little controversial marketing technique marketers like to call Bait and Switch.

I don’t know about you, but I really do believe that there’s a fine line between “smart marketing” and what Gold’s Gym has decided to do in order to grab customers.

Recently, well-known actor and martial arts master, Jackie Chan, has been recruited to be part of Campbell Soup’s new marketing campaign for its V8 drink. This is part of Campbell Soup’s plan to revive and push their sales.

This is obviously a huge jump from V8’s usual marketing campaigns. Jackie Chan’s appearance in their new commercials promotes more action and aggressiveness, while their older campaigns were generally way more traditional and reserved.

Because the market for juice, especially vegetable juice, is growing rapidly as a result of consumers wanting more “healthy choices”, it’s no surprise that Campbell Soup also has to pick up their game and come up with new ways to promote their product in order to differentiate themselves from other brands. Perhaps they are hoping that by having Jackie Chan as part of their marketing campaign, they can create a new image of their brand in existing consumers’ minds, and possibly attract new consumers. Fortunately for them, it seems to be working, as this new marketing campaign has caused people all over the world to respond, especially in the world of social media.

As part of creating a new image for themselves, V8 is also coming up with brand new drinks on top of their traditional vegetable juices. This includes vegetable energy drinks, smoothies, and vegetable fruit juices with green tea.

So what do I think about all of this?

I personally don’t like to drink vegetable juice, and having Jackie Chan promote vegetable juice to me isn’t going to make me want to drink vegetable juice anymore. Then again, perhaps this campaign will appeal more to an older audience who actually see Jackie Chan as a huge cultural icon and celebrity.

In a world predominated by social networks and technology, it is easy to understand why so many companies have turned to marketing their brand through these social networks. With so many users that essentially treat Facebook and Twitter as a religion, it is so much easier to reach out to potential consumers through these platforms.

Recently however, it seems that every company is turning to Facebook and Twitter. With so many companies that all try to promote their brand through the same network, it is clearly getting difficult for companies to stand out from their competitors.

That’s where Google+ comes in.

Previously, Google+ did not allow companies to set up their own profile, stating that they weren’t ready for companies to use Google+ as a way to promote their brand. They deleted any pages that were created by companies.

However, Ford and General Motors have recently gotten approval from Google+ to set up their own profile. Not only does this help promote Google+, it also allows Ford and General Motors to use Google+ as a platform to reach their target market through more personal interaction with their consumers. Although Facebook also has a similar feature (pages), companies today should strive towards reaching out to their consumers through social networks other than the overused Facebook and Twitter. 

Currently, Ford and General Motors are the only companies that are allowed to create business profiles on Google+. But probably pretty soon, other companies will also be allowed to set up their own pages. Hopefully though, Google+ will not become another overused social network for companies to promote their brand.

The person that taught me the greatest lesson was my grandma. I wish I could have told her this while she was still with me. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen her for 8 years. She passed away from cancer on February 17th, 2003.

I didn’t fully realize the huge impact she had on my life until we all found out she was sick. She took care of me for 11 years. Other than my parents, she was the closest person I had, and probably the strongest person I ever knew. Despite the fact that she knew her life was coming to an end and despite the fact that she was suffering every day, she still greeted everyone and every day with a warm smile. She never once showed fear; instead, she continued to treat each day like it was her very last by enjoying every moment of it. When we asked her if she was scared of death, she would always reply with “if it’s time, it’s time”. 

My grandma’s death really knocked me down to my knees and it took an awfully long time to bring myself back up. I was there for the last few hours she was alive, and I watched her slowly fade away until her very last breath. The impact that the experience had on me was more than words could describe. After her death, I honestly didn’t think I would ever be okay again. This person that I had been beside me all my life was suddenly gone. 

So what is the greatest lesson I learned from my grandma’s death? 

I learned that sometimes, the only way our deepest wounds can heal is time. The thing is, time didn’t allow me to forget; it just allowed me to move on. 

So now, every time I experience something horrible that makes me feel like I am never going to be okay again, I think back to my grandma’s death. I now know that I am capable of healing from any difficult experience in my life, as long as I allow time to do its work.

In a technologically advanced world, it’s hard not to get into the hype of getting all the Apple products as soon as they come out. Money doesn’t grow on trees, and these products cost money, a LOT of money. So why do consumers get so caught up in buying the latest gadgets as soon as they come out despite the high prices that Apple sells them for?

According to Ben Kunz, the author of the article “How Apple plays the pricing game” (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38980367/ns/business-bloomberg_businessweek/), Apple sets their prices up high simply because they can. Do you really think that consumers will stop buying Apple products because of their extreme prices? Probably not. As stated in the article, Apple merely uses decoys to “make [their] product look better”. And if product decoys aren’t enough? Apple can still make their products so unique that there is nothing that consumers can compare it to. Either way, their newest products will appear to be a good deal, and the outrageously high prices will have no effect on consumers’ choice to buy them. Clearly, Apple knows what they are doing. But are they just ripping their customers off, or is it all a smart marketing tactic?