Marketing

In Rohit’s Blog “Overtweeting: Are We Becoming Socially Antisocial?” he discussed how social media impacted every aspects of our lives. We shared the menu list of a restaurant on Facebook; meanwhile, we post pictures on Twitter. The next minute, we update a video on YouTube. However, Rohit concerned about whether this is anti-social behavior, when we are so focused on our virtual life on the social network. Should we just be in that moment without worrying about sharing, editing and updating?

I think what happened recently around us gives us a strong signal that the line between virtual life online and the real life is so blurred. In Egypt, from the beginning, social media has been a crucial part of the uprising. Protesters signaled their intentions and plans on social networking like Facebook and Twitter that helped organize mass demonstrations.

Also, after the earthquake in Japan telephone lines are reported to be down for most of Japan, and getting a hold of loved ones is a difficult task to undertake. For many Facebook and Twitter became the best link to worried family members. And thousands of earthquake-related videos and tsunami-related videos had been uploaded to YouTube in the hours since the disaster began which enabled the whole world to know how serious the situation was. Also, Libya inspired by Egyptian revolution, uses social media in midst of protests. As tensions in the region increase and social networking continues to play a significant role in the escalation, Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has cautioned his citizens to hinder their Facebook use. Has Facebook become so powerful that a dictator is threatened by what it’s capable of?

Social media is launching a revolution in our lives and create a whole new platform for companies to promote their products and services. The companies who can seize this opportunity and know how to use this “powerful weapon” effectively will generate huge profit in the future.

Web link: http://www.rohitbhargava.com/

Picture source: http://www.rohitbhargava.com/

http://flatclassroom10-3a.flatclassroomproject.org/file/view/Social-Networking4.jpg/174490175/Social-Networking4.jpg

Lauren talks about “Roll Up the Rim to Win” (RUTR) promotion at Tim Hortons in her blog, and she thinks this is really a fantastic idea which helps Tim Hortons to increase its revenue.

And I agree with her that “Roll Up The Rim To Win” is a key pillar of the company’s marketing strategy, a none-too-subtle retail push at a time of year when winter-weary consumers are just trying to survive until spring. Also, Lauren mentioned how everyone on the Facebook and Twitter are talking about the “Roll Up the Rim to Win” and the prize they get, which is another free promotion for Tim Hortons.

However, there are also some critics towards Tim Hortons’ RUTR. People points out that the environment loses when coffee drinkers are encouraged to Roll Up The Rim. And due to the campaign that people who drinks coffee in a mug will get an empty coffee cup as well; therefore, we would like to see a lot of coffee cups being used here in Canada. A lot of resources go into making a coffee cup and too often they end up going into garbage. Therefore, it’s a contest that requires people to consume a product that obviously creates a lot of garbage and uses a lot of precious natural resources.

Tim Hortons responds to this by emphasizing that the contest is not about encouraging waste but about saying thanks to the customers for their business by giving people a good chance to win a prize. However, I think companies have the social responsibilities to create a more sustainable environment and when they design the marketing campaign, they should think about reducing the waste and pollution as much as possible. Also, Tim Hortons should help their customers to establish a good habit by encouraging them to use the mug and avoid paper cups.

Web link: https://blogs.ubc.ca/lbruce/

Picture source: http://cd989.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/roll-up-the-rim-to-win.jpg

Quicksand is the loose, water-logged sand which yields easily to weight or pressure, and it is the most dangerous clayey sediment that may liquefy during an earthquake. When the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami hit Japan on March 11, 2011; we just see how vulnerable is the whole distribution system in the country and worldwide. And just like those buildings built on the quicksand are destroyed in an instant during the natural hazard.

The estimated death toll from Japan’s disasters climbed past 10,000 Sunday as government raced to combat the threat of multiple nuclear reactor meltdowns. For Japan, one of the world’s leading economies with ultramodern infrastructure, the disasters plunged ordinary life into nearly unimaginable deprivation. Hundreds of thousands of hungry survivors huddled in darkened emergency centers that were cut off from rescuers, aid and electricity. Million households had gone without water and food since the quake struck.

In Tokyo, one of the most busy and efficient city in the world, people are desperately seeking for iodine, rice, bread, batteries, flashlights, candles,  and gasoline. Almost every supermarkets and convenient stores are being emptied by the residents in Tokyo.

It may be several weeks or months before the full impact of the tsunami in Japan, from an economic or supply chain perspective, is understood. As the world’s third largest economy, the images of cars and houses being swept along by powerful waves signal that there is widespread damage. The closure of airports and ports could have significant consequences.

However, Apple already feels the shock of the Japan’s earthquake because 30 percent of its flash memories come from Japan, and now they have no choice but turns to Samsung, Korea. Also, the price of electronic appliances and cars are believed to increase in a few weeks.

I think effective supply chain management is a critical component of any company’s ability to meet consumer demand. Disruptions to the supply chain disturb the normal flow of goods and materials and, as a consequence, expose firms to operational and financial risks. Companies should back up their supply chain with insurance and more advanced supply chain management system. Also, companies should take natural disasters into account and ask themselves if they are prepared for the worst!

Nowadays, many firms are embracing a paradigm that is shifting the focus of advertising methodology from traditional text and image advertisements to those containing more recent technologies like e-mail, Facebook and Youtube. As a result, advertisers can more effectively engage and connect their audience with their campaigns that seek to shape consumer attitudes and feelings towards their products and services.

I think the reasons that so many firms are switching to e-marketing are the inexpensive and convenience. It is very cheap when examining the ratio of cost to the reach of the target audience. Companies can reach a wide audience for a small fraction of traditional advertising budgets. The nature of the medium allows consumers to research and to purchase products and services conveniently. Therefore, businesses have the advantage of appealing to consumers in a medium that can bring results quickly.

Also, almost all aspects of an Internet marketing campaign can be traced, measured, and tested. Therefore, marketers can determine which messages or offerings are more appealing to the audience. The results of campaigns can be measured and tracked immediately because online marketing initiatives usually require users to click on an advertisement, to visit a website, and to take an action.

In addition to the major effect internet marketing has had on the technology industry, the effect on the advertising industry itself has been profound. In just a few years, online advertising has grown to be a billion dollar industry which offers a lot of employment opportunities such as, artists, graphic designers and animators.

However, I think from the buyer’s perspective, the inability of shoppers to touch, to smell, to taste, and “to try on” tangible goods before making an online purchase can be limiting. However, there is an industry standard for e-commerce vendors to reassure customers by having liberal return policies as well as providing in-store pick-up services.

Recently we talk about the subway’s “Five Dollar Footlong” in the Marketing class, but it seems like Tim already noticed this promotion weeks ago. According to Tim, he was amazed at how successful this campaign was; meanwhile, he was quite annoyed by the repeating slogan “$5, $5, $5 footlong” and thought this was the way Subway used to “brainwash” its customers.

We now know that it is not simply a campaign for Subway, and it is also a strategy employed by the company to differentiate itself form a highly competitive industry by adding more value to its products. Every company wants to be a peacock in the land of penguins but only few companies know how to do it right!

Still you can find some successful examples around us and Jean Paul Gaultier is one of them. This company differentiates itself from the competitors, such as Dior, Lancôme and Channel by offering the unique and captivating perfume bottle – curved with a marron glace copper lace corset for a luxurious wrap. The perfume’s attractive shape of the bottle is compared to an alluring lady that embodies the essence of Classique perfume.

Also, Apple is the company that masters differentiation through providing unique design and innovative products, and it is widely recognized that Apple is a premium brand that demands and earns a higher margin. This price premium spans the entire Apple product lineup encompassing the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, software, and accessories.  Apple’s positioning is aligned with targeting a less price sensitive customer.

However, differentiation will not guarantee the firm to make a profit because this strategy entails significant costs! Apple spent billions of dollars on new product development to help itself stands out. Moreover, over exposure to the marketing information may annoy some potential customers; like Tim find the slogan of “Five Dollar Footlong” is not that pleasant after watching it over and over again.

Link: https://blogs.ubc.ca/timtse/

Photo source:  http://www.google.ca/images

Everyone would agree that marketing is probably the most important tool for a firm to promote its products and services. But I think nowadays a lot of companies are misusing this “powerful weapon” to confuse their consumers. From mass marketing fraud through telephone, mail, and the Internet to deceptive price advertising, more and more customers find marketing is an annoying thing rather than a bridge connecting them to the outside world.

Yesterday I watched the news that according to many consumers informed, Carrefour and Wal-Mart involved in commercial fraud to deceive consumers. Some typical cases would be a cotton sheet’s price tag showed cost price was $16.9 and it was on sale for $5. But it has been find out that the cost price was $11.9 in fact. Also, Wal-Mart sold dumpling flour for $2.1 while its cost price in fact is $2.4 but marked $3.1.

Wal-Mart and Carrefour’s behavior has seriously violated the consumer rights and interests. I think that all supermarkets’ should collate the commodities sold in their supermarkets seriously so as to avoid the inconformity between price tags and settlement price. If find problems, supermarkets’ principals should put right without delay and return back consumers’ overpaid.

Yesterday, Carrefour apologized to the public for their faults. They showed that it is because of the imperfection of price system lead to the inconvenient and displeasure of consumers. They said they are upgrading their system.

However, it is quite common for firms to engage in illegal pricing practices, such as predatory pricing, price discrimination and deceptive reference prices to unfairly attract more customers. Therefore, a more strict laws and regulation must be enforced to prevent the illegal pricing strategy.

Source for the photo: johndobbin.blogspot.com

Crest was founded in 1955 and the first brand that could fight cavities. It was the leading brand in toothpaste for decades. Only brand like Coca-Cola or Disney have been on the top for such long. But now Crest is losing its leadership position to Colgate. Colgate is also a great company which launched an innovative toothpaste product that seemed to do everything: fight cavities, tartar, plaque and bad breath. And the name for this amazing toothpaste is Colgate’s Total, which I am using it right now. And Colgate’s Total steal a lot of market share from Crest.

Toothpaste market is a quite mature market, and any growth a brand will experience comes at the expense of another brand. Crest kept up with this competition by creating the whitening toothpaste segment, and Crest Whitestrips was first launched in 2001. Crest attracted a lot of customers who wanted to whiten their teeth with relatively lower price. And it was a huge success for Crest.

Colgate’s answer to Whitestrips was Simply White, a brush-on style of whitener that offered similar benefits. Also, Colgate added three line extensions, and by the definition learned in class, line extension is to add new products to existing line. Colgate launched Total Fresh Stripe, Total Plus Whitening, and Total Plus Advanced Fresh to its Total toothpaste line.

The battle is still going on. And I think these two companies really need to examine the various external trends in the marketplace to identify new strategies for building market share. And they must evaluate the consumer needs and expectations to detect new product opportunities for the long term.

Marketers realized that marketing to women is totally different from marketing to men. Gender plays an important role in your purchasing behavior. And personally I think marketers prefer choosing women as their target audience; not only women make the majority of purchasing decisions, but also they are easier connected and been persuaded. What makes your marketing strategy more effective among women, and here are some tips:

Create an Emotional Connection

In order to reach potential women consumers, you are going to have to connect with them by providing content that women can relate to. Something that ignites a reaction like “Wow, that’s me!” will encourage women not only to respond to your advertisements, but actually remember them. Making an emotional connection is one of the best ways to motivate women to use your brand or service.

Maintain high standards

Women love quality and, more importantly, when they find it they’re willing to pay for it. Consider Whole Foods as an example that it is able to charge higher prices in a low margin industry because they have created a lifestyle brand that delivers on its promise. With high quality, hard-to-find products, a pleasant atmosphere, courteous sales people, and even chair massage in some locations, Whole Foods has transformed something uninspiring and mundane into a premium experience which attracts a lot of female shoppers.

Listen to women

Marketing to women is not as easy as changing the color of a product to pink. If you’re serious about reaching the female consumer, you have to care about her and get to know what she desires. If a female customer raises a question, answer it! If she compliments your brand, thank her! And if she complains about it, address her concerns and reassure her that you’re working on fixing it. It’s critical we understand the female consumer’s needs and dissatisfactions, and come up with ideas and solutions. Also a great way to build trust and demonstrate the great customer service and support.

I first saw Prezi in one of my MIS class, and it was really a shock to me to see that my fellow classmates can come up such an exciting and polished presentation.

And when we look at Promotion, one of the four marketing mix, it is all about information, communication and presentation. Every student in Sauder knows the importance of presentation and maybe even struggle with it. However, even the most compelling brands or concepts are lost if the face-to-face delivery is weak. A well-planned, well-delivered presentation will help to convince potential clients to choose you over the competition.

Let me introduce you a little bit history about PREZI. Prezi is created by Adam Somlai-Fischer and Peter Halacsy in 2007, as they felt slides limited their ability to develop and explain ideas. The company was started in Budapest—the home town of Peter and Adam, and was officially launched in April 2009.

Prezi is a web-based presentation application and storytelling tool that uses a single canvas instead of traditional slides, text, images, videos and other presentation objects are placed on the infinite canvas and grouped together in frames. The canvas allows users to create non-linear presentations, where users can zoom in and out of a visual map. A path through different objects and frames can be defined, representing the order of the information to be presented.

Prezi doesn’t just flash pictures at you, it takes you on a journey and communicates with the audience how your own mind sees the information, allowing you to express yourself in the most coherent way possible.

So what are you waiting for? Start learning it now and use it in your presentation tomorrow to promoter your ideas!

It is thrilling to see the world’s first class universities making a contribution to the open course movement. The Open Learning Initiative undertaken by the Harvard University Extension School now offers eight free courses. This cluster of courses – the first Harvard has put forward – covers a nice range of topics include Literature, Psychology and Computer Science. Meanwhile, Berkelely, Yale and Stanford are also following the trend to move their courses online and they are all FREE!

It is just the great news for those who are not looking for a degree and have strong independent learning skills. And we as students can also benefit a lot from those open course programs. But if we look at it the other way, isn’t this a trick that university uses to marketing itself. Nowadays, universities also want to make themselves more appealing to attract excellent students around the globe. And using the concepts learned in class, let’s examine how effective is this marketing strategy.

The products that universities offered are their service and classes. But the number is limited and exclusive for students who got accepted. By providing the open class, it helps its potential customers to gain more access to its products and let them become more reachable. Also, from the positive responses received and popularity gained all around the world, these universities increase the value to their products. By uploading the most popular courses online, they are making themselves more identifiable. How about the cost side? It is nearly zero. Isn’t that amazing? And everyone would agree that it is a clever move for those great “Companies”.

If anyone ever wanted to know what a Harvard class was like this might be your chance, and here is the Harvard’s course “Justice” by Michael J. Sandel.