Month: February 2011

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.