Emily Raven's Blog

After reading Elisabeth Piccolo’s blog on Axe body spray I started think about how they could expand their line. I thought that Elisabeth made an excellent point about targeting male business professionals because Axe’s main focus is on being desirable. I began to try and think of another savvy marketing approach that Axe could take. Being a fragrance line, there are many different styles of products and directions that they could take. After doing a bit of research I discovered that Axe is coming out with a new line if products for women. Intrigued, I dug a little deeper to find out that the fragrance is called “Anarchy” and that it is being marketed to men and women.

Axe body spray for women? I think this product is going to flop. When most people think of Axe body spray they think of overzealous frat boys or taxi drivers. What girl wants to smell like that? I think that Axe is trying to spread its target market too wide and it is going to not work out for them. Another clear marketing mistake is that the fragrance is being marketed as “Subtle and Seductive”, but if you at the packaging for the product it’s a neon aerosol can. Nothing subtle or seductive about that.

Would you try Axe’s new Anarchy scent?

Check out the commercial here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7NN0-AWiv4k

After reading Seth Godin’s external marketing blog post entitled “Learning from four viral events” I began to think about the newest Internet sensation known as KONY 2012. If you have been on any sort of social media in the past week, you’ve probably noticed the gargantuan amount of shares and likes that this video has been getting. For those of you who don’t know, KONY 2012 is a video and campaign started by an organization called Invisible Children to make war criminal Joseph Kony “famous.” The whole campaign centers around the video KONY 2012, which is a half an hour-long spiel about how horrible Joseph Kony is. It is an understatement to say this has gone viral with over seventy-two million views in six days.

However how effective is this video in marketing Invisible Children’s cause? The video has caused a lot of criticism for the company and some of it is justly so.  Most of this criticism revolves around Invisible Children’s uncertain finances (Only 30% of revenues went to direct services last year, with the rest going to staff salaries and film production) and exaggerated claims. Having said this I am not for or against KONY 2012. I am just looking at it from a marketing perspective. The video obviously achieved its publicly stated goal of raising awareness. The video is emotionally stimulating, well produced and empowers its viewers after they watch it. Unfortunately all of the negative press towards the campaign right now makes followers of the video feel like they jumped on an emotional bandwagon and that they were betrayed by Invisible Children. This does put viewers in the mood to donate. Seth Godin said it best, “there was no well-rehearsed method to turn a viewer into a fan into a donor into a repeat donor.”

After reading Hannah Martin‘s blog about Jane Lynch starring in a commercial for Healthy Choice food, I began to wonder about celebrity endorsements and whether they are actually effective or not.

First a little bit about celebrity endorsements. Celebrity endorsements have been around as long as celebrities have been.  Celebrities use their faces and names to sell products for a huge chunk of change. The idea behind it is pretty simple. People like celebrities and think they are cool, so if a celebrity likes a product and thinks it’s cool, the public will think so too. However does this really work? Can celebrities spread their “cool” to different products?

Celebrities can support products through print ads in magazines, T.V commercials, Facebook, Twitter and many other creative ways. Celebrities now appear in one fifth of all ads. Social media has raised celebrity endorsement to a whole new level. Now celebrities can endorse products anytime – anywhere. For example, 50 cent bought 30 million shares in H&H imports, then tweeted his 3.8 million followers to buy the stock. Because of this tweet, the stock rose 240% making 50 cent approximately 10 million dollars.

H&H imports shot up after 50’s tweet!

However is this success shared in other celebrity endorsements? The answer is not clear. There have been many studies on celebrity endorsements and there is no conclusive evidence that celebrity endorsements actually sell products. In fact it can actually have the opposite effect. A good example of this is Tiger Woods who used to endorse Gatorade, but lost the 1 million dollar contract after his sex scandal.

Tiger had his own brand of Gatorade before his sex scandal.

Present day consumers are smart. They know that behind every celebrity endorsement, there is a money exchange.  I think that ruins the “cool” factor behind some celebrity endorsements and may explain why they don’t always work.  However, people will pay ridiculous amounts of money for things that celebrities they love own or use because it makes them feel closer to the celebrity. Marketing campaigns focused around celebrity endorsements need to be centered around making consumers feel connected to the celebrity, or else they won’t work.  An example of successful celebrity marketing is Ke$ha endorsement of lifestyle condoms. She has made a fortune glorifying a sleazy and slutty lifestyle, and now is making even more money plastering her face all over condoms.

While trying to think of what to write for my marketing blog, I got distracted and began to surf Facebook.  An ad on my newsfeed came up for Leonardo Jewelers. I remembered last year Leonardo Jewelers held a Facebook contest to find the cutest couple on Facebook.  A contestant had to like their page and then post a picture with his/her significant other on their page. The couple whose picture received the most “likes” on Facebook would receive $500 worth of free jewelry.  In order for people to like a couple’s photo, they also had to “like” the Leonardo Jewelers fan page.  This became a very popular contest.  Many of my friends posted photos on the page.  Once everyone had photos up, it became a race to see who could get the most “likes”. People began to harass their friends, trying to get them to “like” their photo. I received Facebook messages, tweets, mass texts and phone calls from people that I hardly knew begging me to “like” their photo, so they could win the contest. During the campaign, the number of “likes” on Leonardo Jewelers’ fan page increased from five hundred to over twenty-three thousand! However, whether this campaign was successful is debatable.  Yes, Leonardo Jewelers increased exponentially the number of “likes” on its Facebook page, including almost one hundred of my friends who previously had not heard of Leonardo Jewelers.  However, when I asked some of them if they had shopped at Leonardo Jewelers after the contest, they all said “no,” and did not even know the store’s location.  Although a good idea, the Leonardo Jewelers marketing campaign did not properly focus on its target market.  Many teenagers with no intention of purchasing jewelry entered the contest. Next time they should try a Most Extraordinary Engagement photo contest. This will target older couples who are more likely to shop for wedding rings at Leonardo Jewelers.

Here’s the winning photo from the contest!

COMM 299 has taught me a lot about the business world and about the importance of networking, but the most important thing that COMM 299 taught me was about myself. Through COMM 299 I realized that I was lacking the confidence that it takes to be a successful business person. I was very nervous even thinking about interviews or applying for jobs and I would never have the confidence to call a company decision maker and ask for a meeting. Although now after COMM 299, I feel much more confident in making these first steps into the business world. The interview assignment helped me gain the confidence to apply for three new jobs for over the summer and I even made follow up calls! I am hoping to hear back from them within the next couple of weeks. Overall COMM 299 has helped me learn that I have more confidence then I ever thought and that it will ultimately help me succeed in the business world.

When I think back and try to choose a person who has made the biggest impact on my life, I immediately try to think of people who have affected it in a positive way; for example, my mom, teachers or friends. But if I really want to write about who impacted my life the most, it would have to be seen in a more objective light. The person who has made the biggest impact on my life thus far would have to be my dear old Aunt Carmen, aka AC because she’s as cold as an air conditioner in the middle of winter. She is the aunt you love to hate.

Growing up, both my parents worked full-time jobs. This meant there was no one to look after my siblings and I after school. My mother realizing this hired AC, her older sister, to look after us.  She would pick us up from school and then take us home and look after us until either my mom or dad relieved her from duty. These after school hours made a large impact on my childhood, as AC and I never agreed on anything. We would fight about absolutely everything imaginable and they wouldn’t be little squabbles, but World War III battles.

My most vivid memory of AC was one cool Thursday afternoon when I was seven years old. Every Thursday my aunt would drive my sister and I to my sister’s dance class, where we would be picked up by my mother and taken home. I always went along and watched the class because as an over imaginative seven year old, I was too afraid to stay home alone. On this particular Thursday however, my aunt decided that I was not allowed to come along until I went inside and brushed my hair. Seeing it as my duty to oppose her, I refused. She then went on to say that she would leave me behind if I did not brush my hair and I would have to stay home alone. My mind began to race. I had an important decision about whether or not to give up the fight or stay home alone. I then reluctantly proceeded to the bathroom to brush my hair. However I decided I was not giving up without a fight. I very slowly picked up the brush and leisurely pulled it through my hair. I continued my steady movements at a snail’s pace, little by little brushing my hair. While the slowest hair brushing in history was happening, I could hear my aunt yelling down the hallway for me to hurry up. After successfully brushing every hair individually, I skipped out to the driveway, only to find that my aunt and sister had already left. Mortified, I immediately sat down in the middle of the driveway and began to bawl. I sat there crying until my father came home an hour later. That was my first experience home alone.

For my last blog I want to do something different than writing about an article or class concept because you’ve already read enough of those. I want to write about how Comm 101 has changed my life.  Unlike my other courses, it got me feeling and thinking like a business student. For example, last week a friend and I went into a Blenz coffee shop for a drink. I noticed they served fair trade coffee and had large signs advertising this as a POD from other coffee shops.  This immediately made me think of CSR. As we approached the counter, I counted the change in my pocket and realized I could either up the size of my drink or offer to pay for my friend’s, but I didn’t have enough money for both. I paid for both drinks and experienced the opportunity cost of the larger size. The barista entered our orders into a computer. I noticed there was another computer near the coffee machines showing our drink details. I thought this was a good example of MIS, giving Blenz a competitive edge over Starbucks that is still writing orders on customers’ cups. I don’t know if it’s a good thing that everywhere I go I see Comm 101… But that’s how it’s changed my life.

While doing case 3 I learned a lot about ambush advertising and TELUS. I found an interesting commercial made by TELUS in 2008.

As you can see it is very Olympics based. The ice cubes form a podium, which the penguin is able to climb to reach the first place position. He then does the “Olympic pose” and the sport organizations that TELUS sponsors flash across the screen. Then the icing on the cake and the wonderful message pops up displaying, “We give where we live.” I think this is a direct message to Bell saying that western Canada belongs to TELUS and the Olympics are on their turf. This is definitely ambush advertising because it gives viewers the idea that TELUS is an Olympic sponsor even though it isn’t.

Today’s class on social enterprises really got me thinking. I’ve always known about social enterprises but I’ve never really thought about how they could relate to me. After class I started thinking about social enterprises and things that mean a lot to me. After many many hours of thinking I came up with one thing that I’ve been interested in ever since I was a little girl. Sports! Then my search began and I found exactly what I was looking for. A company called “Sports Kitbag” whose social vision is to make sports accessible to anyone! They provide coaching training for unemployed people and find them work and encourage physical activity for everyone. The company makes money by renting out it’s facilities, providing coaching and running a bar. Any profits made by “Sports Kitbag” are put back into the organization to keep it running. If one day I have my own company I hope that it will have a vision as great as this one and will help the community as much as “Sports Kitbag” does. Social Enterprises through sports help bring people together. When people are together playing sports they think more about what they have in common and not what is different.

I’m the third one from the left in the front row.

The Walt Disney Company is very entrepreneurial. It has all of the characteristics that are needed for it to be defined as an entrepreneurial company. Disney generated $28.86 billion in sales alone in 2008, which shows that Disney can make A LOT of money very quickly. Also a lot of risk had to be taken to create the Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney had to quit his steady job as an ambulance driver to pursue his talents in drawing. There was no guarantee that he would be successful or that anyone would even like his cartoons! This big risk came with big rewards. The Walt Disney Company is also very innovative. The company pays great attention to detail and always follows ideas in new directions. It has come a long way since the black and white five-minute sketches, now moving on to full-length 3-D colour films.  Also Disney is always expanding and making changes to it’s “Disneyland” theme park and is thinking of opening a new more specialized type resort in locations all around the world. Disney has endless innovation and is the perfect entrepreneurial company!