Emily Turner's Blog

One really successful way to market your product is Endourcement deals. Celebrities are paid to wear or support products and people who like these celebrities want to buy the product, therefore increase demand. There are so many deals, Tiger Woods has done deals with Nike, Female Pop stars create perfume lines, Cover Girl has used many ladies such as Ellen Degeneres, Queen Latifah, Rihanna and more. Even Usher has made conections with MasterCard. There are celebrity clothing lines such as Jessica Simpson Shoes, William Rast by Justin Timberlake Jeans, and the Dash clothing line/store created by the Kardashian sisters.

But has this gone too far? Recentally I saw an epesode of  “Kim and Kourtney Take New York“, a reality show following Kim and Kourtney Kardashian. In this epesode Kim got in trouble from her manager for going to an event which was put on by a close friend. Her manager thought that her simply being at the event may be construed as her endoursing the company. To me this seems like an issue. But I do understand where her manager was coming from. Her being at an event make it seem as though she is some how related to the product.

People will associate people with everything that they touch. This can be a good thing for a product when the celebrity is a positive figure, but can back fire when the celebrity has a negative reputation. Also for some celebrities this may hurt their social life as they could unintentionally be supporting products they may not want to, at the same time giving their name without any compensation.

Tis the season to stress out. Exams are coming up quickly and the review/ cram session frenzy has begun. There are countless courses that are available to help teach us how to study effectivly, what to study and when. But are they really that helpful? I am from Alberta and in our last year of high school we write diploma exams. They are worth 50% of our grade and are mandatory. In preparation for these grade 12 students from all over the Provence students sign up for exam prep courses. I too, fell intro the trap of dimploma perp. The main one in Calgary is the Renert program.

Moses Renert started the Renert Center many years ago and has made A LOT of money of of students who want to do well on their exams. He markets him self mainly via word of mouth. Students take his course and then tell their friends. I did this and I also contributed thousands of dollars the the Renert Empire through my studies.

I think he did a great job of promoting himself and his company. Now he helps thousands of students every year study.  His programs are actually really good and I would recommend them to students, but only those who are really struggling for others its not really worth the cash.

Growing up many of us have the dream to one day be famous. There are countless ways to go about doing so. Recentally a young girl has become super famous for a very odd reason. Rebecca Black is currently experiencing her 15 minutes of fame. Her song Friday has been called “The worst song ever” yet she has still made over a million dollars on the single. Just one month ago no one knew who this young girl was but today she is an internet sensation, but all for the wrong reasons. I agree, the song is horrible, but some how she has made a pretty penny off it.  I recentally saw an interview with Rebecca where she stated that she doesn’t think shes the best singer, but also isnt the worst. I think the real issue is her lyrics. They are overly simple and she has been ridiculed for that.  Rebeccas Black’s non-fans have been quoted saying “We don’t hate you because your famous, You’re famous because we hate you.” I feel this is a little harsh.

Famous because we “Hate her” or because she has created a really catchy song, Either way, at the end of the day Rebecca has a lot more fame and money than most teenagers. She has taken her bad reputation and brushed it off and is now a huge internet sensation.

Check out her video for yourself here:

Rebecca Black – Friday

Ask any Sauder Student what its like in the Sauder building on weekday around noon and most of us will give you the same answer, Chaos. There are so many events and clubs who are advertising themselves and trying to get the attention of the hundreds of students walking by. Yes, This is not an easy task. With so many booths for different things its hard to differentiate yourself from the table next to you. Some groups hand out candy, or home made cupcakes, I have even seen one table giving away Tim Horton’s coffee and TimBits! And this all works, Students are lured in by the food and then the representatives have the chance to swoop in and make the sale.

The other day I saw one table that really caught my attention. There was no big crowd around them, no cupcakes and no coffee, Just a lone student holding a small white-board which read “Why is this guy holding this sign?”. This made me wonder, why was this guy holding the sign? seeing as I had a few minutes before class I thought I’d go find out. Turns out he was trying to get people to sign up for Update,  a conference hosted by the UBC e-business club with the goal to update students on the  current state on the web.

The only reason I know this, is because out of all the booths set up in the hall way, This is the only one that successfully got me to take their brochure. Since then I have seen him many times with some clever slogan written on his board. I think this is a great way to differentiate their event booth from all the others and instead of just drawing people in for a free candy or cookie he draws students in for reasons that actually benefit the group, because they actually want to know what hes offering.. Clearly someone has been paying attention in Marketing class.

I recentally was reading Beverley Cheng’s blog “Collaborations, Collaborations, Collaborations” which focuses on collaborations between different designers in the fashion industry. I really liked her ideas about how collaborating can be a great way to market your product. This got me thinking about other industries who use this method to market their products. There has been the Nike and Apple Collaboration resulting in the Nike+iPod Sport Kit. And as well all know musicians often collaborate with other musicians when recoding music. But have you ever thought about a musical band collaborating with an Insurance provider.

Well, I was surfing the net looking for some cool collaborations and thats exactly what I found. Helen Walters posted on her Bloomberg Business Week Blog about this. Inside the OK Go / State Farm Deal blog post talks about how the (semi) popular band OK Go’s music video for their song, This Too Shall Pass is ended with a message stating that “OK Go thanks State Farm for making this video possible”. So why would these two completley different “companies” choose to collaborate? Well, Everytime someone watches the OK Go video on TV or on the internet, State Farm gets a shout out, their brand name is being advertised in places they might not normally be able to be seen. And as for OK Go, Well they got their music video paid for, and for a small Indy band, thats pretty sweet.

I think its pretty clear that these collaborations are everywhere we just need to keep our eyes open for them and we will see they are all around us, even in places you might not expect to see one.

By now, its pretty clear that its possible to market just about anything. Las Vegas has taken their negative reputation and put a new spin on it that draws people in. Vegas, AKA Sin City is knowns for excessive and high roller gambling, drinking all day,  wild parties that last all night often leading to quickie weddings preformed by an Elvis look alike.

But the City of Las Vegas has taken this reputation and marketed it. They have coined the phrase “What happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas” and marketed their extreme party lifestyle to young people who are looking for a wild party. Every year Vegas attracts thousands of Bachelor and Bachelorette  parties and young people celebrating their 21st birthdays from all over North America. This is a great example of hows companies (or cities..) can take something that may be a negative aspect, and market it to bring in new customers.

Their reputation itself now promotes itself, there are countless movies, TV shoes and songs that mention this reputation and inadvertently promote Vegas as a great party destination.

In addition, Vegas continues to market their other attributes like the nice warm weather, great shopping and unique tourist attractions.

The other day I was talking with my room mate and she asked me if I like Taylor Swift, because I am from Calgary and apparently everyone in Calgary likes T.Swift.. Well, yes, I do like her. In fact just a few days ago tickets for Taylors Edmonton concert went on sale, and sold out in under 5 minutes.. unfortunately even with multiple people trying to get tickets, for my friends and I that meant no tickets.

This got me thinking, How do people become so popular that they can make hundreds of thousands of dollars in 5 minutes? As we all know, Musicians all have a publicist or spokesperson who is “close to the source”, basically, their job is to market the celebrity. Taylor’s publicist and manager are in charge of making sure that her music is marketed to the right people, played on the right radio stations etc. They make sure that her music is what these “consumers” want to hear, and that they an access it in the right places and for the right price. In the case of a Taylor Swift concert in Calgary and surrounding areas, This price is quite high. But why, well I have been to one of her concerts before, and she really appeals to her fans, she tells stories to help us understand her songs, what they mean to her and why she wrote them. She also is quite young so a lot of her songs relate to young people. This is something she is well known for.

Taylor’s employees have done an extraordinary job of marketing not just her music, but her personality and her kind heart.

As most of us are well aware of, Valentines day is approaching quick and if you didn’t know this, Clearly you haven’t turned on a TV lately, or gone into a grocery store or listened to the radio. Chances are you have been living under a rock (no offence). Suppliers are well aware that there are many girls and boys out there who love the idea of Love. Every year on February 14th millions of dollars are spent on flowers and chocolate, Why? Because the notion of being in love has been successfully marketed – Society has been trained to know this day as a day as the day to show your significant others how much you care for them.  If you ask me, boys should be buying us ladies chocolates, candies and flowers and taking us on romantic dates a lot more than just once a year. Movies that target females (who force their boys to take them) happen to be released right around this time of year ( Justin Bieber, Anyone?) and there seem to be a lot of Ads about showing people you love them (diamonds?) . Because suppliers know, if they market it right, we will buy it.  Who knew you could market emotions.

Alternately, all you single ladies and gents, don’t worry we haven’t forgotten about you. There is an entire market for singles too, as Cheryl Chan mentioned in her Blog: Single? Blenz may have your date… companies are marketing the single side of Valentines day. Setting up singles and creating a way for them to meet, Great Idea. There are also many movies for the single crowd (Hes Just Not That Into You came out on Feb 6).

But who knows, Maybe we do need a day to dedicate to the people we love.  Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Growing up, most of us had someone tell us to drink our milk. Our parents would say we couldn’t have dessert until our dinner was gone, our doctors told us to drink milk to keep our bones strong, the dentist told us Milk would prevent cavities. But for some reason a lot of kids don’t want to drink their milk. We would much prefer sweater or sugary alternatives such as juice or pop.

Californian dary farmers were aware of this so they teamed up and created the California Milk Processor Board (CMPB).Their goal was to market something that hadn’t really been marketed before. Milk.CMPB started the Got Milk? Campaign. Using famous people who children and adults look up to as aspirational social reference group.

Soccer hero, David Beckham ss well NFL quarterback, Tom Brady posed for ads sporting the famous Got Milk? milk mustache (David not wearing a whole lot more.)  This appealed to athletes and young children who looked up to David or Tom, If hes drinking milk, kids want to drink milk too. Not to mention the number of older men who now drink more milk after seeing the way their wifes or girlfriends gawcked at the images.

The campagin also appealed to girls who look up to fashion icons such as Victorias Secret models,  Heidi Klum and Gisele Bündchen or MTV star Lauren Conrad.

Not into sports or fashion? Got Milk? targeted many other demographics with ads showing famous musicians like Beyoncé or Taylor Swift , actors such as Hugh Jackman, comedians and much more (even batman). They have successful created a medium for people to find something in common with their favorite stars, Milk. This is an extremely effective marketing strategy.

Recentally, I have seen ads on TV for Disney Land or Disney World. The ads feature parents telling their kids that they are going to go to Disney Land and showing the excitement on the children’s faces. I think this is a really great approach to marketing their product. Disney has dubbed themself “The Magic Kingdom” telling people it is where dreams come true. Marketing themself as a place of such extreme happiness is a great idea.They tell parents that their kids will be overwhelmed with joy and excitement when going. They plant an idea of wholesome family fun, this is what the ads are capitalizing on. Parents get satisfaction out of seeing their kids happy and  by showing parents how excited their children will be, Disney is making parents more likely to consider the idea of going.  Also, Children will be watching TV and see the ads and possibly ask their parents to go to Disney Land. And we all know, if you bug your parents enough you can generally get them to do anything. Parents have a hard time saying no to their children and this is something Disney knows and us using for their own benefit.

I think Walt Disney was a very smart man and the empire he built is now run by people who also know what they are doing when it comes to running a business. Last year Disney had a net income of over $7,500,000,000. Their marketing is a huge reason for this. They have loyal customers who have and will continue to come visit their parks.

Check out the Disney Website to see for yourself!