Month: February 2011

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.